Readings in Philippine History:

Lecture 1
By
Restituto R. Ramos, M.A.
 Introduction to History as a Discipline
• When we are looking for a job,
• A prospective employer would surely ask for
our qualifications if it is suitable for the job
applied for.
• In so doing, it is not enough to give a simple
yes or no answer.
• One must narrate with documentary evidence,
one’s story, particularly on how the
qualifications were earned.
• One must show documents and papers which
detail these qualifications.
• These are usually in the form of transcript of
records, diplomas and other papers which
prove the qualifications have been duly earned.
• These are what usually are called the “facts”
of history.
• For example, everybody knows that Miguel
Lopez de Legazpi conquered and made Manila
the capital of the Philippines on June 24, 1571.
Legazpi-Urdaneta Monument, Manila
• But it is not enough to simply narrate the event.
• For one must explain in a cohesive and forceful
manner how the event came about.
• For the Spaniards under Legazpi did not simply
come to the Philippines.
• One must trace its roots to the arrival of
Ferdinand Magellan to these islands half-a-
century before.
Magellan Monument, Mactan, Cebu
• One must also study the circumstances which
led the Spanish Government of that time to
prepare an expedition to the East Indies and
appoint the Portuguese-born Magellan to be
its commander.
• To go about this, one must read about the
events which led to this, and the primary
sources which narrate these, both published
and unpublished.
• In this aspect, this is how the discipline of history is
conducted.
• One must have the patience to search for records
about the past event or events being studied, often
in dingy archives, or interview possible informants in
oral history.
• Since one can never know with certainty how much
or how little past events were documented, it is
often not possible to write with finality any historical
event.
• For any previously-undiscovered document
might surface and be found by another
scholar or by the same scholar who tried
researching for an event earlier but did not
discover that document at that time.
• Hence, the tentativeness of historical
conclusions.
• The study of history has sometimes been classified as part
of the humanities and at other times as part of the 
social sciences. It can also be seen as a bridge between
those two broad areas, incorporating methodologies from
both, which could indicate that is somewhat between the
two. Some individual historians strongly support one or
the other classification.
• In the 20th century, French historian Fernand Braudel
 revolutionized the study of history, by using such outside
disciplines as economics, anthropology, and geography in
the study of global history.
History by Frederick Dielman (1896)
 Can History be Objective?
• The question may be asked: Can history be
objective?
• For sure, it has to be written with a point of
view
• So, one’s philosophy of history may influence
one’s conclusions, even choice of material for
research
• One example is the Marxist perspective, which
sees history and historical events as a class
struggle between the upper classes and the
masses
• Which was in vogue in Philippine academia
from the late 1960s until recently, especially at
the University of the Philippines
 Colonial Perspective
• Another earlier perspective is the colonial
perspective, both Spanish and later, the
American
• This views the colonizer as the primary actor
in history and only writes about the colonized
• This definitely downplays the role of the
colonized and emphasizes the colonizer
• Even then, we cannot ignore the records from
the past even if they are from the colonizer
• Records are records, and they are still
evidence
• The challenge is how to go through their
colonial bias,
• and finally see the Filipinos as the main actors
in their struggle for nationhood.
 Relative Objectivity
• Well, the aim of any historian may be relative
objectivity, since complete objectivity is totally
impossible as explained above
• The historian, researching and writing with a
point of view, may do his work and try to
obtain a relatively objective conclusion
• How could this be done?
• The historian then, will have to be honest with
the conclusions of his research and must try to
back them up with “hard evidence.”
• The evidence, uncovered by his research, will
have to support his conclusions and stand up to
intensive scrutiny by others, especially by fellow
scholars
• Definitely, this is the ultimate responsibility of
the historian
• The emphasis now is to provide the students
with primary sources for historical data and
which they will read and scrutinize by
themselves.
• Instead of just merely requiring them to
memorize historical facts and figures in order
to be able to answer questions based on these
data,
• the students would now be made to think and
analyse the facts given to them,
• and to be critical in doing so
 Two Definitions of History
• Ordinarily, history usually means are the
events which actually happened in the past or
history as actuality.
• This depends on primary sources such as
official government documents, diaries,
memoirs and eyewitnesses to the events.
• As such, varying and often conflicting accounts
about primary sources cannot be avoided.
• So, the need for the intervention of a historian
in order to give a logical interpretation to these
often conflicting accounts and narratives.
• This often results in the impression by readers
that the interpretation made by the writer
(may be a historian or not) as a primary source
also but upon close scrutiny, the book one is
reading belongs to secondary sources.
• This means that this reference, although
secondary, is merely a perspective or
interpretation that is coming from the present
time.
• Included herein is the controversial date of the
Cry of Pugad Lawin, which many documents
give varying dates for its occurrence despite
the fact that accounts of the event were
written by eyewitnesses to it.
• Besides varying and often conflicting ideas that
give interpretation.
• An interpretation is also made on the
classification of the primary sources used if
these can be trusted.
• The thought transmitted by the primary source
depends on its credibility, so it also an issue to
determine the authenticity of a source.
• Although all those who engage in the study of
history can give an interpretation.
• Not all have the capability to give a logical
interpretation of history.
• A logical interpretation is usually accepted by
all, especially if the source being given
interpretation is corroborated by other
sources.
 Introduction to Philippine History and
Nationhood
• When Philippine National Hero Jose Rizal was
born in 1861, there was no Filipino nation to
speak of as we know today.
• There was no bayan, only mga bayan.
• Bayan originally meant “community”
• Over time, as the Spanish missionaries
founded pueblos or towns, bayan came to
mean the pueblo.
• When we say that there was no Filipino nation
in 1861, what we mean is that the existing
communities (towns and villages), whether
Christian, Muslim or animist, did not think of
themselves as forming one community.
• When Rizal died in 1896, there was still no
nation to speak of, but there was a nation to
dream of.
• This was the nation Rizal chose to die for, the
subject matter of his two novels and of his last
poem, the object of his political campaigns in
Spain, and the reason for his exile.
• After Rizal’s execution, the still nonexistent
nation felt more real, because it had just
claimed the life of one of its fairest sons, and
no phantom or illusion could do this.
• What does it mean to be a product of history?
It is not easy to give a brief answer to this
question; on the other hand, you will be in a
better position to answer it at the end of the
course.
• For the moment, we can compare history to
the environment in which persons flourish in
all their particular place (or places), interacting
with particular people.
• That is the meaning of the Tagalog expression
tumubo, as in tinubuang bayan.
• A plant takes root in and grows in a particular
soil with its nutrients; it takes in sunlight and
rain; it is nourished by the farmer and
damaged by beasts. So, too with the people.
• Tumutubo ang tao
• In the case of Rizal, the rich soil was the town of
Calamba in the province of Laguna and his family
and the evolving colonial society.
• The sun of liberalism was shining, both because
of and in spite of the exuberance of industrial
powers, and rain and education watered the soil.
• Fresh winds were blowing: the port of Manila
was opened to international trade, and wealth
flowed into native Filipino hands.
• A storm across the seas had blown down the
Spanish empire in the Americas, leaving only
Cuba and Puerto Rico intact; a smaller storm
in the Philippines seemed to be threatening
Spanish authority: Filipino secular priests,
both Spanish and native, questioned the
preferential treatment the Spanish
government was giving friars from Spain.
• The Spanish governor-general decided to put an
end to this by executing three Filipino priests,
two of whom were prominent in petitioning for
fairness. We know the three priests by the
acronym “GOMBURZA.”
• In the Noli me tangere, Rizal compares their
execution to a lightning bolt that created life.
• The life was the anti-friar movement in Manila
and the movement demanding civil liberties.
• The year the three priests were executed in
Manila was also the year Rizal began his high
school education at the Ateneo Municipal de
Manila (now the Ateneo de Manila
University).
Philippine History
Lecture 2
By
Restituto R. Ramos, M.A.
 Beginnings of the Philippines as a nation
• Unlike some of the other nations in the Southeast Asian region,
which have national histories far older than the Philippines,
such as Burma (now Myanmar), Cambodia, Thailand and
Vietnam,
• the Philippines was not yet a single nation-state like today
when the Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain,
Ferdinand Magellan (Fernando de Magallanes in Spanish,
Fernão de Magalhaes in Portuguese) accidentally stumbled
upon these group of islands located in the Western Pacific
Ocean on March 16, 1521 (actually March 17, 1521 due to his
crossing of the International Date Line westward across the
Pacific Ocean from the Americas).
• Instead, there were different groups of people speaking
different languages with no national entity governing the
entire archipelago.
• The country is composed of about 7,107 islands (with
many being only uninhabited islets with no names) with
Luzon in the north, being the largest and most populous
island has the capital and largest city of Manila (known
collectively with its component cities and suburbs as
Metro Manila) near its center along with some important
offshore islands such as Mindoro, Catanduanes,
Marinduque, Masbate and Romblon.
Political Map of the Philippines
• Luzon has a vast and fertile plain in its central
section, a mountainous region in its northern part
and a long hilly peninsula juts out to the southeast.
To the south is the second largest island of
Mindanao, with the Sulu Archipelago to its west.
• In between is the Visayan island group, composed of
smaller islands along with some big ones such as
Cebu (with its capital of Cebu City as the country’s
second largest city and Cradle of Christianity), Bohol,
Negros, Panay, Leyte and Samar.
• Due west of the Visayas is the long island of Palawan
and its surrounding islands, with its low population
and relatively still-unspoiled natural wonders, with
many areas still classified as wilderness.
• Being an island nation, the Philippines share this
characteristic with Japan to the north and Indonesia
to the south. The total land area is 184,000 square
kilometers (115,000 square miles), making it slightly
bigger than the United Kingdom and a bit smaller
than Japan.
El Nido, Palawan
• The climate is typically tropical, with warm temperatures
and high humidity throughout the year, but with a
pronounced dry season, popularly known as the “Summer
Season,” with the highest annual temperatures comparable
to midsummer in the United States averaging about 36
degrees Celsius (96 degrees Fahrenheit) in Manila, and high
humidity from March to May,
• and a wet season from June to October when typhoons
(storms comparable to the West Indian hurricanes) strike
successively, causing floods and considerable destruction.
• The intervening season, which is very pleasant, is not
too dry and not too wet from November to February,
when it often gets pretty cold in January, with
temperatures averaging about 20 degrees Celsius (68
degrees Fahrenheit) in Manila, when a light jacket is
often needed in the cool early mornings.
• Filipinos seek relief from the high temperatures of
the dry season by going to the perpetual spring of
Baguio City in the Northern Luzon highlands, about
1,200 meters (4,500 feet) above sea level,
• with average temperatures about 10 degrees below
that of Manila,
• which serves as the nation’s summer capital,
developed precisely for this purpose by the American
colonial administrators during the early 20th century
and was described by an American writer as
resembling a resort town in the Adriondacks
• They also go to the beach areas of Pagudpud and San
Fabian, also in Northern Luzon, or the world-famous
Boracay and Panglao in the Visayas.
Mines View Park, Baguio City
The World–Famous White Sand Beach of
Boracay
• The total population of the Philippines is about 110
million, making it the 12th most populous nation in
the World, with a large element composed of young
people in their late 20s and even lower due to its
still-relatively high birthrate despite a marked
decrease in the last three decades.
• In fact, many foreign visitors, especially Westerners,
would not fail to notice the large numbers of children
and teenagers, which could be seen everywhere as
well as the twenty-somethings.
A Filipino Family with Four Children
• By race and ethnicity, most Filipinos belong to the Austronesian
or Southern Mongoloid race like the aboriginal peoples of
nearby Taiwan to the north, and the Malay peoples of Malaysia
and Indonesia to the south and southwest. Their features are
generally characterized by brown skin, medium height, with
straight and jet-black hair.
• The Austronesian peoples used to be called “Malays” by earlier
Anthropologists and are related to the Polynesian peoples of
the islands of the North and South Pacific, such as the U.S.
State of Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, New Caledonia and the Maoris
of New Zealand, and the Malagasy of Madagascar, off the
southeastern coast of Africa.
• The term “Malay” is currently also used as an ethnic
and legal term for the Austronesian inhabitants of
Malaysia and Singapore, in order to distinguish them
from the ethnic Chinese and Indians.
• Other indigenous peoples are the so-called Negrito
(little black), term first used by the Spaniards to
describe the African-like black people with dark skin,
kinky hair and short stature who lived a hunting and
gathering lifestyle on the edges of the forests.
• Considerable foreign blood has also mixed with the Filipinos
since the Spanish period, such as Chinese, Spanish, Arab,
American and other nationalities, especially with the increase of
the Filipino diaspora when large numbers of Filipinos began
working and living abroad in recent years and intermarrying with
foreigners has enriched the bloodlines of Filipinos with the
result of producing women with very beautiful features.
• In fact, the two recent Filipino winners of the Miss Universe
Beauty Pageant and the first Filipino winner of the Miss World
Pageant have German, Australian and American fathers
respectively. This is an indication that the Filipino nation-state is
fast becoming a multinational state.
Pia Wurztbach, Miss Universe 2015
Catriona Gray, Miss Universe 2017
Megan Young, Miss World 2013
• The People of the Philippines is also made up of several
ethno-linguistic groups speaking their respective
languages and have their respective temperament and
character.
• Northern Luzon is dominated by the Ilocanos or Samtoy,
who are thrifty and hardworking, and do not hesitate to
leave home seeking either better economic opportunities
or simply their place in the sun, which explains why many
of the pioneering Filipino workers and immigrants in the
U.S. states of Hawaii, California and Alaska are Ilocanos.
• The Bicolanos are found in the peninsula at the
southeastern portion of Luzon and are noted for
their fondness for pepper in their cuisine, and their
resiliency to the storms which frequently strike their
region.
• An added characteristic is that if the Bicolano does
not want to enjoy life in the world, he is
contemplating it in a church or seminary, and
accordingly, many Filipino priests have come from
the Bicol region.
Msgr. Jorge Barlin, First Native Filipino Bishop
and a Bicolano
• In the capital city of Manila and adjacent
provinces are the home-loving Tagalogs, who
spearheaded the Revolution against Spain and
the notion of one single nation encompassing
the entire Philippines.
Manila City Hall
• In between the Tagalogs and Ilocanos are the
Kapampangans, who inhabit the Central Luzon
provinces of Pampanga, Tarlac, and parts of
Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Zambales
who are noted for their delicious cuisine,
probably the best in the country and their
unique and difficult language and their fine
taste for clothes.
Cathedral of San Fernando City, Pampanga
• In the Visayas are found several ethno-
linguistic groups, such as the Warays of Samar
and part of Leyte, the Ilonggos who live in the
Western Visayan islands of Panay and parts of
Negros, and the Cebuanos, who are found not
only in Cebu island and Negros but also in
Bohol, parts of Leyte and most of Mindanao,
especially its Christian population.
Magellan’s Cross, Cebu City
Actual Cross of Magellan (its remains
enclosed in wood casing)
• The Muslim population of Mindanao have the
Maranaos of the Lake Lanao region, the
Tausugs of the Sulu Archipelago, and the
Yakans of Basilan island. Other groups of
people are found, such as the different
aboriginal tribes in the mountains of Northern
Luzon, known collectively as the Igorots, and
the Lumads of Mindanao.
Grand Muslim Mosque in Marawi City
• All of these ethnic groups are regionalistic to one
degree or another, being proud of their own group.
• But in contrast, the Tagalogs seem to be the least
regionalistic, due to the fact that the capital city of
Manila is in their region and this led to the eventual
selection of their language, Tagalog as the basis for
the national language, which is Filipino, and this
gave them the tendency to be more national in their
outlook than the other Filipinos.
• Thus, many of the pioneering leaders and
heroes of Philippine nationhood were
Tagalogs, such as Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio,
Emilio Aguinaldo and Manuel L. Quezon.
• As a result of Spanish rule, Spanish was propagated and
used as the official and intellectual language during the
Spanish period, but it gradually gave way to English during
the subsequent American regime.
• By the late American and Commonwealth period, the
mainly-Tagalog based national language, known as
Filipino, began to be propagated and its use spread rapidly
throughout the country after World War II and
independence, its dissemination assisted by its use by the
educational system, the media, and the entertainment
industry especially with the advent of radio and television.
• In the current Constitution ratified in 1987, the
official languages would be Filipino and English, and
the regional languages would be used as auxiliary
means of communication in their respective borders,
• while Spanish, along with Arabic would be promoted
“on a voluntary and optional basis,” which would be
the legal basis for the eventual abolition of Spanish
as an official language and required subject in the
schools, which used to be the case in the college and
university level from 1946 until 1987.
• The ancestors of the Filipinos had extensive relations with
their Asian neighbors and received cultural influences
from them long before the coming of the Spaniards.
• The Chinese traded with the peoples of what is now the
Philippine archipelago since the Soong dynasty,
exchanging Chinese goods like porcelain and silk with
native products such as rattan and bird’s nests (for making
the Chinese delicacy, nido soup), along with some Chinese
cultural influences, which explains why Chinese porcelain
was already being used by the Filipinos when the
Spaniards arrived in the 16th century.
• The early Filipinos also had trade with the Indianized
empires of the Sri Vijhaya and Majapahit, which held sway
in which is now Java Island in Indonesia from the 8 th to the
14th centuries and through them, Indian cultural influences
filtered to the Philippines through trading.
• With the advent of Islam through the Islamized Malays
during the 15th century, Arab cultural influences began to
be felt. But it must be explained that all these influences
and contacts the early Filipinos had with the other Asian
peoples never had any lasting influences comparable to
Spanish rule.
 - It is true, paper and printing were invented by
the Chinese, but these inventions never reached
the Filipinos during their early contacts with the
Chinese despite their proximity with China,
• but these eventually reached distant Europe
during the late Middle Ages, and it took a
European nation, Spain to introduce these
technologies to the Philippines during their rule.
• The early Filipinos also had their own writing
system, known as baybayin, a phonetic script
but it produced no extensive body of literature
comparable to those of its Asian neighbors,
which may have been developed from earlier
scripts introduced through contact with other
Asian traders, such as Indians.
Baybayin Script
• The Spanish Dominican missionaries even published a
book for the teaching of Catholic doctrine, titled Doctrina
Christiana which was written in Spanish, Chinese and
Tagalog,
• with the Tagalog text in the baybayin, indicating that the
missionaries did not prohibit the use of the ancient
alphabet but in fact, utilized it in their evangelical efforts.
It may have simply fallen gradually into disuse when the
indigenous peoples began using the Roman alphabet in
writing in their native tongues. This is considered one of
the first books printed in the Philippines.
Doctrina Christiana
First Page of Doctrina Christiana in Classical
Chinese
A page of Doctrina Christiana written in
Baybayin
Laguna Copper Plate Inscription
• The so-called “Laguna Copperplate” is an example of
a written document before the Spanish Conquest,
discovered in the town of Nagcarlan, Laguna in the
1970s and deciphered by Dutch anthropologist
Antoon Poostma.
• In January 1990, the Laguna Copperplate Inscription,
then just a thin sheet of crumpled and blackened
metal, was bought and acquired by the 
National Museum of the Philippines after previous
efforts to sell it as an antique had been unsuccessful.
• It measures around 20 cm by 30 cm and is inscribed
with ten lines of writing on one side. The text was
mostly written in Old Malay with influences of Sanskrit
, Old Javanese and Old Tagalog using the Kawi script.
• Dutch anthropologist Antoon Postma deciphered the
text and found that it identified the date of its
inscription in the "Year of Saka 822, month of Vaisakha
." This corresponds with months April-May in the year
900 AD of the Gregorian calendar, about six centuries
before Magellan’s arrival.
 Decipherment and Contents

