CHAPTER 5: COLONIALISM AND TRADITIONS

A. Colonial System
-Spain established Spanish Colonialism which is summarized into
a. GOD- Religious fervor, to convert the natives
b. GLORY- adventure, power, national pride of the colonizers
c. GOLD- expand trade, gain profit from the colony

1. Colonial Aims
 Spain as a colonial power is never complete without the use of
religion.
 They always emphasize the need to spread Christianity
throughout the Spanish dominions.
 Expeditions from 1521-1565 were accompanied by religious
missionaries who were all prepared to preach the Christian faith
 It’s their way to explore and exploit the material resources of the
colonies.
 One proof that Spain uses religion as their way to colonize is when
Magellan landed on Limasawa (Butuan) the first significant act
taken besides the procurement of needed provisions, was the
celebration of the mass. And then the conversion of high ranked
people like Rejah Humabon and King Tupas
 The Oriental Empire (Asian counties and people in terms of their
location relative to Europe) placed the Philippines strategically in
the heart of Spanish imperial design.
 System of colonial rule Spain established in the Philippines was
determined by various colonial aims
 Political, Economic, Social and cultural aspects of administration
had to be effectively designed to insure that power, wealth and
status in the colony were conveniently and exclusively enjoyed by
the Spaniards.
2. Economic Institutions
 Necessitated the establishment of definite institutions to bring in
the economic and material benefits expected from the colony
 Effective use of the components of national economy represented
by income or benefits derived from land, trade and commerce,
and labor. This all leads to the policies and practices which also
encouraged abuses and oppression.

The institutions:

a. Encomienda
 o Not a land grant
o A system of land distribution that brought greater benefits to the
colonial officials and institutions involved.
o More on personal benefits of the encomenderos
o Was abolished but did not affected religious orders (example:
Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans and Jesuits) who were not
freed from the temptation to profit from the ignorance and
weaknesses of the natives
-By purchase or donations
- landed interests (called: temporalities)
b. Haciendas
 Marked feature of agrarian development in the archipelago in
which the religious was the central focus.
c. Taxation
 Tributes and dues were imposed on the people and were used for
the benefit of the Spanish community. Very little went into
improving native conditions.
d. Monopolies and Galleon Trade
 Establishment of a monopolistic foreign trade by Spain through
only two parts (Manila, Philippines and Acapulco, Mexico)
disputed and eventually destroyrd the dynamic nature of
Philippine external trade and commerce. It was done through
limitations to freedom of trade and strict legal exactions on native
trade by limiting foreign entry to only one port.
e. Polos Y Servicios (Forced Labor)
 Colonial laws/ordinances required the natives to provide either
free labor or labor with nominal compensation for all sorts of
Spanish needs, from domestic services at home to military
services in Spanish expeditions
3. Political Set-up
 Colonialism needed a kind of power arrangement that would
allow the realization of colonial aims thus the creation of dualistic-
hierarchical pattern.
- Colonial structure consisted of a bureaucracy with
appropriate linkages between the home government and
the colony that ensured the exercise of authority by the
Spaniards and the performance of responsibilities by the
natives.
- The colonial system allowed the natives to preserve their
ancient political structures because they found its
preservation and use effective in the collection of tributes
 and in suppressing one group of natives by another under
the policy of “divide and rule” which means to gain and
maintain power by breaking up larger concentrations of
power into chunks that individually have less power than
the one implementing the strategy.
4. Socio-Cultural Patterns
o Social structure: Spaniards relation to the natives more on superior-
inferior; civilized-primitive
- Rank or status in the native structure is set aside.
- Datu, timawa, and the alipin or oripon were just one class level
(lowest class) in the colonial society, not entitled to any social
importance and rights except to serve those above them.
- Even datus were not treated as important even by the
ordinary Spaniards.
o Social Stratification: It was local to national level based on racial and
religious factors.
- Indios, moros and infieles divided the entire Philippines into
three national societies definitely beneficial to the Spaniards.
- Indios (Christianized natives) allowed certain status, although
below Spanish, higher than that of the moros and infieles who
were regarded as the lowest.
- Moros and infieles were deprived, ridiculed and repressed
because of their religious traditions
B. Native Responses
1. Indio Response
o Indios interacted with the colonizers
o They manifested two types of attitude to colonialism
- Willingness to assimilate what was necessary for acquiring
benefits from the system.
 Expressed by propaganda movement which sought the
reform to the colony through the expulsion of the
friars, the representation of the {hilippines in the
Spanish Cortes, and the institution of specific reforms.
- Separation from Spanish rule, but not necessarily from Spanish
civilization.
o It was the ideals of independence and freedom that unified the
natives of the archipelago, however divided or separated
geographically and culturally they might have been.
2. The Moro Struggle
o The Muslims learned the lessons of dealing with colonialism when
they were defeated and succeeded by Spain on 1570. Their
 subsequent action was marked by uncompromising battles against
Spanish expeditions sent frequently against uslim beses in Mindanao
and Sulu, the two centers of Sultanate.
3. Response of Other Minorities
o Other non-Christians who were not Islamized who withdraw from the
pressures of colonialism.
o The Cordilleras was quite inaccessible under normal circumstances.
o The kind of response the tribal minorities chose to deal with colonial
threat worked well to their advantage by making it difficult for
Christianity to really take a foothold in their traditions.
o The religious missions did not achieve the level of success as achieved
in the lowland communities.