Presented at Philippine History 101, Summer 2005
Kalayaan Centre, Vancouver, BC
organized by the Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance
Part One: In the Name of the Sword and the Cross
Parte Una: En el nombre de la espada us de la cruz
Unang Yugto: Sa pangalan ng espada at krus
“We Spanish suffer a sickness from the heart in which gold is the only cure.”
-Hernan Cortes, Conqueror of Mexico
The conquest of the Americas and the Eastern World cultivated a salacious greed within the monarchs of Europe for gold, spices, raw resources and cheap labour. The gluttonous character of empire aroused Spain to further seize, pillage and colonize fresh and distant lands.
In 1521 Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan raided an unknown archipelago luxuriant with rice terraces and anchored deep within the waters of South East Asia. The people of this curious world were of diverse and varying social, political and economic organizations—yet trade and community was common amongst the tribes and thus, survival in this strange civilization proved to be bona fide and absolute.
However, the lack of organizational unity amongst the indigenous tribes made them susceptible to the divide and conquer tactics of the Spanish conquistadores. By employing the instrumental cross of Christianity, Spanish Masters pacified and “civilized” the entire archipelago. With the loss of the Muslim religion and animism beliefs, it was with relative ease that Miguel Lopez de Lagazpi wielded the mighty sword and other violent means in 1565 to further control the people and establish colonial settlements throughout the Philippines.
For 300 years Spain ruled the Philippines with an iron fist and bounded the economy under feudal conditions. An oppressive class structure flourished under the direction of Spain. Traditional barrio chieftains were effortlessly manipulated with promises of fortune and the Kingdom of Heaven in exchange to subdue and govern the indentured Filipino peasantry who expeditiously became the majority of Philippine society.
In response to the tyranny of the Spaniards and the local Filipino elite, the Filipino people erupted in rebellion. During the period of Spanish Colonialism, 200 sporadic revolts thundered throughout the archipelago in resistance against the tributes, land rent, corvee labour and other unfair practices. In 1896, the Philippines, under the leadership of Andres Bonifacio and the Katipunan reclaimed the nation from the Spanish empire and reaffirmed for the Filipino people the splendour of freedom and a national consciousness.
Part Two: The Star Spangled Empire
Pangawalang Yugto: Imperyo ng Kano
“We are a conquering race…we must obey our blood and occupy new markets, and if necessary, new lands….the Philippines are logically our first targets.”
-Senator Albert Beveridge of Indiana, USA, 1898
“We have our markets in Cuba, in Puerto Rico, in the Philippines and we stand in the presence of 800,000,000 people with the Pacific an American Lake…the world is ours.”
-Senator Chauncey M. Depew of New York, USA, 1902
The Eagle Has Landed
The consolidation of the United States through the victories of the American Revolution and the Civil War, coupled with Spain’s eroding empire made the conditions favourable for the United States to emerge as an imperialist force to be reckoned with.
Between 1798-1895, the United States rapidly amalgamated its fortune through the inventions and invasions of Spanish colonies such as Argentina, Nicaragua, Chile and Panama aside from the exploitation of natural resources of its land and the genocide of the Indigenous people.
The very nature of America’s swelling capitalist economy could not be contained within its mainland territory and had to expand beyond the boundaries of the Americas; the Pacific was obviously the next stage in the pursuit of the American Empire. The Philippines, though successful from its revolution against Spain was reeling in its glory—a republic was struggling for its realization. It was this vulnerable period that ripened the country for another invasion.
The White Man’s Burden
The celebrated assets of the Philippines were essential selling points in the re-distribution of the colonies. These prized features included the abundant natural raw resources; the people as a source of cheap labour; a potential market in which American investments and surplus products may enter; and the geographical position of the Philippines (its rests in the nucleus of South East Asia) would make it possible for the possessor of the islands to launch military assaults against neighbouring countries (this theory would be proven during the Vietnam War).
A sought-after commodity, the Philippines became the impetus for the Spanish-American War of 1898, the precursor to the Philippine-American War. The “splendid little war” between the decaying empire and an emerging imperialist player over Latin America and the Pacific stabilized the power of the United States and marked the down fall of Spain. The signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898 officially concluded the end of the “little war” as Spain sold the last of its colonies, the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States for 20 million US dollars.
Just weeks after the ratification of the Treaty of Paris, 25th US President William McKinley released the monumental Benevolent Assimilation Proclamatio” which outlined the justification of US invasion in the Philippines and most importantly, determined how “to repress disturbance and to overcome all obstacles to the bestowal and blessings of good and stable government upon the people of the Philippine Islands under the free flag of the United States.” McKinley further legitimized the impending war as a divine right as “the Philippines [was]…a gift from the Gods…there was nothing left…to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and to uplift and civilize and Christianize them.”
