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The Philippines (U.S. Territory)
An American possession for nearly half a century, 1898–1946
Former 1898–1946
The most populous territory the United States ever governed lay on the far side of the Pacific. Spain ceded the Philippine Islands, more than 7,000 of them, to the U.S. for $20 million under the Treaty of Paris in December 1898, at the end of the Spanish–American War. Filipino revolutionaries, who had already declared independence, fought back, and the Philippine–American War that followed killed thousands of soldiers on both sides and at least 200,000 Filipino civilians, many from disease and famine, before the U.S. declared it over in 1902.
American rule brought English-language public schools, roads and an elected legislature, but always as a colony. The Tydings–McDuffie Act of 1934 set a path to independence, and in 1935 the islands became a self-governing commonwealth. Japan invaded in December 1941 and occupied the islands until 1945, in fighting that devastated Manila. On July 4, 1946, the Philippines became an independent republic. Filipinos who came to the U.S. as 'nationals' during the territorial years laid the foundations of today's large Filipino American community.