I got a little wordy the last time. I'll make this history lesson a little shorter, because later this week I'll be offering up the Filipino-American experience (starring ME!)

We left off last time with the colonization of the Philippines by the Spanish. This lasted for about 300 years. Many aspects of the Filipino culture that you see today were influenced by this Spanish colonization. Popular Filipino foods, like adobo, leche flan, calderetta, etc are all from the Spanish, as are words in Tagalog, the official language of the Philippines, like gusto (I like), patatas (potato), sapatos (shoes). Of course, that's why I did so well in Spanish class - most of the words we were taught I knew already.

Then, in 1886, Filipino Jose Rizal writes the novel Noli Me Tangere (The Lost Eden), which criticized the Spanish rule and ignited the Filipino drive for independence. He is later exiled, tried for sedition, convicted and executed by a firing range. This only made the cause for independence more urgent for the Filipino people. Later on, Rizal is named the national hero of the Philippines.

In 1898, Spain cedes the Philippines to the US for $20 million. The Filipinos at the time were still fighting for their independence from the Spanish, and had no intention of letting the US take control of their country. They were a little pissed off, of course, because no one asked them if they were ok with being handed over for a mere $20 mil.

Emilio Aguinaldo, who had headed up the revolution against Spain, also headed the fight against the US. The Filipinos were unprepared for the war that was to come. The US lost 4,234 soliders, however, the Philippines lost four times as much, their casualties more than 16,000.

So yeah. We lost. Roosevelt announces that the insurrection in the Philippines has been defeated.

Things run smoothly, more or less, until the Japanese come and invade in 1941, ten hours after bombing Pearl Harbor. General Douglas MacArthur, who was in the Philippines at the time, was forced to move his troops down to Bataan, in hopes that reinforcements would come. They never did. MacArthur was able to escape, but his troops weren't. About 76,000 American and Filipino troops were forced by the Japanese on a ten day march to internment camps, during which about 10,000 died or were murdered. This came to be known as the Bataan Death March.

MacArthur came back and led a fight to drive out the Japanese.

In 1946, the Philippines became an independent nation.

Yay!

Sorry if that was incredibly boring. I may need this for reference later!

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Resources:

The History of the Philippines
Philippine History Timeline

Posted by Yano at May 15, 2005 10:02 PM

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