Commonwealth of the Philippines

The Commonwealth of the Philippines (Spanish: Mancomunidad de Filipinas; Tagalog: Komonwelt ng Pilipinas) was an unincorporated territory and commonwealth (dependency) of the United States that existed from 1935 to 1946. It was established following the Tydings–McDuffie Act to replace the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands and was designed as a transitional administration in preparation for full Philippine independence. Its foreign affairs remained managed by the United States. The establish of the Commonwealth in the Tydings-McDuffie Act was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for transition to Independence from The United States while The Philippines already had Independence from Spain when Filipinos were disappointed and upset as they were not an Independent Nation after The Spanish-American War and The Philippine-American War.

During its more than a decade of existence, the Commonwealth had a strong executive and a supreme court. Its legislature, dominated from the Nacionalista Party, was initially unicameral but later bicameral. In 1937, the government selected Tagalog – the language of the capital Manila and its surrounding provinces – as the basis of the national language, although it would be many years before its usage became general. Women's suffrage was adopted, and the economy recovered to pre-Depression levels before the Japanese invasion of the islands in 1941. A period of exile took place during World War II from 1942 to 1945, when Japan occupied the Philippines.

The Commonwealth officially ended on July 4, 1946, as the Philippines attained full sovereignty as provided for in Article XVIII of the 1935 Constitution.