Warriors and Colonial Wars in Muslim Philippines Since 1800

Abstract

This chapter examines Muslim interactions with colonial and postcolonial Philippine states during protracted armed conflicts. Spanish, American and Christian Philippine state agents attempted to place Muslim peoples into frameworks that fit their respective colonial imaginaries. On encountering resistance, these imaginaries were set in motion and modified in ways that allowed Muslim elites and subalterns to obtain the resources necessary to advance their particular interests. Rather than viewing colonial wars in the Muslim zone as a continuous process of conquest and resistance, I shall show how different Muslim groups attempted to manoeuvre onto the right side of colonial violence. This chapter also places Philippine Muslim war bands in a comparative global context, drawing analogies with nineteenth-century raider polities in the American Southwest, the ‘martial races’ of British India, Palestinian resistance to Zionist settlement and warlord politics in contemporary Afghanistan.