THE AMERICAN CHAPTER
A Timeline of Colonialism and American Imperialistic Actions in the Philippines
1521
An archipelago in Southeast Asia composed of over 7100 islands is colonized by the Spanish Empire and named Las Islas Filipinas, The Philippines after their King, Phillip II. Spain stays for 350 years, transforming a mostly animist archipelago into the largest Catholic country in Asia.
1887
Filipinos’ national consciousness is awakened after the publication of Filipino hero Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not). Anti-Spanish sentiments arise within elite Filipinos, unifying with existing silent resentment by the masses.
1890
United States foreign policy is influenced by Alfred T. Mahan’s The Influence of Sea Power Upon History: 1600-1783. Mahan advocated for the taking of Caribbean islands, Hawaii, and the Philippines for bases to protect U.S. commerce, the building of a canal to enable fleet movement across oceans, and the development of the Great White fleet of steam-driven, armor-plated battleships.
August 1896
The Philippine populace revolts against Spanish occupation.
December 1896
President Grover Cleveland declares that the United States may take action if Spain fails to resolve the Cuban Revolution. William Warren Kimball, a U.S. Naval officer, calls for an operation to free Cuba through naval action, including attacks on Manila and the Spanish Mediterranean coast.
March 1898
The United States government issues an ultimatum to the Spanish government to terminate its presence in Cuba. Spain does not accept the ultimatum in its reply on April 1, 1898.
April 25, 1898
Spanish forces tank the U.S.S. Maine in Havana. The United States declares war on Spain.
May 1, 1898
“You may fire when you are ready, Gridley.” U.S. Commodore George Dewey leads an invasion of the Philippines by sea and defeats Spanish naval forces in Manila Bay.
May 18, 1898
President William McKinley orders a military expedition to eliminate Spanish forces in the Philippines, occupy the islands, and provide security and order to its inhabitants.
August 1898
Local commanders of the Spanish and American forces secretly plan the Mock Battle of Manila to transfer control of the city center from the Spanish to the Americans while keeping the Philippine Revolutionary Army out. American forces gain control of Intramuros, the center of Manila, while surrounded by Philippine revolutionary forces, creating the conditions for the Battle of Manila of 1899 and the start of the Philippine–American War.
December 10, 1898
Spain and the United States formalize the end of the war by signing the Treaty of Peace in Paris. The U.S. buys the Philippines from Spain for $20,000,000. No Filipinos are included in these discussions.
December 21, 1898
President McKinley issues his Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation, relinquishing the Philippines to the United States, and instructs the American army to use force to impose American sovereignty over the Philippines.
February 4, 1899
The Philippine Republic declares war on U.S. forces, resulting in the Philippine-American War that lasts two years.
March 16, 1900
President McKinley appoints the Second Philippine Commission, or the Taft Commission, headed by William Howard Taft. Between September 1900 and August 1902, the commission issues 499 laws, establishes a judicial system, writes a legal code, and organizes a civil service.
March 23, 1901
Led by General Frederick Funston, U.S. forces capture Emilio Aguinaldo, the head Philippine revolutionary, and facilitate the declaration of his allegiance to the American flag.
1902
The United States Congress passes the Philippine Bill of 1902, calling for the management of Philippine affairs and deciding Filipinos are incapable of self-government. Self-described imperialists insist that America has a duty to bring order and civilization to what Indiana senator Alfred Beveridge calls a “barbarous race.” The senator adds: “The Philippines are ours forever. We will not repudiate our duty in the archipelago. We will not abandon our duty in the Orient. We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee under God, of the civilization of the world.”
American invasion and the war in the Philippines ends, with Congress counting over 220,000 Filipino civilians dead. Filipino records differ, putting the deaths close to one million. (Philippine records are destroyed during Japan’s bombing of Manila and Pearl Harbor in 1941)
1902-1934
The Taft Commission sets up local governmental bodies and a system of universal public education. It enacts little reform to the land tenure system, which gave a few wealthy landlords control over the rural areas where most Filipinos lived.
American English becomes the medium of instruction. The Philippine executive, legislative, and judiciary branches are patterned after the United States’.
Filipino nationalists continue to ask for independence, but suspect the U.S. is postponing independence indefinitely while exploiting the islands' economic resources and using it as a military base. A 1910 editorial in a Manila journal sums up the first decade of American colonial rule as “10 years of bitter deception.”
