The Philippines, the United States, and Siam: revolution, conquest, and survival
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Question
What was the Propaganda Movement?
Answer
A peaceful reform campaign led by Western-educated ilustrados (including Rizal) in the 1880s–90s, seeking representation and an end to friar abuses, not independence.
Question
What did José Rizal contribute to Filipino nationalism?
Answer
He wrote Noli Me Tangere (1887) and El Filibusterismo (1891) exposing colonial injustice, led peaceful reform, and became a martyr when Spain executed him in December 1896.
Question
What was the Katipunan?
Answer
A secret, mass-membership revolutionary society founded by Andrés Bonifacio in 1892, aiming for armed independence from Spain rather than reform.
Question
How did Emilio Aguinaldo rise to lead the revolution?
Answer
He won a leadership struggle against Bonifacio in 1897, had Bonifacio tried and executed for treason, then led Katipunan forces and later declared Philippine independence in 1898.
Question
What was the Pact of Biak-na-Bato (1897)?
Answer
A truce between Aguinaldo and Spain: Aguinaldo went into exile in Hong Kong in exchange for payment and promised reforms Spain never fully delivered.
Question
Explain the sequence: Spanish-American War to Treaty of Paris (1898).
Answer
War breaks out April 1898 → Dewey destroys Spain's fleet at Manila Bay (May) → Aguinaldo declares independence (12 June) → Treaty of Paris (December) cedes the Philippines to the US, ignoring Filipino claims.
Question
What was the Philippine-American War (1899–1902)?
Answer
A guerrilla war fought by Aguinaldo's forces against US occupation after the Philippines was ceded by Spain instead of granted independence; the US declared victory in 1902.
Question
Compare Spanish and US rule of the Philippines.
Answer
Spain: 300+ years, friar-controlled, no representation. US: 1898–1946, combined military suppression of revolt with public schools and limited elected self-government, promising eventual independence.
Question
Who was Rama IV (Mongkut) and what did he do?
Answer
King of Siam 1851–1868; opened the kingdom to Western trade treaties (e.g. Bowring Treaty 1855) to avoid giving Britain or France a pretext for invasion.
Question
Who was Rama V (Chulalongkorn) and what did he do?
Answer
King of Siam 1868–1910; abolished slavery and forced labour, modernised the bureaucracy, army and railways, and ceded peripheral territory to France (1893, 1907) and Britain (1909) to preserve the kingdom's core independence.
Question
Why did Britain and France both tolerate an independent Siam?
Answer
Both empires preferred a weak, independent buffer state between British Burma/Malaya and French Indo-China rather than a direct shared border with each other.
Question
What is the key comparative point examiners want on the Philippines vs Siam?
Answer
The Philippines resisted through revolution but was colonised twice (Spain, then the US); Siam avoided revolution entirely and stayed independent through diplomacy and reform — same region, opposite strategies and outcomes.
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Topic 20.5 hub
Colonialism and the development of nationalism in South-East Asia (c1750–1914)
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