The end of the Philippine-American War required that a new racial formation occur in which the Filippino peoples would feel some fraternity with their American occupiers while understand how it was that they were unready for self-government. In response to this, the American colonizers divided the Philippine population into Hispanicized and non-Hispanicized peoples, embedding in the colonial administration of the two special provinces – Moro Province and the Mountain Province – differences which would promote the racialization of territory and the territorialization of race. In Christian regions, the colonial state would grow out of linkages with Hispanicized elites who would be granted highly restricted, elite male suffrage; in non-Christian regions, “paternal” nonelctoral systems of authority that empowered U.S. politico-military officers would predominate. The United States’ recognition of Hispanicized Filipinos through the structures of collaboration would widen the perceived racial gap between Catholics and non-Catholics.
