The Philippine Revolution and the first republic
The secret society Katipunan launches an armed revolt against Spain; after a bitter internal split and a truce, Emilio Aguinaldo declares independence in 1898 and founds Asia's first constitutional republic, only for the islands to be sold to the United States.
- History of the Filipino People — Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Garotech (1990)
- Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840–1910 — Reynaldo C. Ileto, Ateneo de Manila University Press (1979)
- State and Society in the Philippines — Patricio N. Abinales and Donna J. Amoroso, Rowman & Littlefield (2017)
- Under Three Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination — Benedict Anderson, Verso (2005)
- The Philippines: A Past Revisited — Renato Constantino, Tala Publishing (1975)
- The End of the Spanish Empire, 1898–1923 — Sebastian Balfour, Oxford University Press (1997)
The Katipunan
On 7 July 1892, the night Rizal’s deportation was announced, Andrés Bonifacio and a few comrades founded a secret society in Tondo, Manila: the Kataastaasan, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan, “the Highest and Most Venerable Association of the Children of the Nation”. Unlike the ilustrado reformers, the Katipunan drew on clerks, artisans and peasants, used blood-compacts and Masonic-style rituals, and aimed openly at independence by force. It wrote in Tagalog, not Spanish, and spoke of kalayaan (freedom) and Inang Bayan (the Motherland).
- History of the Filipino People — Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Garotech (1990)
- Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840–1910 — Reynaldo C. Ileto, Ateneo de Manila University Press (1979)
The revolt
When the Spanish discovered the society in August 1896, Bonifacio and his followers tore up their tax certificates (cédulas) in defiance, an event remembered as the “Cry of Pugad Lawin” or “Cry of Balintawak”, and launched an uprising around Manila.
- History of the Filipino People — Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Garotech (1990)
- History of the Filipino People — Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Garotech (1990)
- State and Society in the Philippines — Patricio N. Abinales and Donna J. Amoroso, Rowman & Littlefield (2017)
A revolution divided
Rivalry between Bonifacio’s faction and Aguinaldo’s Cavite leaders came to a head at the Tejeros Convention in March 1897, which elected Aguinaldo president. Bonifacio rejected the result, was arrested, tried by a revolutionary court for treason and sedition, and executed with his brother on 10 May 1897.
- History of the Filipino People — Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Garotech (1990)
- Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840–1910 — Reynaldo C. Ileto, Ateneo de Manila University Press (1979)
- History of the Filipino People — Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Garotech (1990)
Independence, briefly
War between Spain and the United States in 1898 changed everything. After Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay on 1 May, the Americans brought Aguinaldo back. Filipino forces swept most of Luzon. On 12 June 1898, from the window of his house in Kawit, Cavite, Aguinaldo proclaimed Philippine independence, and the national flag was unfurled and the anthem played for the first time.
- History of the Filipino People — Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Garotech (1990)
- State and Society in the Philippines — Patricio N. Abinales and Donna J. Amoroso, Rowman & Littlefield (2017)
- History of the Filipino People — Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Garotech (1990)
- Under Three Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination — Benedict Anderson, Verso (2005)
But in August 1898, Spain had surrendered Manila to the Americans in a staged battle that kept Filipino troops out of the city, and on 10 December 1898, in the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. No Filipino was at the table. The republic’s war for independence was about to begin again, against a new empire.
- History of the Filipino People — Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Garotech (1990)
- The End of the Spanish Empire, 1898–1923 — Sebastian Balfour, Oxford University Press (1997)
- In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines — Stanley Karnow, Random House (1989)
Bonifacio, a self-educated warehouse clerk, founded the Katipunan and started the revolution. He was pushed aside and executed by Aguinaldo's faction of provincial elites, a betrayal of the movement's popular and egalitarian spirit. Historians in this tradition, from Agoncillo to Ileto, made him the "Great Plebeian" and the true father of the revolution.
- History of the Filipino People — Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Garotech (1990)
- Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840–1910 — Reynaldo C. Ileto, Ateneo de Manila University Press (1979)
- The Philippines: A Past Revisited — Renato Constantino, Tala Publishing (1975)
The revolution needed unified military leadership, which Aguinaldo provided after his victories in Cavite. Bonifacio refused to accept the Tejeros election and was tried for sedition. Aguinaldo went on to proclaim independence and lead the first Philippine Republic.
- History of the Filipino People — Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Garotech (1990)
- State and Society in the Philippines — Patricio N. Abinales and Donna J. Amoroso, Rowman & Littlefield (2017)
Why it matters today
Filipinos see the revolution as the birth of the nation, and 12 June, the day independence was declared in 1898, is Independence Day. The fate of Andrés Bonifacio, executed by fellow revolutionaries, still stirs debate about whether the revolution belonged to the masses or to the elite.