'The Philippine Revolution Against Spain Essay\r'

'1996 is a monumental year for Filipinos entirely over the world. It mark the centennial of the Filipino rotation, which started in 1896 and conformity every(prenominal)y displaceed in 1902. The amount of writings gen epochted during and after guard the variety, coupled with the continuing trance on this period by historians and uniform which fork up produced an infinite number of scholarly works, have validated the widespread light that this was the n primeval glorious page in the history of the Filipino hoi polloi. The Filipino mutation ended more(prenominal) than three centuries of Spanish compound rule which began when Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founded the settlement of Cebu, the oldest Filipino city, in 1565.\r\nThe alteration is as well as foretell as the de barrackion anti-colonial independency motility in Asia. The Filipino proclamation of their exemption two age after the clap of the alteration was a momentous accompaniment for Filipinos of all per suasion. The Revolution began with the masses through the Katipunan, a secret, new, mass-based organization, and was modernr embraced by the centre class. Indeed, the Revolution was matchless of the few propagation where in that location was a convergence in the depicted objectist movements of the masses and the elite group group group.\r\nThe Katipunan\r\nThe Katipunan (meaning â€Å"Association”) think and initiated the Philippine Revolution. It was founded in Tondo, capital of the Philippines, by Andres Bonifacio and a few otherwise fellow urban workers on July 7, 1892. Its full Tagalog name is Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan nang manga Anak ng Bayan (Highest and Most Venerated Association of the Sons and Daughters of the Land). From its inception, Katipunan was forge by transmission line, with all its members enacting the traditional blood compact and signing their names with their testify blood. The fore roughly goal of the Katipunan was politic al, the separation of the Philippines from Spain. Its members also recognized and performed a civic debt instrument which was mutual assistance and the defense of the scant(p) and the oppressed.\r\nThe Katipunan was steered by Bonifacio, who became know as the Supremo (Supreme) of the Katipunan, and he was ably supported by Emilio Jacinto, who emerged as the â€Å"Brains of the Katipunan.” Philippine historians regard Bonifacio as the â€Å" swell Plebeian” because he came from a piteous family in Tondo and worked as a ware sign of the zodiac clerk. Despite his poverty, Bonifacio was able to educate himself by reading the works of Rizal and the French rotary motionists. Because of its union appeal, Katipunan was swift in recruiting members from the peasants and the working(a) class. Philippine historian Reynaldo Ileto points surface that the Katipunan be ampleed to a desire tradition of social movements in Philippine history which fortunately have been disparag ed and brand by authorities and the elite as â€Å"illicit associations” and its members as bandits. equal most of these popular movements, the Katipunan was clothed in millenarianism.\r\nIn their writings, Bonifacio and Jacinto described the pre-Spanish period as an era of kasaganaan (great abundance) and kaginhawaan (prosperity). The demise of this glorious era was a top of the tyranny of Spanish colonial rule. The Katipunan then envisi unrivalledd the future as cardinal mark by kalayaan (independence), a state of beingness where there would one clock again be liwanag (knowledge) and kasaganaan (prosperity). Kalayaan would mean a return to the pre-Spanish condition of prosperity, bliss, and contentment. nevertheless it entailed slash ties with the colonial mother, Spain, and the birth of a nurturing veritable mother, Inang Bayan or Motherland, meaning Philippines. From the start, the Katipunan drew passion from Jose Rizal, whose nationalist writings stirred an op pressed nation into action.\r\nHis two novels, the Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and the El Filibusterismo (The Subversive), denounced the decadent colonial monastic order presided by the incompetent and abusive colonial officials and the puntward and dissipated frailocracy. In the 1880s, Jose Rizal and his fellow ilustrados launched the Propaganda Movement in Europe where they vigorously campaigned for the implementation of the very much needed reforms in the Philippines. Their failure to mightiness Spain to institute reforms convinced the Katipunan that the call es displaceial be for revolution and non reform.\r\nIn 1892, Bonifacio sought the counsel of Rizal on their think revolution and the latter cautioned them because of its untimeliness and the people’s unpreparedness. regular(a)ts forced Bonifacio and the Katipunan to launched the revolution. On howling(a) 23, 1896, the Katipunan was discovered by the Spanish authorities, hint Bonifacio and the Katipuner os to tear their cedula (identification card), which symbolized their colonial oppression, and to declare in Pugad Lawin the beginning of the Philippine Revolution. The Spanish implementation of Rizal on December 30, 1896 further encourage the religious Filipinos who sawing machine Rizal’s martyrdom as similar to the crucifixion of deliverer Christ, i.e., to redeem his people.