US President William McKinley establishes a Commission, under the command of Dr Jacob Schurman, to examine conditions in the Philippines. These islands had been under Spanish colonial rule, but had declared independence in 1898, and after the end of the Spanish-American War, were ceded to the USA. Schurman's Commission concludes that although the Filipinos evidently want independence, they are not yet ready for it. He proposes a system of managed representative government, with a bicameral legislature, but revolutionary insurrection continues and soon develops into warfare against the USA that is to last until 1902.