Colonialism

Caacbay, Franklin

Dinoy, Janella

Domingo, Jobert Brian

Gapan, Mary Grace

Submitted to the
Faculty of the Department of History
Polytechnic University of the Philippines
Manila

In partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the course

READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY

AY 2020-2021

Page 1

Introduction

“A state in the grip of neo-colonialism is not a master of its own destiny. It is this
factor which makes neo-colonialism such a serious threat to world peace.” -Kwame
Nkrumah. One of the most relevant means of examining the origins of current global political
and economic systems is the study of colonialism. Some of the most important issues,
including political wars, impact the world today. The study of colonialism and neo-colonialism
is essential to help students and youth understand these questions and to start developing
practical solutions that can bring about world peace and stability.
Colonialism is defined as “control by one power over a dependent area or people” It
occurs when one nation suppresses another, conquering its population and exploiting it,
often while forcing its own language and cultural values upon its people. Colonialism's
impacts include environmental degradation, the spread of disease, economic instability,
ethnic rivalries, and human rights violations—issues that can long outlast one group's
colonial rule. It’s like the concept of colonialism that is close to imperialism like it uses the
policy of using power or influence to control the nation or the society that underlies
colonialism. (Blakemore 2019).
The Philippine Society has its own distinctive variation that makes it more unique or
different in the eyes of our fellow neighborhood countries, Philippines is well-known to its
richness of natural resources and its cultural aspects of living and with great geographical
shapes of the island with pure environment and clear bodies of water, without being said,
this is what makes Philippines being discovered by our colonizer way back in the era of pre-
colonial period, the Philippines stands as the only Southeast Asian country that was
colonized before ever being able to establish its own centralized government or even culture
throughout the archipelago's early history migrants had come from the regions of Indonesia,
china and the surrounding area. The nation of Spain, America and Japan has their own
interest in our main land during the period of wars and conquest, now currently in the 21 st
Century we could say that our Main land was more civilized than before knowing that
Today’s Society affects our mentality that the term Colonialism would fit in our culture or in
our daily life basis, not the literal meaning but rather the idea or mindset that were influenced
in our Society.
Colonialism and Neo-colonialism has a huge impact on us Filipinos and to us being a
Filipino. We have been controlled over by the power of foreign countries and have become
prisoners of our own country. The Spanish colonized the Philippines in 1565 to 1898, we
were colonized by them for over 333 years. But after the American war they had to hand
over the Philippines to the United States. And became their colony in 1898 to 1946, it was
another 48 years of colonization. The colonial power from Spanish transfer to colonial and
neo-colonial power of American brought more impairments to all Filipino and culture
alienation caused by colonialism and neo-colonialism. Many and various effects of
colonialism and neo-colonialism that made or have changed the course of the Filipino life.
Although our situation has been difficult under the powers of foreign countries that colonized
us such as Japan, United States and Spanish but it also brought good to the Philippines in
making our country look more civilized.
Neo-colonialism started when the Philippines gained its independence from America
during the 20th century. America left the Philippines a society with an unequal distribution of
wealth. Great amount of wealth is held in a few selected people of land and political
influence. Neo-colonialism in the Philippines is hidden by people with political influences
wherein Peace Corps, also has political intentions kept hidden through its development and
training activities. After the colonization, education and teaching is continued by neo-
colonialism intents to be used as a cover for economic, political, cultural, and religious
intentions. The American government funded Ferdinand Marcos’ campaign election wherein
American continued its neo-colonization through Marcos’ dictatorship. By means of this,
America has held the resources the Philippines has in which these resources are driving
forces of the economy.

Body

Development stage or growth of a colony in the Philippines

The history of the Philippines as a colony and neo-colony can be divided into
three parts. The first designates three hundred years of Spanish domination of the
archipelago from 1565 to 1898 after the subjugation of tribal resistance in the main island of
Luzon. The second includes about four decades involving the annexation of the islands by
the United States following the Spanish-American War of 1898 and its pacification from 1899
to 1935, when it became a Commonwealth up to 1941. The ascendancy of U.S. monopoly
capital and finance at the beginning of the twentieth-century replaced that of Spanish
merchant capital and its moribund feudal arrangements (Magdoff 1982).

The Japanese controlled the main regions of the world militarily from 1942 to
1945, then left local government to a puppet dictatorship of elite natives. Before the war, the
return of U.S. troops destroyed Japan's dominance and restored the status quo. In 1946,
considering the existence of U.S. military bases and successful control by Washington of
main political, military and economic structures, the Philippines was granted partial
independence but not absolute sovereignty.

The Philippines' position as a neo-colony of the United States was re-

confirmed with recent bilateral agreements such as the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA)
and the Enhanced Security Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) to reinforce military and political
dependence.

