Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Bay. Equally enlightening is the Surigao Treasure, a trove of sensational gold objects
dug up by accident in Mindanao in 1981 and dating from the tenth to thirteenth
centuries. Also decorated with gold, the
Boxer Codex
manuscript, created in around
1595, includes fifteen drawings of Filipino natives of the sixteenth century. Finally,
recently excavated Chinese shipwrecks loaded with porcelain prove that trade ties with
China
and the rest of Asia were extensive by the tenth century.
Contact with Arab traders, which reached its peak in the twelfth century, drew Sufis
and missionaries who began the propagation of
Islam
in the Philippines. In 1380, the
Arab scholar Karim ul' Makdum arrived in Jolo and established the Sultanate of Sulu.
In 1475 Shariff Mohammed Kabungsuwan of Johor (Malaysia), married a native
princess and established the Sultanate of Maguindanao, ruling large parts of Mindanao.
During the reign of Sultan Bolkiah (1485-1521), the Sultanate of Brunei absorbed
Tondo; by the time the Spanish arrived, Islam was established as far north as Luzon,
where a great Muslim chief, Rajah Sulaiman II, ruled Manila.
Spanish rule
The archipelago's turbulent relationship with Spain began on April 24, 1521 when
Ferdinand Magellan
arrived in Cebu after sailing for four months across the vast ocean he
named the Pacific. Magellan planted a wooden cross to claim the islands for Spain,
baptizing a local king, Raja Humabon.
Lapu-Lapu
(1491-1542), a chief on the nearby
island of Mactan, and Humabon's traditional enemy, resisted; in a subsequent skirmish
known as the Battle of Mactan (see box, p.281), Magellan was killed and Spain's conquest
of the Philippines was put on hold. Lapu-Lapu is now regarded as a Filipino hero.
Spanish conquistador Ruy López de Villalobos tried once again to claim the islands for
Spain in 1543, but was driven out by the natives a year later - though not before
naming the islands the Philippines, in honour of the future King Philip II. In 1564
Miguel López de Legazpi
(1502-72), a minor Basque aristocrat, was chosen to lead a
hazardous expedition to establish a permanent base in the Philippines, which the
Spanish hoped would act as a wedge between Portugal and China. Legazpi sailed to the
Philippines on board the
Capitana
, established a colony in Bohol in 1565 and then
moved on to Cebu where he erected the first Spanish fort in the Philippines. But a series
of misunderstandings - one involving the gift of a concubine that Legazpi piously
refused - made the situation in Cebu perilous, and Legazpi looked for a more solid base.
In 1570 a Spanish expedition defeated Rajah Sulaiman III, and a year later Legazpi
occupied his former base; a new Spanish capital -
Manila
- was established on the site of
Sulaiman's old Islamic kingdom. Spanish conquistadors and friars zealously set about
propagating
Catholicism
, building churches and bringing rural folk
debajo de las compañas
(“under the bells”) into organized Spanish
pueblos
, establishing many of the country's
towns and cities. They imposed a
feudal system
, concentrating populations under their
control into new towns and estates, and resulting in numerous small revolts. Most of the
Philippines, however, remained beyond the pale of the colonial authorities.
The Friarocracy
The islands were administered from the Spanish colony of
Mexico
, and its Spanish
residents, especially those in Manila, grew prosperous and corrupt on the strength of
1485-1521
1521
1565
The Sultanate of Brunei
extends Islamic rule as far as
modern-day Manila
Ferdinand Magellan arrives in
Cebu; killed fighting local chief
Lapu-Lapu
Miguel López de Legazpi
founds permanent Spanish
settlement on Bohol
