The Philippine–American War, known alternatively as the Filipino–American War, Philippine Insurrection, or Tagalog Insurgency, emerged in early 1899 following the United States' annexation of the former Spanish colony of the Philippine Islands under the terms of the December 1898 Treaty of Paris following the Spanish–American War. Philippine nationalists had proclaimed independence in June 1898 and constituted the First Philippine Republic in January 1899. The United States did not recognize either event as legitimate, and tensions escalated until fighting commenced on February 4, 1899, in the Battle of Manila. Shortly after being denied a request for an armistice, the Philippine government issued a proclamation on June 2, 1899, urging the people to continue the war. Philippine forces initially attempted to engage U.S. forces conventionally but transitioned to guerrilla tactics by November 1899. Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo was captured on March 23, 1901, and the war was officially declared over by the US on July 4, 1902. However, some Philippine groups continued to fight for several more years. Other groups, such as the Muslim Moro peoples of the southern Philippines and quasi-Catholic Pulahan religious movements, continued hostilities in remote areas. The Moro Rebellion ended with their final defeat at the Battle of Bud Bagsak on June 15, 1913. The war resulted in at least 200,000 Filipino civilian deaths, mostly from famine and diseases, including at least 150,000 deaths in a cholera epidemic towards the end of the war. Some estimates for civilian deaths reach up to a million. War crimes were committed during the conflict by both sides. In retaliation for Filipino guerrilla warfare tactics, the U.S. carried out reprisals and scorched earth campaigns and forcibly relocated many Filipino civilians to concentration camps, where thousands of them died. The war and subsequent occupation by the U.S. changed the culture of the islands, leading to the rise of Protestantism, disestablishment of the Catholic Church, and the adoption of English by the islands as the primary language of government, education, business, and industry. The U.S. annexation and war sparked a political backlash from anti-imperialists in the U.S. Senate, who argued that the war was a definite example of U.S. imperialism, and that it was an inherent contradiction of the founding principles of the United States contained in the Declaration of Independence. In 1902, the United States Congress passed the Philippine Organic Act, which created the Philippine Assembly. This act was superseded by the 1916 Jones Act (Philippine Autonomy Act), which contained the first official declaration of the United States government's commitment to eventually grant independence to the Philippines. The 1934 Tydings–McDuffie Act created the Commonwealth of the Philippines, increased self-governance and established a process towards full independence. This would however be delayed by World War II and the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. The United States eventually withdrew and granted independence in 1946 through the Treaty of Manila.
Background
Philippine Revolution
Andrés Bonifacio was a warehouseman and clerk from Manila. On July 7, 1892, he established the Katipunan, a revolutionary organization formed to gain independence from Spanish colonial rule by armed revolt. In August 1896, the Katipunan was discovered by the Spanish authorities and thus launched its revolution. Fighters in Cavite province won early victories. One of the most influential and popular leaders from Cavite was Emilio Aguinaldo, mayor of Cavite El Viejo (modern-day Kawit), who gained control of much of the eastern portion of Cavite province. Eventually, Aguinaldo and his faction gained control of the revolution. After Aguinaldo was elected president of a revolutionary government superseding the Katipunan at the Tejeros Convention on March 22, 1897, his government had Bonifacio executed for treason after a show trial on May 10, 1897.
