The history of the

Philippines from
1521 to 1898, also
known as the Spanish
Colonial
Period, began 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 SpanishAmerican
War in 1898, which
marked the beginning
of the American
Colonial Eraof
Philippine history.
Contents
 [hide]
1Spanish expeditions
and colonization
2Spanish control
o2.1Political system
2.1.1National

government
2.1.2Provincial

government
2.1.3Municipal

government
 2.1.4Barrio governme
nt
2.1.5The Residencia
and the Visita
2.1.6Maura law
o 2.2Economy
2.2.1Manila-Acapulco
galleon trade
2.2.2Royal Society of
Friends of the
Country
 2.2.3Royal Company

of the Philippines
2.2.4Taxation

3Dutch attacks
4British invasion
5Resistance against
Spanish rule
o5.1Early resistance
o5.2The opening of the
Philippines to world
trade
 o5.3Rise of Filipino
nationalism
o5.4Rise of Spanish
liberalism
o5.5Freemasonry
o5.6Illustrados, Rizal
and Katipunan
6The Philippine
Revolution
7The Spanish
American War
8References
 9Citations
10External links
Spanish expeditions and colonization[edit]

Ferdinand
Magellan arrived in the
Philippines on March 16,
1521. When European
traders in search for a
new route to the Spice
Islands, stumbled into
the Philippines.
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. The expedition
first sighted the
mountai