Researcher: Crisha Dane S.

Dalaquit
Source: http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Du-Ha/FilipinoAmericans.html#ixzz3Omh3y02U

SPANISH RULE, 1565-1898

The first European immigrants did not intend to settle permanently in the
Philippines. Spanish settlement proved transitory during the 400 years of
Spain's colonial occupation. The first contact between Spain and the
Philippines occurred in March of 1521, when Ferdinand Magellan's fleet
reached the island of Samar on its circumnavigation of the earth. Magellan
claimed the archipelago for Spain and the Catholic church, but Spain did not
make his claim official until 1565. The country was named the Philippines in
the 1550s after King Philip II of Spain.
In 1565, nine years after ascending to the Spanish throne, Philip II sent a
royal governor to the Philippines. The governor, from his first seat of
government on Cebu, sent expeditions to other islands and imposed Spanish
rule. From the outset, colonial officers exerted forceful and lasting control,
using the colonial methods used in the Americas as their model.
From 1565 to 1810 the Acapulco-Manila galleon trade flourished. It
connected the Spanish empire in Latin America with the Asian market via the
Philippines. Manila served as the entreport to the China trade route. Gold
bullions were extracted by the Spanish in Latin America and exchanged for
silk, spices, and tea in the East. The galleon trade provided the first
opportunity for native Filipinos to leave the islands as members of the crews
aboard the Spanish ships.
As royal governors gained greater dominion over the islands, they moved
the colonial capital to Manila, with its superior harbor. Endorsing European
ideas of mercantilism and imperialism, Spain's monarchs believed that they
should exercise their power in the Philippines to enrich themselves. In the

course of almost four centuries, Spanish settlers and their descendants in

the islands came to own large estates and to control the colonial
government.
The Catholic church, supported by the colonial powers, controlled large areas
of land and held a monopoly on formal education. The church and the
Spanish language were major Spanish cultural institutions imposed upon
Filipinos. By 1898, over 80 percent of the islanders were Catholics. Most
young Filipinos, migrating to Hawaii and the mainland before World War II,
came from Catholic backgrounds.
The Spanish, in installing an autocratic imperialism that alienated Filipinos,
created a class society and a culture that many Filipinos later tried to
imitate. Some of the Spanish, who made the islands their home, married
Filipinos; the descendants of these marriages were known asmestizos . By
the nineteenth century, mestizos had inherited large areas of agricultural
lands. This Filipino upper class found that the lighter their skin color, the
easier it became to mingle with Europeans and Americans. They also learned
to control local politics through power and corruption. This economic-political
dominance came to be known as caciquism.
Local revolts against Spanish imperial corruption, caciquism, racial
discrimination, and church abuse began late in the nineteenth century. These
first revolts called for reform of the economic-political system but not for
independence. An early leader, Jose Rizal, who formed La Liga Filipina (the
Filipino League), called for social reform. After the Spanish banished Rizal,
more radical leaders emerged. When Rizal returned to the islands, the
Spanish colonial government arrested, tried, and executed him in 1896, thus
unwittingly creating a martyr and national hero.
Twenty-seven-year-old Emilio Aguinaldo became the next leader of the
insurrectionists now fighting openly against the Spanish. In 1898,
Aguinaldo conferred with American officials in Hong Kong and Singapore. He

was led to understand that the Filipinos would become allies with the United
States in a war against Spain, the anticipated outcome of which would be an
independent Philippine nation. Admiral George Dewey and Consul General E.
Spencer Pratt, with whom Aguinaldo met, later denied that they had made
such a promise. In 1898, the United States declared war against Spain, and
as a result of the ensuing Spanish-American War, the United States went to
war with the Philippines. The war took more than one million Filipino lives
and 6,000 American lives. The Treaty of Paris, approved on February 6,
1899, made the United States an imperial power and started a 47-year
relationship with the Philippines.
Filipinos, following Aguinaldo's lead, protested the arrival of American
imperialism, and the insurrection first launched against the Spanish
continued. After annexation of the Philippines by the United States, the U.S.
Army fought to quell uprisings throughout the islands. With his capture on
March 23, 1901, Aguinaldo advised his followers to swear allegiance to the
United States. On July 4, 1902, the Army declared the insurrection to be at
an end, even though the Moros, who had become largely independent under
Spanish rule, continued to fight until 1913.