Aguinaldo's exile and return
By late 1897, after a succession of defeats for the revolutionary forces, the Spanish had regained control over most of rebel territory. Aguinaldo and Spanish Governor-General Fernando Primo de Rivera entered into armistice negotiations while Spanish forces surrounded Aguinaldo's hideout and base in Biak-na-Bato in Bulacan province. On December 14, 1897, an agreement was reached in which the Spanish colonial government would pay Aguinaldo $MXN800,000 in three installments if Aguinaldo went into exile outside the Philippines. Aguinaldo and 25 of his closest associates left their headquarters at Biak-na-Bato and made their way to Hong Kong, in accord with the agreement. Before his departure, Aguinaldo publicly denounced the revolution and exhorted rebel combatants to disarm, and declared those who continued hostilities to be bandits. In private, however, Aguinaldo had planned to use the truce money to fund a re-initiation of the revolution, and some revolutionaries continued armed resistance against the Spanish colonial government. On April 22, 1898, the exiled Aguinaldo privately met in Singapore with United States Consul E. Spencer Pratt. Pratt was later severely rebuked for having met with Aguinaldo and told, "Your action was unauthorized and can not be approved", but the meeting convinced Aguinaldo to return to the Philippines and reclaim leadership of the revolution. Aguinaldo and Pratt each offered contradictory accounts of the meeting. Aguinaldo returned to Hong Kong and was transported by the Americans to Cavite, arriving on May 19, marking the resumption of the Revolution and commencing a succession of victories that prompted him to order the Philippine Declaration of Independence. The revolution was governed by a Dictatorial Government, but about a month later, this temporary dictatorship was replaced with a Revolutionary Government that appointed Aguinaldo as president. Less than three months after his return, the Philippine Revolutionary Army liberated and established civil government over nearly all the Philippines Islands with the exception of Manila, which was surrounded by revolutionary forces some 12,000 strong.
=== Conflicting powers in the Philippines === Towards the end of 1898, the partially elected and partially appointed Malolos Congress, established by the organic statute of the Revolutionary Government, drafted a constitution whose promulgation led to the formal establishment of the Philippine Republic by late January 1899. This state would retroactively be known as the First Philippine Republic, and also the Malolos Republic after its capital. Aguinaldo, who had been elected president in accordance with the constitution, officially considered by the Philippine government as the first President of the Philippines. The Philippine Declaration of Independence was not recognized by either the United States or Spain. In spite of the losses to revolutionary forces, Spain presumed sovereignty over the Philippines and ceded the Philippines to the United States in consideration for an indemnity for Spanish expenses and assets lost via the 1898 Treaty of Paris, signed on December 10, 1898, which concluded the Spanish–American War. The Revolutionary Government sought representation but any Philippine representation was excluded from the talks.
Origins of the conflict
Mock Battle of Manila
In July 1898, three months into the Spanish–American War, U.S. command began suspecting Aguinaldo was secretly negotiating with Spanish authorities to gain control of Manila without U.S. assistance, reporting that the rebel leader was restricting delivery of supplies to U.S. forces. General Thomas M. Anderson assessed that a rebel controlled Manila would be able to resist any U.S. attempt to establish a provisional government. General Wesley Merritt disregarded Aguinaldo's warning not to disembark American troops in places liberated by Filipinos without first informing him in writing about the places and purposes of the actions. U.S. commanders came to suspect that Philippine rebel forces were informing Spanish forces of U.S. troop movements. U.S. and Spanish commanders negotiated a secret agreement to stage a mock battle in Manila, after which Spanish forces would surrender to U.S. forces. Philippine forces would not be allowed to enter the city. Fighting between U.S. and Philippine troops almost broke out as the former moved to dislodge the latter from strategic positions around Manila. On the eve of the staged battle, Anderson telegraphed Aguinaldo, "Do not let your troops enter Manila without the permission of the American commander. On this side of the Pasig River you will be under fire." On August 13, U.S. forces captured Manila. Relations between the U.S. and Philippine rebels continued to deteriorate.
End of the Spanish–American War
On August 12, 1898, The New York Times reported that a peace protocol had been signed in Washington that afternoon between the U.S. and Spain, suspending hostilities. The full text of the protocol was not made public until November 5, but Article III read: "The United States will occupy and hold the City, Bay, and Harbor of Manila, pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace, which shall determine the control, disposition, and government of the Philippines." After conclusion of this agreement, U.S. President William McKinley proclaimed a suspension of hostilities with Spain.