• The document states the acquittal of all the descendants of a certain

honourable Namwaran from a debt of 1 kati and 8 suwarna, which is
equivalent to 926.4 grams of gold granted by the Military
Commander of Tundun (Tondo) and witnessed by the leaders
of Pailah, Binwangan and Puliran, which are places likely to be also
located in Luzon.
• The reference to the contemporaneous Medang Kingdom in modern-
day Indonesia imply political connections with territories elsewhere
in the Maritime Southeast Asia.
• This document is the earliest record of a Philippine language and the
presence of writing in the islands. Its contents also suggest the
existence of political dominion and long-distance trade in the
Philippine archipelago in as early as the 9th century.
 Writing Systems
• Brahmic scripts were introduced in 
Maritime Southeast Asia through Indian
influence. This led to the creation and use of
the Kawi script and several native writing
systems in the Philippine archipelago.
• Kawi script
• The Laguna Copperplate Inscription was written
using the Kawi script which originated in Java
 and was used across Maritime Southeast Asia.
• By the 13th or 14th century, as indicated earlier, the 
Baybayin script was in use for the Tagalog language.
It is known to have spread to Luzon, Mindoro,
Palawan, Panay and Leyte, but there is no proof that
it was used in Mindanao.
• There were at least three varieties of the Baybayin
script in the late 16th century. These are comparable
to the different variations of the Latin script in
Europe which use slightly different sets of letters
and spelling systems. 
• In 1521, the chronicler Antonio Pigafetta from the expedition of 
Ferdinand Magellan noted that the people that they met in 
Visayas were not literate.
• However, in the next few decades the Baybayin script seemed to
have been introduced to them. In 1567 Miguel López de Legaspi
 reported that "they [the Visayans] have their letters and
characters like those of the Malays, from whom they learned
them; they write them on bamboo bark and palm leaves with a
pointed tool, but never is any ancient writing found among them
nor word of their origin and arrival in these islands, their
customs and rites being preserved by traditions handed down
from father to son without any other record."
 Religion of the Early Filipinos

