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Prologue The Mock Battle, 1898 The U.S.–Philippine war began with a fantastic performance: the American hero, a veteran commander taking control of a crew of fresh-faced sailors in a corner of the Pacific few back home had heard about; the nemesis, a Spaniard at the helm of his empire’s last stand in a far-flung colony. Both were aided by an efficient Belgian consul who brokered a plan to save Spanish honor, guarantee a bloodless victory, and, most important, keep the revolutionary native general in the dark about the entire operation. But before we get to the main attraction, the fanfare. By the time U.S. Navy Admiral George Dewey sailed into Manila Bay on May 1, 1898, to capture or destroy the Spanish fleet, a letter written by Spanish Ambassador Enrique Dupuy de Lome insulting President William McKinley had been published in William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal, an explosion aboard the U.S.S. Maine, harbored in Havana, had killed 246 sailors, and the U.S. Congress had passed the Teller Amendment, which “[disclaimed] any disposition of intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over [Cuba] except for pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people.”1 In late April, Congress declared war against Spain, and the U.S. Navy secretary cabled Admiral Dewey with orders to engage the enemy, not in the Caribbean but across the globe in the Philippines, where military commanders knew the empire 2 • Prologue was weakest, with a flotilla described as antiquated and decrepit. The Americans were not alone in Manila Bay. Bismarck’s unification of Germany in 1871 had created a powerful state with a per capita income that rivaled that in the United States. Coming late to the nineteenth-century land grab, the kaiser sent ships to both the Caribbean and the Pacific.2 While Britain had more at stake financially in the Philippines than other European powers, the Germans sent five warships to Manila, and London sent two. German Naval Commander Otto von Diederichs angered Dewey by refusing to honor the blockade, prompting the U.S. commander to say,“If Germany wants war, all right, we are ready.”3 In an interview after the May 1 battle, captains involved in the action claimed that “it was the hand of God that turned aside the Spanish shells on that morning and left our ships and men scatheless.” Dewey agreed: “Oh, yes, I believe it. God knows where all the shells went. . . . If I were the good Presbyterian some persons have said I am, I should certainly say that the Lord meant to punish Spain for her years of wickedness and misrule in these islands. We have taken an empire and have lost scarcely a man.”4 Not quite. While Dewey controlled the bay with a blockade, it was Filipino General Emilio Aguinaldo and his army that had success against the Spanish on land. By late May, the rebel leader’s troops had captured five thousand Spaniards and surrounded the walled city section of Intramuros in an attempt to starve the colonizing army. On June 12, Aguinaldo declared the Philippines free from Spain, the first such declaration of independence in Asia in the twentieth century. Washington refused recognition. The result was a standstill: a bay blockaded by the U.S. fleet; the outlying areas of Manila’s arrabales (suburbs) controlled by Filipino troops; and an increasingly frustrated Spanish administration cut off from support. Over the next two months, thousands of reinforcements for Dewey arrived from the United States. With the help of Belgian Consul Edouard André, Dewey began secret negotiations with his Spanish opposite, Governor-General Basilio Augustín. The Spanish commander, whose family had been taken prisoner by Filipino troops, sent a telegram to his superiors describing the harsh conditions the Spaniards faced in the city—starvation, sickness, weak and swollen legs from exposure while defending trenches, and low morale among the troops. For telling the truth and proposing surrender, Augustín was dismissed and ordered to transfer command to General Fermin Jaudenes, whose job it was to hold the city for Spain (“conservar las Filipinas a la soberania de la España”).5 Maintaining sovereignty over the islands would prove to be difficult, especially when military and administrative opinion began to turn against the powerful Catholic church in the Prologue • 3 colony. For example, Captain Don Juan de la Concha, in...

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