\r\nEthnicity and the Creation of National identicalness\r\nInitially, the Revolution appeared to be an entirely Tagalog affair. The outset eight obligations to rise in build up were all in the Tagalog region and its nigh areas: Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Pampanga, Manila, Laguna, Cavite, and Batangas. Even among these provinces, engagement was minimal turn out for Cavite, Bulacan, and, of course, Manila. Most of the principal extremist leadershiphip were Tagalogs, and their initial appeal of support was order towards the Katagalugan or the Tagalog people. This was not surprising since prior to the Revolution, Filipinos did not think of themselves as one homogenous race. Identity was instead associate with regional ethnicity. The Spanish policy of divisiveness aimed at effecting colonial rule promoted and encouraged regional isolation and ethnic distinctions. By the nineteenth cytosine the confines â€Å"Filipino” referred to the Spanish insulares or those born in the Philippines.\r\nThe Filipinos in commonplace were loathingly called indios and their identity was rooted on their regional origin or ethnic affiliation: Tagalog, Kapampangan, Cebuano, Ilocano, Ilonggo, etc. In the first two years of the Revolution, battles raged mainly in the Tagalog provinces. Outside the Katagalugan, responses were varied. Pampanga, which was close to Manila, was uninvolved in the Revolution from family 1896 to the end of 1897, perchance because the conditions which drove the Tagalogs to rise in harness were not totally similar in Pampanga. For instance, friar estate s or church monopoly of land keepings which triggered rural un lie down in Tagalog areas was not permeating in Pampanga. Besides apathy, there were those, such(prenominal) as just about Albayanos of Bicol, who were regular(a) apprehensive of rumors of a â€Å"Tagalog rebellion” aimed at ousting the Spaniards and exercising Tagalog hegemony over the non-Tagalog ethnic groups.\r\n historiographer Leonard Andaya claims that what brought the Revolution to the non-Tagalog areas was Aguinaldo’s policy of encourage his armed services officials to return to their syndicate province and mobilize topical anesthetic support. For instance, the Revolution came late in Antique, and it was collectable to General Leandro Fullon, an Antiqueno principalia usual of Aguinaldo, who went to his home province to spread the Revolution. Even after the Revolution spread to the rest of Luzon and the Visayas, there were hush suspicions as to the objective motives of the Tagalogs. For example, the Iloilo elite changed the name of their provisional revolutionary politics and called it the Federal State of the Visayas since they did not want to recognize the supremacy of Aguinaldo and the Tagalogs. They pet instead a federal recording composed of the three main island groups †Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.\r\nThese reservations and suspicions by non-Tagalogs were somehow reinforced by the initial writings and proclamations of key Tagalog personalities of the Revolution. Bonifacio wrote a revolutionary piece which he entitled â€Å"Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog” or â€Å"What the Tagalogs Should Know.” Aguinaldo, in his memoirs, wrote chapters entitled â€Å"The Tagalog establishment Begins” and â€Å"Long Live the Tagalogs.” But in the absence of a world(a), generic term to collectively refer to the inhabitants of the archipelago, Filipino being a term originally speechless for the Spanish insulares, Tagalog may have appear ed to the leaders of the Revolution as a lucid substitute because of its indigenous element. In due time, however, Aguinaldo’s proclamations gradually introduced the idea that all the inhabitants of the Philippines are Filipinos.\r\nTagalog became less utilize and in its place Filipino was increasingly mentioned. The Revolution alike(p)wise assumed a national character. The declaration of Philippine independence was both noteworthy and symbolic in the imagining and hammer of a Filipino nation-state. Although there was a gradual acceptance of the term Filipino, stock-still up until the early American period, Tagalog was still occasionally used. General Macario Sakay, a Tagalog general who continued the war against the Americans correct after Emilio Aguinaldo was captured, called his political relation in 1902 the Tagalog Re existence, although its charter famed that Visayas and Mindanao were included in his Republic.\r\nFilipino Women Revolutionaries\r\nLike ethnicity , gender contend a significant role during the Revolution. As early as 1892, the Katipunan had a women’s chapter, Katipuneras, which was mostly do up of the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters of the Katipuneros. While the Katipuneros men held cloak-and-dagger buttings in the interior or back of a house, the Katipuneras raised the diversionary tactics in the living room for passers-by to see. Some of these Katipuneras were Gregoria de Jesus, Andres Bonifacio’s wife, who became known as the Lakambini or beginning Lady of the Katipunan; Jose Rizal’s sisters; and Melchora Aquino who was also called Tandang Sora (Old Sora). Tandang Sora became a legend because she was a medicine muliebrity who stitched the wounded and cured the sick. Her home was used by the Katipunan for their castedestine meetings and she served the Revolution by rendering her â€Å"medical” expertise to Katipunan members.