Philippine Revolution (1896-1898): The Katipunan Against Spain

The Philippine Revolution was the armed struggle of Filipinos against Spanish colonial rule that began in August 1896 and ended Spain’s three centuries of power in the islands by 1898. Launched by the secret society known as the Katipunan, it produced what is often described as the first constitutional republic in Asia, but its hopes of full independence were cut short when the United States took over the colony.

Background

Spain had ruled the Philippines since the founding of Spanish Manila in 1571. By the late 19th century, Filipino grievances were deep: heavy taxes and forced labour, the power of the Spanish friars over land and local government, and racial barriers that kept Filipinos out of high office.

A turning point came in 1872. After a short-lived mutiny at the Cavite arsenal, the Spanish authorities executed three Filipino priests, Mariano Gómez, José Burgos and Jacinto Zamora, on 17 February 1872, accusing them of complicity on thin evidence. The three, remembered together as Gomburza, became martyrs for a generation of young Filipinos, including Rizal.

A generation of educated Filipinos, the ilustrados, first sought peaceful reform. In Spain they ran the Propaganda Movement and the newspaper La Solidaridad, asking for representation in the Spanish parliament and equality before the law. The novels of José Rizal exposed abuses in the colony and made him the best-known reformer. When Rizal returned home and founded the moderate La Liga Filipina in July 1892, he was arrested within days and exiled to Dapitan on Mindanao.

The Katipunan

On 7 July 1892, the day Rizal’s exile was announced, Andrés Bonifacio and a group of companions founded the Katipunan, in full the Kataastaasan, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (“Highest and Most Honourable Society of the Children of the Nation”). Unlike the reformers, its members were mostly workers, clerks and small farmers, and its goal was independence by force.

The society grew slowly at first, then rapidly after 1895. It used secret rites, codes and a newspaper, Kalayaan (“Freedom”), and by 1896 it probably had between 30,000 and 400,000 members; estimates vary widely.

The revolt begins

On 19 August 1896 the Spanish authorities learned of the Katipunan through a confession made to a friar. Arrests followed at once. In the last days of August Bonifacio and hundreds of Katipuneros gathered north of Manila and tore up their cedulas, the tax certificates that symbolised colonial rule. This event, known as the Cry of Pugad Lawin or of Balintawak, is dated by different historians to 23, 24 or 26 August.

On 30 August Bonifacio led an attack on the Spanish powder magazine at San Juan del Monte, which was repulsed. The same day Governor-General Ramón Blanco declared martial law in eight provinces, later honoured by the eight rays of the sun on the Philippine flag. Spain answered the revolt with mass arrests and executions, including that of Rizal on 30 December 1896, as told in Execution of José Rizal.

Aguinaldo and the split

The revolutionaries’ greatest early successes came in Cavite province, south of Manila, where Emilio Aguinaldo, a young town leader, won victories in late 1896. Two rival Katipunan councils there, the Magdalo (backing Aguinaldo) and the Magdiwang, quarrelled over leadership.

At the Tejeros Convention on 22 March 1897 the revolutionaries elected Aguinaldo president of a new revolutionary government, with Bonifacio given a lesser post. Bonifacio, insulted by challenges to his qualifications, rejected the result. He was arrested, tried by Aguinaldo’s council and executed with his brother Procopio on 10 May 1897. The episode remains one of the most controversial in Philippine history.

Biak-na-Bato and exile

A renewed Spanish offensive under Governor-General Fernando Primo de Rivera pushed the rebels out of Cavite. Aguinaldo set up the Republic of Biak-na-Bato in the mountains of Bulacan. In December 1897 both sides signed the Pact of Biak-na-Bato: Aguinaldo and other leaders went into exile in Hong Kong in exchange for payments from Spain, part of which was made. Neither side fully trusted the truce, and fighting continued in several provinces.

1898: independence and a new empire

The Spanish-American War changed everything. On 1 May 1898 an American squadron under George Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay. Aguinaldo returned on 19 May, rebuilt the revolutionary army and quickly took control of most of Luzon outside Manila.

On 12 June 1898 Aguinaldo proclaimed the independence of the Philippines from the balcony of his house in Kawit, Cavite. The national flag was displayed and the national march, composed by Julián Felipe, was played. Apolinario Mabini became his chief adviser, and a revolutionary congress met at Malolos from September 1898.

But on 13 August American troops occupied Manila after a largely staged battle with the Spanish garrison, and Filipino forces were kept out of the city. In the Treaty of Paris, signed on 10 December 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States for 20 million dollars. The First Philippine Republic was inaugurated at Malolos on 23 January 1899, and on 4 February 1899 the Philippine-American War began.

Consequences and legacy

The human cost of the revolution is hard to measure. Thousands of revolutionaries and civilians died in fighting, executions and epidemics between 1896 and 1898, but no reliable overall figure exists. Spanish garrisons in remote areas held out for months after the loss of Manila; the most famous, at Baler in Luzon, did not surrender until June 1899.

The revolution left lasting national symbols. The flag officially unfurled at Kawit, with its sun of eight rays and three stars, and the national anthem, first played as an instrumental march, remain those of the Philippines today. Both Bonifacio and Aguinaldo are honoured as national figures, and the circumstances of Bonifacio’s death are still debated by historians and the public.

Historians have also asked whose revolution it was. Older accounts stressed the ilustrados and Aguinaldo’s government, while later writers such as Teodoro Agoncillo and Reynaldo Ileto drew attention to the ordinary members of the Katipunan and the religious and popular ideas that inspired them.

Key people

• Andrés Bonifacio (1863–1897): founder and later supreme leader of the Katipunan.
• Emilio Aguinaldo (1869–1964): Cavite leader, president of the revolutionary government and of the First Philippine Republic.
• Emilio Jacinto (1875–1899): young intellectual of the Katipunan and author of its moral code, the Kartilya.
• Apolinario Mabini (1864–1903): lawyer and political thinker, Aguinaldo’s main adviser in 1898–1899.
• Fernando Primo de Rivera (1831–1921): Spanish governor-general who negotiated the Pact of Biak-na-Bato.

Timeline

• 1892, 7 July: The Katipunan is founded in Manila.
• 1896, 19 August: Spanish authorities discover the Katipunan.
• 1896, late August: The Cry of Pugad Lawin (Balintawak) opens the revolt.
• 1896, 30 August: Battle of San Juan del Monte; martial law declared in eight provinces.
• 1896, 30 December: José Rizal is executed in Manila.
• 1897, 22 March: Tejeros Convention elects Aguinaldo president.
• 1897, 10 May: Andrés and Procopio Bonifacio are executed.
• 1897, December: Pact of Biak-na-Bato; Aguinaldo goes into exile.
• 1898, 12 June: Philippine independence is proclaimed at Kawit.
• 1898, 10 December: Treaty of Paris cedes the Philippines to the United States.

Why it matters

The Philippine Revolution is often described as the first successful nationalist revolt against a European colonial power in Asia. It created a Filipino national identity and a short-lived republic, and 12 June remains Independence Day, even though full sovereignty came only with Philippine independence in 1946.