CONQUEST AND

PESTILENCE IN THE
EARLY SPANISH
PHILIPPINES

FLOW OF DISCUSSION

METHODOLOGY
APPROACH

CASE
APPLICATION

CRITIQUE

LINDA NEWSON
Demographic change in Latin America and the
Philippines during the Spanish colonial period
The impact of colonial rule on indigenous
societies
Portuguese slave trade to Spanish America
The history of medicine in early colonial
Spanish America

VIEWS ON THE DIFFERENCES OF THE

EXPERIENCES OF THE DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES

Acquired
Immunity on
Old World
Diseases

Benign Spanish
conquest

Demographi
c History

Epidemiolog
y

Historical
Geography

APPROACHES
FRAMEWORKS
Medically Informed USED

DEMOGRAPHIC HISTORY
Ecclesiastical
Records
Civil Records

ARCHIVES

SOURCES USED

EPIDEMIOLOGY

SOME (EPIDEMIOLOGICAL)
Acute
KEY CONCEPTS
Exposur
e

Infection
s
Chronic
Diseases
Endemic

Spread

Epidemi
c

SOME (EPIDEMIOLOGICAL)
KEY CONCEPTS

IMMUNITY

Innate
Immunity
Acquired
Immunity

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY
The
geographies of
places and
environments
in the past

The dynamics
of place, space
and landscape

Landscape,
memory and
environment

ILOCOS AND
PANGASINAN

TABLE 1 TRIBUTE EXACTED ON MARTIN DE GOITIS

SECOND EXPEDITION TO ILOCOS, 1572-1573
Number of
Villages
Burinao
[Bolinao]

Number of
houses

Average
number of
house

Taes exacted

Average
number of
taes per
house

30

30.0

28

.93

Pangasinan

29

2,805

96.7

945

.34

Purao

22

1,802

81.9

675

.37

910

182.0

302.5

.32

20

1,240

62.0

385

.31

216

36.0

120.5

.56

83

7,003

84.4

2.456*

.35

Baratao
Dumaquaque
Candon
TOTAL

Source: Archivo General de Indies, Patronato 24-21 Martin de Goiti 3 March

1573.are minor differences in the total given in the document (2,462) and that
*There
derived from the figures for individual villages.

TABLE 2 TRIBUTE EXACTED BY JUAN DE SALCEDO

AND MARTIN DE GOITI ON THEIR THIRD EXPEDITION
IN 1574
Average
Number of
Villages

Number of
houses

Average
number of
house

Taes exacted

number of
taes per
house

Valle de Vigan

12

1,015

84.6

615

.61

Valle de
Naluacan
[Narvacan]

14

1,047

100.5

1,014

.97

Bantay and
Bantabuey

400

133.3

136

.34

Varo [Badoc]

10 to 12

600

54.5

100

.17

Sinay [Sinait],
Luzodan,
Caluntian

9 to 100

950

100.0

535

.56

Province of
Magsingal and
14 to 15
1,005
69.3
341
Sanguian
Source:
de to
Indies,
24-21 Martin de78.4
Goitino date 2,741
TOTAL Archivo General62
66 Patronato
5,017

.34
.55

TABLE 3 REGIONAL DECLINE IN THE TRIBUTARY

POPULATION OF ILOCOS IN THE EARLY COLONIAL
PERIOD
1572
South
Central
North
TOTAL

1591

1591

1610

Percent
Decline
1582-1610

4,168

8, 300

5, 300

4, 900

-41.0

4, 417

6, 800

5, 530

2, 200

-67.6

600*

6, 400

6, 400

5, 200

-56.7

27, 100

17, 210

12, 300

-54.6

Source:1572 AGI PAT 24-21 fols. 112 Martn de Goiti 1570s. Refers to the number of houses.
1582 AGI PAT 23-9 and BR 5: 107111 Miguel de Loarca [1582]. Refers to hombres or men.
1591 AGI PAT 25-38 fols. 69 and BR 8: 105 Relacin punctual de las encomiendas 31 May
1591. Taken
from the figures for individual towns. The summary figure is given incorrectly as 17,130.
1610 AGI AF 20-4-34 Memoria de los conventos y ministerios 1610. Excludes Agoo and
Alingayen.
* Incomplete: The geographical divisions of the regions are indicated in Map 11.1.

PARALLELISMS BETWEEN EXPERIENCES IN EARLY

COLONIAL PHILIPPINES AND PERIPHERAL NATIVE
AMERICAN COMMUNITIES
Effect of
population size
and dispersal on
disease endemicity
and frequency of
reinfection

Increase in frequency of
contact of infectious
diseases during trade in
colonial intrusion but
tendency of epidemics to
retain precolonial
patterns of high mortality
and geographic
localization

Impact of long, slow and

accelerated population
growth yielding a
sufficiently large and
regionally concentrated
population permanently
sustaining a growing list
of infectious diseases

3 SUGGESTIVE CORRECTIONS TO
HISTORIOGRAPHY (REYES, 2010)
The figure that has been estimated for the native
Philippine population in 1565
The impact of Old World diseases has been
underestimated
The impression of peaceful subjugation

OBSERVATIONS,
CRITIQUE AND
INSIGHTS

OBSERVATIONS AND
CRITIQUES
Manner of
Writing
Passive Form

Scientific jargons

Use of
Sources
Issues in using
and interpreting
statistics

Contentious use of
Archaeological
Sources

Use of
Theory
Integration of
Various Theoretical
Framework
Limitations of
Demographic
History
Locality over
Archipelagic
Analysis

Limitations of Demographic History

The Limitations of the Perspective used by Medically

INSIGHTS
Looking within and beyond the
cracks of the parchment curtain
Find nuances in the imaginative
aspect of history as reconstruction of
the past
View (historical) research as works in
progress and part of the wider process