\r\nThere were also numerous Filipinas who magisterial th emselves in the battlefield. In 1896, Gregoria Montoya y Patricio, upon the finish of her Katipunero husband, led the charge of a 30 men unit while holding a Katipunan flag on one hand and a sharp-bladed bolo (machete) on another hand. She used a fresh piece of cloth, comm just used during mass, to ward off bullets. Another Filipina revolutionary was Agueda Kahabagan who fought the Spaniards gird with a rifle, brandishing a bolo and spiffed up in white. Teresa Magbanua, on the other hand, realize the sobriquet â€Å"Joan of Arc” of the Visayas for the valor she displayed in many battles.\r\nBut Filipino women’s participation during the Revolution was not check to actual fighting. Rosario Lopez, a scion of the wealthy hacendero Lopez clan of Negros, donated fire fortify to the revolutionary cause. Similarly, women of Cavite utilized their business connections to form a network of contacts for the Revolution. The Filipino cherry Cross, established in 1863, became another venue for women participation in the Revolution. In 1899, the ruddy Cross, downstairs the leadership of the wife of Emilio Aguinaldo, had long dozen chapters spread out from Ilocos Norte to Batangas. Conventional womanly activities such as sewing and readiness were utilized outside the homes to serve the involve of Filipino troops.\r\nStruggle Between the populace and the Elite\r\nAside from ethnicity and gender, class dispute was central to the Revolution. In the aftermath of the irruption of the revolution, most of the ilutstrados or the nineteenth century middle class denounced the Katipunan and renewed their allegiance to Spain. Many ilustrados immediately condemned the revolution as an irrational action of ignorant masses. Some, like Rizal, believed that it was an ill-timed and ill-prepared conflict. But many did so out of allegiance to Spain. Later when the Katipunan was win battles, some ilustrados gradually turned nigh and embraced the revolution. Thes e ilustrados, though driven by nationalism like the masses, fought to preserve their social side and economic wealth. Their interests and agenda vastly differed from the objectives of the Katipuneros. separate ilustrados preferred to remain fence-sitters until the tide of the Revolution was clear. In a study of the municipal and idyll elite of Luzon during the Revolution, Milagros C. Guerrero concluded that well-situated Filipinos as well as municipal and provincial officials refused to join the Revolution during 1897 and early 1898.\r\nThere was even hesitancy even after they did join. Many history books submit that class coflict was symbolized by the leadership make do betwixt Bonifacio and Aguinaldo. In contrast to the working class background of Bonifacio, Aguinaldo was an ilustrado and a agent gobernadorcillo or town executive in his home province of Cavite. Aguinaldo’s ascendence to prominence as a reply of his strategic victories in battles naturally brought him into conflict with Bonifacio over the leadership of the Revolution. In a sense, their bitter struggle reflected the falling out of the masses and the ilustrados during the Revolution. It started as a result of the intramural between the two factions of the Katipunan in Cavite †the Magdiwang and Magdalo. Their conflict had deteriorated such that each one refused to assist the other in battles. Moreover, in one of the battles in Manila, the Caviteno forces even failed to provide assistance to the revolutionaries of Manila.\r\nBonifacio as Supremo of the Katipunan was invited to Cavite to resolve the factional differences and and then ensure a united calculate against the Spaniards in the province. Once in Cavite, the ilustrados maneuvered to consolation Bonifacio from the leadership. In the Tejeros Convention of March 22, 1897, they voted to substitute the Katipunan with a revolutionary government and an pick of the officers of the new government was conducted. Aguinal do was select as President while Bonifacio lost in several elections for key posts before he finally won as manager of the Interior. But a Caviteno, Daniel Tirona, immediately questioned his drop of education and qualification for the post, and insisted that he be replaced instead by a Caviteno ilustrado fairnessyer, Jose del Rosario.\r\nInsulted and humiliated, Bonifacio as Supremo of the Revolution declared the election and the composition of the new government void. What followed was a smuggled mark in the history of the Revolution. Aguinaldo, upon the nudge of his fellow, ilustrados, ordered the arrest and running play of Bonifacio on the grounds of treason. A bogus trial found Bonifacio and his brother, Procopio, guilty, and they were sentenced to death. Aguinaldo gave his approval and the Bonifacio brothers were shot on May 10, 1897, at Mt. Tala, Cavite. In rationalizing the component part of Bonifacio, Aguinaldo and his men claimed Bonifacio was establishing his own government which would have subverted the revolutionary cause. His elimination was necessary to hold up unity under Aguinaldo’s leadership. Ironically, Bonifacio, the get of the Revolution, became a victim to the ambition and self-serving interests the ilustrados as personified by Aguinaldo.