History of Southeast Asia

History of Southeast Asia


Episode 31: The Philippines, the Hollywood Years

October 16, 2017

With this episode, we begin a narrative completely in the twentieth century, so welcome to recent history! Here we also conclude the four-part miniseries about the Philippines, around the beginning of the twentieth century. This time we will cover the years from 1902 to 1941, looking at the minor wars that came after the Philippine Insurrection (or Philippine-American War, if you're politically correct), and seeing how Americans and Filipinos learned to work together, so that the Philippines can become independent someday.



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The first civilian governor that the United States put over the Philippines was a future US president, William Howard Taft. He served from 1900 to 1904, and because he weighed 325 lbs., Americans remember him as their biggest president. Here he is in 1901 riding a water buffalo, or as the Filipinos call it, a carabao. Can you tell which is bigger?



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And here a scene from the final battle of the Moro War, the battle of Bud Bagsak. This was painted in 1963, fifty years after the battle took place, so I have a feeling some details were left out, like the fact that the Moros had their families at the site of the battle.



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