Spanish Expeditions to the

Philippines
Lectures on Philippine History
Hannibal F. Carado
University of Santo Tomas
The Magellan Expedition
Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese in the
service of the Spanish crown, was looking for a
westward route to the to the Spice Islands of
Indonesia.
On March 16, 1521, Magellan's expedition
landed on Homonhon island in the
Philippines.
The Magellan Expedition
Rajah Humabon of Cebu was friendly with
Magellan and embraced Christianity, but their
enemy, Lapu-Lapu was not. Humabon wanted
Magellan to kill Lapu-Lapu while Magellan
wanted to convert Lapu-Lapu into Christianity.
On April 17, 1521, Magellan sailed to Mactan
and in the ensuing battle Magellan was killed
by the natives lead by Lapu-Lapu.
The Protagonists in the Battle of
Mactan
The Magellan Expedition
Out of the five ships and more than 300 men
who left on the Magellan expedition in 1519,
only one ship (the Victoria) and 18 men
returned to Seville, Spain on September 6,
1522.
Nevertheless, the said expedition was
considered historic because it marked the first
circumnavigation of the globe and proved that
the world was round.

Spain Sends Other Expeditions
Five subsequent expeditions were sent to the
Islands. These were led by:
Garcia Jofre Loaisa (1525)
Sebastian Cabot (1526)
Alvaro de Saavedra (1527)
Rudy Lopez de Villalobos (1542)
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (1564)
Spain Sends Other Expeditions
Only the last two actually reached the
Philippines; and
Only Legazpi succeeded in colonizing the
Islands.
The Villalobos Expedition
Ruy Lopez de Villalobos set sail for the
Philippines from Navidad, Mexico on
November 1, 1542.
He followed the route taken by Magellan and
reached Mindanao on February 2, 1543.
He established a colony in Sarangani but could
not stay long because of insufficient food
supply.
The Villalobos Expedition
His fleet left the island and landed on Tidore
in the Moluccas, where they were captured by
the Portuguese.
Villalobos is remembered for naming our
country Islas Filipinas, in honor of King
Charles son, Prince Philip, who later became
king of Spain.
The Legazpi Expedition
Since none of the expedition after Magellan
from Loaisa to Villalobos had succeeded in
taking over the Philippines, King Charles I
stopped sending colonizers to the Islands.
However, when Philip II succeeded his father
to the throne in 1556, he instructed Luis de
Velasco, the viceroy of Mexico, to prepare a
new expedition.
The Legazpi Expedition
This expedition was
to be headed by
Miguel Lopez de
Legazpi, who would
be accompanied by
Andres de Urdaneta,
a priest who had
survived the Loaisa
mission.
The Legaspi Expedition
On February 13, 1565, Legazpi's expedition
landed in Cebu island.
After a short struggle with the natives, he
proceeded to Leyte, then to Camiguin and to
Bohol. There Legaspi made a blood compact
with the chieftain, Datu Sikatuna as a sign of
friendship.
Legaspi was able to obtain spices and gold in
Bohol due to his friendship with Sikatuna.
The Legazpi Expedition
On April 27, 1565, Legazpi returned to Cebu;
destroyed the town of Raja Tupas and
established a settlement.
On orders of King Philip II, 2,100 men arrived
from Mexico. They built the port of Fuerza de
San Pedro which became the Spanish trading
outpost and stronghold for the region.
The Legazpi Expedition
Colonization began when Legazpi, arrived and
formed the first European settlements in
Cebu.
In 1571, the Spanish occupied the kingdoms of
Maynila and Tondo and established Manila as
the capital of the Spanish East Indies.

The Legazpi Expedition
Spanish power was further consolidated after
Legazpi's conquest of the Confederation of
Madya-as, his subjugation of Rajah Tupas the
King of Cebu and Juan de Salcedo's ransacking
of the Chinese warlord Limahong's pirate
kingdom in Pangasinan.
The Legazpi Expedition
This grab for power eventually culminated
with the mass murder and exile of the royal
families of the Dynasty of Tondo and the
Kingdom of Maynila when the Tondo
Conspiracy of 1587-1588 failed

in which a
planned grand alliance with the Japanese
admiral Gayo, Butuan's last rajah and Brunei's
Sultan Bolkieh, would have restored the old
aristocracy.
The Legazpi Expedition
Its failure resulted in the hanging of Agustn
de Legazpi (nephew of Lakandula and the
initiator of the plot) and the execution of
Magat Salamat (the crown-prince of Tondo).
Why the Philippines was Easily
Conquered?
Through largely outnumbered, the Spaniards
who came to colonize the Philippines easily
took control of our country. How did this
happen?
The best possible explanation is that the
natives lacked unity and a centralized form of
government.
Why the Philippines was Easily
Conquered?
Although the barangays already functioned as
units of governance, each one existed
independently of the other, and the powers
that each Datu enjoyed were confined only to
his own barangay.
No higher institution united the barangays,
and the Spaniards took advantage of this
situation.
Why the Philippines was Easily
Conquered?
They used the barangays that were friendly to
them in order to subdue the barangays that
were not.
REFERENCES:
The Roots of the Filipino Nation, Vol. 1; Onofre
D. Corpuz
The Philippines: A Past Revisited, Vol. 1;
Renato Constantino
http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=To
ndo_Conspiracy_of_1587
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_
Philippines