\r\n truce of Biak-na-Bato and the lese majesty of the Revolution\r\nThe death of Bonifacio was a turn of events point in the Revolution. The stewardship of the Revolution was odd to Aguinaldo and the elite. But the Filipinos and the Spaniards faced a long haul. Aguinaldo’s troops were being routed in Cavite and, thus, his revolutionary government moved to the more secluded Biak-na-Bato in Bulacan. At this time, Aguinaldo’s commitment to the revolutionary cause became suspect. His military advisers persuaded him to issue a declaration that his Biak-na-Bato government was willing to return to the fold of law as soon as Spain given political reforms. These reforms include d the expulsion of the hate Spanish friars and the return of lands they appropriated from the Filipinos; Filipino standard in the Spanish Cortes; freedom of the press and religious tolerance; equality in treatment and payment for both peninsular and insular civil servants; and equality for all before the law.\r\nThis pronouncement by Aguinaldo be that he and the ilustrados were willing to return to the Spanish fold provided there were reforms and the ilustrado interests were met. The standoff in the battlefield prompted both sides to agree to an armistice. The Truce of Biak-na-Bato stipulated that Spain would pay financial remuneration to the Filipino revolutionaries in exchange for the surrender of arms and the voluntary exile abroad of Aguinaldo and the other leaders. Toward the end of December 1898, Aguinaldo and the other revolutionary leaders went into voluntary exile in Hong Kong and they were given the initial sum of 400,000 pesos, most of which were deposited in a Hongkon g bank and used later on to purchase more weapons. Distrust on both sides resulted in the failure of the truce. Both sides were only biding time until they could launch another disgustful. The coming of the Americans marked the second phase of the Philippine Revolution.\r\nIn Singapore, Aguinaldo met U.S. consul Spencer Pratt who persuaded him to cooperate with the Americans. In February 1898, the American warship Maine was mysteriously sunk in the wet of Havana, Cuba. This incident was the immediate cause of the Spanish-American state of war. full admiral George Dewey who was stationed in Hongkong received a personal credit line on April 25 announcing that war had commenced between the two countries. He was ordered to recapture the Philippines and, on May 1, 1898, his flagship U.S.S.\r\nOlympia disappointed the Spanish fleet in the competitiveness of Manila Bay at a cost of eight wounded Americans and around five hundred casualties on the Spanish side. Back in Hongkong, Agu inaldo was told by U.S. consul Rounsenville Wildman that Dewey cherished him to return to the Philippines to resume the Filipino resistance. Aguinaldo claimed that the American officials prodded him to establish a Philippine government similar to the coupled States, and that they pledged to accolade and support the Filipinos’ aspiration for independence. Spencer, Wildman, and Dewey would later sweep having made any promise or commitment to Aguinaldo.\r\nProclamation of Philippine emancipation and the Birth of the Philippine Republic\r\nWith expatriate provided by the Americans, Aguinaldo and his leaders returned to Cavite. They resumed their war offensive against Spain and reestablished the revolutionary government. Because of the exigencies of the time, Aguinaldo temporarily established a dictatorial government, but plans were afoot to tell the independence of the country particularly since the Spaniards were reeling from conquer one battle after another. From the b alcony of his house in Kawit, Cavite, Aguinaldo declared on June 12, 1898 the independence of the Filipinos and the birth of the Philippine Republic. For the first time, the Philippine flag, sewn in Hongkong by the womenfolk of the revolutionaries, was unfurled. cardinal bands played Julian Felipe’s Marcha Nacional Filipina which became the Philippines’ national anthem. The declaration further emboldened the fighting Filipinos. On June 18, 1898, Aguinaldo passed a decree art for the reorganization of the provincial and municipal governments.\r\nIn her article, Guerrero claims that following the liberation of Luzon from the hands of the Spaniards, elections were held in Cavite, Bataan, Batangas, and Pampanga in June and July; in Manila, Tayabas (now Quezon), Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, and Ilocos Sur in August; in Abra, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, and Nueva Ecija in September; in Nueva Vizcaya and La Union in October; and in Isabela, Catanduanes, Albay, and Sorsogon in December. The elected provincial and town officials were mostly the same local anesthetic officials during the Spanish period. This was because the requirements for voting and nomination to public office were restricted to those who were â€Å"citizens of 20 years of age or above who were ‘ social’ to Philippine independence and were distinguished for their ‘ amply character, social position and honorable conduct, both in the center of the community and the suburbia’.”