But first of all, we need to know where colonialism in the Philippines started.
In the era of European rivalry over domination of trade with Asia and the Americas in the 15-
16th centuries, the Philippines fell under Spain's formal political authority. Miguel Lopez de
Legaspi claimed the archipelago (named the "Philippines," after King Philip II of Spain) for
Spain in 1565 following the discovery of the islands in south-east Asia by Ferdinand
Magellan in 1521. The indigenous tribes focused on subsistence agriculture, without any
consistent unity or shared loyalties, fell victim to the Spanish "divide and rule" policy and its
superior weapons used for pillage, loot, and killing.
 Given the distance from Spain, some ten thousand miles away, the islands
were controlled by Mexico. Few Spanish laymen have arrived in the Philippines. The
missionaries of the religious orders christianized the pagan natives—the justification
provided to the Pope by the Spanish monarchy for seizing power—so the Roman Catholic
Church virtually controlled lands that produced grain, human labour, and timber required for
the trade of galleons. The Philippines was needed as a transhipment point between Mexico
and China for this lucrative trade of Chinese porcelain, Indian textiles, etc. for Mexican gold
and silver.

The primary justification for subsidizing the 'civilizing mission' was the benefit
derived from the galleon trade. The evangelical apparatus of catechism and sermons of the
Church was mobilized to justify the exploitation of land and other natural resources extracted
by heavy taxes, compulsory labour, and various tributes. This salvific missionary rhetoric
presented native opposition as pagan wickedness against church abuses and government
impositions, not a valid defense against terror.

The patron-client system of asymmetrical unity was improved by the co-opting

of the village chiefs, missionaries and civil officials. To ensure the daily centralized routine of
the accumulation process, cultural relations of reciprocity and indebtedness to the local
leaders were exploited.

The metropolitan city of Manila was opened to foreign trade in 1835 with the
cessation of the galleon trade in 1813 and the abolition of government monopolies on
tobacco and other export crops. A consequence of Spain's exposure to Enlightenment
philosophy before and after the Napoleonic Wars (1808-14) and the South American Wars of
Independence, liberal ideas entered the islands.

Meanwhile, capital accumulation passed into the hands of Anglo-American

merchant houses through commercial agriculture and export trade. Mestizo families, sugar
plantation owners and hacienderos from other cash crops were attached to these (rice,
hemp, tobacco, coconuts). In the 1870s and 1880s, an illustrated (enlightened) stratum of
these families arose; above all, the "propagandists'' (Marcelo del Pilar, Graciano Lopez
Jaena, Jose Rizal, Isabelo de los Reyes, etc.) who advocated peaceful reforms and
representation in the Spanish Cortes (De la Costa 1965). All of these were denied and
punished by death, imprisonment, or exile by their advocates.

A separatist movement of the peasantry and mutual-aid cooperatives of

workers and artisans inspired by millennial agitations and the secularist movement against
the arrogant friars among Filipino priests existed parallel to that assimilationist movement.
This was led by Andres Bonifacio and the Katipunan (Association of People's Sons) secret
organization, inspired by Freemasonry and the delayed effect of the ideas of the French and
American revolutions.

In the 1896 revolution, which led to the establishment of the first Philippine
Republic after feuds between the collaborative elite factions and the grassroots radical-
democratic peasant-workers, earlier uprisings, particularly instigated by indigenous cultures
and seditious anti-clerical groups of uprooted tenant-farmers, converged. The continued
Catholic proselytizing and the terrorist measures of desperate Spanish governors-generals
were undeterred by this explosion of emancipatory desire by the disenfranchised rural folk.
By the end of the nineteenth century, the decay of Spanish colonial domination could not be
reversed.

Spain exploited the natives from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century to
support the galleon trade that enriched the friars and local bureaucrats, the Chinese
merchants, and the native mestizo families. Whatever changes were made in the nineteenth
century, the conditions of the majority did not improve significantly, as specialization in
export crops (controlled by Anglo-American agents) prevented a diversified economy from
growing. Only a few wealthy families and foreign merchants benefited from the nascent
capitalist sector. Very few Filipinos really understood Catholic doctrine in terms of
Christianization, hence the combination of miracles, idolatry, veneration of icons and images,
superstition and rudimentary Catholic rituals that today formed the belief system of ordinary
Christian Filipinos.

Generally speaking, the country's cultural development reflected the

bankruptcy of Spanish political and economic policies. In a grotesque, caricatured form, it
reflected the decay of the metropolitan order. The lingua franca of the colony has not been
made Spanish, so a bizarre ethnolinguistic multiplicity continues to distort Filipino efforts at
national self-identification. In certain customs and habits, Hispanization survives only
(fiestas, family rituals, etc.)