• With the exception of those in the island of

Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago who were
converted to Islam during the 15th century just
before the Spaniards came, the early Filipinos
were pagans, professing an animistic religion
similar to the other Austronesian peoples.
• Among the Tagalogs of Luzon, the supreme god
was Bathala who was believed to dwell high in the
sky in a way, comparable to the Greek god, Zeus.
• Other gods below him was the sun-god araw, and the rain
god, ulan. Incidentally, these words are used in the
modern Tagalog language as the words for sun and rain
respectively.
• Among the Visayans, the supreme god was Laon.
Religious rituals were performed by priestesses, known as
Babaylan among the Tagalogs, and Catalonan among the
Visayans, with these rituals held in makeshift temples
known as Sambahan, (corresponding to the modern
Tagalog word for church, which is Simbahan), which could
often be under old trees or inside caves.
• Some of these pre-Christian beliefs and practices
have survived into the present, often blending into
the folk Catholicism of many Filipinos, especially in
the rural areas.
• In fact, some of the rituals of these Pre-Hispanic
priestesses are still known and practiced today by
the so-called herbolarios or herb healers, who
perform these rituals to ward off misfortune or heal
illnesses like what witch doctors do in other
cultures.
• Unlike In the case of Hinduism, there was no
formidable barrier to overcome when evangelization
began in earnest with the coming of the Spaniards
• and the Philippines soon became the only Christian
nation in Asia and held that distinction for centuries
until joined by East Timor (Timor Leste) when it
became independent of Indonesia in 2002, which
was evangelized by Spain’s fellow Iberian and Latin
nation, Portugal.
• There was also no unified government for the
whole archipelago as today. Instead, the early
Filipinos were formed into groups of 30 to 100
families known as Barangay or village, ruled by
a datu, or chief, a sort of monarchy.
• In some big and prestigious barangays, the
datu is often called rajah or lakan. In similar
Islamized barangays, the ruler often used the
Muslim term, Sultan, as in the Sultanate of Sulu.
• The datu was the Barangay’s chief executive, legislator
and judge. The datu is also the commander-in-chief of his
Barangay’s warriors in wartime. In his legislative role,
the datu is assisted by a council of elders and the new
laws announced by a town crier known as Umalahokan.
• The so-called Code of Kalantiao was for many years,
hailed as an outstanding example of a Pre-Hispanic legal
code, until it was debunked as a hoax and forgery by
William Henry Scott, an American historian who spent
most of his career and ended his days in the Philippines.
• The social classes during Pre-Hispanic times
were the Maginoo, or nobility to which the
datus and their families belong.
• Below them were the Maharlika among the
Tagalogs or Timawa with the Visayans, a sort
of middle class, where the farmers, fishermen
and merchants or other artisans belonged.
• . At the bottom of the social scale are the Alipin or
slaves, divided into two kinds. The first is the Aliping
Namamahay, more of serfs than slaves, who had their
own houses and only served their masters during
definite work hours and cannot be sold by them.
• The second, the Aliping Saguiguilid, are the real slaves,
who lived in their masters’ houses and are wholly owned
by them and could be sold at will by them. The slaves
are often people captured in war and sold in slave-
markets, or those who are deep in debt to their masters.
• But unlike in the Hindu Caste System of India,
social movement among classes is not
restricted.
• A maharlika could become a member of the
nobility by marriage or if he is declared a datu
by the people of the Barangay, or a slave could
become a maharlika once he is voluntarily
freed by his owners, buys his freedom or gets
married to a maharlika.
Depiction of a noble Visayan couple in the 16th century (Boxer
Codex)
 Other polity systems by ethnic group

• In Luzon
• In the Cagayan Valley, the head of the Ilongot city-states was called
a benganganat, while for the Gaddang it was called a mingal.
• The Ilocano people in northwestern Luzon were originally located
in modern-day Ilocos Sur and were led by a babacnang. Their polity
was called Samtoy which did not have a royal family but was
headed as a chieftaincy.
• The people of the Cordilleras, collectively known by the Spanish as
Igorot, were headed by an apo. These civilizations were highland
plutocracies with distinct cultures where most were headhunters.
According to literature, some Igorot people were always at war
with the lowland Ilocano people from the west.
Igorot Warriors Performing a Ritual Dance
during the American Period
• In Mindanao
• The Lumad people from inland Mindanao are
known to have been headed by a datu.
• The Subanon people in the Zamboanga Peninsula
were ruled by a timuay until they were overcame
by the Sultanate of Sulu in the 13th century.
• The Sama-Bajau people in Sulu who were not
Muslims nor affiliated with the Sultanate of Sulu
were ruled by a nakurah before the arrival of Islam.
Manobo Tribe in Caraga Region, Mindanao
• Trade
• The items much prized in the islands included
jars, which were a symbol of wealth
throughout South Asia, and later metal, salt
 and tobacco. In exchange, the people would
trade feathers, rhino horns, hornbill beaks, 
beeswax, bird's-nests, resin, and rattan.
 Earliest documented Chinese contact

• The earliest date suggested for direct Chinese

contact with the Philippines was 982. At the time,
merchants from "Ma-i" (now thought to be either 
Bay, Laguna on the shores of Laguna de Bay or a
site called "Mait" in Mindoro) brought their wares
to Guangzhou and Quanzhou.
• This was mentioned in the History of Song and 
Wenxian Tongkao by Ma Duanlin which were
authored during the Yuan Dynasty.
Artist’s Illustration of Early Chinese Contacts
with the Filipinos
Depiction of female commoners at the time
of Spanish contact
 Arrival of Islam

• Beginnings
• Muslim traders introduced Islam to the then-Indianised
Malayan empires around the time that wars over succession
had ended in the Majapahit Empire in 1405.
• However, Makhdum Karim had already brought Islam to the
Philippine archipelago in 1380, establishing the Sheik Karimal
Makdum Mosque in Simunul, Tawi-Tawi, the oldest mosque in
the country.  Subsequent visits by Arab, Malay and Javanese
 missionaries helped spread Islam further in the islands. The 
Sultanate of Sulu once encompassed parts of modern-day
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Its royal house also
claims descent from Muhammad.
 Bruneian attacks

• Early in the 16th century, the Bruneian Empire

 under Sultan Bolkiah attacked the Kingdom of
Tondo. Thus until the arrival of the Spanish,
southern parts of Luzon and some islands
further south have been at least nominally
influenced by Islam.
• The timely arrival of Spain along with
Christianity effectively checked the further
spread of Islam in the Philippine archipelago.
• Women had a higher status in ancient Philippines as
compared to their sisters in the neighboring Asian nations.

• They were not treated as second class citizens and are

practically equal to men, unlike in the case of traditional
Chinese culture under Confucian influence.
• They are treated as the queen of the home and could
engage in business and livelihood pursuits equal to men.
If they happen to be daughters of datus who died without
sons, they could take over the chieftaincy and rule the
barangays.
• This relatively high status of women was
further enhanced by Christianity and is now
one of the highest in the Asia-Pacific region.
Filipino women won the right to vote and hold
public office during the Commonwealth Period
just before World War II, the earliest women
in Asia to do so.
• Since then, two women had become presidents of the
Philippines, high-ranking government officials and high-
ranking executives in some of the Philippines’ top
business corporations.
• But Filipino working women who happen to be mothers
also have the amazing ability to combine their work and
careers while being housewives and mothers for their
families, and foreign men who got married to Filipinas
have testified to the loving and carrying nature of their
spouses and devotion to their families.
Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, First Woman
President of the Philippines
• All these descriptions of the early Filipinos were done by
Spanish chroniclers such as the Dominican friar, Diego
Aduarte, the Franciscan Juan de Plasencia, and the
government official, Antonio de Morga, which could be
more described as accounts of the Filipinos at Spanish
contact, or the conditions of the natives of these islands
at the time of the Spanish arrival.
• In recent years, knowledge about the Filipinos Pre-
Spanish past was enhanced by such cognate disciplines
such as Archeology, Anthropology, even Linguistics.
History, Lecture 3