The racist and patronizing ideology of imperialism was best emoted in the publication of Rudyard Kipling’s poem, The White Man’s Burden which “mixed exhortation to empire with sober warnings of the costs involved”. The philosophy of the white man’s burden was celebrated by American imperialists as a pretense and justification for imperialism as an act of virtue for what could be more virtuous than the mightiest empire to “Send forth the best ye breed” to assume the racial responsibilities of a “new-caught sullen people/Half devil and half child”.
On February 4th, 1899, Private William W. Grayson of the Company B, 1st Nebraska Volunteers propelled the first shots at three Filipino civilians, sparking the Philippine-American War. On patrol at his post near Santa Mesa, Private Grayson was ordered “to shoot any Filipino soldier who might try to enter the neutral area which separated the two armies [American and Filipino]”; in a matter of minutes, the lives of three Filipino civilians were obliterated. These casualties not only triggered a Philippine offensive; the Philippine-American War bore a cultural dichotomy that has outlived even the memory itself: the total and complete reconstruction of a dignified nation and the erasure of that dignity from the collective history of the Filipino people.
The Philippine-American War officially raged until July 4th, 1902 when Theodore Roosevelt declared it over and so honoured it as “Filipino-American Friendship Day.” Despite verbal and written cessation of the war, resistance continued as late as 1916 when the last of the Bandoleros and other resistance fighters perished at the hands and guns of American soldiers and member of the Philippine Constabulary.
The end of the first year of the war took the lives of 96,000 Filipinos—yet, history books often footnote the nearly 20 year bloodshed as a “little insurrection”. This “little insurrection” was not only the first big, bloody colonial war staged in Asia; it was the longest running war in United States history to be fought in the Pacific. The Philippine-American War has been considered by many historians as a foreshadowing and dress rehearsal of the Vietnam War as the water cure and other forms of torture were practiced on the Filipino people and perfected on the people of Vietnam fifty years later. By 1916, the war took the lives of 4,200 US soldiers—tragic, yes, but a minor loss compared to the estimated 1.5 million Filipino civilians and resistance fighter who died from massacre, torture, hamletting, village burning, imprisonment, hunger and disease.
A Menace to American Society
The execution of Andres Bonifacio in 1897 by traitors of the Philippine Revolution proved to be ineffective in the attempts to nullify the militancy and rebellion of the Filipino people. His premature death and those of other resistance fighters undoubtedly deepened the commitment of the collective nation to fight against a new oppressor.
This commitment and militancy were to be expressed in the organization of the two uprisings throughout the duration of the Philippine-American War: the Insurrectos, 1897-1902 and the Bandoleros, 1903-1907. In fact “US troops logged 2,800 engagements with Filipino resistance.” So great was the resistance led by unsung heroes by the names of San Miguel, Montalan and Sakay that laws and acts were immediately passed to quell the rebellion as it was a “serious menace to the peace of the Philippine Islands” and criminalize so-called “bandits”.
The following laws would warrant the arrest and death to any individual of organized body who would defy and struggle against American tyranny: The Sedition Law of 1901 forbade the advocacy of independence even by peaceful means; The Brigandage Act of 1902 classified all armed resistance as banditry; The Reconcentration Act of 1903 justified hamletting to remove guerilla fighters from society; The Flag Law of 1907 prohibited the display of the national flag and playing the national anthem.
The repercussions of these despotic laws demonized the “true defenders of the national honour” and paved the beginning of American Colonization and the misconstrued image of the Filipino people as imposed by US Imperialism.
Part Three: Singing the Brown Man’s Song
Tatlung Yugto:
In response to the fallout of the Philippine-American War, Mark Twain remarked, “the White Man’s Burden has been sung. Who will sing the Brown Man’s?”
The denial of the Philippine-American and its aftermath devastated generations of Filipinos to be awestruck and dazzled by the blinding stars and stripes of US Imperialism. A mentally so damaging and so subordinate has been encroached on the Filipino psyche that Filipinos, over a 100 years after the break out of the Philippine-American War and spread out in over 168 countries, have been raised and conditioned to accept the atrocities of the past.
However, as history has asserted, Filipinos are a people nurtured in the fields of Revolution. Revolution is a staple element that defines and dignifies the Filipino people. The spirit of Revolution nourishes the humanity and militancy of the Filipino people to further advance the pursuit for liberation.
The uprising against past colonizers and present imperialist forces is testimony of that militancy, and like rice, the taste of Revolution has been passed down to a young Filipino generation who struggle and serve the people beyond the rice fields of the Cordillera, beyond the channels of the Pacific. As overseas Filipinos struggling for our freedom and place in society, we sing the songs of untold heroes edited out in tainted history books and honour our heritage of revolt and resistance.
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