In 1898, the United States entered a roughly fifty year period of colonial control in the Philippines. The Spanish American War (April-August 1898) ended Spanish colonial rule in the region, and the Philippines were ceded to the US in the Treaty of Paris. This was followed by the Philippine-American War (1899-1902), in which Filipino independence fighters, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, fought against American forces. The war was brutal, and total of 200,000 Filipino civilians died. Meanwhile, the US government, under William Howard Taft, launched a pacification campaign to win over support from Filipino elites, in 1900. This ultimately helped contribute to the defeat of the Filipino independence forces, and the war officially ended in 1902.