Philippine Revolution

The Philippine Revolution was the armed struggle for independence from Spain that began in August 1896, led first by the secret society known as the Katipunan. After two years of fighting, a truce and a renewed rising during the Spanish–American War, Filipino leaders declared independence on 12 June 1898. Neither Spain nor the United States recognised it, and Spain ceded the islands to the Americans, so the revolution flowed directly into a new war against American rule.

Spain had ruled the Philippines for more than three centuries. In the nineteenth century, as trade opened and new ideas arrived from Europe, an educated Filipino class began to demand reform. The execution of three priests, Burgos, Gomez and Zamora, after the Cavite Mutiny of 1872 deepened resentment of the powerful Spanish friars. In Spain, exiles of the Propaganda Movement published the newspaper La Solidaridad, calling for equal rights and representation in the Spanish parliament, and José Rizal's novels exposed colonial abuses. In 1892 Rizal founded La Liga Filipina but was arrested within days and deported to Dapitan. That same year Andrés Bonifacio and others founded the Katipunan, which aimed at independence through armed revolt and drew its members mainly from the lower and middle classes.

In August 1896 the Spanish authorities discovered the society. Bonifacio gathered his followers near Caloocan, where they tore up their tax certificates in the "Cry of Pugad Lawin"; the exact date and place are still disputed. Attacks around Manila at the end of August failed, and the governor-general declared a state of war in eight provinces, later represented by the eight rays of the sun on the Filipino flag. In Cavite, rebels including Emilio Aguinaldo won notable early victories. Rizal, who had refused to join the revolt, was nevertheless tried for rebellion and executed on 30 December 1896.

Rivalry grew between Bonifacio and the Cavite leaders. At the Tejeros Convention in March 1897 Aguinaldo was elected president of a new revolutionary government, and Bonifacio refused to accept the result. Aguinaldo's government had him arrested, and he and his brother were tried for treason and executed in May 1897, a divisive episode that some contemporaries blamed for the setbacks that followed. Spanish reinforcements retook much of Cavite, and Aguinaldo's forces withdrew to Biak-na-Bato in Bulacan. In December 1897 the Pact of Biak-na-Bato promised an amnesty and payments in exchange for the rebels' surrender and the leaders' exile, and Aguinaldo left for Hong Kong. Fighting, however, never fully stopped.

War between Spain and the United States broke out in April 1898, and on 1 May an American squadron destroyed the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay. Aguinaldo returned on 19 May, renewed the fight and, informally allied with the Americans, soon controlled most of the countryside. On 12 June 1898 he proclaimed independence at Kawit. In August, however, American troops took Manila from the Spanish without letting Filipino forces enter. A congress met at Malolos in September and drew up a constitution, and the First Philippine Republic was proclaimed in January 1899 with Aguinaldo as president. Meanwhile, under the Treaty of Paris of December 1898, which ended the Spanish–American War, Spain ceded the islands to the United States.

On 4 February 1899 fighting broke out between Filipino and American troops near Manila, beginning the Philippine–American War. Aguinaldo was captured in March 1901 and swore allegiance to the United States. The Philippines remained under American rule until it became fully independent on 4 July 1946. The revolution is remembered as the founding struggle of the modern Philippine nation.

Our 1880 map shows the Philippines as part of the Spanish Empire, and the 1900 map shows the islands after their transfer to the United States.