In a clash at Cavite between US soldiers and insurgents on August 25, 1898, George Hudson of the Utah regiment was killed, Corporal William Anderson was mortally wounded, and four troopers of the Fourth Cavalry were slightly wounded. This provoked General Anderson to send Aguinaldo a letter saying, "In order to avoid the very serious misfortune of an encounter between our troops, I demand your immediate withdrawal with your guard from Cavite. One of my men has been killed and three wounded by your people. This is positive and does not admit of explanation or delay." Philippine communications reported that the Americans were drunk at the time. Aguinaldo expressed his regret and promised to punish the offenders. Apolinario Mabini initially proposed to investigate and punish any offenders identified. Aguinaldo modified this, ordering, "... say that he was not killed by your soldiers, but by them themselves [the Americans] since they were drunk according to your telegram". A Philippine officer in Cavite at the time reported on his record of services that he: "took part in the movement against the Americans on the afternoon of the 24th of August, under the orders of the commander of the troops and the adjutant of the post". Elections were held by the Revolutionary Government between June and September 10, seating a legislature known as the Malolos Congress. In a session between September 15 and November 13, 1898, the Malolos Constitution was adopted. It was promulgated on January 21, 1899, creating the First Philippine Republic with Emilio Aguinaldo as president. Article V of the peace protocol signed on August 12 had mandated negotiations to conclude a treaty of peace to begin in Paris not later than October 1, 1898. President McKinley sent a five-man commission, initially instructed to demand no more than Luzon, Guam, and Puerto Rico; which would have provided a limited U.S. empire. In Paris, the commission was besieged with advice, particularly from American generals and European diplomats, to demand the entire Philippine archipelago. The unanimous recommendation was that "it would certainly be cheaper and more humane to take the entire Philippines than to keep only part of it." McKinley claimed that returning the Philippines to Spain would have been "cowardly and dishonorable," that turning them over to "commercial rivals" of the United States would have been "bad business and discreditable," and that the Filipinos "were unfit for self-government." On October 28, 1898, McKinley wired the commission that "cessation of Luzon alone, leaving the rest of the islands subject to Spanish rule, or to be the subject of future contention, cannot be justified on political, commercial, or humanitarian grounds. The cessation must be the whole archipelago or none. The latter is wholly inadmissible, and the former must therefore be required." The Spanish negotiators were furious over the "immodist demands of a conqueror", but their wounded pride was assuaged by an offer of twenty million dollars for "Spanish improvements" to the islands. All the while, the Philippine government had sought representation in the talks through accredited diplomat Felipe Agoncillo, who had made efforts to ensure the inclusion of the new Philippine power. Agoncillo and his government were shut out completely from the negotiations. The Spaniards capitulated to the Americans' demands, and on December 10, 1898, the U.S. and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris, formally ending the Spanish–American War. In Article III, Spain ceded the Philippine archipelago to the United States, as follows: "Spain cedes to the United States the archipelago known as the Philippine Islands, and comprehending the islands lying within the following line: [... geographic description elided ...]. The United States will pay to Spain the sum of twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) within three months after the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty." A movement to recognize Philippine independence surged in the U.S.; some said that the U.S. had no right to a land where many of the people wanted self-government. In 1898, industrialist Andrew Carnegie offered to pay the U.S. government $20 million to give the Philippines its independence.
Benevolent assimilation
On December 21, 1898, McKinley issued a proclamation of "benevolent assimilation, substituting the mild sway of justice and right for arbitrary rule" for "the greatest good of the governed". Referring to the Treaty of Paris, asserting that "as a result of the victories of American arms, the future control, disposition, and government of the Philippine Islands are ceded to the United States." It enjoined military commander Major General Elwell Stephen Otis to inform Filipinos that "in succeeding to the sovereignty of Spain" the authority of the United States "is to be exerted for the securing of the persons and property of the people of the islands and for the confirmation of all their private rights and relations". The proclamation specified that "it will be the duty of the commander of the forces of occupation to announce and proclaim in the most public manner that we come, not as invaders or conquerors, but as friends, to protect the natives in their homes, in their employments, and in their personal and religious rights". The Spaniards yielded Iloilo to the revolutionaries on December 26. An American brigade under General Marcus P. Miller arrived on December 28 and opened communications with the Filipinos. President Lopez of the Federal Government of the Visayas told him that landing required "express orders from the central government of Luzon" and refused permission to land. That news reached Washington on January 1, 1899. Otis, who had been appointed Military Governor of the Philippines, had delayed publication of McKinley's proclamation. On January 4, Otis published an amended version edited so as not to convey the meanings of the terms sovereignty, protection, and right of cessation, which were present in the original version. On January 6, 1899, General Otis was quoted in The New York Times as stating "convinced that the U.S. government intends to seek the establishment of a liberal government, in which the people will be as fully represented as the maintenance of law and order will permit, susceptible of development, on lines of increased representation, and the bestowal of increased powers, into a government as free and independent as is enjoyed by the most favored provinces in the world." Unknown to Otis, the War Department had sent an enciphered copy of the Benevolent Assimilation proclamation to General Miller for informational purposes. Miller assumed that it was for distribution and, unaware that a politically bowdlerized version had been published by Otis, published the original in both Spanish and Tagalog translations which eventually made their way to Aguinaldo. Even before Aguinaldo received the unaltered version and observed the changes in the copy he had received from Otis, he was upset that Otis had altered his own title to "Military Governor of the Philippines" from "... in the Philippines", a change that Otis had made without authorization. The original proclamation was given by supporters to Aguinaldo who, on January 5, issued a counter-proclamation:
Such procedures, so foreign to the dictates of culture and the usages observed by civilized nations, gave me the right to act without observing the usual rules of intercourse. Nevertheless, in order to be correct to the end, I sent to General Otis commissioners charged to solicit him to desist from his rash enterprise, but they were not listened to. My government can not remain indifferent in view of such a violent and aggressive seizure of a portion of its territory by a nation which arrogated to itself the title champion of oppressed nations. Thus it is that my government is disposed to open hostilities if the American troops attempt to take forcible possession of the Visayan Islands. I denounce these acts before the world, in order that the conscience of mankind may pronounce its infallable verdict as to who are the true oppressors of nations and the tormentors of human kind. After some copies of that proclamation had been distributed, Aguinaldo ordered the recall of undistributed copies and issued another proclamation, which was published the same day in El Heraldo de la Revolucion, the official newspaper of the Philippine government. His statement in part said:
As in General Otis's proclamation he alluded to some instructions edited by His Excellency the President of the United States, referring to the administration of the matters in the Philippine Islands, I in the name of God, the root and fountain of all justice, and that of all the right which has been visibly granted to me to direct my dear brothers in the difficult work of our regeneration, protest most solemnly against this intrusion of the United States Government on the sovereignty of these islands. I equally protest in the name of the Filipino people against the said intrusion, because as they have granted their vote of confidence appointing me president of the nation, although I don't consider that I deserve such, therefore I consider it my duty to defend to death its liberty and independence. Otis, taking these two proclamations as tantamount to war, strengthened American observation posts and alerted his troops. Aguinaldo's proclamations energized the masses with a vigorous determination to fight what was perceived as an ally turned enemy. Some 40,000 Filipinos fled Manila within a period of 15 days. Meanwhile, Felipe Agoncillo had traveled to Washington. On January 6, he filed a request for an interview with the President to discuss affairs in the Philippines. The next day the government officials were surprised to learn that messages to General Otis to deal mildly with the rebels and not to force a conflict had become known to Agoncillo, and cabled by him to Aguinaldo. On January 8, Agoncillo stated:
In my opinion the Filipino people, whom I represent, will never consent to become a colony dependency of the United States. The soldiers of the Filipino army have pledged their lives that they will not lay down their arms until General Aguinaldo tells them to do so, and they will keep that pledge, I feel confident. The Filipino committees in London, Paris, and Madrid about this time telegraphed to President McKinley:
We protest against the disembarkation of American troops at Iloilo. The treaty of peace still unratified, the American claim to sovereignty is premature. Pray reconsider the resolution regarding Iloilo. Filipinos wish for the friendship of America and abhor militarism and deceit. On January 8, Aguinaldo received the following message from Teodoro Sandiko:
To the President of the Revolutionary Government, Malolos, from Sandico, Manila. 8 Jan., 1899, 9:40 p.m.: In consequence of the order of General Rios to his officers, as soon as the Filipino attack begins the Americans should be driven into the Intramuros district and the walled city should be set on fire. Pipi. The New York Times reported on January 8, that two Americans who had been guarding a waterboat in Iloilo had been attacked, one fatally, and that Filipinos were threatening to destroy the business section of the city by fire; and on January 10 that a peaceful solution to the Iloilo issues may result but that Aguinaldo had issued a proclamation threatening to drive the Americans from the islands. By January 10, the Filipinos were ready for conflict but would not act unless the Americans fired the first shot. The pensive attitude toward the Americans caused them to push their lines further. Their attitude was well illustrated by this extract from a telegram sent by Colonel Cailles to Aguinaldo on January 10, 1899: "Most urgent. An American interpreter has come to tell me to withdraw our forces in Maytubig fifty paces. I shall not draw back a step, and in place of withdrawing, I shall advance a little farther. He brings a letter from his general, in which he speaks to me as a friend. I said that from the day I knew that Maquinley (McKinley) opposed our independence I did not want any dealings with any American. War, war, is what we want. The Americans after this speech went off pale." The pensiveness had reached the presidency of the revolutionary government, as demonstrated by Aguinaldo's handwritten reply to Cailles: "I approve and applaud what you have done with the Americans, and zeal and valour always, also my beloved officers and soldiers there. I believe that they are playing us until the arrival of their reinforcements, but I shall send an ultimatum and remain always on the alert.--E. A. Jan. 10, 1899." On January 31, 1899, the Minister of Interior of the Philippine Republic, Teodoro Sandiko, signed a decree stating that President Aguinaldo had directed that all idle lands be planted to provide food for the people in view of impending war with the Americans.