The historian John Phelan observes that "although partially Hispanized, the
Filipinos never lost that Malaysian stratum which to this day remains the foundation of their
culture" In short, Spanish colonialism, while enriching a few oligarchic sectors and
intensifying its own paralysis and decadence, ruined the indigenous life forms and the
supporting economy it faced.

The proclamation of the U.S. "civilizing mission," often referred to as

"Benevolent Assimilation," by President William McKinley, originated in the era of monopoly-
finance capitalism as part of global inter-imperialist competition. U.S. corporate companies
and banks wanted a demand for finished products and raw material supplies, as well as an
export capital sector.

A necessity for competitive capital accumulation was to provide a guaranteed

demand for trade and investment. To promote trade with China and South America, and to
control the U.S. sphere of influence in those hemispheres, maritime dominance was
required.

Due to the presence in the stage of world-history of a new Filipino ethnicity,

the Philippine conjuncture was then peculiar. When the Spaniards ceded the islands to the
United States in 1898, except for the garrison town of Manila, the Filipinos had already
beaten the Spaniards everywhere. From 1899 to July 1902, the Army of the First Philippine
Republic (proclaimed in June 1899) opposed the American invaders. The Moros continued
to fight until 1913, aside from the guerrilla rebellion headed by peasant-based chiefs.

The US crushed the revolutionary forces led by Emilio Aguinaldo provided the
advanced mode of industrial development and superior technologies and human capital. It
was the first of the 20th century's bloodiest battles of colonial subjugation. The Filipinos
suffered major losses, from positional to mobile tactics to guerrilla warfare. The US
participated in the genocidal devastation of villages and the slaughter of civilian non-
combatants, angered by the widespread sympathy for the resisters. In one operation, torture,
hamlets or forced imprisonment in concentration camps and other savage reprisals
culminated in the deaths of 100,000 civilians in the province of Batangas.

In addition to the other "depopulation" methods in Samar and Panay, where

fierce opposition took place, General Franklin Bell's estimation of the 600,000 deaths on the
island of Luzon alone resulted in more than a million deaths. More than $300 million was
expended on the victor's side; 4,234 were killed, 2,818 injured, and hundreds of soldiers
came home to die of service-related illnesses such as malaria, dysentery, venereal disease,
etc.
 By its systematic preparation, its control of time-space coordinates for infinite
resource production, U.S. monopoly capital separated itself from old-style colonialism. The
US had already drawn up schemes for long-term exploitation of the islands before the
vicious pacification drives were initiated. In order to find sources of raw materials and
manpower, geological surveys and anthropological surveys were undertaken in advance.
Compilations of enormous background records, ethnolinguistic classes, flora and fauna, etc.
provided expertise in the creation of a consolidated administration, civil service and local
councils for the successive colonial administrators.

The US imperialist apparatus, unlike Spanish evangelism, was directed at

using the country for the comprehensive exploitation of the newly conquered land,
foreseeing the imminent proliferation of international companies and absolute global
conquest.

In the US handling of the "Moro problem." one example of how intelligence

creation operated to advance imperial control can be found. After extensive study and
examination of Moro culture, traditions and values, the US negotiated with the Sulu sultan
and his data for the recognition of US supremacy in return for maintaining the right of the
sultanate to collect taxes and export local goods. In the Bates Treaty concluded on August
20, 1899, a monthly payment of Mexican dollars for the Sultan was also included.

This neutralized some Moro elites' successful resistance. But a few years
later, Generals Wood and Pershing could not avoid a scorched-earth reaction against
intermittent intransigence, resulting in the slaughter of thousands of Moro men, women and
children in the March 9, 1906, Bud Dajo, and June 11, 1913, Bud Bagsak wars.

The "Benevolent Assimilation," strategy of McKinley, transformed into the

slogan of "the Philippines for Filipinos," by civil governor William Howard Taft, legitimized the
physical colonization of the islands as a preparation for future self-rule of the colonized.
Although brute force was used by the Philippine Republic's army to destroy organized
opposition, the United States used three non-violent instruments of subjugation.

The colonial curriculum was conventional as well as imaginative. Second, the

U.S. dramatically split the leadership of the democratic powers by co-opting the depicted
mestizo class, the owners of commercial property and the consumers, by giving them
positions in local city councils, the military, and the civil service. The US acquired the loyalty
of this educated minority that battled Spanish absolutism by pledging freedom and eventual
independence. A month after his capture, Aguinaldo himself swore loyalty to the United
States, accompanied by his capitulationist generals and consultants.

