The Battle of Manila, February 4–5, 1899

Narrates the fighting between Filipino insurrectos and the American regular and volunteer troops deployed to the Philippines to fight the Spanish. Spanish surrender and American ambitions ultimately led to a conventional battle on the outskirts of Manila. The Battle of Manila marked a turning point in intercultural war. A conventional battle waged using symmetrical tactics, it was one of the encounters that showed decisively that, with some exceptions, non-western forces could no longer stand on the battlefield against a western power. In the battle itself, American racist attitudes combined with experience fighting Indians to dominate American tactics and the soldiers’ experience of combat. For their part, Filipino forces were defined in many ways by the patron system through which they were recruited, which undermined the overall cohesion and effectiveness of their army. The Americans won decisively at Manila, but then struggled to adapt when the Filipinos turned to guerrilla warfare.