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History of the Philippines (1935–1946)

Also known as: Commonwealth of the Philippines (1935–1946) period — the plain-form alias of the survey's first half · Commonwealth era · The prewar Commonwealth and the Japanese occupation — the period's two conventional subdivisions · The Second World War in the Philippines (1941–1945) — the wartime half, itself covered by this wiki's entry on the Japanese Occupation · The Tydings–McDuffie transition decade — the timetable framing the whole period

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Definition

The History of the Philippines (1935–1946) is the period survey covering the Commonwealth of the Philippines and the Japanese occupation — the eleven-year transition between American colonial rule and recognized independence, fixed by the Tydings–McDuffie Act of 1934, which “provided for the granting of Philippine independence by 1946.” (Wikipedia — History of the Philippines (1935–1946)) Its peaceable half runs from the ratification of the 1935 Constitution on May 14, 1935 to the Commonwealth’s inauguration on November 15, 1935, through Manuel L. Quezon’s two presidencies; its catastrophic half runs from the Japanese air raids of December 8, 1941 — hours after Pearl Harbor, on the same calendar day across the international date line — through the fall of Bataan (April 9, 1942) and Corregidor (May 6, 1942), the Japanese-sponsored Second Philippine Republic of October 14, 1943, and the liberation begun at Leyte on October 20, 1944. (Wikipedia — Commonwealth of the Philippines, Wikipedia — Second Philippine Republic) The period closes where the Tydings–McDuffie timetable had always fixed it: “On July 4, 1946, the Philippines was officially recognized by the United States as an independent nation through the Treaty of Manila,” under President Manuel Roxas — the founding of the Third Republic, which this wiki’s entry on the Third Republic carries forward. (Wikipedia — History of the Philippines (1935–1946), Wikipedia — Treaty of Manila (1946))

As an umbrella entry, this survey cross-references the wiki’s specialized entries rather than re-narrating them — the 1935 Constitution and the 1935, 1941, and 1946 elections, the defense legislation, the battles, the Second Republic, the occupation, and the prewar Collective Labor Movement each have their own entries. Summarized here is the Commonwealth’s own program: Quezon’s social justice measures, the national language policy, the defense buildup, and the 1940 amendments that restored the bicameral Congress and permitted re-election. (Wikipedia — Manuel L. Quezon, LawPhil — CA 1)

Identities

Source Type Identity
Wikipedia History of the Philippines (1935–1946)
Wikidata N/A — the article carries no linked Wikidata item this session; the merged survey History of the Philippines (1898–1946) carries Q16056052
DBpedia History_of_the_Philippines_(1935–1946) — verified via the data endpoint this session; a redirect to History_of_the_Philippines_(1898–1946)
ProductOntology N/A
Wiktionary Commonwealth (English proper noun, “the Commonwealth”) — the term of the period’s polity, not the period itself
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) Philippines–History–Japanese occupation, 1942-1945 (the period’s core wartime heading, returned by the LC authorities search this session)
MeSH N/A
NCBI Taxonomy N/A
AGROVOC N/A
Google Scholar History of the Philippines 1935 1946 Commonwealth Quezon Osmeña Japanese occupation Second Republic Laurel liberation 1944 1945 independence July 4 1946 Treaty of Manila Tydings-McDuffie social justice national language National Defense Act
ConceptNet N/A
OpenCyc N/A

Also Known As

  • Commonwealth of the Philippines (1935–1946) period — the plain-form alias of the survey’s first half
  • Commonwealth era
  • The prewar Commonwealth and the Japanese occupation — the period’s two conventional subdivisions
  • The Second World War in the Philippines (1941–1945) — the wartime half, itself covered by this wiki’s entry on the Japanese Occupation
  • The Tydings–McDuffie transition decade — the timetable framing the whole period

Examples and Analogies

Usage Scenarios

1. Teaching the Transition to Independence

The period is the standard unit for teaching decolonization by timetable: the Tydings–McDuffie schedule, the Commonwealth’s ten-year preparation, the wartime interruption, and the 1946 settlement all belong to a single syllabus week. (Wikipedia — History of the Philippines (1935–1946))

2. Studying Commonwealth State-Building

Quezon’s presidency compressed a national program into six peacetime years — the social justice measures (a minimum-wage law, an eight-hour workday law, a tenancy law, a Court of Industrial Relations, a public defender), the national language policy, and the defense buildup — the agenda this entry surveys and the specialized entries document in depth. (Wikipedia — Manuel L. Quezon)

