History of the Philippines (1521–1898)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search

Part of a series on the

History of the Philippines

Philippine History Collage.jpg

Prehistory (pre–900)[show]

Archaic epoch (900–1565)[show]

Colonial period (1565–1946)[show]

Post-colonial period (1946–1986)[show]

Contemporary history (1986–present)[show]

By topic[show]

Timeline

Archaeology

Flag of the Philippines.svg Philippines portal

vte

Part of a series on the

History of New Spain

Flag of Cross of Burgundy.svg

Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire

Spanish conquest of Guatemala

Spanish conquest of Yucatán

Spanish conquest of Petén

Spanish conquest of the Maya

Columbian Exchange
History of the Philippines (1521–1898)

Piracy in the Caribbean

Spanish missions in the Americas

Queen Anne's War

Bourbon Reforms

Spanish–Moro conflict

Spanish American wars of independence

Casta

vte

The history of the Philippines from 1521 to 1898, also known as the Spanish colonial period from 1565,
was the period following the arrival of Magellan in the Philippines and during which Spain financed
expeditions to the Philippine islands and then ruled them as the Captaincy General of the Philippines
within the Spanish East Indies, initially under New Spain until Mexican independence in 1821, which
gave Madrid direct control over the area. It started with the arrival in 1521 of European explorer
Ferdinand Magellan sailing for Spain, which heralded the period when the Philippines was a colony of
the Spanish Empire, and ended with the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1898, which marked
the beginning of the American colonial era of Philippine history..

Contents

1 Spanish expeditions and colonization

1.1 Magellan

1.2 Conquest under Philip II

1.3 Spanish colonists

2 Spanish control

2.1 Political system

2.1.1 National government

2.1.2 Provincial government

2.1.3 Municipal government

2.1.4 Barrio government

2.1.5 The Residencia and the Visita

2.1.6 Maura law

2.2 Economy

2.2.1 Manila-Acapulco galleon trade

2.2.2 Royal Society of Friends of the Country

2.2.3 Royal Company of the Philippines

2.2.4 Taxation

3 Dutch attacks

4 British invasion

5 Resistance against Spanish rule

5.1 Early resistance

5.2 The opening of the Philippines to world trade

5.3 Rise of Filipino nationalism

5.4 Rise of Spanish liberalism

5.5 Freemasonry

5.6 Illustrados, Rizal and Katipunan

6 The Philippine Revolution

7 The Spanish–American War

8 See also

9 References

10 Citations

11 External links

Spanish expeditions and colonization

Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the Philippines on March 16, 1521.

Magellan

Although the archipelago may have been visited before by the Portuguese (who conquered Malacca City
in 1511 and reached Maluku Islands in 1512), the earliest documented European expedition to the
Philippines was that led by Ferdinand Magellan, in the service of the king of Spain. But before they go to
Samar and Leyte they went to Cebu but they did not pass, sighted the mountains of Samar at dawn on
the 16th March 1521, making landfall the following day at the small, uninhabited island of Homonhon at
the mouth of the Leyte Gulf.[1] On Easter Sunday, 31 March 1521, at Mazaua (today believed to be
Limasawa island in Southern Leyte) as is stated in Antonio Pigafetta's Primo Viaggio Intorno El Mondo
(First Voyage Around the World), Magellan solemnly planted a cross on the summit of a hill overlooking
the sea and claimed for the king of Spain possession of the islands he had seen, naming them
Archipelago of Saint Lazarus.[2]

Magellan conquered and sought alliances among the natives beginning with Datu Zula, the chieftain of
Sugbu (now Cebu), and took special pride in converting them to Catholicism. Magellan's expedition got
involved in the political rivalries between the Cebuano natives and took part in a battle against Lapu-
Lapu, chieftain of Mactan island and a mortal enemy of Datu Zula. At dawn on 27 April 1521, Magellan
invaded Mactan Island with 60 armed men and 1,000 Cebuano warriors, but had great difficulty landing
his men on the rocky shore. Lapu-Lapu had an army of 1,500 on land. Magellan waded ashore with his
soldiers and attacked the Mactan defenders, ordering Datu Zula and his warriors to remain aboard the
ships and watch. Magellan seriously underestimated Lapu-Lapu and his men, and grossly outnumbered,
Magellan and 14 of his soldiers were killed. The rest managed to reboard the ships.

