Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
came into direct competition with the Netherlands East
Indies. Furthermore, British and American interests had
become prominent. By the nineteenth century , British-
American export houses dominated the export economy .
The volume of trade increased 15 times between 1825 and
1875, with major exports being sugar, coffee, tobacco, and
abaca—the strongest vegetable fiber obtained from trees in
the banana family .
The incorporation of the Philippines into the world
economy had two chief results. First, it saw the rise of
Philippine nationalism, as well as the emergence of a
modern nation state. Second, it created regional eco-
nomic, political, and social forces that would ultimately
weaken the country . Powerful regional elites became the
critical social forces of the twentieth century .
Philippine nationalism was the earliest of its kind in
Southeast Asia but it had little impact on the other
colonies. The Chinese mestizos dominated ownership of
export plantations. The haciendas (large estates) devel-
oped by powerful regional families were worked by ten-
ant farmers. The landowners became richer and the
tenants became poorer. From this base arose the power-
ful landed families that controlled politics (a situation
that lasted even into the 1990s). This elite educated
their children in Spanish schools, seminaries, and uni-
versities. These Spanish-educated children, known as
ilustrados, were influenced by liberalized policies in
Spain. They were anti-clerical and demanded separation
of church and state. As their demands were ignored,
they began to call themselves Filipinos. The name Fil-
ipino became a symbol of nationalism. In 1896, a rebel-
lion erupted.
The United States occupied the Philippines with a
“democratic mission” of leading the Philippines into self-
rule. The T Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934 promised inde-
pendence in ten years. The Americans stressed the
development of health, education, and democratic
processes. In 1941, the literacy rate was five times that of
Indonesia. In 1935, a Democratic Republic was estab-
lished with Manuel Quezo as its first president. Govern-
ment leaders were from the landed elite. While espousing
complete independence, their political and economic in-
terests were well served by American rule.
World War II interrupted the Philippines' march to
independence. Fighting in the Philippines was more in-
tense than elsewhere in Southeast Asia. However, Japan-
ese slogans such as “Japan, the light of Asia” had little
attraction among Filipinos, and resistance to the Japan-
ese was strong. Filipino nationalists welcomed the Amer-
ican liberators, who promised independence by 1946.
INDEPENDENT PHILIPPINES
Independence changed very little in that the landed elite
maintained control. Patron-client relations and vested
links between rich landowners and poor peasants have
continued to underpin the political process. Although re-
bellions have been crushed, rural discontent and unrest
remain problems.
In the 1950s and 1960s, a new industrial class
emerged. Some were from the landed elite who were di-
versifying their capital. Others were professional traders
who had merged interests with American or local Chi-
nese businessmen. By the 1960s, the Philippines was the
most successful manufacturing country in Southeast
Asia. Agribusiness, real estate, and banking were the ba-
sis of several multinational conglomerates. Unfortu-
nately , subsequent government policies spoiled the
record and the economy became stagnant.
During the rule of Ferdinand Marcos, who pro-
claimed martial law in 1972, per capita income fell, for-
eign indebtedness rose to serious levels, and the middle
class protested corruption and the inability of the gov-
ernment to handle the country' s social ills. Moreover,
Marcos, his friends and relatives, and the military prac-
ticed crony capitalism—absorbing private businesses
and state enterprises—on an unprecedented scale. Fam-
ily conglomerates controlled 78 percent of all corporate
wealth in the country . Land reform and the end of rural
poverty remained sheer rhetoric.
By the 1980s, the nation was fragmenting. The Moro
Nationalist Liberation Front (MNLF) had 50,000 to
THE AMERICAN PHILIPPINES
At the same time Spain was dealing with open rebellion
in the Philippines, it was at war in Central America and
Cuba. U.S. intervention in Cuba resulted in the Spanish-
American War. The Americans sailed to Manila, smashed
the Spanish fleet, and laid siege to Manila. Philippine op-
portunists seized the opportunity to declare independ-
ence in 1898. The Filipinos were the first people in Asia
to fight their colonial oppressors and declare a nation-
state. However, the Americans were not done with the
Philippines.
In 1899, war broke out between America and the
Philippines. Hostilities ended in 1901, when the Ameri-
cans effectively bought off the ilustrado elite, promising
to maintain their wealth and power in return for cooper-
ation with American colonial rule.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search