By
Restituto R. Ramos, M.A.
Spanish Colonization and Christianization of
the Philippines
• Beginnings of the Spanish Nation
• Since it is a historical fact that Spanish rule was
mainly responsible for the evolution of the
Philippines as a nation,
• a study of Spanish history from how the nation of
Spain began all the way to the Age of Explorations
and Discoveries is in order, for events and policies
from Spain had far reaching repercussions in its
colonies like the Philippines during Spanish times.
• Spain and the Spanish Colonial Period in
Philippine History is often subject to a very
negative image for decades,
• mainly due to the so-called “La Leyenda
Negra” (Black Legend) which was introduced
during the American Period along with the
English language, which effectively cut the
Filipinos off from better understanding the
Spanish Period,
• due to the present lack of knowledge of the
Spanish language,
• and the fact is that most of the historical
documents of that period were written in Spanish,
• and the lack of facility in this language prevents
the Filipinos of today from appreciating the
Hispanic roots of their present culture,
• which is actually a result of the interaction of the
indigenous and Spanish cultures, as well as others.
• Spain is a nation in Western Europe at the Western
side of the Mediterranean Sea. It land area is 505,
370 square kilometers (315,856. 25 square miles)
making it the second largest country in land area in
the region after France.
• It is located in the Iberian Peninsula, which it shares
with Portugal and the tiny mountain-state of
Andorra. To the north is France, to which the
Pyrenees Mountains serves as are a natural barrier,
and where the city-state of Andorra is located.
Flag of Spain
Political Map of Spain and Portugal
• To its west is Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean.
To the northwest is the Bay of Biscay, to the east is
the Mediterranean Sea and the Balearic Islands,
• and at the Peninsula’s southern tip is the fortified
British enclave of Gibraltar but claimed by Spain
as part of its territory.
• Across the Strait of Gibraltar are the Spanish
enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa, at
the fringes of Morocco
Mediterranean Sea (Political Map)
• Spain is also divided into several regions. The
heartland of the country is Castile, divided
into Castilla- La Mancha and Castilla y Leon,
where Spain’s capital and largest city of
Madrid is located, as well as Burgos, Palencia,
Avila, Salamanca, Valladolid and Toledo
(Spain’s original capital from Visigothic times
and Seat of its Catholic Primate).
Palacio Real (Royal Palace), Madrid, Spain
• To the south is the region of Andalucia,
known for its infernal heat during summer,
famous fiestas, verbenas, spectacular corridas
(bullfights) and flamenco.
• Here, Moorish rule lasted the longest, whose
influence is obvious in its people and culture.
A Typical House at Priego de Cordoba
Andalucia, Spain
Courtyard of a Traditional House in
Andalucia, Spain
Terraced White Houses at Priego de Cordoba,
Andalucia, Spain
Flamenco Dancers in Spain
Bullfighting in Spain
Bullfighting in Spain
• Its cities are Cordoba, Sevilla and Granada.
Sevilla from where the exploration and
colonization of Latin America and the
Philippines was launched and directed.
Cordoba is famous for its Cathedral, which was
originally a Muslim mosque, and Granada has
the famous Alhambra.
Cordoba Cathedral (originally a Muslim
Mosque)
Interior of Cordoba Cathedral
Inner Courtyard of the Alhambra in Granada,
Spain
• To the northeast is Cataluña (Catalonia), where the nation’s
second largest city of Barcelona is located and where the people
speak Catalan as their regional language and its inhabitants
sense of regional identity is often so strong that some want it to
separate from Spain and form an independent state.
• Due west of Cataluña Aragon and Navarra are the Basque
regions of Alava, Guipuzcoa and Vizcaya, home of the Basque
people who speak a very different language unrelated to any
other tongue, where the game of Jai Alai originated, and where
separatist sentiment is also quite strong among many if its
inhabitants that some want to separate the regions from Spain
and become independent.
Jai Alai players in Spain
Church of Sagrada Familia, Barcelona
Castillo Montjuich, Barcelona
• To the northwest is Galicia, where the famous
pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela with
its Shrine to Santiago de Matamoros (St. James
the Moorslayer) is located, with an often rainy
weather akin to that of Ireland.
• Besides the Spanish language, the people
there also speak their local idiom, Galician, or
Gallego, with its marked similarity to
Portuguese.
• Because of its location at the western end of the
Mediterranean Sea, Spain was considered to be at
the edge of civilization during ancient times with its
considerable distance from the centers of civilization
in the Eastern Mediterranean, such as Egypt,
Phoenicia (now Lebanon), and Greece.
• Even then, Spain received visits from these peoples,
especially the Greeks, who founded a settlement in
what is now the city of Barcelona and they gave the
name “Iberia” to the Peninsula.
• At present, “Iberia” is also the name of Spain’s
national airline and flag carrier.
Logo of Iberia Airlines of Spain
• As seen in the cave paintings of Altamira, Spain was
already settled by humans since prehistoric times. Its
native inhabitants, the Iberians (whom some scholars
claim that the modern Basque people, who speak a very
different language of unknown origin, are their modern
descendants), were later joined by Celtic settlers, forming
a new ethnic group, known as Celtiberians.
• Celtic influence is strong in Galicia, where bagpipes
reminiscent of those played in Scotland and the French
region of Brittany are still played and their traditional
costumes resemble those found in Ireland and Brittany.
Cave Paintings at Altamira, Spain
Traditional Bagpipers of Galicia, Spain
Ancient Greek Ruins in Ampurias, Gerona,
Cataluña, Spain
• By the third century B.C., Iberia became a
battleground between the two rival powers in the
Mediterranean, namely Rome and Carthage, for
which they fought the three Punic Wars with each
other, with Rome nearly losing the Second Punic War
for the Carthaginians won a string of victories under
the able leadership of Hannibal.
• Many of these battles were fought in Iberia, with
Hannibal leading his army, complete with elephants
and horses across Iberia and all the way into Italy.
• The Third Punic War resulted in the capture of
Carthage and with Rome becoming the undisputed
power in the Peninsula, although the Romans only
managed to put the entire Iberian Peninsula under
their complete control by 18 B.C.
• Even then, they never completely conquered the
Basques, some who until now, are still struggling
for independence for their people from the
Spanish state, especially by means of terrorism.
• Under the Romans, Iberia became known as
“Hispania” (where the modern name, “España,”
or Spain is derived) and it was under the nearly
eight centuries of Roman rule that Spain’s
linguistic and cultural identity was formed.
• Spain became one of the most heavily Romanized
provinces in the entire Roman Empire, along with
Lusitania (now roughly modern Portugal),
Ancient Roman Ruins at Merida,
Extremadura
Ancient Roman Aqueduct at Segovia
• with their own Latin language effectively propagated, so that it
became the basis for modern Spanish or Castilian, as well as regional
languages such as Catalan and Galician, and of Portuguese in
neighboring Portugal.
• Castilian is chiefly spoken as the first language of the inhabitants of
both Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y Leon, Asturias, Aragon,
Extremadura, and of Andalucia, besides being mandated as the
official language of the Spanish State and is used throughout the
country either as a first or second language outside the Castilian
regions, although regional languages are guaranteed by the
Constitution as auxiliary official languages in their own regions, such
as Catalan in Catalonia, Galician in Galicia, and Basque (Euskadi) in
the Basque regions.
•  Below are the similarities of some Spanish
words with the other Romance, or Latin-based
languages with their English translations.
English Latin Italian Spanish French Portuguese

Church Ecclesia Chiesa Iglesia Eglise’ Igreja

Good Bonum Buono Bueno Bon Bom

Father Pater Padre Padre Pére Pai

Hand Manum Mano Mano Main Mão

• Spain was so thoroughly Romanized that some famous Romans
were born and raised in Spain, such as the Roman emperors
Trajan, Hadrian and Theodosius, the philosopher Seneca, and the
poets Lucian, Quintilian and Marcial.
• Some structures built under Roman rule still stand, such as the
Aqueduct of Segovia, still used to supply water to the city, and the
relatively well-preserved Roman ruins at Merida.
• Spain’s Latin-derived language and culture was exported, along
with that of neighboring Portugal, to the Americas during the Age
of Exploration and Colonization and consequently, the region
became known as Latin America
Map of Latin
America
• In the process, several nations were born, such as Mexico,
Cuba, Peru, Venezuela, and Argentina, and by extension, also
including the Philippines, even if Spanish is no longer spoken on
a daily basis in this island-nation as during Spanish times,
• but its national language, Filipino based largely on the Tagalog
language of Manila, as well as other regional languages, are
literally sprinkled with borrowed Spanish words and
expressions.
• Christianity also came to Spain during Roman times and
apostolic tradition says that St. Paul the Apostle may have been
to the Peninsula sometime after his imprisonment in Rome,
• and St. James the Apostle was also said to have preached the faith
there and is now venerated as Spain’s Patron Saint, along with Our
Lady of Zaragoza.
• Although St. James later returned to and was martyred in Jerusalem
under King Herod Agrippa, tradition is strong in Spain which claimed
that his body was eventually brought back there and buried in what
is now Santiago de Compostela in Galicia and now lies in his famous
shrine there and has been the destination of numerous pilgrims
who make the famous pilgrimage, known as “El Camino de
Santiago” (a pilgrimage of several hundred kilometers starting from
several traditional routes which must be done on foot, by bicycle or
like during the Middle Ages, on horseback or even by donkey).
Shrine to St. James at Santiago de
Compostela, Galicia, Spain
• Legend also is strong among the Spaniards that in
one battle against the Moors when the Christians
appeared to be losing, St. James appeared riding a
horse and wearing Spanish-style armor, and
brandishing a sword, urged the Christians not to lose
hope and to continue fighting.
• This made the Christian warriors regain their morale
and eventually defeat their opponents. Thus, St.
James was honored with the title, “Santiago de
Matamoros” (St. James the Moor slayer).
“Santiago de Matamoros” (St. James the
Moor slayer).
• It seems that Christianity rapidly spread to all
the peoples of Hispania despite the often
brutal Roman persecutions, so that by the time
Christianity was legalized throughout the
Roman Empire as decreed by the Emperor
Constantine the Great in his Edict of Milan in
312 A.D., Christianity has already taken deep
root.
•
• The gradual decline of Roman power beginning in the 3rd
century A.D. subjected Spain to the invasions of the Germanic
barbarian peoples such as the Suevi and the Vandals in 409 A.D.

