1898-1916 1941-1945







The Philippines, 1916-1935


Administration . In 1916, U.S. Congress passed the Philippine Autonomy Act (Jones Law). It created a Filipino-only bicameral legislature consisting a Senate and a House. Manuel L. Quezon served as President of the Philippine Senate 1916-1935. His authority was limited by that of the U.S. Governor General of the Philippines.
Since 1907, the Philippines were represented in U.S. Congress by a Resident Commissioner.
In 1934, U.S. Congress passed the Philippine Independence Act; following a plebiscite the Commonwealth of the Philippines was established in 1935.

World War I . In 1918 25,000 Filipinos served in the U.S. Army in Europe.

The Economy . In the years under US administration, the area under cultivation steadily increased (1916 : 1.2 million hectares planted with rice, in 1935 2.0 million hectares (IHS p.158)). Main agricultural products were rice, sugar cane, maize, copra, Manila hemp; main livestock held hogs, water buffalo and cattle. In 1916, the Philippines produces 0.9 million metric tons of rice, in 1935 1.8 million metric tons (IHS p.194).
In 1920, the Philippines had 8,300 passenger cars and 2,700 commercial vehicles in use; the respective numbers for 1935 were 27,000 and 16,000 (IHS pp.756-757).

Social History . Jan Lahmeyer gives population estimates of 9.5 million for 1916 and 14.7 million for 1935.

Cultural History . In 1917 the Adventist University of the Philippines was established in Cavite.
Manila hosted the 4th Far Eastern Games in 1919, the 7th Far Eastern Games in 1925 and the 10th Far Eastern Games in 1934.
Filipino athletes participated in the Summer Olympics of Paris 1924, Amsterdam 1928 and Los Angeles 1932. Swimmer Teofilo Ildefonso won bronze medals in 1928 and 1932.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		American Colony and Philippine Commonwealth 1901 - 1941 , from A Centennial History of Philippine Independence, 1898-1998 by Fraser Weir
Article Philipine Autonomy Act, Philippine Senate, Manuel L. Quezon, Governor General of the Philippines, Philippines at the 1924 Summer Olympics, Philippines at the 1928 Summer Olympics, Philippines at the 1932 Summer Olympics, Resident Commissioners of the Philippines, Adventist University of the Philippines, Far Eastern Championship Games, Military History of the Philippines : World War I, Philippine Department, from Wikipedia
DOCUMENTS World Statesmen : Philippines, by Ben Cahoon
Historical Population Statistics : The Philippines, from Population Statistics (Jan Lahmeyer)
REFERENCE IHS : International Historical Statistics : Africa, Asia & Oceania 1750-2000, edited by B.R. Mitchell, Basingstoke : Palgrave MacMillan 4th ed. 2003
Article : Philippine Islands, in : Americana Annual 1927 pp.673-679, 1928 pp.619-623, 1930 pp.609-610, 1931 pp.596-598, 1932 pp.563-565, 1933 pp.599-602, 1934 pp.466-468, 1935 pp.561-562 [G]
Article : Philippines, in : New International Year Book 1919 pp.514-517, 1920 pp.528-530, 1921 pp.548-552, 1923 pp.576-580, 1925 pp.543-545, 1928 pp.585-586, 1930 pp.608-611, 1932 pp.642-646, 1933 pp.645-647, 1934 pp.553-555, 1935 pp.569-572 [G]
Article : Philippines, in : Funk & Wagnall's New Standard Encyclopedia Year Book 1932 pp.432-433, 1933 pp.421-423, 1934 pp.431-433, 1935 pp.428-431 [G]
Article : Philippine Islands, in : Statesman's Year Book 1918 pp.617-622, 1919 pp.625-630, 1924 pp.634-639, 1925 pp.637-643, 1926 pp.619-624, 1928 pp.625-630, 1929 pp.620-625, 1932 pp.624-629 [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on May 11th 2002, last revised on September 14th 2008

Click here to go Home
Click here to go to Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster
Click here to go to Statistics