First Philippine Republic
The Philippine Republic (Spanish: República Filipina), now officially remembered as the First Philippine Republic and also referred to by historians as the Malolos Republic, was established in Malolos, Bulacan during the Philippine Revolution against the Spanish Empire (1896–1898) and the Spanish–American War between Spain and the United States (1898) through the promulgation of the Malolos Constitution on January 22, 1899, succeeding the Revolutionary Government of the Philippines. It was formally established with Emilio Aguinaldo as president. It maintained governance until April 1, 1901.
Philippine Republic | |||||||||||||
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| 1899–1901 | |||||||||||||
| Motto: Libertad, Justicia, y Igualidad (English: "Liberty, Justice, and Equality") | |||||||||||||
| Anthem: Marcha Nacional Filipina (English: "Philippine National March") | |||||||||||||
Territory controlled by the Philippine Republic, most of which it occupied except Manila and parts of Mindanao. | |||||||||||||
| Status | Unrecognized state | ||||||||||||
| Capital and largest city | Malolos | ||||||||||||
| Official languages | Spanish | ||||||||||||
| Religion | Secular state Majority: Roman Catholicism Minority: Folk religion, Sunni Islam | ||||||||||||
| Demonym(s) | Filipino | ||||||||||||
| Government | 1899: Unitary parliamentary constitutional republic under a military dictatorship 1899–1901: Unitary parliamentary republic with an executive presidency constitutional republic | ||||||||||||
| President | |||||||||||||
• 1899–1901 | Emilio Aguinaldo (first) | ||||||||||||
• 1901–1902 | Miguel Malvar (last; unofficial) | ||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||||||
• 1899 | Apolinario Mabini (first) | ||||||||||||
• 1899 | Pedro Paterno (last) | ||||||||||||
| Legislature | National Assembly | ||||||||||||
| Historical era | Philippine–American War | ||||||||||||
| January 23, 1899 | |||||||||||||
| April 1, 1901 | |||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
| 1898 | 298,719 km2 (115,336 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
• 1898 | 7,832,719 | ||||||||||||
| Currency | Peso | ||||||||||||
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| History of the Philippines |
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| Timeline |
| Philippines portal |
Following the American victory at the Battle of Manila Bay, Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines, issued the Philippine Declaration of Independence on June 12, 1898, and proclaimed successive revolutionary Philippine governments on June 18 and 23 of that year.
In December 1898, Spain and the United States signed the 1898 Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish–American war. As part of the treaty, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States. The treaty was not formally proclaimed until April 11, 1899, when mutual ratifications were exchanged. In the meantime, on January 23, 1899, the Malolos Constitution establishing the First Philippine Republic had been proclaimed and, on February 4, 1899, fighting had erupted in Manila between American and Filipino forces in what developed into the Philippine–American War. Aguinaldo was captured by the American forces on March 23, 1901, in Palanan, Isabela, He declared allegiance to the U.S. on April 19, 1901, effectively ending the Philippine Republic.
The First Philippine Republic is sometimes characterized as the first proper constitutional republic in Asia, although there were several Asian republics predating it – for example, the Mahajanapadas of ancient India, the Lanfang Republic, the Republic of Formosa, or the Republic of Ezo. Aguinaldo himself had led a number of governments prior to Malolos, like those established at Tejeros and Biak-na-Bato which both styled themselves República de Filipinas ("Republic of the Philippines"). Unlike the founding documents of those governments, however, the Malolos Constitution was duly approved by a partially elected congress and called for a true representative democracy.