The Philippines gained full independence from the United States in 1946.
In 1898, the Spanish-American War began in Cuba and later spread to the Philippine archipelago, already submerged in a revolt. On June 12, 1898, Aguinaldo declared the Philippine independence of Spain. On the other hand, when Spain lost the war, it signed the Treaty of Paris in 1898, in which it ceded the dominion of the islands to the United States. As it became increasingly evident that the United States would not recognize the First Philippine Republic, the Philippine-American War broke out. When losing the conflict, the archipelago ended up under total American control, since until then it had been administered like an insular area; In 1935, the Philippines obtained the status of "Associated Free State" under the name of the Philippine Commonwealth.
In the following decade, plans to regain independence were interrupted by World War II, particularly when the Japanese Empire invaded the country and established a puppet government, the Second Philippine Republic. During the conflict, multiple war crimes were committed, such as the Batan Death March and the Manila Massacre, which culminated in the battle of Manila. By the time the Allied troops had defeated the Japanese in 1945, more than a million Philippines had died, and finally, on July 4, 1946, the Philippines achieved its independence from the US government.
