 Thereafter, the nascent republic became a U.S. protectorate or puppet government and Midel as puppet leader of U.S. was allowed to continue as president of the republic for about sixteen months.In March 1901, the Americans allowed the republic to hold elections and Mariano Arquiza was elected to succeed Midel as the new president of the Zamboanga Republic.However, Arquiza's government did not exercise effective authority over Zamboanga and finally in March 1903, the Republic of Zamboanga was dissolved.