This chapter identifies the historically contingent origins of the poverty and inequality that is characteristic of Filipino society. It purposes to locate the societal forces and economic ambitions that have led to both domestic class stratification, and forms of international imperialism which have impacted on the archipelago. By 1935 indigenous calls for Filipino independence resulted in the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which allowed for the creation of a Commonwealth which was to lead to independence after a ten year transition period. In real terms Filipino wages 'of both men and women during the American colonial period were in fact lower than they had been during the Spanish colonial period'. The nature of Filipino agency, both in terms of the extent of Filipino elite autonomy vis a vis the US, and the capacity of the masses to mobilise against the Filipino elite is given different readings throughout the literature.