Spanish Colonialism

1521-1898

https://metchistory.files.wordpress.com › hispanization-of-the-philippines
 Timeline of Spanish Conquest
August 10, 1519 – The Spanish fleet led by Ferdinand Magellan sailed
westward from Spain to search for the Spice Islands
March 16, 1521 – The Spanish fleet arrived in the vicinity of Samar.
March 31 – The Spaniards celebrated a mass in the island of
Limawasa, Leyte. The local chiefs, Rajah Kolambu and Rajah Siagu,
attended. The chiefs also made an alliance with the Spaniards.
April 7 – The fleet visited the port of Cebu. They also made an
alliance with Rajah Humabon and baptized the Rajah, his wife, and
their followers. Magellan gave the statue of the Santo Nino to the
Queen of Cebu as gift during the baptism.
April 27 – The Spaniards battled Lapu-Lapu, in behalf of Humabon,
in nearby Mactan island. Magellan was killed. The Spaniards
withdrew and left Cebu and the Philippines.
September 8, 1522 – The galleon Victoria reached Spain. It
was credited for the first circumnavigation of the world.

April 27, 1565 – Another Spanish expedition led by Miguel

Lopez de Legazpi entered the port of Cebu. When the
Cebuanos opposed their landing, they cannonaded the
kingdom. The Cebuanos retreated to the hills. The
Spaniards established the first Spanish settlement in the
port.
June 4 – The Cebuanos, led by Rajah Tupas, were forced to
recognized Spanish sovereignty.
June 1569 – The Spaniards occupied Panay.
May 1571 – The Spaniards, with the aid of a large Visayan
force, attacked and defeated the kingdom of Manila (Tondo)
ruled by Rajah Sulayman. They made Manila the capital of
the colony. They also defeated or forced the surrounding
kingdoms.

May 1572 – They entered Ilocos and Pangasinan.

Within several years, the Spanish armies defeated or
intimidated the different kingdoms or the Spanish
missionaries convinced them to accept foreign rule. Bicol,
Samar, Leyte, and Northern Mindanao became parts of the
Spanish colony.
 Las Islas Felipinas:
Hispanization of the Filipinos
 1. Poblacion: the Spanish town
Early Philippines:
Villages lined up along the seashores and river banks

Colonization:
Spanish soldiers collected tributes
Spanish missionaries evangelized the villagers

Solution: Resettlement
Site: Poblaciones
“According to law, settlements had to center around a
rectangular plaza whose corners corresponded to the four
cardinal directions. The plaza was to measure one and a half
times longer than its width, neither smaller than 60 by 90
meters, nor bigger than 200 by 250 meters.... One
side of
the plaza was reserved for the church,
another for the tribunal [town hall], a third
the school, and the fourth for the houses of
prominent residents. Streets started from the four
corners and the middle of the sides of the plaza, ... Straight
and properly measured at right angles with one another.
Houses were lined up along them.”
 The
MISSIONS
Dividing the country into the 5 areas,
1 for missionary order
1. Augustinians: Central and Southern Luzon, Ilocos,
Cebu and Panay
2. Franciscans: Bicol
3. Jesuits: the Visayas, except Cebu and Panay
4. Dominicans: Northern Luzon, except Ilocos
5. Augustinian Recollects: Northern Mindanao
 Strategies Used
• Spread the gospel using the local languages: Ilocano,
Pangasinan, Kapampangan, Tagalog, Bicolano,
Ilonggo, Cebuano-Bisaya, Waray
• Bajo de la Campana: churches built in the towns and
people required to live near them
• Prohibited animistic practices: ancient altars and
icons destroyed, and native priests captured and
banished or killed
• Introduced Catholic Rituals and celebrations: mass,
baptism, confession, anointing of sick, fiestas,
Christmas, Holy Week
Native-speaking Spaniards
The Filipinos’ Christian heritage
 3. The Colonial Economy

Galleon Trade (1565-1815)

