Philippines

Colonial
Experience
Lesson 5: Selected
Readings in Philippine
History
 Edited and annotated by
Emma Helen Blair and
James Alexander Robertson.
Also known to students as
B&R
Why were they
in the
Philippines in
the first place?
 The story of
Magellan coming
to the Philippines
is part of a bigger
story- Europe’s
“Age of Discovery”
 Europe had always known about the East (Oriente) because of the
Silk Road and from the accounts of Marco Polo (an Italian traveller).
 Europe had always known about the East (Oriente) because of the
Silk Road and from the accounts of Marco Polo (an Italian traveller).
Crusade Wars

Soon, this inland trade route will be disrupted by natural calamities,

bandit attacks, and the by the Crusade Wars (Catholic Holy War).
Venice, Italy

Constantinople (Turkey)

The conquest by the Ottoman Empire of Constantinople gave the

Venetian traders exclusive control over the land route to the East.
 The Iberian Powers (Portugal and Spain) started the
competition for maritime superiority over the Atlantic in
the hope of reaching East for the Spice Island (Moluccas).
In the Ptolemy’s
World Map
manuscript of
Niculaus
Germanus (1467),
Philippines was
just part of a
group of islands
of Maniola and
Barusas.
Prince Henry, The Navigator
Portugal, started when he
opened a maritime school
(1419) that will train sailors.
 The marriage of Queen
Isabella of Castile and King
Ferdinand II of Aragon
(1469) resulted in the rise of
Spain as world power.
“West Indies”

Christopher
Columbus crossed
the Atlantic in the
hope of finding
‘Cipangu’.
 Treaty of Tordesillas, signed on June 7, 1494, divided the
"newly discovered" lands outside Europe between Spain and
Portugal. The lands to the east would belong to Portugal and
the lands to the west to Spain.
Portugal reigned over the Eastern Hemisphere
even reaching as far as present-day Taiwan,
Macau, and Japan.
Refused by Portugal,
Ferdinand Magellan
proposed go to the
East by sailing
Westward.
Treaty of Zaragoza (1529) states that Spain would relinquish
its claims over the Moluccas Islands by placing the
demarcation line (Anti-Meridian) of the Eastern Hemisphere
Magellan’s two-years expedition in the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean and
the first encounter of Filipinos with Spaniards were all recorded by
Magellan’s assistant- Antonio Pigafetta.
 Missionaries from various
religious orders (eg.
Franciscans, Jesuits,
Dominicans, and others)
were sent to the colony as
partners of conquistadores.
While conquistadores were
engaged in the
administration and in
extracting tribute from the
indios, the friars we in-
charged in the religious
conversion. And since the
friars were contact with the
indios more often, they were
able to obtain more
information, too.

Fr. Juan de Plasencia was one of those who were able to send reports to the the Spanish
King about the condition of the Filipinos during initial years of Spanish colonization.
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