3. Analyzing Occupation and Collaboration

The period’s wartime half supplies the standard case set — the Executive Commission, the KALIBAPI, the Second Republic under José P. Laurel, and the anti-war declaration of September 23, 1944 — studied alongside the postwar reckoning this wiki’s entries on the Second Republic and the occupation carry. (Wikipedia — Second Philippine Republic)

4. Tracing Constitutional Continuity

Constitutional historians use the period to follow a charter through catastrophe: ratified 1935, effective with the Commonwealth, carried into exile in Washington, restored in 1945, and inherited by the Third Republic in 1946 — twice amended (1940, and the parity ordinance of 1947 just outside the period). (Wikipedia — Commonwealth of the Philippines)

5. Dating the Independence Settlement

July 4, 1946 holds three documents at once — Truman’s proclamation, the Treaty of Manila signed that day by High Commissioner Paul V. McNutt and President Roxas, and the birth of the Third Republic — while the treaty’s entry into force followed on October 22, 1946. (Wikipedia — Treaty of Manila (1946))

Strategies

  • Build the state before the statehood: the Commonwealth’s declared priorities — “national defense,” greater control over the economy, perfection of democratic institutions, education reform — were pursued as preparation for sovereignty, an agenda the standard account calls “an ambitious agenda of establishing the basis for national defense.” (Wikipedia — Commonwealth of the Philippines, Wikipedia — History of the Philippines (1935–1946))
  • Amend to adapt: the 1940 constitutional amendments — ratified after five years of unicameral practice — restored the bicameral Congress and permitted Quezon’s re-election, the adjustment this wiki’s entry on the 1935 Constitution examines. (Wikipedia — Commonwealth of the Philippines)
  • Keep the constitution moving: Quezon took his second oath in the Malinta Tunnel in December 1941 and a third inauguration in Washington on November 15, 1943, Justice Felix Frankfurter administering — continuity of office as an argument of legitimacy while the occupation ran its own republic. (Wikipedia — Manuel L. Quezon)
  • Fight the occupation with guerrillas: before MacArthur’s return the resistance had limited Japanese control “to only 12 out of the 48 provinces,” with the Hukbalahap credited with doing “most of the fighting” — the record this wiki’s entries on the Hukbalahap and the occupation carry in full. (Wikipedia — History of the Philippines (1935–1946))
  • Negotiate the terms of independence: the postwar Commonwealth accepted economic terms — the Bell Trade Act, “a precondition for receiving war rehabilitation grants” — that tied the new republic’s economy to the United States, the settlement this wiki’s entry on the Bell Trade Act documents. (Wikipedia — Commonwealth of the Philippines)

Security and Safety Measures

  • Civilian supremacy written into the defense statutes: the National Defense Act of December 21, 1935 opens with the principle that “the civil authority shall always be supreme,” the President as commander-in-chief responsible for preparedness — the foundation of the defense legislation this wiki’s entries on CA 1, CA 430, and EO 230 document. (LawPhil — CA 1)
  • The open city: Manila was declared an open city before its occupation on January 2, 1942 — the period’s core civilian-protection measure, which the occupiers answered anyway with an administration under Jorge B. Vargas. (Wikipedia — History of the Philippines (1935–1946), Wikipedia — Second Philippine Republic)
  • Exile as continuity: the submarine evacuation of February 20, 1942 and the Washington government-in-exile preserved the constitutional line — Quezon, then Osmeña from August 1, 1944 — so that the liberation could restore rather than improvise a government. (Wikipedia — Commonwealth of the Philippines)
  • For researchers: the period’s date variances should be named when they matter — the 1935 election is given as September 16 or 17 depending on the source (the variance this wiki’s 1935 election entry registers), and Roosevelt’s approval of the constitution is given as March 23 or March 25 in the standard references. This entry follows the dates of the Commonwealth record. (Wikipedia — Commonwealth of the Philippines)