• The Visigoths invaded the Peninsula in 416 A.D., drove the

Vandals to North Africa and established their kingdom with its
capital at Toletum (now Toledo), which lasted for more than
three centuries. The Visigoths were already partly Romanized
by the time they invaded Spain and they also adopted Catholic
Christianity shortly after their conquest, in place of the Arian
Christianity their earlier adhered to when they first began
entering Roman lands.
• Eventually, the Muslim Moors from North Africa invaded Spain
in 711 A.D. and destroyed the already degenerate Visigothic
kingdom after their victory at the Battle of Guadalete and killed
its last king, Roderick (Rodrigo).
• The Moors even managed to cross the Pyrenees into Gaul (now
France), but they were finally defeated by the Franks under
Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours (Poiters) in 732. The
Moors withdrew back to Spain where they set up several
kingdoms, such as the Caliphate of Cordoba and ruled the
Peninsula for almost as long as the Romans did, building
structures such as the Alhambra of Granada and the Mosque
(now Cathedral) of Cordoba and the Moorish Gate of Valencia.
The Moorish Gate at Valencia
• But the Christians started to regain the initiative when
under the leadership of Don Pelayo, who rallied the
remnants of the Visigothic forces, and they won a great
victory over the Moors at the Battle of Covadonga in 722
and kept the region of Asturias from being conquered,
• and to which the Christian forces took refuge, which was
well- protected by the Cantabrian mountains (in
recognition of these, the heir to the Spanish throne is
given the title, Prince of Asturias). From there, the
Christian campaign to reconquer the Peninsula from the
Moors, known as the Reconquista, was launched.
• The Moorish conquest destroyed the political unity of the
Peninsula which prevailed since Roman rule. Had the
kingdom of the Visigoths not fallen apart and lasted until
modern times, Spain might have been more unified than at
present, when regional differences are well-marked and
Portugal might not have been a separate country.
• The unconquered Christian population evolved into separate
kingdoms which were often at war with each other, as
against the Moors, which explains why it took only about a
dozen years for them to conquer the Peninsula, while it
would take the Christians several centuries to regain it.
• One of the champions of the Reconquista, or the campaign of
reconquest of territory from the Moors was the legendary El Cid,
whose real name was Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, who defeated the
Moors in many battles. He was said to have remarked: “This
Peninsula was lost through a Rodrigo. Another Rodrigo would get it
back.”
• Another hero of the reconquest was King (Saint) Fernando III of
Castile, who consolidated Christian gains against the Moors during
the 13th century A.D. and persecuted Albigensian heretics. The
Reconquista developed among the Spaniards both their patriotism
and devotion to the Catholic faith, which greatly facilitated Spain’s
colonization and Christianization of the New World and the
Philippines.
Monument to El Cid at Burgos, Spain
King (Saint) Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon
• In the wake of the campaign for the
reconquest, the kingdom of Castile gradually
consolidated its position and became one of
the most powerful of the Spanish kingdoms by
the 14th century, and eventually became the
core of the Spanish nation-state, like in the
case of Prussia when Germany was unified in
1871.
• But due to a dispute with the western kingdom of Portugal, an
attempt by the King Juan (John) I of Castile to claim the
Portuguese crown for himself and in so doing, incorporate
Portugal into Castile,
• was thwarted by the defeat of the Castilian armies by the
Portuguese led by King João (John) I of Portugal at the Battle of
Aljubarrota in 1385.
• This guaranteed the independence of Portugal from Spain and by
extension, also the evolution of the nations which would be
begotten by Portugal, such as Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and
East Timor.
•  
• When Queen Isabel I of Castile got married to King
Fernando II of Aragon and Cataluña in 1469, their two
kingdoms entered into a de facto union, which became the
core of the Spanish nation-state, although Castile would
eventually prevail as the more powerful partner.
• Together, as the so-called Los Reyes Catolicos (The Catholic
Monarchs) , they conquered the remaining Moorish
territories, culminating in the surrender of Granada on
New Year’s Day of 1492, which was the last city in Spain
held by the Moors. Finally, after almost eight centuries, all
of Spain was Christian again.
Los Reyes Catolicos (The Catholic Monarchs)
• The year 1492 was the same year when Queen Isabel would
approve and finance the first voyage of the Genoese-born
Christopher Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo in Italian, Cristobal
Colon in Spanish),
• which resulted in the discovery of America on October 12,
1492, when his ships stumbled in what is now Watling Island in
the Bahamas and is now annually observed in the Spanish-
speaking world as El Dia de Hispanidad (also observed as
Columbus Day in the United States), which is also the feast day
of the Nuestra Señora del Pilar (Our Lady of the Pillar), Spain’s
Patroness and is now venerated at her shrine in Zaragoza,
Aragon.
Christopher Columbus
• Columbus resolved to find a westward route to the Indies,
especially the Moluccas or Spice Islands (now Maluku,
Indonesia) in order to evade the monopoly of the Venetians in
the Spice trade after the Ottoman Turks conquered
Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in 1453 and finally put an
end to the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire.
• The traders from Venice, Italy were the only ones from Christian
Europe permitted by the Turks to pass and trade through
Constantinople by making them pay toll, which naturally made
the Venetians pass the added cost to their buyers in Europe,
which correspondingly increased their mark-up, in addition to
their monopoly.
• An alternative route to the Indies was necessary,
and the Portuguese pioneered in the search for this
which began under Prince Henry the Navigator, a
son of King João I,
• who launched voyages which sought to find this
route by sending ships to follow the western coast of
Africa in a southern direction until reaching the end
of the continent, which Bartolomeu Diaz did in 1488
and in the process, discovered the Cape of Good
Hope.
Prince Henry the Navigator
• A decade later, Vasco de Gama rounded this Cape
and sailed across the Indian Ocean to India.
• This began the Portuguese empire in the East,
enabling the establishment of Portuguese colonies of
Goa in India, and Malacca in the Malay Peninsula
(now in Malaysia),
• the Moluccas, and Macau (now part of China) and
the now-independent nation of East Timor (Timor
Leste). Thus, the monopoly of the Venetians was
finally broken.
Map of Africa
Map of the Indian Ocean, South and
Southeast Asia
• But this created a new monopoly, this time by the Portuguese.
It became imperative for the Spaniards to search for another
route to the Indies, and Columbus did precisely just that, but in
the process, led to a discovery of an entirely new land, which
Columbus dubbed as the “New World,” but insisted up to his
dying day that it was part of Asia and the Indies, never realizing
that he discovered a new continent.
• He made a total of four voyages to the New World, discovering
also the major islands of the Caribbean Sea, such as Hispaniola,
Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica and reached the American
mainland at Panama during his fourth voyage but never
recognized its narrowness.
Columbus’s Ships during His First Voyage to
the New World
• He died back in Spain at Valladolid in 1503,
some 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the
nearest sea coast, the so-called “Admiral of
the Ocean Sea,” ending his days so far from
the sea one could get. He died in relative
poverty, for Queen Isabel had already passed
away earlier, and King Fernando did not fulfill
all his promises.
• Columbus’s first voyage, which precipitated Spanish efforts to
explore and colonize outside of Europe, inevitably led to the
rivalry between Portugal and Spain.
• The Holy See was anxious to prevent war between the two
Iberian neighbors and the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI was able
to mediate an agreement between them, known as the Treaty
of Tordesillas, signed on June 7, 1494,
• which set the so-called demarcation line 370 leagues west of
the Cape Verde Islands in which both countries agreed that all
lands to be discovered west of the line would belong to Spain,
and all lands discovered east of it would belong to Portugal.
Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia)
• The line ran from north to south but happen to run
through a portion of what is now eastern Brazil,
• which Pedro Alvares Cabral accidentally discovered
and claimed for Portugal in 1500 when his ships
bound for India were blown off course by a storm
and unwittingly crossed the Atlantic and reached
what is now Brazil
• and Cabral proceeded to claim it for Portugal, which
became the only Portuguese possession in the
Americas.
• Columbus’s discovery led to the extensive exploration and
colonization of Spain in the Americas, resulting in the
present Hispano-American nations of Mexico, Peru,
Ecuador, Venezuela, Chile and Argentina and many others.
• It was Amerigo Vespucci, another Italian explorer in the
service of Spain like Columbus, and after whom the New
World was named by the Dutch cartographer, Martin
Waldseemὓller, who concluded that the New World was
not part of Asia or the Indies and that Columbus had
discovered an entirely new land, and this must have surely
blocked Columbus’s way to Asia.
Amerigo Vespucci
• Accordingly, Waldseemὓller proceeded to
name the newly-discovered lands as
“America” in the maps he made in Vespucci’s
honor and the name has stuck ever since.
• This was bolstered by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa’s
discovery of the Pacific Ocean on September
25, 1513, which he named the “South Sea,”
after crossing the Isthmus of Panama in order
to confirm the stories of the local Indians of a
vast sea on the other side of the land.
Vasco Núñez de Balboa (Claiming Possession of the
“South Sea”)
Map of Central America
Map of Panama
Balboa’s Voyage in 1513
• When reports of Balboa’s discovery reached
Spain and Portugal, it got the interest of a
• scion of a minor Portuguese noble family, none
other than Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de
Magalhães in Portuguese, Fernando de
Magallanes in Spanish), who was born in
Oporto, Portugal in 1580.
• He trained as a page in the Portuguese royal
court and trained in warfare and seamanship as
he grew older.
Ferdinand Magellan
• When he got to know about Balboa’s
discovery, he was already a veteran soldier and
seafarer, having fought battles against the
Moors in North Africa and against the Malays
in Malacca,
• and has also reached the Moluccas, and there,
he may have heard reports about some islands
to the north (the Philippines) that no European
power has previously claimed.
• He could have made an attempt to reach the
islands where his own cousin, Francisco Serraõ
have reached which he took refuge after a
shipwreck in what is now the southeastern
coast of Mindanao, probably Sarangani
province at present.
• But he was suddenly ordered to return to Portugal
due to intrigues sown against him in the Portuguese
royal court by those who saw him tainted by
corruption for his work of overseeing war booty.
• Unfortunately, King Manuel readily believed these
and was further irritated by Magellan’s demands for
the increase of his pension, he made known to him
that he could no longer expect to be able to serve
his king and country once more.
• Frustrated, Magellan felt that he could never convince his
sovereign of his plan of finding a new westward route to the
Indies, which only got the support in Portugal of the
cosmographer Rui Faleiro,
• which was essentially a continuation of Columbus’s plan,
until his accidental discovery of the Americas frustrated him.
• But news of Balboa’s discovery made Magellan conclude that
Columbus was correct and that the New World merely
blocked Columbus’s path, and the South Sea discovered by
Balboa might be the same sea which washed the eastern
shores of Asia.
• If that is so, one must just try to find a passage from
the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea by sailing to the
southern end of South America and search for the
passage there and in so doing, attempt to cross the
South Sea to Asia and the Indies.
• Besides, with the route around Africa already
adequate for their needs, there was practically no
chance for Magellan’s plan being approved by his
fellow Portuguese in Portugal, especially King
Manuel.
• Magellan decided to move to Spain and through the mediation
of Duarte Barbosa, an old friend of his father already living
there, he was able to have an audience with the young king of
Spain, Carlos I (later also Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman
Empire).
• The King gave him five ships and the expedition left Sanlucar de
Barrameda near Cadiz on September 20, 1519. Magellan’s
ships crossed the Atlantic and reached the northeastern coast
of South America in what is now Pernambuco, Brazil on
December 13, 1519. He then followed the coast southward and
forced to seek refuge at Port San Julian due to the approaching
southern hemisphere winter.
King Charles I of Spain (later concurrently
Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman
Empire)
Map of Atlantic Ocean
• There, some of his crew mutinied but Magellan
readily put it down and gave swift justice to the
plotters, but pardoned some, especially
Sebastian de Elcano.
• Resuming his voyage further south, he finally
discovered the strait that now bears his name,
but lost two ships along the way, such as the
Santiago getting shipwrecked, and another, the
San Antonio deserting and returning to Spain.
Map of South America
Map of the Strait of Magellan
Strait of Magellan
• With his three remaining ships, such as the Trinidad
(his flagship), Concepcion and the Victoria, he sailed
through the nearly always rough and cold straits and
finally reached the South Sea late in 1520,
• and proceeded to cross the vast Pacific Ocean, giving
it its present name due to his luck of not
encountering a single storm during his entire passage
of three months, enduring extreme hardships until
his expedition reached the now U.S. territory of
Guam in the Marianas Islands on March 6, 1521.
Map of Pacific Ocean
Map of Mariana Islands and Guam
Map of Guam
• . From there, Magellan continued his voyage
until his lookouts beheld the towering heights
of the island of Samar on March 16, 1521.
• At last, the Philippines would now enter the
stage of history.
 Spanish expeditions

• The following table shows some important

details about the expeditions made by the
Spanish to the Philippine archipelago.
 Year Leader Ships Landing

Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepcion,

1521  /   Ferdinand Magellan Homonhon, Limasawa, Cebu
Santiago and Victoria

Santa María de la Victoria, Espiritu

Santo, Anunciada, San Gabriel, Jayson
1525  García Jofre de Loaísa Surigao, Visayas, Mindanao
Ponce, Santa María del Parral, San
Lesmes and Santiago

1527  Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón 3 unknown ships Mindanao

Santiago, Jorge, San Antonio, San

1542  Ruy López de Villalobos Samar, Leyte, Saranggani
Cristóbal, San Martín, and San Juan

San Pedro, San Pablo, San Juan and first landed on Samar, established
1564  Miguel López de Legazpi
San Lucas colonies as part of Spanish Empire
 First expedition under Magellan

