Struggle, Sacrifice and Victory: The Rise of the Filipino Nation

Red Horse

.

"Victory is the child
of struggle...

...and redemption is
a product of
sacrifice."


Background

Spain was reduced to a second-rate power by the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Its army and economy was a shadow of its former self. Its once prestigious colonial empire was now crumbling, as New Spain, New Granada, Peru and Rio de la Plata severed its connection to the crown and proclaimed independence. The restored king Fernando VII thought that the only way to save his decaying kingdom was to restore the Way of the Bourbons: absolute rule. So he abolished the 1812 Constitution and launched a crackdown agains liberal elements.

Unfortunately, the Felon King was dead wrong.

In 1820, Colonel Rafael del Riego staged an uprising against Fernando. His movement quickly spread throughout Spain and by March, Madrid was seized and the king reluctantly reinstated the constitution. But this didn't alleviate Spain's dire situation. Despite the restoration of the Cortes, constant bickering and violence between the Liberals and Conservatives promoted instability and made the new government ineffective. On the sidelines, Fernando saw an opportunity to regain his power, and asked for help from Spain's neighbors.

After the loss of Latin America, the peninsular government started to mistrust the criollos and mestizos. And in order to prevent any more secession, they attempted to reassert control of colonial governments by placing peninsular officials to positions of importance. This new policy was unanimously implemented in Spain's remaining possessions. This includes the Philippine Islands. The Philippines was just beginning to experience economic progress after Manila was opened to global trade. The rising middle class becamed influenced by the ideas of Enlightenment, and started to demand reforms from the colonial administration. And such was the outrage when the local criollos found out the new policy, which they labeled as a form of discrimination. They tried to appeal it, but to no avail. There were also some dissenters from the colonial army, led by a captain named Andrés Novales. The government, as expected, refused the demands and enacted precautionary measures by sending the criollo soldiers to Mindanao, to pacify the Moro tribes. When Novales discovered the order, he decided to do something about it.

The next chain of events marked the beginning of a new chapter in Philippine history.
 
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Red Horse

Events in the Philippines

A Turning Point

On 1 June, Andrés Novales defied the orders of his superiors. Instead he led 800 men back into the walls of Manila. The mutineers successfully seized government buildings and churches. However their prized targets, Governor General Juan Antonio Martínez and Lieutenant Governor Mariano Rodríguez de Folgueras, managed to escape the chaos, and rode all the way to Pampanga.

In a span of a few hours, almost the entire Manila is fell into rebel hands. But Novales soon discovered that there is still one thing that stands in his way: Fort Santiago, and its commander is none other than Andrés' brother Antonio. Thus the mutineers, now bolstered with new defectors, marched onto the gates of the venerable citadel to demand its surrender. Andrés at first peacefully requested to Antonio that he open the gates of Fort Santiago, but the latter refused. However, Antonio's subordinates had other ideas. Instead of following Antonio's orders to resist, they seized their commander and opened the gates themselves, effectively defecting to the side of the mutineers [1].

A War Begins

The next day, Spanish army detachments from the peripherals of Manila, attempted to destroy the growing rebellion, but the populace, now supportive of Andrés Novales, rose up in revolt against their colonial masters. A few days later, the provinces of Cavite, Batangas, Bulacan, La Laguna, Tayabas, Camarines and Ibalon joined the fray and toppled their own colonial governments, putting up independent juntas in its place. On 9 June, under Novales' request, members the patriotic society Hijos del País (Sons of the Country) led by notable liberalist Luis Rodríguez Varela and other liberal-minded intellectuals convened in the town of Imus to create a new government and to set up the provisions for drafting a constitution. Varela encouraged participation from the provinces and sent invitations to each one, urging them to send delegation to the congress. On the other hand, Governor Martínez finally started the march from his camp at San Fernando to retake the rebelling provinces.

The success of Novales had also found its way in the navy. By 10 June, criollo officers, merchants and seamen stationed at Cavite Nuevo launched their own mutiny by taking over the ships and seizing their peninsular commanders. The rebel fleet then launched several surprise attacks against Royalist ships around Manila Bay, securing the southern provinces for the Revolutionists.

After some deliberations, the Imus Congress, in front of a euphoric crowd, finally declared the independence of the Philippines from the Spanish Crown on 12 June 1823, naming the new country as the Philippine Republic. Afterwards, preparations were conducted for the new nation's first parliamentary elections.


***

[1] This is the POD
 
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Red Horse

Events in the Philippines

The War Rages On

The Royalists initially held the advantage in terms of weaponry and organization. This made Martínez confident that he could crush the rebellion in matter of weeks. But as Murphy's Law states, everything that could go wrong, will go wrong. On 15 June, Royalist and Revolutionist forces fought at Quingua. There, the Revolutionists scored an upset by using asymmetrical tactics against a superior foe. Couple with harassments from local militias, the Royalists found it difficult to secure their territorial holdings. Meanwhile another Royalist army under Folgueras invaded the province of Tayabas. On 18 June, he faced resistance from the Revolutionists under Regino Mijares around Baler. The battle goes on for three days, and the Royalists were repulsed. The string of Revolutionist victories bolstered more provinces to oust their Spanish rulers. On 22 June, uprisings broke out in Ilocos, Pangasinan and Zambales, causing Martínez to spread his forces further. Novales seized the opportunity and took his forces up to the southern bank of Pampanga River, just a few kilometers away from San Fernando.