War
=== Path to war === In January, Sandiko was contacted by German diplomat Gotthard Klocke, leading to shipment of Krupp guns for Philippine forces. It was revealed by Chicago Tribune on February 28, 1899, while the shipment was still on its way. On the evening of February 4, 1899, Private William W. Grayson initiated the Philippine–American War by shooting a group of Filipino soldiers at the corner of Sociego Street and Tomas Arguelles Street. A study done by Ronnie Miravite Casalmir places the event at this corner, not at Sociego-Silencio where they erroneously have the marker. The Ronnie Miravite Casalmir Study debunks the previous findings of Dr. Benito Legarda which was the basis for the erroneous placement of the marker at Sociego-Silencio. According to Ronnie Miravite Casalmir, the smoking gun for the Sociego-Arguelles corner is the presence of Blockhouse 7 in the background of Grayson's reenactment photo. The orientation of this Blockhouse 7 image lines up with the corner of Sociego and Arguelles when compared with the known photo of Blockhouse 7 taken from the same direction. In addition, the distance estimate of Lieut. Whedon placed the 100-yard distance from Santol at Sociego-Arguelles, not Sociego-Silencio. This meant that when Lieut. Whedon ordered the detachment at Santol to patrol 100 yards, he meant them to patrol all the way to Sociego-Arguelles. Col. Stotsenburg corroborated Lieut. Whedon's distance estimate. Prof. Ambeth R. Ocampo calls the evidence presented by Ronnie Miravite Casalmir as new and compelling. Prof. Ocampo agrees that this evidence shows that the marker should be moved one block away, from Sociego-Silencio to Sociego-Arguelles. Maj. Lillian A. Pfluke (Ret.), West Point Class of 1980, and founder of the American War Memorials Overseas Inc. also agrees and has a note on their U.S. War Memorials website that the proper placement of the marker should be at the adjoining intersection of Sociego Street and Arguelles Street where the incident actually occurred. Grayson gave the following account of his initiation of hostilites:
The outbreak of violence triggered the 1899 Battle of Manila. Later that day, Aguinaldo declared "That peace and friendly relations with the Americans be broken and that the latter be treated as enemies, within the limits prescribed by the laws of war."
The following day, Filipino General Isidoro Torres came through the lines under a flag of truce to deliver a message from Aguinaldo to General Otis that the fighting had begun accidentally, and that Aguinaldo wished for the hostilities to cease immediately and for the establishment of a neutral zone. Otis dismissed these overtures, and replied that the "fighting, having begun, must go on to the grim end". On February 5, General Arthur MacArthur ordered his troops to advance against Filipino troops.