Second, the U.S. responded to the complaints of the peasantry, artisans and
employees against the monopolistic, bureaucratic tradition of the Spanish-dominated
Catholic Church by implementing a large-scale public education program to prepare lower-
echelon staff for a bureaucracy led by American administrators. The learning of English as a
pedagogical instrument enabled greater contact between geographically separated
societies, communicating neoliberal ideals and acting as the gateway to gaining career and
work rights and opportunities.

Third, the US cultivated among the masses the expectation of fair

participation in government through voting, social welfare services, and nominal land reform
by propagating the values of democracy, brotherhood, and meritocracy through schools and
mass media.

The United States began to build its empire by universal agreement after the
hasty proclamation of the end of the Philippine-American War in 1902. To achieve that goal,
education, the public service, and administration acted as ideological instruments. Since,
unlike Spain, the U.S. did not claim to rescue the lives of wild pagans, its "civilizing mission"
inherited the tutelage of the locals for a capitalist market-centered politics (ensuring free
trade and free labor) tailored to the needs of capitalism's financial monopoly.

The Filipino oligarchs had to maneuver and discuss the terms of

independence starting in 1924 to ensure that their riches and rights were maintained. On the
eve of a general referendum on the adoption of the Philippine Constitution, class conflict
resurfaced with the 1935 Sakdalista uprising. This was a symptom of the inability of US
colonial policies to abolish land possession and feudal traditions as a structural issue.

In brief, the social and political deprivation of the countryside where the
majority of Filipinos lived thrived on US colonialism, thereby nourishing the root of anti-US
imperialist resistance from that time to the present.

Following the loss of General Douglas MacArthur's American and Filipino

armies in Bataan and Corregidor, Japan quickly invaded the Philippines in 1942. Historians
now accept that the incompetence of MacArthur in not planning for the invasion explains the
most embarrassing loss on record for the U.S.

Since World War II was primarily a competition between two industrial forces,
the strategic (as a military base) and economic (as a source of raw materials and manpower)
position of the Philippines continued, Japan needed crucial raw materials for its war effort,
such as copper and food. Like the United States, several years before Pearl Harbor, Japan
carried out a methodical recognition of the cultural and sociopolitical status of the
Philippines.

The "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." the scheme was the
geopolitical excuse for Japanese colonization. The Philippines will be a part of this great
union of Asian nations all together to emancipate themselves from Western dominance and
(in the case of the Philippines) from "the oppression of the United States". Japan repeated
the "Philippines for the Filipinos," slogan of Taft and promoted the use of the vernacular and
other indigenous cultural modes of speech.

The war was, for the Filipinos, the most horrible experience. The nation
suffered over a million deaths, second to the number of fatalities during the Philippine-
American War, aside from Manila being totally devastated by American bombings and
Japanese massacres. Fifty percent of Filipino prisoners were executed, while the number of
people killed in Manila, the capital, surpassed those killed in Nanking, China, by the
Japanese.

The war-devastated Philippines was given legal independence under the

Tydings-McDuffie law that established the Philippine Commonwealth. But the boundaries of
nominal sovereignty are established by certain circumstances.

The U.S. also imposed the 1947 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Assistance

Agreement to offer military assistance in order to improve its political and military
ascendancy. In addition, the US Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG) was assigned to the
Philippine Armed Forces to exert direct influence by oversight of recruitment preparation,
training of intelligence personnel and logistics.

In 1954, in the 1954 Laurel-Langley Trade Pact, which extended parity rights
to Americans for all sorts of companies, the terms of free trade that exacerbated Philippine
dependence were changed. Tariff regulations were changed, thus moving U.S. control out of
raw material production to direct private investment into manufacturing. The U.S. built
manufacturing and processing plants to export manufactured products because of import
restrictions enforced by the Philippines, thereby competing with local factories.

At the behest of Washington, Marcos deployed 2,000 troops to Vietnam. But since he
secured the presidency in the sixties, his economic base has been deteriorating. The
extreme foreign stranglehold of the economy has resulted in unregulated capital flows, acute
inflation, devaluation and external debt growth.

The threat of a communist takeover was one of Marcos' justifications for

declaring martial law in 1972. In fact, it was a product of the geopolitics of the Cold War and
the US attempt to reassert its hegemony in Asia after its fiasco in Vietnam. Increased U.S.
military and political support for the Marcos regime was secured when Marcos' promised
100% benefit remittance for American enterprises as well as opportunities to exploit the
natural wealth of the country, as well as investing in banking, transportation, domestic
fishing, and so on.

The dictatorship of President Corazon Aquino (1986-1990) was characterized

by the massacre of 18 farmers in a nonviolent protest in 1987 and various abuses of human
rights by hamleting, 'salvaging' (extra-judicial killings), torture, etc (Maglipon 1987). Both
Aquino and her replacement, General Fidel Ramos, had Washington's permission to
maintain a stable market in the Middle East for industry and U.S. diplomatic maneuvers.

