During the Spanish-American War from 65438 to 0898, when Americans arrived in the Philippines, Filipinos thought they would soon become independent.

Soldiers from the US 17 Infantry Regiment are ready to go to the front.

As early as 1896, the Philippines carried out a revolution to overthrow Spanish colonial rule, but it ended in complete failure. Now the United States is ready to defeat Spain, and Filipinos believe that Spain's 330-year colonial rule in the Philippines is coming to an end.

Filipino tribal men hold their weapons.

So the Philippines assisted the United States against Spain. Soon, the armed forces of the Philippines and the United States regained control of most of the islands. However, after the United States and Spain signed the Paris Agreement in February, 1898, the United States gained control of the former Spanish colonies, including the Philippines.

Injured Filipino soldiers in temporary hospitals

Contrary to expectations, Filipinos realize that they are just a different ruler, and they are still far from independence.

Then in February 1899, an American secretly shot and killed two unarmed Filipino soldiers, which led to the official outbreak of war between the two countries. It was less than three months before the Paris Treaty was signed.

American soldiers examine the bodies of Filipino soldiers.

During the war, both sides committed atrocities. American troops leveled all the cities and burned down the villages. Some civilians were forced to be kept in crowded and disease-ridden concentration camps.

A destroyed village

The Philippine army will cut off the ears and noses of the prisoners and bury them alive. Rumor has it that a prisoner was hanged upside down and his intestines hung down to his face. Another prisoner's head was buried in the soil and then bitten to death by ants.

A criminal about to be executed

190 1 After such atrocities lasted for two years, Philippine President Emilio Aquinas surrendered in April.

However, several Philippine generals continued to fight the American army. 1902 in April, Miguel Malval, the general who took over the Philippine government, surrendered and the war ended.

Philippine soldiers surrender

Three months later, US Congressman Allen Cooper wrote the Organic Law of the Philippines, which officially ended the US-Philippines war. The war between the United States and the Philippines lasted for three years, and both sides paid a heavy price-about 6,000 American soldiers died in this war. At the same time, about 20,000 Filipino soldiers were killed and nearly 250,000 Filipino civilians were killed. Famine and disease have also led to an increase in the number of deaths.