Manila Bay, Battle of

Manila Bay, Battle of (1898).As tensions between Spain and the United States over Cuba increased during 1896 and 1897, naval officers in the Office of Naval Intelligence and the Naval War College began to develop plans for a conflict with Spain. As finally adopted in the spring of 1897, these plans included an attack on the Spanish Philippines as a diversion from the Cuban theater, and as a way of improving the U.S. position in peace negotiations.

After the outbreak of war in April 1898, the commander of the Asiatic Squadron, Commodore George Dewey, who had already been alerted to the imminence of war by Navy assistant secretary Theodore Roosevelt, received orders from President William McKinley to “capture or destroy” the Spanish naval squadron in the Philippines.

Dewey's six modern warships, some armed with guns as large as 8‐inch caliber, completely outclassed Adm. Patricio Montojo's Spanish squadron at Manila, which consisted of seven antiquated cruisers and gunboats; the harbor defenses were in disarray. Armed with timely reports of this by the American consul in Manila, Dewey decided from Hong Kong to attack immediately. In a few hours, on 1 May 1898, his squadron annihilated the Spanish fleet without the loss of a single American life, and blockaded Manila. This dramatic victory made Dewey a popular hero and began a chain of events that led to the U.S. annexation of the Philippines.
[See also Navy, U.S.: 1866–98; Philippines, U.S. Military Involvement in the.]

Ronald H. Spector