A few days before the United States ratified the treaty, the American forces and Filipino nationalists clashed igniting the Philippine-American War. "On February 4, 1899, just two days before the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty, fighting broke out between American forces and Filipino nationalists led by Emilio Aguinaldo who sought independence rather than a change in colonial rulers" (The Philippine-American War, para. 1).
While the United States questioned if they really wanted to keep the Philippines as a colony or not, Emilio Aguinaldo went to take over most of the Philippine’s main islands.The war went on for three years. After the Filipino resistance started to dissolute, The American president, Theodore Roosevelt, pardoned all of the felonies the nationalists caused. The fighting continued, however, and the Filipinos, under the instructions of Aguinaldo, used guerrilla-fighting tactics considering they were completely outnumbered by the United States Army. |