Philippines became a transhipment point for the
export of Oriental products to Spanish (Latin)
America.
Cash-crop Cultivation and Export (1800’s)
The government encouraged or mandated the
planting of farmlands into tobacco, sugar, and abaca.
These crops were for export.
Products crossed the Pacific aboard the
Galleons, the “Stallions of the Sea”

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/spanish-galleons-
powerful-warship.html
 The galleons’ sailing route

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Spanish-shipping-routes-of-the-
Pacific_fig2_233684663
 Cargoes of the galleons
Trip to America
1. silk cloth, cotton cloth
2. spices (pepper, cloves, etc)
3. porcelain (bowls, jars, etc)
4. metal ware
5. woodwork
6. medicinal plants
7. perfume
Return trip to the Philippines
1. income from the sale
2. Royal Situado (money for
support of the colonial
administration)
3. occasionally, American flora
and fauna, products. Also
religious images, Spanish
soldiers, Spanish
missionaries
Tobacco monopoly: Tabacaleras in the Ilocos and
Cagayan Valley were required to produce certain
volume of tobacco, if not they paid penalties.
Most of the provinces of Iloilo, Negros, Cebu
were turned into sugar haciendas.

Central Azucarera dela Bacolod

https://retroscope.ph/1924/01/01/central-azucarera-
de-la-carlota-bacolod/
 The slopes of Bicol were planted with
abaca plant which were made into the
Manila Hemp, cordage (big ropes) for ships.
However, Philippine agriculture and
industries suffered
• Many farmlands left uncultivated because farmers were
sent to work in the shipyards to build the galleons.
• Many ricelands were replaced with cash crops such as
tobacco, sugar, abaca.
• The local textile weaving industry was abandoned
because of the cheap textiles (cloths) from China and
India.
• Metal craft was undeveloped due to preference for
metal ware from Asian countries.
 4. Education

The Spaniards established schools in each town. These

were sort of parochial schools, organized and
supervised by the local Spanish priests. Boys and girls
in separate classes.
They taught the 4Rs: Reading, (W)Riting, (A)Rithmetic,
and most importantly Religion. Instruction was in the
Philippine languages.
Spanish was only taught in select schools for rich
Filipino, Mestizo, and Spanish children.
Colegios y Universidades de los
Espanoles
 Separate
School for
Girls
While the boys took courses
on Philosophy, Rhetorics,
History, some Sciences.
The girls attended finishing
schools which trained
them for their proper
roles as women in society:
sewing, embroidery,
singing, dancing, playing
the piano.
 Hispanization of the elite group

They became Spanish in speech, dress,

manners, in their lifestyle. They felt more
closer to the Spaniards than to the lower
class Filipinos
They also became Spanish in sentiments.
Most of the elite accepted and believed in
the necessity of Spanish rule.
 5. Making the Indio
[Indio is the name given for Filipinos during the Spanish period.]
 From Timawa (freeman) to Subject

Paid tributes (taxes) – eight reales

(one peso) annually in money or in
kind (rice, cotton cloth, gold, even
chicken).
In 1884, tribute was replaced by the
cedula (individual tax).
 The Indios also:

Forced to work on government projects (polo or

forced labor) – each year a Filipino (18-60 yrs
old) worked for 40 days. In the 19th century,
shortened to 15 days. Polistas worked in groups
building roads, bridges, churches, town halls,
hospitals, and in shipyards for the government.
Observed the Bandala – planted crops according
to the orders of the government and sells the
harvest to the government too.
 Thus, the arrival of the Spaniards created
a new period in Philippine history:

1. Spanish did not replace the local languages, but

other aspects of Filipino culture were Hispanized:
food, dress, houses, economy, entertainment.
2. The formerly independent barangays (kingdoms)
were united under the colony called Las Islas
Felipinas under the administration of a governor-
general (the Spanish king’s representative).
3. The animistic religion was replaced by Catholicism.