After Ramos, Presidents Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in

their neoliberal policy of modernization, privatization and dismantling of any large-scale
social welfare services for the poor and oppressed majority of people, followed the
'Washington Consensus' of sticking by the institutional requirements of the World Bank-
International Monetary Fund.

The Philippine Senate voted to dismantle the U.S. military bases in 1992, but
did not comment on the other deals that held U.S. military and police agency control. The
conclusion of the Cold War saw no decline in U.S. military involvement. The US State Dept
declared the Philippines the second front in the fight against global terrorism in 2002,
following the 9/11 Al Qaeda attacks.

The Communist Party of the Philippines and the NPA is categorized as

criminal groups by State Secretary Powell. Although the major Moro groups, the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), were not
stigmatized as terrorists, the U.S. described the Abu Sayyaf splinter group as a pretext for
the 1999 VFA and the 2002 Joint Logistical Support Agreement, which authorized the initial
deployment of 600 Special Operations forces to assist the Philippine armed forces.

In various criminal incidents, the killing of a Filipino transsexual by US Marine

Private Joseph Scott Pemberton in October 2014 brought attention once again to the
impunity of U.S. staff. The VFA grants visiting American troops extra-territorial and extra-
judicial powers, an extraordinary circumstance barred by the Philippine Constitution of 1987.
The Philippines are therefore unable to apprehend the alleged murderer, weakening its
national security and its justice system.

The joint annual military drills dubbed 'Philippine-US Bilateral Exercises' have
been conducted since 2002, reportedly to provide humanitarian aid to victimized provinces
during natural disasters. Guns, logistics and other resources are also required for
government campaigns to ensure stability and order in conflict zones or important urban
areas.
 Oplan Bantay Laya by President Arroyo and Oplan Bayanihan by President
Benigno Aquino are modified iterations of the counterinsurgency policy and strategies used
in Vietnam, El Salvador, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere by the U.S. Intensive combat
campaigns, information and public intervention or triad operations, traditional means of
fighting, and counterguerilla techniques are mixed.

The U.S. proceeds to send and station thousands of soldiers, at every one
time, in the Philippines, under the guise of the worldwide "war on terror" against jihadists.
They are involved in military operations against local insurgents—a gross breach of the
sovereignty of the Philippines and territorial integrity.

Factors of Colonialism in the Colonization of the Philippines

A Colony is a group of people who inhabit a foreign territory but maintain ties to their
parent country. While the group of people can be considered a colony, so too can the
territory itself also refer to a country or area under the full or partial political control of another
country, typically a distant one, and occupied by settlers from that country. (Brown, National
Geographic Encyclopedia 2020). As stated above in the History of the Philippines The
Spaniards initially thought of the Philippines as simply a stopping point along their path to the
east indies known then as the spice islands the Dutch and Portuguese however quickly put
an end to Spain's east indie dreams which caused the Europeans to reconsider their
purpose in the Philippines. Ferdinand Magellan is known to be the first Spanish explorer to
lead an expedition into the island anchoring at Cebu in March 16 1521, Magellan promptly
claimed these islands for Spain creating fast friendly ties with the locals and already
beginning attempts to spread the catholic faith in the new colony most notably Magellan had
befriended the Raja of Cebu, Raja Jumabon who would later be baptized into the catholic
faith along with his wife Rajah Jumabon then sent out an order to all the surrounding chiefs
to provide supplies for the Spaniards and collectively convert to Christianity shockingly all
but one of the chiefs agreed to obey the order but the two chiefs of the Mactan island were
at odds over the situation Lapu Lapu was in complete opposition to the Spaniards but Datu
Zula was very openly wishing to cooperate to settle the ordeal Raja Jumabon suggested
Magellan that he go directly to Mactan and force lapu lapu into submission himself, Magellan
happily complied seeing the opportunity as beneficial for himself and his bond with the raja
unfortunately Magellan's initial peaceful attempt to convince the chief to comply with the
order was met with confident threats of battle when the conflict broke out the following
morning the Spaniards and their local support were fairly easily overpowered and Magellan
himself was beaten down and killed during the intense scuffle seeing that their captain had
been defeated and under heavy assault the invading forces eventually retreated and
returned to Cebu when multiple soldiers from the battle of Mactan were poisoned at a feast
By this point Legazpi had to push the Portuguese out of the archipelago which he was able
to do successfully with his five ships and roughly 700 men the new colonizers then establish
the city of manila in 1571 which would serve as the capital for the Spanish east indies. By
the end of the 16th century the Spaniards had seized most of the lowland in coastal regions
and continued to convert vast numbers of the locals to Christianity some however such as
the Muslims of sulu were unwilling to give up their faith and became known as the moros by
the Spanish in 1578

