The American Legacy The Philippine-American War (1899 – 1902) Philippines • 20,000 soldiers killed in action. • 200,000 estimated civilians dead. Some historians place the number of civilian casualty at 500,000 or higher. U.S. • 4,390 dead: 1,053 killed in action; 3,337 other deaths. • 2,818 wounded. assurances that the US recognized the revolution and wanted to help in the struggle for independence as they were doing in Cuba and that the US had no intention of taking the Philippines as a colony. Aguinaldo believed the sincerity of Dewey and agreed to cooperate. This would be a fatal mistake. 2. Was the Philippine-American War approved by US Congress? There was never a congressional resolution nor a budget allocation to wage a war against the Philippine Republic as was the standard practice of the United States in declaring wars. US war veterans of the Philippine-American War are classified as US pensioners of the Spanish-American War. Congress never appropriated money for the invasion of the Philippines and an attack on the revolutionary forces. Annexationists within the US government (through President McKinley) and annexationists in the US Senate conspired to tap appropriated funds for the Spanish-American War to be used for the Philippine-American War. Theodore Roosevelt was never punished for his misdeeds because he became President. 3. Was there popular support from the American people for the independence of the Philippines? The Philippine Republic (1898) found powerful allies among liberals in the United States who opposed the annexationist plot 53