Historical Context

The period opened with the machinery of the Tydings–McDuffie Act already turning: the constitutional convention elected July 10, 1934 approved its draft on February 8, 1935, Roosevelt approved it that March, and the electorate ratified it on May 14. The first national election followed, and on the morning of November 15, 1935 the Commonwealth was inaugurated on the Legislative Building steps before some 300,000 people, with Quezon — nearly 68 percent of the vote — as president and Sergio Osmeña as vice president. The peacetime years ran the program now identified with the era: the social justice laws and the tenancy enforcement Quezon ordered for all Central Luzon provinces; the National Language Institute of 1936 and the Tagalog designation of December 30, 1937; the National Defense Act of December 21, 1935 building the citizen army and its Council of National Defense; the 1940 amendments; and the 1941 re-election, completed twenty-seven days before the war reached the islands. (Wikipedia — Commonwealth of the Philippines, Wikipedia — Manuel L. Quezon, LawPhil — CA 1)

The war inverted the timetable. Air raids came on the morning of December 8, 1941; troops landed in northern Luzon on December 10; Quezon took his second oath in the Malinta Tunnel on December 30; and the conquest ran through the fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942 and Corregidor on May 6, 1942 — the campaigns this wiki’s entries on the Battle of Bataan and the Bataan Death March treat in full. The occupation proceeded by stages — the Vargas Executive Commission from January 1942, the KALIBAPI from December 8, 1942, and the Second Republic from October 14, 1943, when Laurel was inaugurated at the Legislative Building with Aguinaldo and Ricarte raising the flag — while Quezon’s government continued in Washington until his death on August 1, 1944, and the guerrilla movement, the Hukbalahap foremost, held Japan to twelve of the forty-eight provinces. Laurel’s republic declared a state of war against the United States and Britain on September 23, 1944 and was dissolved by Laurel in Tokyo on August 17, 1945, two days after Japan’s surrender announcement. (Wikipedia — History of the Philippines (1935–1946), Wikipedia — Second Philippine Republic)

Liberation and restoration closed the period on schedule. MacArthur and Osmeña landed at Leyte on October 20, 1944 and the naval battle that followed decided the campaign; the fighting of 1945 — including the liberation of Mindanao and Davao, the battles this wiki’s entries carry — ended the occupation, and a one-year transitional period prepared the independence the Tydings–McDuffie Act had fixed. The April 23, 1946 election made Roxas the last Commonwealth president and first of the Republic; on July 4, 1946 Truman issued Proclamation 2695 and the Treaty of Manila was signed by McNutt and Roxas, relinquishing United States sovereignty — with the republic’s economy tied to Washington through the Bell Trade Act, and the treaty in force from October 22, 1946. (Wikipedia — Treaty of Manila (1946), Wikipedia — Commonwealth of the Philippines)

Challenges and Controversies

Independence on Condition

The period’s independence was scheduled but not unconditioned: the Tydings–McDuffie framework and the Bell Trade Act’s tie between rehabilitation grants and economic terms made sovereignty a negotiated settlement, the critique this wiki’s entry on the Bell Trade Act develops. (Wikipedia — Commonwealth of the Philippines)

The Second Republic’s Legitimacy

Laurel’s republic — inaugurated under Japanese auspices on October 14, 1943, allied to Tokyo by a pact signed on inauguration day, and dissolved in Tokyo on August 17, 1945 — remains the period’s hardest judgment: a government that administered famine and inflation, declared war on the United States, and was formally voided after liberation, its officers’ postwar reckoning running through the tribunal this wiki’s entry on the occupation records. (Wikipedia — Second Philippine Republic)

Social Justice in Practice

Quezon’s social justice program is remembered as the Commonwealth’s moral center and faulted for its reach: the agrarian reform program “was hampered by ongoing clashes between tenants and landowners,” and the tenancy act Quezon made mandatory in Central Luzon addressed rather than resolved the countryside’s conflicts — the tension that would feed the postwar Huk rebellion. (Wikipedia — Commonwealth of the Philippines, Wikipedia — Manuel L. Quezon)

The Cost of the Liberation

The period’s end was bought with the archipelago’s devastation — the capital ruined in the 1945 fighting and the occupation’s death toll in the hundreds of thousands, figures this wiki’s entry on the Japanese Occupation attributes to their sources — so that the Third Republic began in reconstruction rather than celebration. (Wikipedia — Treaty of Manila (1946))

Related Topic

References

  1. History of the Philippines (1935–1946) — Wikipedia
  2. Commonwealth of the Philippines — Wikipedia
  3. Manuel L. Quezon — Wikipedia
  4. Second Philippine Republic — Wikipedia
  5. Treaty of Manila (1946) — Wikipedia
  6. Commonwealth Act No. 1, the National Defense Act (December 21, 1935) — The LawPhil Project

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