• After the Portuguese reached the 

Maluku Islands in 1511, the earliest
documented European expedition to the
Philippine archipelago was led by the
Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan in
the service of King Charles I of Spain in 1521.
• Magellan's expedition first arrived at the
island of Homonhon at the mouth of the 
Leyte Gulf on 16 March 1521.  
• The island was uninhabited but later, they
encountered a group of natives who gave
them some fruits and other supplies, such as
coconuts and bananas. They were the first
Filipinos seen by the Spaniards.
•
The island's sovereign ruler was Rajah Kolambu. When Magellan
and comrades set foot on the grounds of Mazaua, he befriended
the Rajah together with his brother Rajah Siagu of Butuan.
• In those days, it was customary among the indigenous—and in
most of southeast Asia—to seal friendship with a blood compact.
• On instigation of Magellan who had heard the Malayan term for
it, casi casi, the new friends performed the ritual. This was the
first recorded blood compact between Filipinos and Spaniards.
Gifts were exchanged by the two parties when the celebration
had ended.
• On Easter Sunday, 31 March 1521, in the
island of Mazaua (Limasawa), Magellan
solemnly planted a cross on the top of a hill
overlooking the sea and claimed for the King
of Spain the possession of the islands he had
encountered, naming them Archipelago of
Saint Lazarus as stated in "First Voyage Around
The World" by one of his companions, the
chronicler Antonio Pigafetta .
• On the same day, Magellan ordered a Mass to be
celebrated which was officiated by Father Pedro
Valderrama, the Andalusian chaplain of the fleet, the only
priest then.
• Conducted near the shores of the island, the First Holy
Mass marked the birth of Roman Catholicism in the
Philippines.
• Colambu and Siagu were the first natives of the
archipelago, which was not yet named "Philippines" until
the expedition of Ruy Lopez de Villalobos in 1543, to
attend the Mass among other native inhabitants.
First Holy Mass celebrated in the Philippines
at Limasawa
Map of Eastern Visayas
• Shortly afterwards, guided by Rajah Siagu,
Magellan’s expedition reached Sugbu (now
Cebu), then already a thriving entrepot of
trade ruled by Rajah Humabon.
Map of Cebu
Map of Mactan Island
• Magellan sought alliances among the people
in the islands beginning with Rajah Humabon
of Sugbu (Cebu) and Datu Zula of the nearby
island of Mactan, and took special pride in
converting them to Christianity.
• He even convinced Rajah Humabon of Cebu to accept baptism
along with all his subjects. He was given the baptismal name of
Carlos after the Emperor Charles V, and his wife, the Queen of Cebu
was given the name, Juana after the Emperor’s unfortunate mother
and he gave her as a baptismal gift the image of the Christ Child
which he had with him from the beginning of the voyage in Sevilla.
• It is now the image of the Santo Niño de Cebu still venerated in the
city at present and enshrined at its Minor Basilica of the Santo Niño
de Cebu. Unfortunately, Magellan later also got involved in the
political conflicts in the islands and took part in a battle against 
Lapulapu, another chief of Mactan and an enemy of Rajah
Humabon and Datu Zula.
Santo Niño de Cebu
Minor Basilica of the Santo Niño de Cebu
• At dawn on 27 April 1521, the Battle of Mactan occurred.
Magellan with 60 armed men and 1,000 Visayan warriors
had great difficulty landing on the rocky shore of Mactan
where Lapulapu had an army of 1,500 waiting on land.
• waded ashore with his soldiers and attacked Lapulapu's
forces, telling Datu Zula and his warriors to remain on
the ships and watch. Magellan underestimated the army
of Lapulapu, and, grossly outnumbered, Magellan and 14
of his soldiers were killed. The rest managed to reboard
the ships.
• 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 where they loaded a
rich cargo of spices but carefully avoided detection by the
local Portuguese rulers, who would surely arrest them as
interlopers.
• 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.
Indonesia and the Maluku Islands
The Maluku (Moluccas) Islands
• 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 across the
Indian Ocean and rounding the Cape of Good Hope,
commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano, and
managed to return to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain
in 1522, three years after it left the same port.
 Subsequent expeditions

• After Magellan's expedition, four more expeditions

were made to the islands. These were led by García
Jofre de Loaísa in 1525, Sebastian Cabot in 1526, 
Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón in 1527, and Ruy López
de Villalobos in 1542.
• The first two were prepared in Spain like Magellan’s,
while the rest were prepared in Mexico and manned
mostly by Mexican sailors and soldiers in order to
avoid the treacherous waters of the Strait of
Magellan.
• In 1543, Villalobos named the islands of Leyte
and Samar Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip
II of Spain, at the time Prince of Asturias.
• Later, the name would be applied to the rest
of the archipelago.
 Conquest of the islands

• Philip II became King of Spain on January 16,

1556 when his father, Charles V), abdicated the
Spanish throne.
• On his return to Spain in 1559, the king
ordered an expedition mounted to the Spice
Islands, stating that its purpose was "to
discover the islands of the west".  In reality its
task was to conquer the Philippine islands for
Spain.
  
King Philip II of Spain
• 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 at Cebu on February 13,
1565.  
• It was after this expedition that the first
Spanish settlements, the 
Captaincy General of the Philippines and the 
Spanish East Indies were established.
• The Legazpi expedition was successful as it
established the first colony in the Philippines.
It also resulted in the discovery of the 
tornaviaje return route to Mexico across the
Pacific by Andrés de Urdaneta.
• This discovery started the Manila galleon
 trade between the Philippines and Mexico,
which lasted for two and a half centuries
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi
  
Exploration, Conquest and Christianization by Spain

• As mentioned earlier, there was no single nation

covering the entire archipelago as in the present
time, when Magellan accidentally stumbled upon
these islands in 1521 while looking for a western
route to the Moluccas or Spice Islands (now Maluku,
Indonesia)
• as an alternative to the one earlier discovered by the
Portuguese explorers like Bartolomeu Diaz and Vasco
de Gama.
• . In a way, Magellan was simply continuing the
original plan of Christopher Columbus of
searching for a western route to the East
Indies but the New World happened to block
his path.
•  
 
