Spanish Colonialism Period,

1521-1898
How did the Spaniards change
Filipino life?
Timeline of Spanish Conquest
August 10, 1519 – The Spanish fleet led by Ferdinand Magellan sailed
westward from Spain to search for the Spice Islands on the other
side of the world.
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.
They eventually reached the Moluccas (Spice Islands), Indonesia;
traded for cargoes of cloves and sailed for Spain.
September 8, 1522 – The galleon Victoria reached Spain. It was
credited for the first circumnavigation of the world.
Spain sent succeeding expeditions to the Spice Islands, and later
the Philippines, but failed.
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, but Cebuanos harrassed this
settlement.
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 Muslim kingdom of Manila ruled
by Rajah Sulayman. They made Manila the capital of the
colony. They also defeated or forced to surrender to Spanish
rule the surrounding kingdoms.
May 1572 – They entered Ilocos and Pangasinan.
And within several years, the Spanish armies defeated or
intimidated the different kingdoms of the Philippines into
recognizing Spanish rule. 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
I. Establishing Spanish towns
II. Spreading Christianity
III. Supporting the Colony
IV. Educating the Elite
V. Making the Indio
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
(Village set-up incovenient)

Solution: Resettlement
Process: Reduccion
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.”
Uniformly designed towns and cities
Poblaciones de la Provincia de Cebu
2. Christianizing the Filipinos
Dividing the country into the five
missionary orders
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
Missionary strategy
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
Churches from Batanes to Luzon
To Visayas and Mindanao
From pagan icons to Catholic icons
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.
Asian products crossed the Pacific aboard
the galleons
The galleons’ sailing route
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: provinces such as 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.
The slopes of Bicol were planted with abaca plant which
were made into the Manila Hemp, cordage 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. Educating the Filipino Elite
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 College 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.
Hispanized the Elite
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. That it was Spanish rule that gave
the Filipinos civilization. That without Spanish
rule, the country would fell into ruins.
5. Making the Indio
[Indio is the name given for Filipinos during the Spanish period.]
From Timagua (freeman) to Subject
Under Spanish rule:
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:
Worked 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.