In the U.S., President McKinley had created a commission chaired by Jacob Gould Schurman on January 20 and tasked it to study the situation in the Philippines and make recommendations on how the U.S. should proceed. Members included General Otis and two other civilian appointees. The three civilian members of the commission arrived in Manila on March 4, 1899, a month after hostilities began. General Otis viewed the arrival of his fellow commission members as an intrusion and boycotted commission meetings. The civilian members of the commission spent a month meeting with Ilustrados who had deserted the Philippine government, as well as studying the Malolos Constitution and other government documents. Meanwhile, with U.S. forces advancing northwards from Manila, the seat of Aguinaldo's revolutionary government had been moved from Malolos to San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. When Malolos fell at the end of March, it moved further north to San Fernando, Pampanga. The commission published a proclamation containing assurances that the U.S. did not intend exploitation of Filipinos, but their "advancement to a position among the most civilized peoples of the world", and announced "that the United States is ... anxious to establish in the Philippine Islands an enlightened system of government under which the Philippine people may enjoy the largest measure of home rule and the amplest liberty." Though not authorized to discuss an armistice, civilian commission members held informal discussions with a representative of Aguinaldo. Progress on a path without war ended after General Luna arrested Aguinaldo's then-cabinet and replaced it with a more hawkish one headed by Apolinario Mabini. On June 2, 1899, the First Philippine Republic declared war on the United States.
American strategy
Senator Albert J. Beveridge, a prominent American imperialist, said: "Americans altruistically went to war with Spain to liberate Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Filipinos from their tyrannical yoke. If they lingered on too long in the Philippines, it was to protect the Filipinos from European predators waiting in the wings for an American withdrawal and to tutor them in American-style democracy." On February 11, 1899, one week after the first shots were fired, Iloilo was bombarded by American naval forces from the USS Petrel (PG-2) and the USS Baltimore (C-3). Filipino forces lit the town on fire before retreating. The city was captured by ground forces led by Brigadier General Marcus Miller, with no loss of American lives. 25 to 30 Filipinos were wounded. The "native" part of the city was almost entirely destroyed. Months later, after finally securing Manila, American forces moved northward, engaging in combat at the brigade and battalion level in pursuit of the fleeing insurgent forces. In response to the use of guerrilla warfare tactics by Filipino forces, beginning in September 1899, American military strategy shifted to suppression of the resistance. Tactics became focused on the control of key areas with internment and segregation of the civilian population in "zones of protection" from the guerrillas. Many of the interned civilians died from dysentery. General Otis gained notoriety for some of his actions. Although his superiors had directed Otis to avoid military conflict, he did little to prevent war. Otis refused to accept anything but unconditional surrender from the Philippine Army. He often made major military decisions without first consulting Washington. He acted aggressively in dealing with the Filipinos under the assumption that their resistance would collapse quickly. Even after this assumption proved false, he continued to insist that the insurgency had been defeated, and that the remaining casualties were caused by "isolated bands of outlaws". Otis was also active in suppressing information about American military tactics. When letters describing American atrocities reached the American media, Otis had each press clipping forwarded to the original writer's commanding officer, who would convince or force the soldier to retract his statements.
Filipino strategy
Estimates of the Filipino forces vary between 80,000 and 100,000, with tens of thousands of auxiliaries. Most of the forces were armed only with bolo knives, bows and arrows, spears, and other primitive weapons, which were vastly inferior to the guns and other weapons of the American forces. A fairly rigid indigenous caste system existed in the Philippines before the Spanish colonial era, which partially survived among the natives during Spanish rule. The goal, or end-state, sought by the First Philippine Republic was a sovereign, independent, stable, and egalitarian nation. In practice, local chieftains, landowners, businessmen, and cabezas de barangay were the principales who administered local politics. The war was at its peak when ilustrados, principales, and peasants were unified in opposition to annexation by the United States. The peasants, who represented the majority of the fighting forces, had interests different from their ilustrado leaders and the principales of their villages. Coupled with the ethnic and geographic fragmentation, aligning the interests of people from different social castes was a daunting task. The challenge for Aguinaldo and his generals was to sustain unified Filipino public opposition; this was the revolutionaries' strategic center of gravity. The Filipino operational center of gravity was the ability to sustain its force of 100,000 irregulars in the field. The Filipino general Francisco Macabulos described the Filipinos' war aim as, "not to vanquish the U.S. Army but to inflict on them constant losses". In the early stages of the war, the Philippine Army employed the conventional military tactics typical of an organized armed resistance. The hope was to inflict enough American casualties to result in McKinley's defeat by William Jennings Bryan in the 1900 presidential election. They hoped that Bryan, who held strong anti-imperialist views, would withdraw the American forces from the Philippines. McKinley's election victory in 1900 was demoralizing for the Filipinos, and convinced many Filipinos that the United States would not depart quickly. Coupled with a series of devastating losses on the battlefield against American forces equipped with superior technology and training, Aguinaldo became convinced that he needed to change his approach. Beginning on September 14, 1899, Aguinaldo accepted the advice of General Gregorio del Pilar and authorized the use of guerrilla warfare tactics in subsequent military operations in Bulacan.
