The struggle between the United States and the Philippine independence fighters was a long and bloody one. No one knows how many Filipinos died in the course of this war, but estimates usually run from 200,000 to a half million people. By 1902 the United States had defeated Aguinaldo's troops.
Having established themselves in the Philippines by military conquest, the Americans proceeded to create what they saw as a democratic government. Political offices were filled by popular election. Two major political parties competed. The Nacionalista party favored independence for the Philippines and the Federal-ista party favored becoming a state in the United States.
The Americans made few attempts to overcome one of the biggest problems in establishing a truly democratic system in their new colony: economic inequality. Ownership of land and wealth was highly unequal in the Philippines, and most of those who took part in the government came from the wealthy families. Since these wealthy families were closely connected to the Americans, foreign domination and economic inequality were intertwined in the society of the Philippines.
In 1934 the U. S. Congress passed a bill establishing a commonwealth in the Philippines. The Commonwealth of the Philippines was to be a self-governing region with its own constitution that would become fully independent after a ten-year period. Following Japanese occupation in World War II the United States did grant full independence in 1946, but the U. S. military continued to rent large military bases from the Philippine government until 1991.
World History
