Bloody, Brutal War Start of Philippine Liberty

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.