Since the middle of the sixteenth century, the Philippines had been part of the Spanish Empire.

A secret group called ”Katipunan’ consisting of Philippine activists who wanted independence had been uncovered in 1896. This led to the beginning of the struggle for independence.

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Filipino priests were among the first to voice their opposition to Spanish rule. They resented for the Spanish domination in Roman Catholic Churches, the religious leaders met with the nation’s intellectuals to discuss the country’s independence.

By 1897, a truce had been signed between the revolutionaries and the Spanish with the leaders of the revolution accepting to be exiled outside the Philippines.

In 1898, after attacks on American interests in the region by the Spanish during the Spanish-American War, the US gave support to the independence movement, bringing back the rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo from exile, who rallied local Filipino support.

United against the Spanish with the American forces, over 300 hundred years of Spanish rule was brought to an end when Aguinaldo proclaimed the independence of the Philippines in Kawit, Cavite, on June 12th 1898.

Under the Treaty of Paris, Spain agreed to cede the Philippines to the United States for a payment of twenty million dollars.

A year later, some Filipino’s started to feel that all that had happened is that Spanish rule had been replaced by American rule, leading to the Philippine–American War. The result of that was the suppression of Filipino insurrection and ongoing American occupation with limited self-rule.

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The new country’s national anthem, then known as Marcha Nacional Filipina, was first played on June 12th 1898, as incidental marching music and did not have lyrics. A year after, a Spanish poem written by Jose Palma was adapted and became the words of the national anthem. The anthem was then officially titled Lupang Hinirang in 1938.

It wasn’t until July 4th 1946 that the islands gained their full independence.

The independence from America on July 4th 1946 was celebrated as the Philippine’s Independence Day until 1962 when the date of June 12th was adopted to reflect the initial declaration of independence by Aguinaldo.