• After Magellan was killed in a skirmish with
hostile natives in the island of Mactan, whose chief
was a rival of the chief of Cebu who cordially
received Magellan earlier, the expedition made its
way to the Moluccas and only one ship of the
original five, the Victoria led by Sebastian de Elcano,
managed to limp its way back to Spain in 1522 using
the Portuguese-discovered route via the Cape of
Good Hope,
• with a rich cargo of spices which more than
paid for the cost of the expedition many times
over,
• while Magellan’s former flagship, the Trinidad,
tried to sail with its cargo of spices across the
Pacific to Panama, but contrary winds blew it
back to the Moluccas where it ran aground,
forcing its crew to surrender to the
Portuguese.
• The success of Magellan’s expedition inspired the
Spaniards to send more expeditions to the East, using
Magellan’s newly discovered, albeit much longer route
than the one earlier discovered by the Portuguese
explorers around Africa.
• As mentioned earlier, several failed expeditions were
launched: two from Spain itself like Magellan’s, such as the
Loaysa (Loaisa) and Cabot expeditions, and two from
Mexico, which are the Saavedra and Villalobos
expeditions.
• After the Saavedra expedition, Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty
of Zaragoza on April 22, 1529 in which Spain agreed to sell its rights
over the Moluccas to Portugal and agreed to a revision of the
demarcation line.
• Spain respected its provisions for 13 years, until it decided to send
another from Mexico, but was now intended for the Philippines,
instead of the Moluccas.
• Led by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos in 1542, who gave the present name
of the country, “Las Islas Filipinas,” (The Islands of the Philippines,
which is the correct English translation from Spanish, not “Philippine
Islands”) in honor of the-then heir to the Spanish throne, Prince
Felipe of Asturias, replacing the name given by Magellan, which is
Islas de San Lazaro.
• Villalobos and his men, wracked by lack of
food, had to go to the Moluccas, where they
surrendered to the Portuguese and where he
died of tropical disease at Amboina shortly
afterward, spiritually comforted by St. Francis
Xavier, the famed “Apostle of the Indies.”
•  
• When Emperor Charles V finally relinquished all his royal
titles and positions in order to spend his remaining years in
a monastery in 1556,
• his son Prince Felipe succeeded him as ruler of the Spanish
dominions as King Philip II and he promptly ordered the
Viceroy of Mexico to prepare a new expedition to the East
Indies,
• but this time, with the specific mission for the exploration
and conquest of the Philippines instead of the Moluccas,
apparently intrigued by the archipelago that was
discovered by Magellan and named after him by Villalobos.
• Appointed commander of this expedition was
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, a judge of the
audiencia (Supreme Court) of Mexico who was
already living there for decades,
• and its chief navigator was the Augustinian
friar, Andres de Urdaneta, who had reached
the Moluccas earlier as a member of the failed
expedition led by Gaspar Jofre de Loaysa
(Loaisa) nearly 40 years earlier.
• He was stranded in the Moluccas with the other
members of the expedition fighting the Portuguese
there until they were found by the next expedition
of Alvaro de Saavedra.
• After finally surrendering to the Portuguese, he was
able to return to Spain aboard Portuguese boats and
from there, proceeded to Mexico and after some
years, tired of his life as a sailor and adventurer,
decided to enter the Augustinian Order in 1545 and
eventually ordained as a priest.
Fr. Andres de Urdaneta, OSA
• With Urdaneta was a group of his fellow Augustinian
friars who were given the task of evangelizing the
people of the islands with Urdaneta as their superior,
• making them the pioneering group of Catholic
Christian missionaries to the Philippines.
• Legazpi’s expedition successfully explored and
conquered most of the islands and re-introduced
Christianity in 1565, beginning with the island of
Cebu where Magellan first arrived in 1521.
• Sailing from Navidad, Mexico in 1564, they reached the
Philippines via Guam after a voyage of three months.
• Reaching Cebu, they fought a skirmish with the natives led
by Rajah Tupas (a descendant and successor of Humabon)
and forced them to retreat to the hills, leaving their village
in flames.
• But there, in an unburned house, they recovered the image
of the Christ Child, now known as the Santo Niño de Cebu,
which was the same image given by Magellan to the wife of
its ruler 44 years earlier as she and her people accepted
mass baptism from the Spaniards at Magellan’ urging.
• But after the Spaniards left, the people relapsed into
their animistic paganism and worshipped the image
as a pagan idol until Legazpi’s arrival.
• The Augustinian missionaries who were with
Urdaneta immediately built a makeshift church made
of local materials on the site of the house where the
image was discovered
• and at the same site now stands the Minor Basilica of
the Santo Niño de Cebu, still under the care of the
Augustinian Order.
• Father Urdaneta and his brother Augustinians
promptly began evangelizing the Cebuanos
and easily learned their language after just
four months and convinced their chief, Rajah
Tupas to accept baptism, and his subjects
followed suit.
• A permanent Spanish settlement was
established in Cebu, now the bustling City of
Cebu, and the oldest in the Philippines.
Fort San Pedro, Cebu City
• Part of the Legazpi expedition’s objectives was to discover the
return route to Mexico or the tornaviaje. Previous attempts by ships
from previous expeditions tried but failed to sail across the Pacific
back to the Americas but are always blown back by contrary winds.
• To be successful, one must discover the route where the winds or
ocean currents could propel the ships back to the New World. For
this, Legazpi ordered his expedition’s navigator, Urdaneta to look
for this route, which he did by sailing northward towards Japan and
then sailed eastward, pushed by the Japan Current until his ships
reached what is now the U.S. or Mexican coast of California and
southward to the Mexican port of Navidad after almost six months
of sailing.
• The voyage Urdaneta made across the Pacific was hard, and
many sailors died. However, this was to be the route later used
by the Galleon trade between the Philippines and Mexico and
for more than two and a half centuries, provided the only link
between the islands and the rest of the Spanish empire.
• Urdaneta reported to the Mexican viceroy about the success
of Legazpi’s expedition. He later proceeded to Spain to report
the same to King Philip II, who was well-pleased that he
ordered the sending of reinforcements of both soldiers and
missionaries and the consolidation of the Philippines as a
Spanish colony.
• Refusing all honors offered to him, Urdaneta returned to
Mexico to spend his final years in the Augustinian
Monastery at Mexico City. He desired to return to the
Philippines but his advanced age prevented him from
doing so.
• The reinforcements sent by the king from Mexico arrived
in 1568 and it included two of Legazpi’s grandsons,
Felipe and Juan de Salcedo, who were warmly welcomed
by their grandfather and they greatly helped in the
campaign to colonize the archipelago.
• From Cebu, lack of adequate sources of food forced
Legazpi to move to Panay island, with Iloilo as its
largest town and where he transferred his
headquarters.
• There, Legazpi heard from Chinese traders his men
encountered in the island of Mindoro to the north of
Panay about the rich kingdom of Maynilad (now the
city of Manila) and acquired interest in it after
receiving reports about its excellent harbor and
being a trading port.
• He promptly seized the town from its Muslim ruler, Rajah
Soliman (Sulayman) and declared it the capital of the entire
archipelago on June 24, 1571 and from then on, it became
the political center of Spanish rule in the entire Spanish East
Indies,
• which would eventually include along with the Philippines
the now U.S.-ruled Mariana and Caroline Islands, and within
the city, established Intramuros as the Spanish enclave.
• Legazpi’s immediate successors such as Santiago de Vera
and Luis Perez Dasmariñas built the walls and fortifications
around Intramuros and the city’s citadel of Fort Santiago.
Fort Santiago at Intramuros, Manila
Santa Lucia Gate and Part of the Walls of
Intramuros
• From Manila, the Spaniards gradually spread their control
over the rest of the islands although some parts were never
completely under Spanish rule even towards the end of the
Spanish colonial regime in 1898.
• Among these were the Muslim-populated areas of Mindanao
and the Sulu archipelago in the south, where Muslim traders
and missionaries from what is now Malaysia and Indonesia
introduced Islam to these places a century before Magellan’s
arrival, and the timely coming of Spain effectively checked
the further spread of Islam, which could have Islamized the
Philippines like its above-mentioned neighbors.
Interior of Muslim Mosque in Southern
Philippines
• Fresh from their Reconquista campaign against the
Muslim Moors in Spain, the Spaniards also began
calling the Islamized Filipino natives as “Moros”
(Moors)
• and their subsequent war of conquest against them
and their efforts to defend the Christianized Filipino
communities against the raids of these Moros in
order to retaliate and to seize war booty and slaves,
was in a way, a reprise of the Reconquista or even
the Crusades.
Watchtowers built along the Coast to Warn
of Moro Raiders
• The height of these raids were during the second half of
the 18th century , which explains why many churches in
the coastal towns of the Visayas doubled as fortresses
to defend their settlements against Moro attacks
• and watchtowers were built in strategic locations
complete with ingenious alarm systems to warn of the
approach of marauding Moros and even the priests
often had to brandish a sword or pistol in order to lead
the able-bodied men of their flock in combat against the
Moros,
• such as the Recollect missionary, Fray Agustin
de San Pedro, who was called El Padre Capitan
due to his military exploits and his martial skills
made him feared by many of the Moros like El
Cid centuries before in Spain,
• for he managed not only to defend Christian
settlements against the Moro raids but even
successfully lead attacks against Moro
garrisons.
• The Spaniards finally began to make headway against the
Moros in Mindanao and Sulu in the second half of the 19th
century with the introduction of the steamboat and more
modern weapons,
• finally conquering the Sultanate of Jolo, reoccupied
Zamboanga, penetrated the Lake Lanao area and Davao,
were able to establish more Christian settlements there
and were in the process of conquering the whole island
when the Philippine Revolution against Spain broke out in
Luzon in 1896, which stalemated the Spaniards and
Moros.
• This explains why many of the present-day
Muslim Filipinos do not feel integrated enough
with the mainline or Christianized Filipino
nation and some actually wanted to secede
and establish a separate Islamic state in
Mindanao and Sulu.
• Mindanao also has some people who did not
convert to Islam and who generally lived in its
mountainous areas and are now collectively
known as the Lumads.
• Among these are the T’Boli, Mansaka, Bagobo
and Manobo tribesmen. With some
exceptions, most of them have since
converted to Christianity.
• In Northern Luzon’s mountainous areas, known as
the Cordilleras, its aboriginal inhabitants who are
ethnically similar to the mountain peoples of
neighboring Taiwan
• and are collectively known as the Igorots, were also
relatively free of Spanish rule and Christianization
until the middle of the 19th century due to the
difficulty of penetrating the mountainous terrain
and the fierce hostility of its inhabitants, who
practiced headhunting.
Igorot Warriors
• It was in the lowland regions of Luzon and the major
islands of the Visayas, and the northern and eastern
areas of Mindanao was Spanish rule firmly planted
and Christianity effectively propagated.
• As earlier said, when Urdaneta successfully discovered
the return route to Mexico and reported about the
success of Legazpi’s expedition, reinforcements were
sent in the form of both soldiers and missionaries.
The latter were composed of additional Augustinian
friars along with some secular priests.
• The Augustinians were sent to reinforce their confreres
already engaged in evangelizing the local inhabitants and
the secular clergy were to serve as regular chaplains for
the Spanish community, freeing more Augustinians for
missionary work.
• It was clear that the Augustinians could not accomplish
this work of evangelization alone, so more missionaries
from other religious orders also began coming over in the
succeeding years, such as the Franciscans in 1578; the
Jesuits in 1581; the Dominicans in 1587; and the
Augustinian Recollects in 1606.
The Manila Cathedral at Intramuros before
World War II
San Agustin Church, Intramuros
• To prevent overlapping of missionary work, the colony was
divided into several zones, with a particular zone assigned
exclusively to one order, such as Northwestern and Central
Luzon, and Cebu and Panay island in the Visayas were
given to the Augustinians; Southern Luzon, with Samar
and Leyte to the Franciscans.
• The Jesuits were sent to Mindanao and the Visayan islands
of Bohol and Leyte. Northeastern Luzon and Bataan and
Pangasinan to the Dominicans; and Zambales, Mindoro,
Negros, Romblon, Palawan and parts of Mindanao to the
Recollects.
• All these orders have their central houses in Manila.
There was no hierarchy in the Philippines until 1581,
when the first bishop in the islands, the Dominican
friar Domingo de Salazar arrived to claim his new See
of Manila.
• In 1595, Manila became an archdiocese under the
Franciscan, Francisco de Santibañez as its first
archbishop, with the Dioceses of Nueva Segovia in
Northern Luzon (now centered in Vigan City, Ilocos
Sur), and Cebu in the Visayas as suffragan dioceses.
• In the late 19th century, the sees of Nueva Caceres
(Southern Luzon , centered in Naga City in the Bicol
region) and Jaro (in the Western Visayas, centered in
Iloilo City, Panay) were established as suffragan
dioceses.
• Cebu would become an archdiocese during the early
20th century and Nueva Caceres and Nueva Segovia
would follow suit in the second half of the century,
with even more dioceses being created as their
suffragans,
• indicating the steady increase of the Catholic
population despite the inroads of
Protestantism since the beginning of American
rule in 1898 and the accompanying rise of
homegrown sects such as the Philippine
Independent Church or Aglipayan Church in
the aftermath of the Philippine Revolution
against Spain, and the neo-Arian Iglesia ni
Cristo (Church of Christ).
• More recently, fundamentalist or “Born Again” Christian
sects from the United States and even much more
recently, from South Korea have tried to win converts
from the mostly-Catholic Filipinos, as some of these
same sects have done in Latin America since the 1960s.
• While Fundamentalist Islam, chiefly propagated by
Middle Easterners has also made inroads lately,
especially among the Muslim population in Mindanao,
spurring the growth of terrorist groups such as the Abu
Sayyaf and the Maute.
• Secularism, which has made many in the West
indifferent to religion, even irreligious, has
also gained a foothold in the Philippines,
although the people have remained largely
religious.
• In a particular area assigned to a missionary, the people
would be gathered for evangelization, taught the catechism
and basic learning, even new agricultural techniques such
as the use of the plow, and a makeshift church built of light
materials, to be eventually replaced by one of stone,
• now an ubiquitous sight in many Philippine towns founded
during the Spanish period, and the mission would
eventually evolve into a town. The words Bajo de la
Campana (under the bells), proved to be a very appropriate
description of this work.
•  
• Besides the mission schools were the missionaries taught their
faithful the catechism and basic learning, some religious orders,
namely the Jesuits and the Dominicans, founded institutions for
higher education in Manila, such as the former with the
University of San Ignacio, founded in 1595, but which closed in
1768 when the Jesuits were expelled from all Spanish
dominions,
• and the Ateneo de Manila University, which was founded
originally as a preparatory school upon their return in 1859,
and the latter with the University of Santo Tomas, founded in
1611 (now the oldest existing university in Asia) and the
Colegio de San Juan de Letran, founded in 1620.
University of San Ignacio of the Jesuits,
founded in 1595; Closed in 1768
Ateneo Municipal de Manila in Intramuros,
founded in 1859
Ateneo de Manila at Padre Faura Street,
Ermita, Manila
Administration Building of the Ateneo de
Manila University, Loyola Heights
The University of Santo Tomas at Intramuros,
founded in 1611
The Present University of Santo Tomas at
Sampaloc
Colegio de San Juan de Letran at Intramuros,
founded in 1620
Letran College at Present
• Therefore, it could be very well said that Spain,
particularly the Catholic Church, raised the
inhabitants of the Philippines into a nation, the
Filipino nation.
• The term “Filipino” originally meant a full-blooded
Spaniard born in the Philippines , known generically
as a Criollo (creole), while criollos born in Latin
America were designated as “Americanos .”
•
 Threats to Spanish Rule
• Several threats to Spain’s rule over the Philippines
occurred during its first two centuries since Legazpi’s
arrival.
• From the very beginning, the Portuguese at the nearby
Moluccas opposed the presence of the Spaniards in the
Philippines, who contend that the Philippines,
• like the Moluccas, was on the eastern side of the
demarcation line and was therefore, Portuguese territory.
Portuguese ships under the command Gonzalo de Pereira
tried to force Legazpi out of Cebu, but failed largely due to
the support of the Cebuanos for the Spaniards.
• Later, shortly after conquering Manila, Chinese
corsairs under Limahong tried to capture the city
and drive the Spaniards out, but were repulsed,
largely due to the support of the local Tagalogs.
• The Dutch, after successfully colonizing what is
now Indonesia, made several attempts to
conquer the Philippines and oust the Spaniards
but all failed, mainly because of the support of
the Filipinos for the latter.
• In a particular series of naval battles fought in 1646, a
group of much superior Dutch ships failed to defeat the
Spanish and Filipino forces despite the latter having only
two old galleons designed as merchant ships but were
hastily refitted to fight at sea.
• The officers and crew knew the disadvantage they had
vis-à-vis the vastly superior Protestant Dutch but resolved
to pray the rosary before every engagement, which the
people in Manila promising to also pray with them in their
churches and homes under the guidance of the
Dominican friars.
• After the last battle, which the Dutch finally
withdrew from Philippine waters, the ships
returned to Manila and upon arrival, all the
officers and crew walked barefoot to the
Santo Domingo Church of the Dominicans in
order to give thanks, especially to Our Lady of
the Rosary, whose image is enshrined in the
Church.
Santo Domingo Church at Intramuros
The Present Santo Domingo Church in
Quezon City
Our Lady of the Rosary of La Naval
• An ecclesiastical commission later determined that this
victory was the result of the intercession of Our Lady of the
Rosary, especially due to the fact that the rosary was
prayed before every battle by both the sailors and the
faithful and they won despite the superiority of the Dutch.
• This victory is commemorated annually every October in
the so-called “La Naval” festivities at the same Santo
Domingo Church, but at its new site in Quezon City, some
four miles (seven kilometers) from its former site in
Intarmuros, for the old church was gutted by Japanese
bombs during World War II.
• In looking back at the Dutch attempts to invade the
Philippines, a victory by them would have ended not
only Spanish rule and the Catholic Church’s
evangelical efforts among the Filipinos and
Catholicism being replaced by the Calvinism of the
Dutch,
• but the Philippines would have been annexed to the
Dutch East Indies and could surely have become a
part of Indonesia and not a separate nation as it is
today.
• The Chinese Empire also once threatened to invade the Philippines
after an imperial force under the Ming dynasty general, Koxinga
successfully expelled the Dutch from Formosa (now Taiwan), who
earlier seized it from the Spaniards and intended to attack the
Philippines next and told the Spanish colonial government to
surrender,
• which caused the withdrawal of all Spanish and Filipino troops
from Mindanao then fighting against the Moros, causing the
closure of several forts, such as the one in Zamboanga in order to
consolidate their forces to defend against the threatened invasion,
but the closure of these forts increased the frequency and severity
of the Moro raids on Christian settlements in the Visayas.
• Koxinga’s death and the subsequent fall from power of the
Ming dynasty due to the invading Manchus cancelled this
invasion. Several uprisings against Spanish rule by the
Filipinos and even by Chinese migrants occurred as a
reaction to abuses and misrule by colonial officials in several
regions,
• but these were all suppressed by the Spanish rulers, mainly
by using native Filipino troops from one region against the
rebels in another region, such as the crack Pampanga
regiment composed of Kapampangan soldiers, against the
Tagalog rebels of the religious mystic, Hermano Pule in 1846.
• In a way, the Spanish regime was maintained
by Filipinos being used by the Spanish colonial
rulers against their fellow Filipinos, for there
was no Filipino nation yet. But in a way, this
helped in the eventual evolution of the
Filipino nation for it kept the islands and its
peoples united under Spanish rule.
• The British forces from India also successfully
seized control of an unprepared Manila in
1762 (for the Spanish colonial officials have
not received any news of the outbreak of war
between Great Britain and Spain) and
occupied it for almost two years when Spain
got involved in the Seven Years War between
Great Britain and France,
• but failed to extend their rule beyond the city for the
Filipinos had largely remained loyal to Spain under the
leadership of Simon de Anda, a jurist of the Royal
Audiencia,
• who managed to escape from Manila just before the fall
of the city and continued the resistance to the British
from his camp in Bacolor, Pampanga by rallying the
Filipinos to remain loyal to Spain, despite the revolts in
Northern Luzon against Spanish rule by Diego Silang in
the Ilocos and of Juan de la Cruz Palaris in Pangasinan.
• but failed to extend their rule beyond the city for the
Filipinos had largely remained loyal to Spain under
the leadership of Simon de Anda, a jurist of the Royal
Audiencia, who managed to escape from Manila
• just before the fall of the city and continued the
resistance to the British from his camp in Bacolor,
Pampanga by rallying the Filipinos to remain loyal to
Spain, despite the revolts in Northern Luzon against
Spanish rule by Diego Silang in the Ilocos and of Juan
de la Cruz Palaris in Pangasinan.
• When the War ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the
British agreed to restore the Philippines to Spain and to
return control of Manila to Anda’s forces after news of the
Treaty’s signing was received, and to withdraw back to
India,
• although some Indian soldiers, or Sepoys, deserted from
the British Army and most of them settled in the town of
Cainta, Rizal east of Manila and intermarried with the
local inhabitants, and as a result, many of the people
there still have some clearly Indian features such as dark
skin and deep-set eyes.
  