The British east India company accompanied by British army troops invading manila
and laying siege to the Spanish east indies capital city on October 4 the British officially
captured manila and the occupation would last until the spring of 1764 when peace
negotiations finally brought the war to an end and the Spaniards authority was once again
acknowledged although Spain now had control of the Philippines in full as before the time
under British occupation, the Spaniards additionally began to notice the flaws in their
economic system in the Philippines and started to roll out reforms that drastically changed
the trading system they had previously controlled initially the galleon trade which was
essentially a Spanish government monopoly Galleon trade is where the Spanish collects
products from Europe and Asia to our country. For us to have a better economy and
civilization that time this galleon trade made a very big impact in different countries and also
affects our current economy positively like for example some products or resources are not
found here in the Philippines now through the galleon trade the products and goods that we
need is now we can get or trade in with our beloved products as well.

In the end of the 19th century finally in 1863 public education became a priority
although the education was till poor and completely under the control of the church not even
30 percent of the students could read or write Spanish at all and even less spoke the
language correctly despite the system being created by the spanish colonizers many of the
wealthy children were sent to Europe for schooling instead while gaining their education
overseas some Filipino students began to develop a yearning for reform and growing
nationalism which eventually led to something known as the propaganda movement one of
the more relevant members of this movement, Jose Rizal wrote 2 political novels that
became wildly popular in the Philippine literature those novels were named (Noli me tangere
and El filibusterismo) Rizal finished his education and returned to the archipelago in 1892
and ever so subtly gathered group of like-minded reformist which is called the La Liga
Filipina though no plans were made to take actions because of the Spaniards that they said
that this league will become a threat to them meanwhile the thoughts of independence had
already started to build throughout the islands possibly encouraged by the spanish
recognition of a semi-independent home rule program nearing the end of the 19th century
still Spain remains the undeniable colonial power over the region and the archipelago's
capital became a role model for other colonial governments due to the drastic improvements
the Spaniards had attempted to make after regaining control from the British the Philippine
revolution would soon begin in 1896 causing Jose Rizal who had previously been arrested
and sent into exile for his books and nationalist sentiments to be wrongly convicted treason
and subsequently executed despite playing no part in the outbreak of the rebellion instead a
man by the name of Emilio Aguinaldo became the leading figure of the revolution but before
Aguinaldo, there was a man named Andres Bonifacio who's the father of the Philippine
revolution in which he is the supreme leader of the Katipunan before and with that Emilio
also joined in the Katipunan and has different factions and rumors saying that he even killed
Andres Bonifacio. Going back to Aguinaldo he was unsuccessful nonetheless and was
eventually forced to sign the pact of biak na bato in 1897 sending him and his supporters
into exile, one of the rebels general Francisco Macabulos refused to leave though and
instead went as far as establishing a new interim revolutionary government called the central
executive committee this development meant that the conflict between Spain and the
nationalist was not yet over and contrarily began to spread throughout entirety of the colony
Spain did manage to maintain control over their possessions but matters even so would go
on to become even more complicated war between the United states and Spain erupted in
1898 and after the American government became concerned about the citizens of Cuba
during their ongoing fight for independence they consequently sent USS Maine to the
Havana harbor where it was blown up and completely destroyed the us blamed Spain
prompting the two major powers to clash directly bringing America into the Philippines and
launching a new era of occupation for the local Filipinos.

In the History elementary books we are taught that United States defeated Spain in the
Spanish-American War of 1898 and as a result the United States paid Spain 20 Million
Dollars to own the Philippines and this was all formalized in the Treaty of Paris it was a
peace agreement between Spain and the United States that ended the war, it seems pretty
simple Spain was defeated by the United States so therefore the United States is entitled to
take over Spain’s former colonies, but not exactly, the history do not tell us is that while it
was true that United States couldn’t beat Spain and yes they defeated Spain in Cuba, it was
an entirely different story in the Philippines it wasn’t really the Americans who defeated the
Spaniards in the Philippines, it was
Actually the Filipino
revolutionary forces that did
most of the fighting against
the Spaniards,
 The Filipinos fought vigorously for the freedom while their American allies were just
watching and waiting to see what will happen next by June of 1898 the Filipinos had Already
declared their Independence and by August,

