Battle of San Juan del Monte

Date: August 30, 1896 • Location: San Juan, Philippines

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1896.

Philippine Revolution: In the Battle of San Juan del Monte, the first real battle of the war, a Katipunan force temporarily captured a powder magazine before being beaten back by a Spanish garrison.

The Philippine Revolution was a war of independence waged by the revolutionary organization Katipunan against the Spanish Empire from 1896 to 1898. It was the culmination of the 333-year colonial rule of Spain in the archipelago. The Philippines was one of the last major colonies of the Spanish Empire, which had already suffered a massive decline in the 1820s. Cuba rebelled in 1895, and in 1898, the United States intervened and the Spanish soon capitulated. In June 1898, Philippine revolutionaries declared independence. However, it was not recognized by Spain, which later sold the islands to the United States in the Treaty of Paris of 1898.