Tensions between Filipino and American soldiers in the islands arose due to independence movements, opposed to colonization, aggravated by feelings of betrayal by Aguinaldo, who had been taken to the islands by the US Navy. The hostilities began on February 4, 1899, when a US soldier shot a Filipino soldier who was crossing a bridge in the occupied US territory of San Juan del Monte; an incident that historians now consider the beginning of the war. US President William McKinley would later tell reporters "that the insurgents had attacked Manila" in order to justify the war in the Philippines.
Aguinaldo saw the activities of the Americans in the Philippines as abusive, and he believed in the independence of the nation, and so I fight for it.