They already had effective control over pretty much most of the country except for
the capital city of Manila and minor places such as the tiny fortified Church. Mindanao wasn’t
yet fully colonized and hasn’t been fully integrated yet what we now call the Philippines but
despite all of this the Spaniards refused to accept defeat at the hands of the Filipino people
instead they chose to surrender to the Americans it was more embarrassing for the once
might Spanish empire to recognize being defeated by brown people for Spanish empire it
was more honorable to their fellow white men so there’s a little bit of Discrimination to the
idea of surrendering of the Spanish Empire to the Americans instead acknowledging Brown
victory and since the United States is first and foremost a capitalist nation it was easier for
them to pay the Spaniards for the ownership of the Philippines so basically it was easier for
them to buy the Philippines as if it was a piece of property than face the fact that they were
invading a sovereign people and trampling on their rights and their freedom the US had
always been interested in acquiring colonies across Asia and the Pacific but it was difficult
for them to justify all of these since the United states was founded on the principles of
freedom justice and democracy, Imperialism is simply the opposite of what the United states
was supposed to be, imperialism is simply incompatible and contradictory the true essence
of Liberty and democracy.

The possible reasons for Colonization is somehow related to Politics, the concerns of
government, the issues between rights or power, not just only politics but in terms of
Economics, where it concerns the wealth or the economy of the nation, In terms of Religion,
it is one of the factors or what makes a colonization in the Philippines, as stated above the
Spaniards brought us the influence of Christianity, also one reason of the colonization here
in the Philippines is Economic or Social reasons, where it involves the cultural aspect of
Filipinos and as well as the Education that were influence to us by the Spanish and
Americans, These may affect our current situation in our Philippine Society, we may think
that colonization or a colony is a matter of war but for me or as I analyze, it is a form of
mindset or the way we live the way we are influenced by other nation, the trade, the
imported products, cultural ideologies, form of education and many more, it is a thinking that
we are being colonized in our being, or in our self but despite of that we can still be proud
and should be proud of who we are and as a Filipinos we should remember our birthrights
that this is who we are.

Neocolonialism

Regarding the neo-colonialism between the Philippines and America that started
after the Philippines gained its independence in 1946, it affects the economy through
interests in international financial institutions. This includes the International Monetary Fund,
The World Bank, (WB) and the World Trade Organization. After gaining its sovereignty, the
United States has left the Philippines with an unequal distribution of wealth. In politics, the
Philippine Government has continued the policies that the American Government has
established during its colonization which favors the Filipino personalities and politicians that
exhibits a good appearance of the Americas. Neo-colonialism works in the Philippines as
how the World Bank charges interest from loans the Philippine oligarchy makes. Philippine
presidents continue to make loans from the World Bank for financial aid that will restore the
Philippines and its different sectors. Thus, it benefits the World Bank, as the Philippines
continue to ask loans, the WB gains more money from these loans, while the poor Filipinos
continue to pay tax to pay back these loans from the WB. The same goes with international
banking sectors as they gain profit through branches in the Philippines through loans for the
government and other institutions. In this case the policies left in the Philippines, created by
the American establishes the neo-colonialism in the country which benefits its previous
colonizer although already gaining sovereignty even though the Philippines gains no
development.
During 1946, when the Philippines gained its sovereignty and independence from the
United States, the Bell Trade Act of 1946 or the Philippine Trade Act was declared. This act
gives the equal right to Americans as the Filipinos to own and operate public utilities and
develop natural resources in the Philippines. Although the Philippines has already gained its
independence from its colonizer, the country was left with a policy – the Bell Trade Act of
1946 which exploits resources of the country such as agricultural and mining sectors. This
act shows no development in the economic sector the Philippines has because this act
implies no tariff in the goods imported from the United States.
Due to the debt from loans the Philippines has asked from the World Bank has made
effects to issues of poverty more persistent than the natural disasters and the high birth rate,
both of which can be managed through the creation of proper infrastructures and the
implementation of reproductive health education. As contemporary issues such as poverty,
poor infrastructures, corruption, unemployment and heavy dependence of remittances, these
basic economic problems are affected by continuous loans made by Philippine
administration such as Marcos’ dictatorship in line with neo-colonialism to disrupt land and
human resources of the Philippines.
The Philippines still had the U.S. military bases which had control over political,
military, and economic institutions. Neo-colonialism through military concerns is shown
through the United States and Philippine agreements in 1946, such as the Visiting Forces
Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) to provide
military dependency. Thus, this agreement settles U.S military bases to be present in the
military force of the Philippines. Through these teachings and moral imperative of the
Americans comes the interest of the United States’ development in economic, political,
cultural, and religious concerns by these military forces.
In line with the teachings of the Americans, is the education system that is still used
in today’s time. Culturally, neo-colonialism has affected the education system and the
language Filipinos use up until this modern age.
The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather
than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment, under neo-
colonialism,increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and poor countries of
the world (Wikipedia).
Even after the independence in 1946 the Philippines were still under a neo-colonial
control by the United States. The American-Philippine neo-colonialism started right after
giving the Philippine independence in 1946. Neo-colonialism caused so much poverty
among Filipinos and it only got worse when the Bell Trade Act of 1946 was implemented. It
made everything unfair to all Filipinos because this act of 1946 is a neo-colonial act which
says and gives the right and freedom to American to run their own business and own
properties in the Philippines, and in it's operations, they also have the freedom to use all the
resources that the Philippine has, as if they were a true citizens of this country. American
were not really satisfied with what they were getting from the Filipinos because of the
ongoing neo-colonial policies they were pursuing. American supported the reigning president
Ferdinand Marcos in what he wanted to happen during martial law. Economic growth and
ambitious public-works projects during Marcos regime was funded by foreign loans.
Ferdinand Marcos received financial funds and assistance from the World Bank during that
time. The United States also gave and provided funds for the Philippine agricultural
development but these all were in exchange of giving the American a better access to the
Philippine natural resources and businesses. Due to the debt and for the Philippines to be
able to borrow money from the World Bank, the World Bank and the Philippines had a
condition under Marcos regime which caused losses of Filipino entrepreneurs, Filipino
industrial businesses collapsed and caused a decrease in the salaries of the Filipino
workers.
Neo-colonialism impacts in the Philippines includes Military Neo-colonialism, Politics
Neo-colonialism, Cultural Neo-colonialism and Economic Neo-colonialism. Military neo-
colonialism because even after independence in 1946 the Philippine constabulary soldiers
were still participating and still under the United States Military Forces. And in politics on the
other hand, American have a huge political influence in the Philippines. After giving the
independence they still have control over our government and still have a say in everything
that goes to Philippine political system. Meanwhile, Cultural colonial and Neo-colonialism
leaves a great effect and influence in the Philippines. Within the 48 years of being a colony
of the Americans, Filipinos have adopted a lot of western values and practices. The Filipino
culture has been dominated by Americans which even today we still use and practice those
western values. We maybe did not lose our Filipino traditional beliefs and values but it was
augmented by various western practices that made the Philippines trapped in the neo-
colonial influence of the United States.

