• Ahri Boy
    link
    fedilink
    English
    711 months ago

    July 4th here is Republic Day, not a holiday anymore. I always say Happy Fourth of July to my grandma, who is a dual US and Filipino citizen now residing in my country for good. Yesterday I greeted my American aunt vacationing in my country too.

    • @BB69@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1211 months ago

      There was a war prior to that that the US won and caused the Philippines to be considered an “unincorporated territory” then a “commonwealth”.

      In 1898, the US was already determining what to do with the islands, noting that there was a strong desire for independence. There was a lack of a “Philippine nation” that stopped President McKinley from pushing for release.

      By 1934, congress passed the Tydings-McDuffie Act that started the process of Philippine independence after 10 years to assist in a transition to a functioning government. WWII slowed this down after Japanese occupation.

      This is just a (very) quick summary, there’s a lot more to the story, including the scorched earth campaign the US employed during the rebellion. But no, the US did not “lose” a war and the Philippines did not “win” independence in the same way the US did.

      As a tidbit, Philippine independence is observed on June 12th, because that’s when independence from Spain occurred.