Consolidating the Gains

The republic's first elections were held in Manila on 21 June. Luis Rodríguez Varela won by a large margin, and was sworn in as the first president of the provisional Supreme Junta during the very first session of the Asamblea Nacional, with Pedro Pérez de Tagle as vice-president. One of Varela's first acts was the formal organization of a regular army to prosecute the war, and a navy to secure the seas. Pursuant to this aim, the Revolutionist government decreed the formation of the Philippine Revolutionary Army was on 26 June with Andrés Novales as its first Captain General, and the Philippine Navy on 28 June, under the jurisdiction of the newly-created Department of War. The Revolutionist ranks were strengthened further with the addition of the famous insurgent armies of Juan de Silvestre and Luis de los Santos, who had rebelled against the Spaniards since 1822.

The Revolt Expands

The revolutionary wave finally reached Visayas the following month, through a series of uprisings in Capiz (5 July), Negros (7 July), Samar (10 July) and Leyte (16 July). Despite significant support for the Royalists (mostly from the numerous Spanish land-owners), the colonial administrations in Visayas were quickly topple by the indio-dominated peasant armies, as the Spanish military presence there were much smaller than that of Luzon.

On 12 July, Silvestre was put in charge of assembling an expeditionary force, named the Army of the South, to finally bring about the liberation of Visayas. The task wasn't an easy one. The Royalist navy, despite being weakened by mutinies, still packs a punch, and thus remained a major threat to any overseas operations. Expectedly, the burden lies on the rebel navy, who was still organizing itself. Secretary of War José de Azcarraga thus turned to the immediate solution: privateering. So, he issued a letter of marque against Royalist ships to give their fledgling navy a much needed time. The result was astounding. Hundreds of armed merchant vessels and local (mostly Chinese) pirates flocked to the service of the government, jumping at the opportunity to get back at the Spaniards. This privateer fleet would make the Royalist navy busy for the next two months. The Philippine Navy took this grace period to sort out itself, by enlisting more volunteers and to find an suitable naval commander to lead them into battle. As for the latter, the junta began to send agents abroad to search for its fleet's first admiral.
 
Why a republic? Unless you failed to butterfly or mention it, Did Novales voluntary give up his emperorship?

Why a rural area place like imus? The rebels are in control of Manila. Its easier to gather a congress in the premiere city of the colony, more facilities, more protection. You have to think in the mindset of those people who are going to form a congress and think if they are even willing to even go to imus over Manila. Since this is a creole started rebellion, do you think the hacienderos/dons and city boys prefer to go there?

Picking imus over Manila is like picking a farm town over Philadelphia, New York or London or Paris without a valid reason.
 

Red Horse

Why a republic? Unless you failed to butterfly or mention it, Did Novales voluntary give up his emperorship?

He was proclaimed Emperor by his men. And he was fighting at the fronlines, so he can't declare himself emperor. Let's assume here that declined.

And the ilustrados would definitely reject a monarchy. So a republic was the obvious choice.

Why a rural area place like imus? The rebels are in control of Manila. Its easier to gather a congress in the premiere city of the colony, more facilities, more protection. You have to think in the mindset of those people who are going to form a congress and think if they are even willing to even go to imus over Manila. Since this is a creole started rebellion, do you think the hacienderos/dons and city boys prefer to go there?

Picking imus over Manila is like picking a farm town over Philadelphia, New York or London or Paris without a valid reason.

Manila is still in chaos at this time. And under threat from a counter-attack from Corregidor and Bataan. So the delegates chose a much safer place. But as you read the latter part of the update, they eventually moved to Manila for the parliamentary session, as they assumed that it was then safe (the remains of the Royalist fleet retreated further north after the mutinies)

All in all, sorry for the confusion. I'll fix it later, probably in future updates.
 
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Red Horse

A Question...

How's my timeline so far? Anything you guys want to say?
 
He was proclaimed Emperor by his men. And he was fighting at the fronlines, so he can't declare himself emperor. Let's assume here that declined.

And the ilustrados would definitely reject a monarchy. So a republic was the obvious choice.

Manila is still in chaos at this time. And under threat from a counter-attack from Corregidor and Bataan. So the delegates chose a much safer place. But as you read the latter part of the update, they eventually moved to Manila for the parliamentary session, as they assumed that it was then safe (the remains of the Royalist fleet retreated further north after the mutinies)

All in all, sorry for the confusion. I'll fix it later, probably in future updates.

Illustrados? What timeframe are you even looking at 1896 or 1823? Illustrados in PI are virtually non existent in 1820s. The creoles/insulares/hacienderos/dons already do.

Please check if what you are creating is even plausible.
 

Mercenarius

Banned
Illustrados in PI are virtually non existent in 1820s.

The ilustrados started to emerge around that timeframe. Varela was actually part of its first generation, as he's the one who first used the word "Filipino" in a nationalistic sense.
 
The ilustrados started to emerge around that timeframe. Varela was actually part of its first generation, as he's the one who first used the word "Filipino" in a nationalistic sense.

And who else of these illustrados wont let Novales become emperor? A republic in a snap is mostly impossible when the one physically in control of the territories has just been declared by the military as their emperor. Novales can literally disband the Parliament and nobody can do anything about it. Consent of the one in power is important.
 

Mercenarius

Banned
A republic in a snap is mostly impossible when the one physically in control of the territories has just been declared by the military as their emperor. Novales can literally disband the Parliament and nobody can do anything about it. Consent of the one in power is important.

Well... you got a point there.
 
Hi, I'm working on a timeline that needs an independent Philippines before 1905. Depending on where this goes, I might ask you for advice or even permission to borrow some elements. Looking forwards to reading this, it seems interesting :D
 
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