Conclusion

Imperialism, whether in the old-style Spanish colonization mode, Japanese

militarism, and U.S. tutelage of modernization/developmentalism from the sixteenth century
to the present, is one of the worst examples of an authoritarian form of control of citizens
banned by the Charter of the United Nations and its Declaration of Human Rights.
Nevertheless, in the Philippines today, where the national-democratic, socialist-oriented
movement of a people with a long and enduring history thrives in a joint project to eliminate
this historic legacy, it continues.

For the sake of affirming human rights and universal justice, the history of the
Philippines can be read as a long chronicle of the struggle of the people against colonialism
and imperialism.

I believe base on the sources cited above, It concludes that there are advantages
and disadvantages of neocolonialism as a Contemporary issue in our Philippine Society,
knowing that there are issue in our history regarding of regaining our independence against
America, there are unequal distribution of wealth, in cultural aspect they influence us by their
ideologies, different cultures and etc, but I believe this is part of a civilization in our Country,
We have access about education which we prioritize it currently in our society and the
awareness or mindset that we gained during the post-colonial era. American introduced us
to education, which we consider one of the most important things a person can achieve is to
graduate. Spanish introduced Filipinos to Catholicism which is one of the major religions now
in the Philippines. We strategize, we reformed and gain independence, The negative sides
of the neocolonialism is that it caused so much poverty to many Filipinos until now, but on
the other hand we can stand for this kind of issue because of the hard work and
industrialized mentality of Filipinos through enough we gained a knowledge, awareness and
application that we can use this as a stepping stone for the common good of the Country

Through the Philippine Trade Act, the neo-colonialization of the United States has
started in the country wherein this act serves as a legal framework concerning economic
relations.This act seeks a free trade agricultural sector of the Philippines wherein no tax on
exports to the United States. However, this act has prevented industrialization in the
Philippines. The Philippine Trade Act has allowed the Americans into exploiting the country's
resources given that the Americans are free in establishing public utilities and exploiting
natural resources. The free trade that the United States possesses to the Philippines, had
the economic development of the Philippines be impeded due to the equal right of the
Americans as the Filipinos in acquiring natural resources of the Philippines. Thus, through
this act which advocates neo-colonization in the country, it declines advancement in the
agricultural sector and industrialization which highly affects the economic status of the
country. Along with policies that have been left by the Americans, the Philippines continue to
depend on financial aids from international financial institutions. Loans and the unequal
distribution of wealth serves as one of the factors of poverty and as poor Filipinos continue to
pay taxes to pay the loans made by the Philippine administration, the Philippine economy
declines. There has been suggested revisions of the Phillippine Trade Act that could lessen
the exploitation the Americans have done in the lands of the Philippines.

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