American Colonial Period (Philippines)

United States Military Government of the Philippine Islands
Unincorporated territory of the United States
1898–1902
Flag
Location of Philippine Islands in Asia
Capital		Manila
Government		Military
Military Governor
•	1898	Wesley Merritt
•	1898-1900	Elwell S. Otis
•	1900-1901	Arthur MacArthur, Jr.
•	1901-1902	Adna Chaffee (jointly with Civil Governor William Howard Taft)
History
•	Established	14 August 1898
•	Disestablished	1 July 1902
Area
•	1898	300,000 km² (115,831 sq mi)
Population
•	1898 est.	7,300,000
Density		24.3 /km²  (63 /sq mi)
Preceded by Succeeded by Spanish East Indies First Philippine Republic Insular Government
a.	In 1901, a civil governor was appointed, but the military retained authority in disturbed areas.
b.	An 1898 census is reported by some sources to have yielded a count of 7,832,719 inhabitants. However, the National Statistics Office of the Philippines reports that no census was conducted in that year. Another well regarded source estimates a population of seven million in 1898.

The history of the Philippines from 1898 to 1946 began with the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in April 1898, when the Philippines was still part of the Spanish East Indies, and concluded when the United States formally recognized the independence of the Republic of the Philippines on July 4, 1946.

With the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States. The interim U.S. military government of the Philippine Islands experienced a period of great political turbulence, characterized by the Philippine–American War. Beginning in 1901, the military government was replaced by a civilian government—the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands—with William Howard Taft serving as its first Governor-General. From 1901 to 1906 there also existed a series of revolutionary governments that lacked significant international diplomatic recognition.

Following the passage of the Philippine Independence Act in 1934, a Philippine presidential election was held in 1935. Manuel L. Quezon was elected and inaugurated second President of the Philippines on November 15, 1935. The Insular Government was dissolved and the Commonwealth of the Philippines was brought into existence. The Commonwealth of the Philippines was intended to be a transitional government in preparation for the country's full achievement of independence in 1946.