Earlier in the war, the Filipino revolutionaries under the Supremo Andres Bonifacio, the leader and the instigator of the revolution, attempted to invest then take Manila by force, but was stymied by severe lack of decent weapons in their part as well as the reluctance of other revolutionary provincial armies, especially the ones from Cavite which also had difficulty in mounting such an attack then rather attacked local Spanish garrisons in the province, from taking part of the engagement.

The Supremo Bonifacio had been repeatedly defeated in battle, losing his prestige as well as the morale of some men who were serving at his side, especially those who were from Bulacan and Morong provinces.

[15] On October 31, 1896, Emilio Aguinaldo, now a general of the revolutionary army and still afresh from his victory at Imus, announced in a 773-word manifesto that the revolution aimed for the total independence of the whole Philippines.

[16]: 149  Due to this, huge throngs of Caviteños rallied to Imus and Kawit and joined the Magdalo on the hopes that their land will be rid from Spanish dominion, such that their numbers were far too many to be properly led by a single commander; they saw "Heneral Miong" as they called Emilio as their leader.

Alarmed by previous siege, led by General Aguinaldo in Imus in September 1896, Governor-General Ramón Blanco y Erenas ordered the 4th Battalion of Cazadores from Spain to aid him in quelling the rebellion in Cavite.

[10] Apart from that, Blanco ordered about 8,000 men who recently came from Cuba and Spain to join in suppressing the rebellion when he learned that insurgents already occupied most of Las Piñas and Parañaque towns in the outskirts of Manila,[8] and they later cantoned in Bacoor to rendezvous with Blanco's army in Cavite as well as to fend off any possible reinforcements from the provinces of northern and central Luzon, specifically the provinces of Bulacan and Morong where the Supremo Bonifacio and his forces were still remaining.

Spanish naval operations were determined to crush the fortifications in these areas, mainly because the lake around Dalahican was so strategic as it connects to the interior of Cavite.

To suit for such needs, Emilio Aguinaldo vouched for his cousin Baldomero to have general Edilberto Evangelista construct trenches and fougasses stretching from Noveleta to Kawit all the way to the boundary with Bacoor.

[4] The Filipino Katipunan revolutionaries numbered about 100,000 men including 35,000[7] regulars and hastily conscripted local militia armed with short swords as well as rifles and muskets including ammunition acquired and looted from the captured municipal offices of the Guardia Civil across Cavite,[19] and more or less 65,000 peasants and laborers armed on the spot and volunteers both civilian and medical desperately gathered from all Katipunan-controlled parts of Cavite.

A "conservative" estimate by a contemporary Spanish priest based in Manila during the same era counted roughly 105,000 men under arms were present in the field.

[20] The first attack on November 8 coincided with Cavite City's week-long fiesta celebrating its patron saint, Our Lady of Solitude of Porta Vaga.

[21] Meanwhile, Emilio Aguinaldo, the leader of the council defending Binakayan, was at the boundary of Laguna and Batangas with a few aides and few militiamen, thinking that the enemies would approach there.

[22]: 82  The columns were twofold, the first one, commanded by Col. José Marina headed to Binakayan, while the second one, by General Diego de los Ríos approached entrenchments at Dalahican.

When the army reached the road forking towards Cavite Viejo and Imus, the location became overwhelmed with a rain of projectiles in a long, dense line of entrenchments at short range.

Still reeling over the death of his friend and right-hand man Tirona two days earlier, he personally led the Filipino army at the forefront and furiously charged at the Spanish lines.

With no way to withdraw to Manila due to the Filipino victory at Binakayan, they instead withdrew to Cavite City by nightfall on November 11, signalling the end of the battle.

To make matters worse for the Spaniards, many more Filipinos in Batangas, Laguna, Pampanga, Bulacan and Morong joined the Katipunan independence movement inspired by the victory in Binakayan and Dalahican.

[3] What followed was that several townsfolk from all over nearby provinces raced to settle in the territory of the newly liberated Cavite, bringing with them their town bands, their patron saints, and so on.

[25] However, this did not stop the execution of the Filipino doctor and nationalist, José Rizal, under the new governor-general Camilo de Polavieja more than a month later after the battle, due to charges of rebellion, sedition, and conspiracy by the Spanish government.