1934
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a proclamation that makes the Philippines a commonwealth until 1946.
1941
Japan attacks United States colonies, including Pearl Harbor and Manila. America abandons the Philippines and it succumbs to the Japanese empire.
1944
General MacArthur and the U.S. army return to the Philippines. After a bloody battle for Manila, the islands are liberated once more. More than one million Filipinos die during the war.
July 4, 1946
The Republic of the Philippines becomes a “sovereign and independent” nation. Yes, the same calendar day as America's Independence from Britain.
1947
The United States retains a major military presence in the new republic. Under a 1947 agreement, the U.S. is permitted to operate a naval base at Subic Bay and Clark Air Force Base on an open lease. Subic Bay was the largest American overseas base and crucial to its military's Cold War strategy in Asia, including the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
1950
The United States continues to keep a close watch on domestic affairs. Guerrillas resurface in the late 1940s, fueled by peasants' continuing desire for agricultural reform. With military aid and covert assistance from the U.S., the Philippine government quashes the guerrillas by 1954.
Throughout the 1950s, the U.S. government gets involved in every single election, including, but not limited to, the CIA's Edward Lansdale, the master strategist behind Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay’s election, and Ronald Reagan’s devotion to the Marcoses that manifests through billions of aid over their 20-year rule.
1965
Ferdinand Marcos is elected president of the Philippines.
1966
President Lyndon Johnson visits the Marcoses in Manila.
The Marcoses visit the White House to discuss the U.S. military bases in the Philippines, continuing support from the Marcoses for U.S. sanctions in Vietnam, and extending the Laurel–Langley Agreement, a trade agreement signed in 1955 between the U.S. and its former colony, giving full parity rights to American citizens and businesses. It is set to expire in 1974.
A week later, the Marcoses and the Johnsons open the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
1969
Then California governor Reagan and his wife visit Manila for the opening of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, beginning a close relationship between the Reagans and the Marcoses. From then on, Reagan, impressed by Ferdinand's exaggerated stories of his exploits as an anti-Japanese guerrilla, counts him among the world's “freedom fighters” in the struggle against communism. In Reagan's eyes, Marcos is ”a hero on a bubble gum card he had collected as a kid.”
January-March 1970
First Quarter Storm: Thousands of Filipinos, led by students, protest for political reform, including a restructuring of the United States-based Constitution, the end of American imperialism, and embracing more socialist ideologies. The demonstrations culminate in the Bombing of Plaza Miranda in 1972.
September 23, 1972
Marcos announces proclamation 1081 declaring Martial Law. Constitutional rights are suspended, the legislature is closed, and Marcos holds on to power for another 14 years.
Successive American administrations tolerate and support Marcos despite his authoritarianism, seeking his help to maintain a sizable military presence in the country. America's bases in the Philippines play a vital role during the Vietnam War, and, after the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, serve as a counterweight to the Soviet naval base in Cam Ranh Bay.
But the U.S. bases are a contentious issue for many Filipinos, who see them as further evidence of America's enduring colonial meddling. While they created jobs and boosted the local economy, the bases also fuel crime and prostitution in adjacent communities.
Fearing communist insurgency, the U.S. trains the Philippine army, and provides millions of dollars in military aid and weapons. The U.S. barely protests when Marcos uses the struggle against insurgents as an excuse to crack down on all political opponents.
1980s
By the mid-1980s, Marcos's unpopularity among Filipinos is impossible to ignore. Marcos faces not only guerrilla warfare, but also widespread public unrest. Hoping to appease his critics, Marcos announces a "snap" presidential election to be held in February 1986.
Despite the government's attempts to rig the results, Marcos loses to Corazon Aquino, the wife of assassinated opposition leader Benigno Aquino. Marcos refuses to concede defeat, even as senior members of his military defect. Thousands of unarmed Filipinos take to the streets in an unprecedented display of "people power."
The tense standoff ends when, at the urging of the United States, Marcos steps down. President Reagan sends a U.S. Marines helicopter to pick up his friend and bring him to Hawaii, where the Marcos family remains in exile until 1991.
2022
Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr. is elected as president of the Philippines after an elaborate social media campaign designed by Cambridge Analytica. His mother Imelda Marcos accompanies him onstage at his inauguration.
President Biden is the first head of state to invite Marcos for a state visit.
2023
The United States announces its intention to increase its military role in the Philippines to counter China. Washington and Manila plan to give the American military access to four new locations in the Philippines.