Teresa Magbanua Part 4 - The Current Comes In

(Sounds of horse trotting)

How does one liberate an island nation, you might be asking.

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In some ways it seems simple. Or it does if you don’t want to think about the details. Really, you could suppose, if you get a critical number of islands under your belt, or flag as it were, then the islands should just flip over. 

Or that’s how it would work in a game. But for the soldiers fighting underneath Teresa Magbanua, this wasn’t a game. There wasn’t a thought experiment or a theoretical exercise. This was their reality, a reality with their very lives at stake. It was their hands that wielded the swords, figurative swords, and it was their lips that tasted liberation with two battles down. Twice their fearless Nanay Isa had crushed the Spanish beneath the feet of her horse. And there was still more fight in her. They could see it in her eyes. There was no one like her, many of her soldiers must have thought. Not just that there was no woman in her position, no other woman commanding an army, there was no general like their Nanay Isa. 

And she was leading them onward. She was leading them towards Iloilo City. She was leading them--she swore--to what would be their next victory.

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This was all happening in the latter part of 1898. These battles for Nanay Isa were one after another, in the span of about a month. In many ways, she had tunnel vision. And to her, that was just how things needed to be. There’s no room for distractions in a war that was moving that quickly. But at the same time, that meant that she and really no one else could anticipate the turning tides up ahead.

Dear Listener, do you think the Philippines were the only Spanish colony to be fed up with the force that ruled over them? Are you misremembering history and not fully realizing how much of the world the Spanish had declared their property in previous centuries? The fact remains, there had once been a great Spanish empire. Decades of exploration had left the world at their feet. But it was not to last. And the empire was soon left crumbling, its power across the globe weakening.

Events of that magnitude will always shape the landscape of the world. The loss of a power so great--justified or not--meant that there was a sphere of influence left open for another to inhabit. Or there would be soon enough. Even sooner than that if some things could be… hurried along a bit. 

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That’s what the United States was hoping would happen. The Spanish empire was in decline; its influence waning. And this meant that a fledging nation that had yet to establish the foothold it craved in global affairs had an opportunity. It fell into a chance that it could not turn away from. It fell into the opportunity to do what it had declared an imperative some years further: help orchestrate a break from the Americas and Europe that would mean the new countries once colonies would be able to truly decide their fates without interference.

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For this part of the tale, we have to turn away from the Philippines and cross the globe to Cuba and to an event that--in many ways--was a stronger deathnail to the Spanish Empire and its hold over its remaining colonies, than what the Filipinos could have ever hoped to put forth. To another nation that wanted independence from the Spanish but with some key differences. Cuba had the support of the United States, not an outward sort of support, nothing that Spain could have pointed to and called an act of war but something else.

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Tensions in the region continued to rise as Cuba pushed back against Spain in any way it could. What was once an outright war fizzled out a bit and became a strong undercurrent of social unrest. But though American citizens saw themselves in the Cubans struggling for independence from a foreign power, it was far too complicated of a situation for President McKinley to directly intervene. Even when the many economic interests of the United States were on the line, direct intervention was not necessarily something he could do. It was not within his abilities nor his duties.

And yet, he still had his duties. There were US citizens on the island that needed to be brought back to the United States and some other assets needed to be retrieved. For that, the USS Maine was sent. It was to retrieveUS citizens and goods to be brought back to the US. Except it did not.

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On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine sank in Havana Harbor, after a massive and destructive explosion that killed 250 out of the 355 soldiers on board. The facts of the situation appeared obvious. Clearly the Spanish military had blown up the ship as an act of retaliation. After all, the United States had been urging reforms, though stopping short of outright demanding Cuban independence, but it was a carefully towed line. No one had said it, and yet everyone knew what they meant. And even that hadn’t entirely gone over well. Even that had caused enough tension for an inevitable explosion, or some would say, but those who would have phrased it in those terms never meant a literal explosion but a figurative one. On either front, was that not what happened here? 

In the US, there was a formal reluctance to admit as such. President McKinley pleaded for patience, for people to not jump to conclusions, but at the same time, he also started to bolster the US defenses. Even he could see that war was inevitable at that point, and Spain knew it as well. There was no coming back from this. 

Even before the investigation by the US Navy was complete, newspapers and the public at large were already pushing for war. They had already decided what the truth was, and now they wanted direct action for it. They wanted revenge for the USS Maine, or retribution, for justice for all the soldiers who had died. These pleas were soon coupled with sensationalized horror stories about Spanish rule in Cuba. The arguments for war grew and grew, backed by circulated stories no one could argue against.

It really was to happen: a nation on a decline was going to go up against a nation on the rise. Spain turned to other European countries for assistance, but all they received were half-hearted platitudes. Of course Europe should respond as one, Germany said, but they offered no tangible help.

The US Navy’s report concluded that the ship’s powder magazines onboard the ship were ignited from an initial explosion outside the ship. Whereas, the Spanish investigation concluded was quite the opposite: that the initial explosion happened from within the ship. Now to be fair, that was the only conclusion that could have prevented war, but wasn’t war inevitable at that point? It was something the US had been hoping for, but hoping to have in such a way that left them the non-aggressor. And now, they couldn’t be the aggressor: it was Spain’s mistake, if not outright attack, and the rest of Europe was no longer going to come to their aid. No one would.

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The story of the Spanish-American War is long and carried by many pieces. It has numerous battles across various fronts and in various places led by various figures. I couldn’t even begin to trace out the history of it all here. That would be the sort of topic another podcast could take on. But what I can say is this: Spain did not fare well. For many reasons, but remember that at this point, many of their former colonies were also against them. Spain had published various pleas in newspapers across Manila for Filipinos to prepare to fight for the Spanish when--not if--the United States brought war to that front. This plea went out in April of 1898, and of course, this request would be summarily rejected. No help came for the Spanish. Quite the opposite in fact. 

With their forces divided and defeats piling up from all sides, Spain appealed for peace and negotiations began between Spain and the United States. And wouldn’t you have guessed it, but everyone else--all the various peoples fighting for their freedom--were largely left out of the conversation. Their fates still in the hands of Spanish forces who could not fully accept how badly they had lost.

The Spanish American War was ended by the Treaty of Paris of 1898 signed on the 10th of December of that year and set to go into effect the following April. This was the document that would decide the fate of so many who were unrepresented at those talks, including Teresa Magbanua and her troops. This was the moment that would decide the outcome, regardless of her achievements. Those negotiations had the power to change the stakes of every battle she fought and won.

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In this treaty, Cuba did have its independence in name, though there were strong stipulations and guidelines that gave the US great influence over the small island nation. 

And the Philippines along with Guam and Puerto Rico would go to the United States.

In time, of course. These were the initial terms that had to be accepted by the home governments. And the US would still need some time to fully establish its presence in Manila. But this treaty came to be in December of 1898 while Teresa Magbanua marched her troops and fought for a freedom she would not fully know.

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This has been a production of Miscellany Media Studios with music licensed from the Sounds like an Earful music supply. Thanks for listening! Find more information about our shows at miscellanymedia.online or follow us on Twitter @miscellanymedia for updates on current and future projects.

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