In 1899, during the Philippine-American War, Filipino corpses were laid down where they had been killed.

　　In 1899, the bodies of Filipinos who had been killed were left lying where they had fallen. Most of the photographs of the dead that circulated from the battlefield were of Filipinos. The vast number of Filipino non-combatants who were killed did not appear in the photographs, and there were no photographs of dead American soldiers.

　　In August 1898, the American military swiftly defeated the Spanish forces in the Philippines, bringing the conflict to an end in December 1898. The American military raised its flag on territory more than 12,900 kilometers away from Washington, D.C.The Philippine Army had been fighting Spain since 1896 and declared the independence of the Philippine Republic in June 1898. They refused to hand over the Philippines to the United States as spoils of war. The independence movement led by Emilio Aguinaldo, which began as opposition to Spain and shifted its focus to opposing American aggression after Spain's defeat, was referred to as a rebellion in the United States.The U.S. military modernized the Manila Police and established the Philippine Constabulary, a paramilitary organization, and developed identity cards to monitor the daily lives of Filipinos. The Philippines became a testing ground for colonial rule for the U.S. government. 

　　Following the Spanish-American War, the Philippine-American War was the second war fought by the United States outside the Western Hemisphere.The Philippine-American War was also one of the first wars extensively documented through photography, including images captured by Kodak cameras. Actual battlefield footage was filmed and later used to recreate combat scenes. The war in the Philippines was presented to audiences in the United States and its colonies. The extensive recording and recreation of battlefield imagery contributed to the tragic impact of World War I on millions of Americans in the early 20th century.