Administrative Organization of the Philippines under Spain

• Administratively, the Philippines was a dependency of the Viceroy of

Mexico, or New Spain, along with all of today’s Mexican states and
the now-separate nations of Central America such as Costa Rica,
Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador,
• with their respective governors-generals or chief executives of the
different colonies, who are appointed by the Spanish king after
consulting the Consejo de las Indias (Council of the Indies)
• who also reported to the Viceroy of Mexico also appointed by the
Spanish monarch, and including with the Philippines for
administrative purposes, the now US territory of Guam and the
Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, and the Caroline Islands,
and were all collectively known as the Spanish East Indies.
• The first Spanish Governor-General and
Adelantado was the explorer and
conquistador, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi,
• and the last one was General Diego de los Rios
• Due to the distance from Spain, the Spanish Governor-
Generals, especially that of the Philippines, have very ample
powers, such as sending and receiving ambassadors from the
neighboring Asian nations, and to declare war or peace with
them.
• But he cannot make laws, which is purely a royal prerogative,
and he could just enforce existing laws promulgated for the
colony, although he has the authority not to enforce such
laws if they are not suitable for the Philippines, a sort of veto
power known as the cumplase. Until 1863, he held office
and resided inside Intramuros, at the Palacio del Gobernador.
• When a powerful earthquake levelled most of the
structures of the city on June 3, 1863, including the
Palacio del Gobernador,
• the Governor-General had to move to his country
residence at the outskirts of Manila at San Miguel
district, known as Malacañang Palace,
• which eventually became his official residence, as
well of the later American governors –general, and is
now the official residence of the President of the
Philippines.
Malacañang Palace in the 1900s
Malacañang Palace at Present
• There were also checks imposed on the ample powers of
the governor-general, such as the residencia, or a special
investigative and judicial procedure in which the incoming
governor-general investigated and heard possible cases of
abuse of power by the outgoing governor-general during
his term.
• Another is the visitador, or a special investigator sent
periodically either by the Spanish king or Mexican viceroy
to investigate possible abuses of power by the governor-
general and other colonial officials, especially when
complaints became widespread.
• Complaints against the governor-general may also
be sent by the Archbishop of Manila and other high
ranking Church officials.
• The colony’s able-bodied subjects were also
required to render compulsory labor for several days
a year for government projects and military service.
• One could be exempted from this mandatory labor,
known as Polo, by paying a sum of money, called the
falla, and university students are also exempted.
• . A tax , known as the tribute, was also paid by
all, in money or in kind. This was abolished in
1892 and replaced by a cedula, or poll tax.
• The colony was divided into provinces, headed
by an alcalde-mayor appointed by the
Governor-General. Later, the alcalde-mayor
was simply made a judge, and the
administrator of a province became known as
Gobernador Provincial.
• In the unpacified and unchristianized areas,
such as in the Moro-dominated regions in
Mindanao and the Igorot Highlands of
Northern Luzon, these were organized into
Corregimientos, ruled by a Corregidor, usually
a military officer.
• The local governments of the towns were headed by
a Gobernadorcillo, equivalent to a mayor, elected by
the propertied males of the town.
• In 1892, the Maura law changed the title of
Gobernadorcillo to Capitan Municipal.
• The supreme court during the Spanish period was
known as the Audiencia Real (Royal Audiencia)
whose decisions were appealable to the Audiencia in
Mexico and eventually to the High Court in Madrid.
• Under it are the lower courts, such as the various Courts
of First Instance, and Justice of the Peace Courts.
• Being a Spanish colony, the Philippines generally
followed the Roman law, although some influence of the
Anglo-Saxon law filtered into its legal system under the
subsequent American rule.
• When Mexico became independent in 1821, the
Philippines and the rest of the Spanish East Indies began
to be governed directly from Spain until the very end of
Spanish rule in 1898.
• Originally, the Philippines, along with the rest of the
Spanish overseas empire, were governed by the
Spanish king through the Consejo de las Indias
(Council of the Indies).
• This was abolished in the early 19th century soon
after Spain lost most of its colonial empire in Latin
America, and replaced by the Ministerio de Ultramar
(Overseas Ministry) which supervised the
administration of the remaining colonies such as
Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
• In 1863, a free and compulsory public elementary school system
was ordered to be established by a royal decree of Queen Isabel
II throughout the Spanish empire, including the Philippines.
• In accordance with this, schoolhouses were to be built in every
town, with separate classes for boys in girls, antedating by
nearly 40 years the public school system established by the
Americans in 1901.
• In fact, some of these schoolhouses were later used by the
pioneering American teachers. In order to provide teachers for
these schools, a teacher-training institution under the Jesuits,
the Escuela Normal was founded.