1.
Commonwealth of the Philippines
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It replaced the Insular Government, a United States territorial government, and was established by the Tydings–McDuffie Act. The Commonwealth was designed as an administration in preparation for the countrys full achievement of independence. During its more than a decade of existence, the Commonwealth had a strong executive and its legislature, dominated by the Nacionalista Party, was at first unicameral, but later bicameral. In 1937, the government selected Tagalog–the language of Manila and its surrounding provinces–as the basis of the national language, womens suffrage was adopted and the economy recovered to its pre-Depression level before the Japanese occupation in 1942. The Commonwealth government went into exile from 1942 to 1945, when the Philippines was under Japanese occupation, in 1946, the Commonwealth ended and the Philippines claimed full sovereignty as provided for in Article XVIII of the 1935 Constitution. The Commonwealth of the Philippines was also known as the Philippine Commonwealth and it had official names in Tagalog, Kómonwélt ng Pilipinas and Spanish, Mancomunidad de Filipinas. The 1935 constitution specifies the Philippines as the short form name and uses the Philippine Islands only to refer to pre-1935 status. Under the Insular Government, both terms had official status, the pre-1935 U. S. territorial administration, or Insular Government, was headed by a governor general who was appointed by the president of the United States. In December 1932, the U. S. Congress passed the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act with the premise of granting Filipinos independence, provisions of the bill included reserving several military and naval bases for the United States, as well as imposing tariffs and quotas on Philippine exports. The bill, however, was opposed by the then Philippine Senate President Manuel L. Quezon and was rejected by the Philippine Senate. A Constitutional Convention was convened in Manila on July 30,1934, on February 8,1935, the 1935 Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Philippines was approved by the convention by a vote of 177 to 1. The constitution was approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 23,1935, on 17 September 1935, presidential elections were held. Candidates included former president Emilio Aguinaldo, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente leader Gregorio Aglipay, Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña of the Nacionalista Party were proclaimed the winners, winning the seats of president and vice-president, respectively. The Commonwealth Government was inaugurated on the morning of November 15,1935, the event was attended by a crowd of around 300,000 people. The new government embarked on ambitious nation-building policies in preparation for economic, a proper evaluation of the policies effectiveness or failure is difficult due to Japanese invasion and occupation during World War II. Japan launched an attack on the Philippines on December 8,1941. The Commonwealth government drafted the Philippine Army into the U. S. Army Forces Far East, Manila was declared an open city to prevent its destruction, and it was occupied by the Japanese on January 2,1942. Meanwhile, battles against the Japanese continued on the Bataan Peninsula, Corregidor and this government participated in the Pacific War Council as well as the Declaration by United Nations
2.
Philippine Army
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The Philippine Army, is the main, oldest and largest branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines responsible for ground warfare. Commanding General, Lieutenant General Eduardo Año, former Chief of Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and its main headquarters is located at Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, Metro Manila. Years of Spanish rule, which dragged on to almost three centuries made the Filipinos restive and they were soon clamoring for reforms and an end to oppressive friar rule. In 1896, Andres Bonifacio founded the Katipunan to prepare his band of freedom loving Filipinos for armed revolt, the Katipunan formed the nucleus of the Revolutionary Army. General Artemio Ricarte was named Captain General of the Ejercito en la Republica de las Islas Filipinas or the revolutionary Philippine Army and this date marks the founding day of the modern day Philippine Army. On June 12,1898, General Emilio Aguinaldo declared Philippine Independence from Spain and formed the first Philippine Republic, the treaty ceded the Philippines to the United States. On February 4,1899, the Filipino-American War erupted, due to the superiority of American arms, the Filipinos fell from one position to another until they were forced to disband. Even after the cessation of hostilities and as the Americans have established government in 1901. Between that time until 1935, the army lost many of its cohorts in sporadic engagements with American troops. Both of these organizations and their victories over the PRA contributed to the end of the conflict in 1902. Starting in 1910, Filipino personnel in the Philippine Scouts were sent to the United States Military Academy with one PS soldier being sent per year. Several of these graduates who served with the Scouts, plus PC officers, the Philippine Army of today was initially organized under the National Defense Act of 1935 that formally created the Armed Forces of the Philippines. After the establishment of the Philippine Commonwealth on November 15,1935, the official rebirth of the Philippine Army occurred with the passage of Commonwealth Act No. 1, approved on December 21,1935, which effected the organization of a Council of National Defense, the act set forth the organizational structure of the army in some detail, set forth enlistment procedures, and established mobilization procedures. With this act, the AFP was officially established, the development of the new Philippine Army was slow. The commander of the Philippine Department provided Philippine Scouts as instructors and detailed U. S. Army officers to assist in the inspection, instruction, by the end of the year instructors had been trained and camps established. The first group of 20,000 men was called up on January 1,1937, coast artillery instruction was carried on at Fort Stotsenburg and at Grande Island in Subic Bay by personnel supplied largely by the American commander at Corregidor. On the same date, U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Presidential Order did not order all the military forces of the Philippine government into the service of the United States Armed Forces
3.