Old oil painting of Manila, a walled city

The battle left the expedition with too few crewmen to man three ships, so they abandoned the
"Concepción". The remaining ships - "Trinidad" and "Victoria" – sailed to the Spice Islands in present-day
Indonesia. From there, the expedition split into two groups. The Trinidad, commanded by Gonzalo
Gómez de Espinoza tried to sail eastward across the Pacific Ocean to the Isthmus of Panama. Disease
and shipwreck disrupted Espinoza's voyage and most of the crew died. Survivors of the Trinidad
returned to the Spice Islands, where the Portuguese imprisoned them. The Victoria continued sailing
westward, commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano, and managed to return to Sanlúcar de Barrameda,
Spain in 1522. In 1529, Charles I of Spain relinquished all claims to the Spice Islands to Portugal in the
treaty of Zaragoza. However, the treaty did not stop the colonization of the Philippine archipelago from
New Spain.[3]
After Magellan's voyage, subsequent expeditions were dispatched to the islands. Five expeditions were
sent: that of Loaisa (1525), Cabot (1526), Saavedra (1527), Villalobos (1542), and Legazpi (1564).[4] The
Legazpi expedition was the most successful as it resulted in the discovery of the tornaviaje or return trip
to Mexico across the Pacific by Andrés de Urdaneta.[5] This discovery started the Manila galleon trade,
which lasted two and a half centuries.

Las Islas Filipinas was named after Philip II of Spain by Ruy López de Villalobos.

Conquest under Philip II

In 1543, Ruy López de Villalobos named the islands of Leyte and Samar Las Islas Filipinas after Philip II of
Spain.[6] Philip II became King of Spain on January 16, 1556, when his father, Charles I of Spain,
abdicated the Spanish throne. Philip was in Brussels at the time and his return to Spain was delayed until
1559 because of European politics and wars in northern Europe. Shortly after his return to Spain, Philip
ordered an expedition mounted to the Spice Islands, stating that its purpose was "to discover the islands
of the west".[7] In reality its task was to conquer the Philippines for Spain.[8]

On November 19 or 20, 1564 a Spanish expedition of a mere 500 men led by Miguel López de Legazpi
departed Barra de Navidad, New Spain, arriving off Cebu on February 13, 1565, conquering it despite
Cebuano opposition.[9]:77

In 1569, Legazpi transferred to Panay and founded a second settlement on the bank of the Panay River.
In 1570, Legazpi sent his grandson, Juan de Salcedo, who had arrived from Mexico in 1567, to Mindoro
to punish the Muslim Moro pirates who had been plundering Panay villages. Salcedo also destroyed
forts on the islands of Ilin and Lubang, respectively South and Northwest of Mindoro.[9]:79

Pages of the Doctrina Christiana, an early Christian book in Spanish and Tagalog. The book contained
Latin and baybayin suyat scripts. (1593)
In 1570, Martín de Goiti, having been dispatched by Legazpi to Luzon, conquered the Kingdom of
Maynila (now Manila), a puppet-state of the Sultanate of Brunei.[9]:79 Legazpi then made Maynila the
capital of the Philippines and simplified its spelling to Manila. His expedition also renamed Luzon Nueva
Castilla. Legazpi became the country's first governor-general. In 1573, Japan expanded its trade in
northern Luzon.[10] In 1580, the Japanese lord Tay Fusa established the independent Wokou Tay Fusa
state in non-colonial Cagayan.[11] When the Spanish arrived in the area, they subjugated the new
kingdom, resulting in 1582 Cagayan battles.[12] With time, Cebu's importance fell as power shifted
north to Luzon. The archipelago was Spain's outpost in the orient and Manila became the capital of the
entire Spanish East Indies. The colony was administered through the Viceroyalty of New Spain (now
Mexico) until 1821 when Mexico achieved independence from Spain. After 1821, the colony was
governed directly from Spain.