=== Guerrilla war phase === For most of 1899, the revolutionary leadership had viewed guerrilla warfare strategically only as a tactical option of final recourse, not as a means of operation which better suited their disadvantaged situation. On November 13, 1899, Aguinaldo decreed that guerrilla warfare would henceforth be the strategy. This made American occupation of the Philippine archipelago all the more difficult over the next few years. During the first four months of the guerrilla war, the Americans had nearly 500 casualties. The Philippine Army began staging bloody ambushes and raids, such as the guerrilla victories at Paye, Catubig, Makahambus Hill, Pulang Lupa, and Mabitac. At first, it seemed that the Filipinos might be able to fight the Americans to a stalemate and force them to withdraw. President McKinley considered withdrawal when the guerrilla raids began.
=== Martial law === On December 20, 1900, MacArthur, who had succeeded Elwell Otis as U.S. Military Governor on May 5, placed the Philippines under martial law, invoking U.S. Army General Order 100. He announced that guerrilla abuses would no longer be tolerated and outlined the rights which would govern the U.S. Army's treatment of guerrillas and civilians. In particular, guerrillas who wore no uniform but peasant dress and shifted from civilian to military status would be held accountable; secret committees that collected revolutionary taxes and those accepting U.S. protection in occupied towns while assisting guerrillas would be treated as "war rebels or war traitors". Filipino leaders who continued to work towards Philippine independence were deported to Guam.
Decline and fall of the First Philippine Republic
The Philippine Army continued suffering defeats from the better armed United States Army during the conventional warfare phase, forcing Aguinaldo to continually change his base of operations throughout the course of the war. On June 24, 1900, MacArthur as U.S. Military Governor published a proclamation offering full and complete amnesty to all insurgents who surrendered within ninety days. On August 3, 1900, Aguinaldo issued a decree urging a continuation of the war and offering rewards for rifles and ammunition brought in by prisoners or deserters from opposing forces.
On March 23, 1901, General Frederick Funston and his troops captured Aguinaldo in Palanan, Isabela, with the help of some Filipinos (called the Macabebe Scouts after their home locale) who had joined the Americans. The Americans pretended to be captives of the Scouts, who were dressed in Philippine Army uniforms. Once Funston and his "captors" entered Aguinaldo's camp, they quickly overwhelmed Aguinaldo's forces. On April 1, 1901, at Malacañang Palace in Manila, Aguinaldo swore an oath accepting the authority of the United States over the Philippines and pledging his allegiance to the American government. On April 19, he issued a Proclamation of Formal Surrender to the United States, telling his followers to lay down their weapons and give up the fight. "Let the stream of blood cease to flow; let there be an end to tears and desolation," Aguinaldo said. "The lesson which the war holds out and the significance of which I realized only recently, leads me to the firm conviction that the complete termination of hostilities and a lasting peace are not only desirable but also absolutely essential for the well-being of the Philippines." The capture of Aguinaldo dealt a severe blow to the Filipino cause, but not as much as the Americans had hoped. General Miguel Malvar took over the leadership of the Filipino government. He originally had taken a defensive stance against the Americans, but launched an offensive against the American-held towns in the Batangas region. General Vicente Lukbán in Samar, and other army officers, continued the war in their respective areas.
