Review of related literature

Spanish colonization

Antonio Pigafetta, an author of the book “First voyage around the world by
Magellan” (1550) concisely presented ideas about the Philippines and how they tried to
conquer it due to the abundant resources most especially gold. He wrote that some
leaders of the islands in the Philippines called as ‘datu’ accepted Christianism however
one man did not easily allow Magellan to step in their island, he is called Lapu-lapu.
Instead of embracing Magellan with his men, he fought with them with a number of
1,500 Filipino warriors over 49 Spaniards which resulted to Magellan’s death. Prior to
this event, abuses of Spaniards are evident when Pigafetta wrote how they burn houses
of Filipinos who does not submit to Magellan’s wishes. For this reason, it provoked
some of powerful western countries to conquer Philippines. Aside from Jose Rizal, there
are other more notable writers who discretely exposed the abuses and injustices of the
Spaniards towards the Filipinos through their own experience. Several evidences such
as the Kartilya ng Katipunan (2015) which was written by Emilio Jacinto which showed
the rules of their organization KKK, that proves how Spaniards dominate the Filipinos
that it comes to the point that they create a secret organization in order to defend their
fellow men. Another is the Parody made by Marcelo Del Pilar, where he created
parodies of catholic prayers by interpreting the original Spanish prayers to Filipino
language but in a scandalous way. He wrote how Friars rape women and enslave other
Filipinos, moreover it is written in his parody how Spanish friars forcefully collect money
from Filipinos.

American colonization

According to Amarikastudien (2006), Philippines was colonized by Americans on

1899-1902 and was greatly tortured by Americans. On the other hand, some evidence
presented various advantages Americans introduced to the Philippines. Education
became a very significant issue for the United States colonial government, for this
reason they created various universities, schools and started the public-school system
where education is divided in 3 levels such as primary, secondary and tertiary
(Casambre, n.d). Moreover, Casambe mentioned that English was adopted in all
schools and was practiced by teachers and students. This can be deemed as one of the
factors why Filipinos among Asian countries is good and fluent in English language.