Battle of Manila (1898)

Battle of Manila

American forces hoist the Stars and Stripes after capturing Fort San Antonio .

date	August 13, 1898
place	Manila , Philippines
output	Filipino-American victory

Parties to the conflict
United States 45 United States	Spain 1875 Spain

The Battle of Manila on August 13 in the year 1898 was a brief struggle between the forces of the United States and Spain during the Spanish-American War . The event should not be confused with the naval battle in Manila Bay .

Many believe the battle was only to prevent the city from falling to the Filipino army, under the command of Emilio Aguinaldo .

background

After the American victory in the Battle of Manila Bay, the US Navy ships under George Dewey blocked Manila from sea for a full two months while awaiting the arrival of ground troops. The United States responded to Dewey's request by establishing the Philippine Expeditionary Force, later dubbed the VIII Corps, under the command of Major General Wesley Merritt . In May the vanguard of the combat force left San Francisco under the leadership of Brigadier General Thomas M. Anderson . Two more reinforcements followed in the coming weeks under the command of Brigadier Generals Francis V. Greene and Arthur MacArthur .

On July 27th, all forces, along with General Merritt and his staff, had reached the Philippines. Emilio Aguinaldo had meanwhile assembled a troop of around 10,000 Filipinos who were waiting outside the city gates. The 15,000 Spanish defenders under General Fermin Juadenes feared the attack of the Filipino troops in particular. They knew that if the city fell into Aguinaldo's hands, they could expect no mercy. However, Dewey managed to prevent Aguinaldo from attacking the city before Merritt arrived.

The battle

preparation

At the end of July, after all US troops landed in the Philippines, Merritt organized his forces and brought them together into a division (referred to as the 2nd Division). He placed them under the command of General Anderson. General MacArthur was given command of the 1st Brigade and General Greene was given command of the 2nd Brigade. Merritt also began planning the capture of the city with Dewey. Both of them deliberately kept Aguinaldo out of their strategies and preparations, even though his men would have doubled their troops. The US ground troops then began to move up from the south and dig trenches around the city. Aguinaldo's men, meanwhile, kept the east of the city under control.

First fights

While the troops were still digging the trenches, the Spaniards began to fire on the presumed positions of the Americans on July 25th. The Americans returned fire and after the death of 10 soldiers, the battle temporarily escalated. In the days that followed, the Spaniards continued to fire from their defensive positions within Manila, inflicting steady casualties on their opponents. Dewey said General Greene, that it was better "to allow a few losses in the trenches than to lose a large number in a premature attack." He let it be known that he would open fire on the Spanish defenses when Greene Greene continues gave the order to do so.

The attack

On August 13, the day after the peace protocols between Spain and America were signed in Washington, MacArthur's brigade began to advance on the city walls. Greene's brigade moved west of MacArthur along the coastline while Dewey's gunboats bombed Fort San Agustin from across the bay. When Greene's troops reached the fort, they found it abandoned and so they hoisted the American flag over the fort. When Dewey's fleet stopped bombarding them, MacArthur moved against the log cabins of the Spanish city guards, where they met little resistance.

Up to this point, Aguinaldo and his men had no knowledge of the American attack. However, when they overheard the shots of MacArthur's troops, they rushed into battle and were caught in the crossfire of the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Regiment. General Greene advanced from the fort, overran the barricades, and entered the town promenade. Greene came across a Spanish soldier and asked if the city had already surrendered. The officer couldn't say anything about it and so the shooting continued sporadically. When Greene saw that the remainder of the American attack had reached the city walls, he feared that the isolated, helpless shots from the defenders might find their way into the American ranks and ultimately provoke inappropriate retaliatory strikes from his people. So he ordered the American troops to stop at the city gates and recommended that the Spaniards withdraw into the city. Nothing happened for a few minutes, then the Spanish troops raised the parliamentary flag . Greene rode into town with Navy and United States Army officials to negotiate terms of surrender. In addition, he had an artillery cannon placed on the east side of the city to prevent the Filipinos from entering the city. The next day, Merrit and Juadenes met to discuss the formulation of the surrender.

The task

On August 14th, Merritt and Juadenes agreed on the surrender of all Spanish forces in the Philippines with full military honors. Aguinaldo was again deliberately kept out of all negotiations. The US armed forces secured sole control of the city, with Merrit serving as military governor. Merritt and Dewey were unsure of the extent to which Aguinaldo's exclusion from control of the city would be. Washington, DC sent an immediate response to their request, stating that joint occupation of the city with the Filipinos would not be tolerated. General Elwell Stephen Otis , the new commandant of the VIII Corps, took over the post of military governor from Merrit on August 29. He set a clear line and ordered all Filipino soldiers to evacuate the city.

Battle staging

After the war there was speculation and disputes of opinion, as many believed that those involved had sought a bloodless argument in advance. General Juadenes would not have agreed to give up the city without a fight, as the Spaniards wanted to save themselves from the humiliation of defenseless surrender to the Americans. Another major reason Juadenes might have sought to surrender was fear that his army might fall into the hands of the Filipinos.

It was Juadene's greatest concern that his people would be at the mercy of the Filipino troops. In the event of a surrender to the US armed forces, however, he could count on him and his men to be treated and protected as prisoners of war . US forces, on the other hand, were equally keen to keep the city out of General Aguinaldo's control. In a staged battle, you could let the city fall into American hands without having to involve the Philippine armed forces. Due to the exclusion of Aguinaldo from this plan, however, the Philippine army units rushed to attack when they heard the first shots. Since they had intervened in the battle unplanned, the Filipinos pulled both sides into their fire. Only then did the battle turn into a bloody battle.

In total, 21 Americans and about 49 Spaniards died, and about 100 were wounded on both sides. In return, the Spaniards were given an honorable task and the Filipinos were successfully kept out of the city.

The effects

The fall of Manila marked the end of the Spanish-American War in the Philippines. Merritt and Dewey also learned of the peace protocol on August 16. On the other hand, the fighting continued in other areas of the Pacific Ocean , since the commanders had not learned about this protocol. The Spaniards on the Wake Islands surrendered to the US Navy, just as ignorant of the existence of such a protocol, on January 17, 1899.

The war with Spain was over, but another war was looming. The tensions between the Filipino troops under Aguinaldo and the American expeditionary forces increased over time. The Filipinos felt betrayed by the Americans. They actually saw the Americans as liberators from the Spanish occupation. Now they realized that America wanted to make the Philippines their colony.

An incident occurred on the San Juan Bridge in Manila when a common soldier in the United States Army shot a Filipino resistance fighter because he wanted to cross the bridge. The events that followed this incident confirmed the Americans' will to conquer. The American side did not initiate any peacekeeping or research into this matter, instead their armed forces confronted the Filipino troops in the area around Manila directly and the next battle for Manila ensued .

literature

Frank Freidel: The Splendid Little War. Little, Brown, Boston MA et al. 1958.

Web links

Commons : Battle for Manila - Collection of images, videos and audio files