The Philippine-American War was an armed conflict fought from February 4, 1899 to July 2, 1902 between forces of the United States and Filipino revolutionaries led by President Emilio Aguinaldo. While the United States viewed the conflict as an insurrection standing in the way of extending its “manifest destiny” influence across the Pacific Ocean, Filipinos saw it as a continuation of their decades-long fight for independence from foreign rule. More than 4,200 American and 20,000 Filipino soldiers died in the bloody, atrocity-plagued war, while as many as 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence, famine, and disease.
Causes of the War
Since 1896, the Philippines had been struggling to gain its independence from Spain in the Philippine Revolution. In 1898, the United States intervened by defeating Spain in the Philippines and Cuba in the Spanish-American War. Signed on December 10, 1898, the Treaty of Paris ended the Spanish-American War and allowed the United States to purchase the Philippines from Spain for $20 million.
Going into the Spanish-American War, U.S. President William McKinley had planned to seize most if not all of the Philippines during the fighting, then “keep what we want” in the peace settlement. Like many others in his administration, McKinley believed the Filipino people would be unable to govern themselves and would be better off as an American-controlled protectorate or colony.