Infantry
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Infantry is the general branch of an army that engages in military combat on foot. As the troops who engage with the enemy in close-ranged combat, infantry units bear the largest brunt of warfare, Infantry can enter and maneuver in terrain that is inaccessible to military vehicles and employ crew-served infantry weapons that provide greater and more sustained firepower. In English, the 16th-century term Infantry describes soldiers who walk to the battlefield, and there engage, fight, the term arose in Sixteenth-Century Spain, which boasted one of the first professional standing armies seen in Europe since the days of Rome. It was common to appoint royal princes to military commands, and the men under them became known as Infanteria. in the Canadian Army, the role of the infantry is to close with, and destroy the enemy. In the U. S. Army, the closes with the enemy, by means of fire and maneuver, in order to destroy or capture him, or to repel his assault by fire, close combat. In the U. S. Marine Corps, the role of the infantry is to locate, close with, and destroy the enemy fire and maneuver. Beginning with the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, artillery has become a dominant force on the battlefield. Since World War I, combat aircraft and armoured vehicles have become dominant. In 20th and 21st century warfare, infantry functions most effectively as part of a combined arms team including artillery, armour, Infantry relies on organized formations to be employed in battle. These have evolved over time, but remain a key element to effective infantry development and deployment, until the end of the 19th century, infantry units were for the most part employed in close formations up until contact with the enemy. This allowed commanders to control of the unit, especially while maneuvering. The development of guns and other weapons with increased firepower forced infantry units to disperse in order to make them less vulnerable to such weapons. This decentralization of command was made possible by improved communications equipment, among the various subtypes of infantry is Medium infantry. This refers to infantry which are heavily armed and armored than heavy infantry. In the early period, medium infantry were largely eliminated due to discontinued use of body armour up until the 20th century. In the United States Army, Stryker Infantry is considered Medium Infantry, since they are heavier than light infantry, Infantry doctrine is the concise expression of how infantry forces contribute to campaigns, major operations, battles, and engagements. It is a guide to action, not a set of hard, doctrine provides a very common frame of reference across the military forces, allowing the infantry to function cooperatively in what are now called combined arms operations. Doctrine helps standardise operations, facilitating readiness by establishing common ways of accomplishing infantry tasks, doctrine links theory, history, experimentation, and practice
4.
Division (military)
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A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. Infantry divisions during the World Wars ranged between 10,000 and 30,000 in nominal strength, in most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. In the West, the first general to think of organising an army into smaller units was Maurice de Saxe, Marshal General of France. He died at the age of 54, without having implemented his idea, victor-François de Broglie put the ideas into practice. He conducted successful practical experiments of the system in the Seven Years War. The first war in which the system was used systematically was the French Revolutionary War. It made the more flexible and easy to manoeuvre. Under Napoleon, the divisions were grouped together into corps, because of their increasing size, napoleons military success spread the divisional and corps system all over Europe, by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, all armies in Europe had adopted it. In modern times, most military forces have standardized their divisional structures, the peak use of the division as the primary combat unit occurred during World War II, when the belligerents deployed over a thousand divisions. With technological advances since then, the power of each division has increased. Divisions are often formed to organize units of a particular type together with support units to allow independent operations. In more recent times, divisions have mainly been organized as combined arms units with subordinate units representing various combat arms, in this case, the division often retains the name of a more specialized division, and may still be tasked with a primary role suited to that specialization. For the most part, large cavalry units did not remain after World War II, in general, two new types of cavalry were developed, air cavalry or airmobile, relying on helicopter mobility, and armored cavalry, based on an autonomous armored formation. The former was pioneered by the 11th Air Assault Division, formed on 1 February 1963 at Fort Benning, on 29 June 1965 the division was renamed as the 1st Cavalry Division, before its departure for the Vietnam War. After the end of the Vietnam War, the 1st Cavalry Division was reorganised and re-equipped with tanks, the development of the tank during World War I prompted some nations to experiment with forming them into division-size units. Many did this the way as they did cavalry divisions, by merely replacing cavalry with AFVs. This proved unwieldy in combat, as the units had many tanks, instead, a more balanced approach was taken by adjusting the number of tank, infantry, artillery, and support units. A panzer division was a division of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS of Germany during World War II
5.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
6.