Miguel López de Legazpi

During most of the colonial period, the Philippine economy depended on the Galleon Trade which was
inaugurated in 1565 between Manila and Acapulco, Mexico. Trade between Spain and the Philippines
was via the Pacific Ocean to Mexico (Manila to Acapulco), and then across the Caribbean Sea and
Atlantic Ocean to Spain (Veracruz to Cádiz). Manila became the most important center of trade in Asia
between the 17th and 18th centuries. All sorts of products from China, Japan, Brunei, the Moluccas and
even India were sent to Manila to be sold for silver 8-Real coins which came aboard the galleons from
Acapulco. These goods, including silk, porcelain, spices, lacquerware and textile products were then sent
to Acapulco and from there to other parts of New Spain, Peru and Europe.

Spanish colonists

The European population in the archipelago steadily grew although natives remained the majority.
During the initial period of colonization, Manila was settled by 1200 Spanish families.[13] In Cebu City, at
the Visayas, the settlement received a total of 2,100 soldier-settlers from New Spain (Mexico).[14] At
the immediate south of Manila, Mexicans were present at Ermita[15] and at Cavite[16] where they were
stationed as sentries. In addition, men conscripted from Peru, were also sent to settle Zamboanga City in
Mindanao, to wage war upon Muslim pirates.[17] There were also communities of Spanish-Mestizos
that developed in Iloilo,[18] Negros[19] and Vigan.[20] Interactions between native Filipinos and
immigrant Spaniards plus Latin-Americans eventually caused the formation of a new language,
Chavacano, a creole of Mexican Spanish.They depended on the Galleon Trade for a living. In the later
years of the 18th century, Governor-General Basco introduced economic reforms that gave the colony
its first significant internal source income from the production of tobacco and other agricultural exports.
In this later period, agriculture was finally opened to the European population, which before was
reserved only for the natives.
Tomb of Miguel López de Legazpi in San Agustin Church (Manila) Intramuros

During Spain’s 333 year rule in the Philippines, the colonists had to fight off the Chinese pirates (who lay
siege to Manila, the most famous of which was Limahong in 1573), Dutch forces, Portuguese forces, and
indigenous revolts. Moros from western Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago also raided the coastal
Christian areas of Luzon and the Visayas and occasionally captured men and women to be sold as slaves.

Some Japanese ships visited the Philippines in the 1570s in order to export Japanese silver and import
Philippine gold. Later, increasing imports of silver from New World sources resulted in Japanese exports
to the Philippines shifting from silver to consumer goods. In the 1570s, the Spanish traders were
troubled to some extent by Japanese pirates, but peaceful trading relations were established between
the Philippines and Japan by 1590.[21] Japan's kampaku (regent), Toyotomi Hideyoshi, demanded
unsuccessfully on several occasions that the Philippines submit to Japan's suzerainty.[22]

On February 8, 1597, King Philip II, near the end of his 42-year reign, issued a Royal Cedula instructing
Francisco de Tello de Guzmán, then Governor-General of the Philippines to fulfill the laws of tributes
and to provide for restitution of ill-gotten taxes taken from the natives. The decree was published in
Manila on August 5, 1598. King Philip died on 13 September, just forty days after the publication of the
decree, but his death was not known in the Philippines until middle of 1599, by which time a
referendum by which the natives would acknowledge Spanish rule was underway. With the completion
of the Philippine referendum of 1599, Spain could be said to have established legitimate sovereignty
over the Philippines.[23]