The history of the Philippines from 1521 to 1898, also known as the Spanish Colonial Era,

begins with the arrival in 1521 of European explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailing for Spain, which
heralded the period when the Philippines was a colony of theSpanish Empire, and ends with the
outbreak of the SpanishAmerican War in 1898, which marked the beginning of the American
Colonial Era of Philippine history.

Although the archipelago may have been visited before by the Portuguese, the earliest documented
European expedition to the Philippines was that led by Ferdinand Magellan, in the service of the king
of Spain. The expedition first sighted the mountains of Samar at dawn on the 16th March 1521,
making landfall the following day at the small, uninhabited island of Homonhon at the mouth of
the Leyte Gulf.[1] On Easter Sunday, 31 March 1521, at Limasawa Island, Southern Leyte, as is
stated in Pigafetta's Primo Viaggio Intorno El Mondo (First Voyage Around the World), Magellan
solemnly planted a cross on the summit of a hill overlooking the sea and claimed for the king of
Spain possession of the islands he had seen, naming them Archipelago of Saint Lazarus.[2]
Magellan conquered and sought alliances among the natives beginning with Datu Zulu, the chieftain
of Sugbu (now Cebu), and took special pride in converting them to Catholicism. Magellan's
expedition got involved in the political rivalries between the Cebuano natives and took part in a battle
against Lapu-Lapu, chieftain of Mactan island and a mortal enemy of Datu Zula. At dawn on 27 April
1521, Magellan invaded Mactan Island with 60 armed men and 1,000 Cebuano warriors, but had
great difficulty landing his men on the rocky shore. Lapu-Lapu had an army of 1,500 on land.
Magellan waded ashore with his soldiers and attacked the Mactan defenders, ordering Datu Zula
and his warriors to remain aboard the ships and watch. Magellan seriously underestimated LapuLapu and his men, and grossly outnumbered, Magellan and 14 of his soldiers were killed. The rest
managed to reboard the ships. (See Battle of Mactan)
The battle left the expedition with too few crewmen to man three ships, so they abandoned the
"Concepcin". The remaining ships - "Trinidad" and "Victoria" sailed to the Spice Islands in
present-day Indonesia. From there, the expedition split into two groups. The Trinidad, commanded
by Gonzalo Gmez de Espinoza tried to sail eastward across the Pacific Ocean to the Isthmus of
Panama. 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, commanded by Juan Sebastin Elcano, and managed to
return to Sanlcar de Barrameda, Spain in 1522. In 1529, Charles I of Spain relinquished all claims
to the Spice Islands to Portugal in the treaty of Zaragoza. However, the treaty did not stop the
colonization of the Philippine archipelago from New Spain.[3]
After Magellan's voyage, subsequent expeditions were dispatched to the islands. Four expeditions
were sent: that of Loaisa (1525), Cabot (1526), Saavedra (1527), Villalobos(1542),

and Legazpi (1564).[4] The Legazpi expedition was the most successful as it resulted in the discovery
of the tornaviaje or return trip to Mexico across the Pacific byAndrs de Urdaneta.[5] This discovery
started the Manila galleon trade, which lasted two and a half centuries.
In 1543, Ruy Lpez de Villalobos named the islands of Leyte and Samar Las Islas
Filipinas after Philip II of Spain.[6] Philip II became King of Spain on January 16, 1556, when his
father, Charles I of Spain, abdicated the Spanish throne. Philip was in Brussels at the time and his
return to Spain was delayed until 1559 because of European politics and wars in northern Europe.
Shortly after his return to Spain, Philip ordered an expedition mounted to the Spice Islands, stating
that its purpose was "to discover the islands to the west". In reality its task was to conquer the
Philippines for Spain.[7]
On November 19 or 20, 1564 a Spanish expedition of a mere 500 men led by Miguel Lpez de
Legazpi departed Barra de Navidad, New Spain, arriving off Cebu on February 13, 1565, conquering
it despite Cebuano opposition.[8]:77
In 1569, Legazpi transferred to Panay and founded a second settlement on the bank of the Panay
River. In 1570, Legazpi sent his grandson, Juan de Salcedo, who had arrived from Mexico in 1567,
to Mindoro to punish Moro pirates who had been plundering Panay villages. Salcedo also destroyed
forts on the islands of Ilin and Lubang, respectively South and Northwest of Mindoro.[8]:79
In 1570, Martn de Goiti, having been dispatched by Legazpi to Luzon, conquered the Kingdom of
Maynila (now Manila).[8]:79 Legazpi then made Maynila the capital of the Philippines and simplified its
spelling to Manila. His expedition also renamed Luzon Nueva Castilla. Legazpi became the country's
first governor-general. With time, Cebu's importance fell as power shifted north to Luzon. The
archipelago was Spain's outpost in the orient and Manila became the capital of the entire Spanish
East Indies. The colony was administered through the Viceroyalty of New Spain (now Mexico) until
1821 when Mexico achieved independence from Spain. After 1821, the colony was governed directly
from Spain.
During most of the colonial period, the Philippine economy depended on the Galleon Trade which
was inaugurated in 1565 between Manila and Acapulco, Mexico. Trade between Spain and the
Philippines was via the Pacific Ocean to Mexico (Manila to Acapulco), and then across
the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean to Spain (Veracruz toCdiz). Manila became the most
important center of trade in Asia between the 17th and 18th centuries. All sorts of products
from China, Japan, Brunei, the Moluccas and evenIndia were sent to Manila to be sold for silver 8Real coins which came aboard the galleons from Acapulco. These goods,
including silk, porcelain, spices, lacquerware and textile products were then sent to Acapulco and
from there to other parts of New Spain, Peru and Europe.

The European population in the archipelago steadily grew although natives remained the majority.
They depended on the Galleon Trade for a living. In the later years of the 18th century, GovernorGeneral Basco introduced economic reforms that gave the colony its first significant internal source
income from the production of tobacco and other agricultural exports. In this later period, agriculture
was finally opened to the European population, which before was reserved only for the natives.
During Spains 333 year rule in the Philippines, the colonists had to fight off the Chinese pirates (who
lay siege to Manila, the most famous of which was Limahong in
1574), Dutchforces, Portuguese forces, and indigenous revolts. Moros from western Mindanao and
the Sulu Archipelago also raided the coastal Christian areas of Luzon and the Visayas and
occasionally captured men and women to be sold as slaves.
Some Japanese ships visited the Philippines in the 1570s in order to export Japanese silver and
import Philippine gold. Later, increasing imports of silver from New World sources resulted in
Japanese exports to the Philippines shifting from silver to consumer goods. In the 1580s, the
Spanish traders were troubled to some extent by Japanese pirates, but peaceful trading relations
were established between the Philippines and Japan by 1590. [9] Japan's kampaku (regent), Toyotomi
Hideyoshi, demanded unsuccessfully on several occasions that the Philippines submit to
Japan's suzerainty.
On February 8, 1597, King Philip II, near the end of his 42-year reign, issued a Royal
Cedula instructing Francisco de Tello de Guzmn, then Governor-General of the Philippinesto fulfill
the laws of tributes and to provide for restitution of ill-gotten taxes taken from the natives. The decree
was published in Manila on August 5, 1598. King Philip died on 13 September, just forty days after
the publication of the decree, but his death was not known in the Philippines until middle of 1599, by
which time a referendum by which the natives would acknowledge Spanish rule was underway. With
the completion of the Philippine referendum of 1599, Spain could be said to have established
legitimate sovereignty over the Philippines