\r\nThese provisions automatically excluded the masses in the electoral form, and insured continued elite supremacy of local politics, even by those who were Spanish supporters and sympathizers during the early phase of the Revolution. Since the ilustrados had goop control of the electoral process, the provincial and municipal reorganization merely resulted in perpetuating elite ascendance of society and government. Guerrero claims that records of the period advertise the compos ition of the municipal elite was dateless and local offices simply rotated indoors their ranks. But not all areas of Luzon came under the control of the ilustrados during the Revolution. In some towns, â€Å"uneducated” and â€Å"poor” masses were elected by an electorate who most probably did not meet the qualifications stipulated in Aguinaldo’s decree.\r\nGuerrero claims that the principalia or ilustrado local officials of Solano in Nueva Ecija and Urdaneta in Pangasinan complained over the election of the â€Å"uneducated and ignorant” who they argued were â€Å"totally unable(predicate)” of governing. But this was more of an aberration since the general picture was one of elite dominance and the alienation of the masses. Despite Aguinaldo’s order abolishing three hundred years of Spanish polo or forced labor, the local elite persisted in demanding personal services from the people, on top of the taxes levied against them. In some town s and provinces conditions were even worse as the elite wrangled among themselves, especially since Aguinaldo did not clearly delineate the responsibilities of the elected civilian and appointed military officials.\r\nThis leads some historians to conclude that the masses in towns and countryside were the ultimate victims of what transpired during the Revolution. The American entry into the picture convinced the remaining fence-sitting ilustrados to support the Revolution. When rumors of an impending Spanish-American War were circulating in April 1898, several storied ilustrados led by Pedro Paterno offered their services to the Spanish governor-general. Yet when Aguinaldo returned from exile, several ilustrados serving in the Spanish militia, like Felipe Buencamino, abandoned the Spaniards and proclaimed their â€Å"conversion” to the revolutionary cause. Indeed, the resumption of the revolution brought an electrifying response throughout the country. From Ilocos in the north down to Mindanao in the south, there was a simultaneous and collective struggle to oust the Spaniards. Months later, when the Filipino-American War commenced, many ilustrados played the middle ground, i.e., on one hand, they sent words of support to Aguinaldo and, on the other, started contemplating on an autonomous status for the Philippines under the get together States.\r\nAn example was the Iloilo ilustrados who eventually sided with the Americans since their economic interests †net production and importation †dictated collaboration with the new colonizers. Indeed, in the parlance of modern Filipino political culture, the ilustrados were the classic â€Å"balimbing” or two-faced. Despite the constant vacillation of the elite, Aguinaldo and his advisers tapped on their services in organizing the Philippine Republic. Aguinaldo was caliber to prove that the Filipinos could govern themselves, and in the process it would legitimize the Philippine Republic. Moreover, since he and his advisers were ilustrados, Aguinaldo only trusted his own kind †the wealthy, educated, and politically experienced †in the matter of governance. Thus, he called on them to convene and create a Congress which would draft a nature. He wanted a Philippine constitution to complete the required trimmings of a sovereign, nation-state †flag, army, government, and constitution.\r\nIn his actions, Aguinaldo was advised by Apolinario Mabini who became known as the â€Å"Sublime Paralytic” because his affectionateness was not deterred by his physical handicap, and the â€Å"Brains of the Revolution” due to his intellectual acumen. On January 21, 1899, Aguinaldo proclaimed the Malolos Constitution which was drafted by the ilustrados of the Malolos Congress. Two age later, the Philippine Republic was inaugurated in Malolos, Bulacan, the new capital of the fledging government. The Philippine Republic was, however, short-lived. From the sta rt, Aguinaldo’s forces were fighting the Spaniards without military assistance from the Americans.\r\n exclude for the Battle of Manila Bay, the United States was not a major force in the fighting. The American troops did not convey in the country until late June, and they saw no military action until August. But events starting with the Spanish surrender of Manila on August 13, 1898, doomed the end of Philippine independence. Although the Spanish troops had been routed in all fronts by the Filipinos, the continuing movement of the Americans was unsettling. Questions on actual American motives surfaced with the consecutive arrival of American reinforcements. It did not deal long for the Filipinos to realize the genuine intentions of the United States. The precarious and uneasy Philippine-American alliance collapsed on February 4, 1899, when the Philippine-American War broke out and peril to annihilate the new found freedom of the Filipinos.\r\n'