United States Army Forces in the Far East
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United States Army Forces in the Far East was a military formation of the United States Army active from 1941 to 1946. The new commands headquarters was created on July 26,1941,1, Calle Victoria, Manila, Luzon, the Philippines, with General Douglas MacArthur as commander. The Chief of Staff was Brigadier General Richard K. Sutherland, the core of this command was drawn from the Office of the Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government. MacArthur explains, It became an administrative echelon and it was analogous to a corps area. MacArthur recommended that Philippine Department commander Major General Grunert be reassigned, on October 23, Grunert returned to the United States and MacArthur was temporarily appointed as the Philippine Departments commander. It does not appear this idea was considered until Douglas MacArthur suggested, to the Army Chief of Staff. On June 6, Acting Chief of the War Plans Division Brigadier General Leonard T. Gerow noted that he saw no need for such a command, as US Forces in the Far East were concentrated in the Philippines. As such, Gerow argued that should a crisis occur, then MacArthur should become the commander of, not some new command, but rather, of the Philippine Department itself. On June 20, Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall informed MacArthur, Both the Secretary of War and your qualifications and experience make you the logical selection for the Army Commander in the Far East should the situation approach a crisis. The Secretary has delayed recommending your appointment as he does not feel the time has arrived for such action, at the proper time, he will recommend to the President that you be so appointed. S. Army reserve officers be sent to the Philippines to assist in mobilization, on July 25, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson requested that President Roosevelt issue orders calling the military forces of the Commonwealth into active service for the United States. Stimson explains, All practical steps should be taken to increase the strength of the Philippine Islands. The following day, Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets within the United States and that same day, the War Department created the USAFFE command, with jurisdiction over the Philippine Department and the military forces of Commonwealth of the Philippines. At the same time, MacArthur was recalled to duty as the USAFFE commander, from his positions as military advisor to the Philippine government. The short-lived American-British-Dutch-Australian Command was formed on January 1,1942, to control all Allied forces in South East Asia, ABDACOM nominally controlled USAFFE forces, although the latter was effectively an independent force. In March, due to the worsening Allied position in Asia, macArthurs famous speech regarding the Philippines, in which he said, I came out of Bataan and I shall return was made at Terowie, South Australia on March 20. General Jonathan Wainwright officially assumed control of the forces in the Philippines. On April 18,1942, ABDACOM was replaced by General Headquarters, Southwest Pacific Area in Melbourne, Australia, MacArthur was appointed Supreme Commander, SWPA
7.
Mindanao
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Mindanao is the second largest and southernmost major island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three groups in the country, consisting of the island of Mindanao and smaller outlying islands. As of the 2010 census, the population itself is 20,281,545 people, while the Mindanao island group has 21,968,174 inhabitants. Davao City is the most populous city in Mindanao hosting 1,632,991 people, followed by Zamboanga City, Cagayan de Oro City, the island has seen a communist insurgency as well as armed Moro separatist movements. Mindanao is considered the food basket of the Philippines, eight of the top 10 agri-commodities exported from the Philippines come from here. Mindanao is also dubbed with the monikers The Philippines Land of Promise, although many attempts made, it was never occupied by Spain for their 333 years of stay in Luzon and Visayas. Yet during Spains defeat and Treaty of Paris in 1898, they illegally included by coordinates Mindanao, evidence of human occupation dates back tens of thousands of years. In prehistoric times the Negrito people arrived, sometime around 1500 BC, Austronesian peoples spread throughout the Philippines and far beyond. Native people of the Maluku Islands refer the island as Maluku Besar, the evidence of old stone tools in Zamboanga del Norte may indicate a late Neolithic presence. Ceramic burial jars, both unglazed and glazed, as well as Chinese celadons, have found in caves, together with shell bracelets, beads. Many of the objects are from the Yuan and Ming periods. Evidently, there was a history of trade between the Subanon and the Chinese long before the latter’s contact with Islam. In the Classic epoch of Philippine history, the people of Mindanao were heavily exposed to Hindu and Buddhist influence and beliefs from Indonesia, artifacts found from this era include the Golden kinnara, Golden Tara, and the Ganesh pendant. These cultural traits passed through Mindanao into the Visayas and Luzon, in coastal areas, the Hindu-Buddhist cultural revolution was strongest, whereas in interior parts, influences were indigenized into local animist beliefs and customs and appeared more subtly. The Darangen epic of the Maranao people harkens back to this era as the most compete local version of the Ramayana. The Maguindanao at this also had strong Hindu beliefs, evidenced by the Ladya Lawana epic saga that survives to the modern day. The Rajahnate of Butuan, a kingdom mentioned in Chinese records as a tributary state in the 10th century AD, was concentrated along the northeastern coast of the island around Butuan. The coming of Islam happened in the 14th century, the first mosque in the Philippines was built in the mid-14th century in the town of Simunul
Commonwealth of the Philippines![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small}
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the