Establishment of U.S. civil government
On March 3, 1901, the U.S. Congress passed the Army Appropriation Act containing (along with the Platt Amendment on Cuba) the Spooner Amendment which provided the president with legislative authority to establish a civil government in the Philippines. Up until this time, the president had been administering the Philippines by virtue of his war powers. On July 4, 1901, the office of U.S. Military Governor was terminated and civil government was inaugurated with William Howard Taft as civil governor. Hostilities continued, and the civil governor shared power and control with the U.S. military government. A centralized public school system was installed in 1901, using English as the medium of instruction. This created a heavy shortage of teachers, and the Philippine Commission authorized the secretary of public instruction to engage 600 teachers from the U.S. – the so-called Thomasites. Free primary schools that instructed on duties of citizenship and avocation was introduced. The Catholic Church was officially disestablished, and much church land was purchased and redistributed. An anti-sedition law was established in 1901, followed by an anti-brigandage law in 1902.
=== Official end of the war === On July 4, 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, who had succeeded to the U.S. presidency, proclaimed officially that the war was at an end and extended a full and complete pardon and amnesty to all persons in the Philippine Archipelago who had participated in the conflict. On April 9, 2002, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo proclaimed that the Philippine–American War had ended on April 16, 1902, with the surrender of Malvar. She declared the centennial anniversary of that date as a national working holiday and as a special non-working holiday in the province of Batangas and in the cities of Batangas, Lipa, and Tanauan. The Kiram–Bates Treaty secured the Sultanate of Sulu. American forces also established control over interior mountainous areas that had resisted Spanish conquest.
=== Internal weaknesses === Historians Glenn May in 1983 and Rene Escalante in 1998 conclude that Aguinaldo's cause had multiple fatal weaknesses: they blame his inept political leadership; his strategic and tactical military blunders; his loss of mass support; his alienation of the Catholics; his failure to mobilize the Filipino elite; squabbling and corruption among his generals; and failure to win any international support for his cause.
Casualties
Filipino casualties were much greater than among Americans. The United States Department of State states that the war "resulted in the death of over 4,200 American and over 20,000 Filipino combatants", and that "as many as 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence, famine, and disease". The total number of Filipinos who died remains a matter of debate. Modern sources cite a figure of 200,000 dead civilian Filipinos, with most losses attributable to famine and disease. A cholera epidemic at the war's end killed between 150,000 and 200,000 people. According to Andrea Pitzer, over 11,000 Filipinos died in concentration camps. Some estimates reach 1,000,000 dead. Filipino scholar Luzviminda Francisco cites an alleged interview in The New York Times with General James M. Bell, who commanded forces in a part of southern Luzon, in May 1901 where it was said he suggested that "over 600,000 people in Luzon alone had been killed or had died of disease as a result of the war". Francisco also cites the forced incarceration of a reported 300,000 people in the province of Albay, and allegations of war crimes in Mindanao and high death rates in Bilibid Prison to raise doubts of the validity of, then, accepted casualty figures for the war. Historian John M. Gates has described the figure of 600,000 as unfounded and exaggerated. According to Gates, the maximum possible number of war-related deaths in the Philippines between 1898 and 1903 is 321,000 based on American and Spanish census data. In 1903 the population of the Philippines was counted by American authorities. The survey yielded 7,635,426 people, including 56,138 foreign born. In 1887, a Spanish census recorded a population of 5,984,717 excluding non-Christians. Filipino scholar, Vincente L. Rafael, noted that U.S. control over the Philippines "included extending colonial control to two areas where the Spaniards had chronically failed: the Moro areas of the south and the Cordillera mountains in the North." Rudolph Rummel estimates that 16,000 to 20,000 Filipino soldiers and 34,000 civilians were killed, with up to an additional 200,000 civilian deaths, mostly from a cholera epidemic. In terms of civilian casualties, historian Glen May in an in-depth study one province, argues that the demographic environment was very negative in 1897–1902, as the death rate soared. The main causes were malnutrition caused by massive crop failures, and epidemics of cholera and malaria. In the course of the conflict, desertion became a problem for the U.S. Army. Seventeen American soldiers were sentenced to death for desertion. However, only two sentences, applied to African American soldiers (Edmund DuBose and Lewis Russell of the 9th Cavalry Regiment, who had been convicted of far more serious charges of desertion to the enemy, in 1902, were carried out. These were the last American soldiers to be executed for desertion until the execution of Private Eddie Slovik during the Second World War.