War between American forces in Manila and the Filipinos began
on 4 February 1899. The Filipino-American War lasted until 1902
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES
By Tim Lambert
The Early Philippines
The Philippines is named after King Philip II of Spain (1556-1598)
and it was a Spanish colony for over 300 years.
Today the Philippines is an archipelago of 7,000 islands. However
it is believed that during the last ice age they were joined to
mainland Asia by a land bridge, enabling human beings to walk
from there.
The first people in the Philippines were hunter-gatherers.
However between 3,000 BC and 2,000 BC people learned to farm.
They grew rice and domesticated animals. From the 10th AD
century Filipinos traded with China and by the 12th Century AD
Arab merchants reached the Philippines and they introduced
Islam.
Then in 1521 Ferdinand Magellan sailed across the Pacific. He
landed in the Philippines and claimed them for Spain. Magellan
baptized a chief called Humabon and hoped to make him a puppet
ruler on behalf of the Spanish crown. Magellan demanded that
other chiefs submit to Humabon but one chief named Lapu Lapu
refused. Magellan led a force to crush him. However the Spanish
soldiers were scattered and Magellan was killed.
The Spaniards did not gain a foothold in the Philippines until 1565
when Miguel Lopez de Legazpi led an expedition, which built a
fort in Cebu. Later, in 1571 the Spaniards landed in Luzon. Here
they built the city of Intramuros (later called Manila), which
became the capital of the Philippines. Spanish conquistadors
marched inland and conquered Luzon. They created a feudal
system. Spaniards owned vast estates worked by Filipinos.
Along with conquistadors went friars who converted the Filipinos
to Catholicism. The friars also built schools and universities.
The Spanish colony in the Philippines brought prosperity - for the
upper class anyway! Each year the Chinese exported goods such
as silk, porcelain and lacquer to the Philippines. From there they
were re-exported to Mexico.
The years passed uneventfully in the Philippines until in 1762 the
British captured Manila. They held it for two years but they
handed it back in 1764 under the terms of the Treaty of Paris,
signed in 1763.
The Philippines in the 19th Century
In 1872 there was a rebellion in Cavite but it was quickly crushed.
However nationalist feeling continued to grow helped by a writer
named Jose Rizal (1861-1896). He wrote two novels Noli Me
Tangere (Touch me Not) and El Filibusterismo (The Filibusterer)
which stoked the fires of nationalism.
In 1892 Jose Rizal founded a movement called Liga Filipina, which
called for reform rather than revolution. As a result Rizal was
arrested and exiled to Dapitan on Mindanao.
Meanwhile Andres Bonifacio formed a more extreme organisation
called the Katipunan. In August 1896 they began a revolution. Jose
Rizal was accused of supporting the revolution, although he did
not and he was executed on 30 December 1896. Yet his execution
merely inflamed Filipino opinion and the revolution grew.
Then in 1898 came war between the USA and Spain. On 30 April
1898 the Americans defeated the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay.
Meanwhile Filipino revolutionaries had surrounded Manila. Their
leader, Emilio Aguinaldo declared the Philippines independent on
12 June. However as part of the peace treaty Spain ceded the
Philippines to the USA. The Americans planned to take over.
when Aguinaldo was captured.
The Philippines in the 20th Century
American rule in the Philippines was paternalistic. They called
their policy 'Benevolent Assimilation'. They wanted to
'Americanize' the Filipinos but they never quite succeeded.
However they did do some good. Many American teachers were
sent to the Philippines in a ship called the Thomas and they did
increase literacy.
In 1935 the Philippines were made a commonwealth and were
semi-independent. Manuel Quezon became president. The USA
promised that the Philippines would become completely
independent in 1945.
However in December 1941 Japan attacked the US fleet at Pearl
Harbor. On 10 December 1941 Japanese troops invaded the
Philippines. They captured Manila on 2 January 1941. By 6 May
1942 all of the Philippines were in Japanese hands.
However American troops returned to the Philippines in October
1944. They recaptured Manila in February 1945.
The Philippines became independent on 4 July 1946. Manuel
Roxas was the first president of the newly independent nation.
Ferdinand Marcos (1917-1989) was elected president in 1965. He
was re-elected in 1969. However the Philippines was dogged by
poverty and inequality. In the 1960s a land reform program
began. However many peasants were frustrated by its slow
progress and a Communist insurgency began in the countryside.
On 21 September 1972 Marcos declared martial law. He imposed
a curfew, suspended Congress and arrested opposition leaders.
The Marcos dictatorship was exceedingly corrupt and Marcos and
his cronies enriched themselves.
Then, in 1980 opposition leader Benigno Aquino went into exile in
the USA. When he returned on 21 August 1983 he was shot.
Aquino became a martyr and Filipinos were enraged by his
murder.
In February 1986 Marcos called an election. The opposition united
behind Cory Aquino the widow of Benigno. Marcos claimed
victory (a clear case of electoral fraud). Cory Aquino also claimed
victory and ordinary people took to the streets to show their
support for her. The followers of Marcos deserted him and he
bowed to the inevitable and went into exile.
Things did not go smoothly for Corazon Aquino. (She survived 7
coup attempts). Furthermore, the American bases in the
Philippines (Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air Base) were
unpopular with many Filipinos who felt they should go. In 1992
Mount Pinatubo erupted and covered Clark in volcanic ash forcing
the Americans to leave. They left Subic Bay in 1993.
In 1992 Fidel Ramos became president. He improved the
infrastructure in the Philippines including the electricity supply.
Industry was privatized and the economy began to grow more
rapidly.
However at the end of the 1990s the Philippine economy entered
a crisis. Meanwhile, in 1998 Joseph Estrada, known as Erap
became president. Estrada was accused of corruption and he was
impeached in November 2000. Estrada was not convicted.
Nevertheless, people demonstrated against him and the military
withdrew its support. Estrada was forced to leave office and Vice-
president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo replaced him. She was re-
elected in 2004.
The Philippines in the 21st Century
Today the Philippines is still poor but things are changing. Since
2010 the Philippine economy has grown at about 6% a year.
Today there is reason to be optimistic for the future. Today the
population of the Philippines is 103 million.