Philippine–American War (1899–1913)

Abstract

Abstract The Philippine–American War (or Philippine Insurrection), following the larger Spanish–American War (1898), brought into collision American political and economic ambitions with the aspirations of Filipino nationalists to establish a Philippine Republic. The conflict in the Philippines began on February 4, 1899 with the Battle of Manila when the Republican Army, under Emilio Aguinaldo, clashed with the US 8th Corps, under the command of Major General Wesley Merritt, in the capital suburbs. The two armies had jointly laid siege to Spanish‐occupied Manila the year before, but the partnership effectively ended after Merritt's corps entered the Walled City on August 13, 1898 under a secret agreement brokered between US representatives and the Spanish garrison. The armies were settled into opposing lines until Private William Grayson of the 1st Nebraska shot at a Filipino patrol in February 1899, sparking the Philippine–American War. It would drag on for another three years before President Theodore Roosevelt declared victory in July 1902.