Philippines in the Colonial Era (1900-1941)

Personally, I somehow have had a strong interest in the Philippines. I read about it though I was not taught in secondary school and later on, I grew concerned about the  poverty there.

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From a long term viewpoint, the Philippines had been colonised by the Spanish before the Americans took over. By there, unlike other Southeast Asian colonies, it was relatively developed in terms of nationalist thinking. Emilio Aguinaldo and his forces fought against the Americans, mostly through guerilla warfare till 1911.  Battling for full immediate independence for their nation-state, they nevertheless became the minority view. 

As Milton Osborne suggested in his book "Southeast Asia: An Introductory History" (9th edition, 2004, p.148), the colonisers and the colonised elites (upper class) trusted each other and had similar goals of gradual independence. This made for generally cordial relations and less repression. The evidence is provided by the following:

- first chief judge was a Filipino

- 1912, 50% of lower court judges were Filipinos; by 1926, only 2 out of 55 judges lower court  were American

- voting began from 1907; by 1916, the Jones Act replaced the 8 member American dominated commission (upper house in a bicameral parliament) into a democratically elected 24 member Senate, two of which represented non-Christian areas

- In 1936, the Commonwealth of Philippines was set up which gave locals control over nearly all domestic matters (Damien Kingsbury, South-east Asia: A political profile, 2nd edition, 2005, p.295).

The above thus showed a consistent movement towards independence occuring in 1946.

Acts of violence against the colonial regime therefore were less nationalistic than economic. The Americans wanted the Philippines to provide primary products for its economy. To achieve this, it needed to ensure a stable government and depended on the local landed elite since trade was largely controlled by the minority Chinese. Hence, the US enacted laws to stimulate agricultural exports. These included sugar and Manila hemp. It contributed to the number of tenant farmers doubling from 1900 to 1935. As such, there were 3 small scale rebellions on the island of Luzon during the 1920s and 30s. Yet, one must be reminded that this was within the context of "remarkably little manifestation of nationalist resentment." (Osborne, p.147)

Thence, the Japanese invasion far from being a turning point for Philippine nationalism, actually delayed independence.

[By: Mr Chen]