The Philippines was accidentally discovered by the European powers in their

continuous search for a route to the Indies where they imported the much coveted
spices. On March 17, 1521, Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese naval captain under
the service of Spain, landed in the small island of Homonhon in Samar in the
southern Philippines to look for food and water. Due to hardships in the
heretofore unknown and unnavigated sea, and mutiny by his sailors, Magellan had
only three ships (out of 5) left when he landed in the Philippines.

Magellan befriended the Sultan of Cebu and succeeded in Christianizing the

natives. To prove the military might of his soldiers and to champion the cause of
his new vassals, he decided to "punish and teach a lesson" to Lapu Lapu, a
chieftain of the island of Mactan who did not acknowledge the sovereignty of Cebu
over his island.

Thus leading to the battle of Mactan. The battle was fought on April 25, 1521,
during low tide in the shallow shores of Mactan. The Spaniards, burdened with
their heavy metal armors, were no match to Lapu Lapu and his men who were armed
only with bamboo spears, bows and arrows, and kampilans (native machetes).
Magellan was hit by a poisoned arrow and eventually died from the wound. The
victorious natives drove back the rest of the invaders to their boats. Lapu Lapu
thus became the first Filipino to rise against western aggression and domination.

Permanent Spanish settlement was finally established in 1565 when Miguel López de
Legazpi, the first royal governor, arrived in Cebu from New Spain (Mexico). He
gave the islands their present name in honor of king Philip II of Spain. Six years
later while moving north, he defeating a local Muslim ruler, Rajah Sulayman.
Legazpi's conquest of Maynilad (on the site of modern Manila) in 1571 extended the
area under Spanish control. He established his capital at Manila, a location that
offered the excellent harbor of Manila Bay, a large population, and proximity to
the ample food supplies of the central Luzon rice lands. Manila remained the
center of Spanish civil, military, religious, and commercial activity in the
islands.

Spain had three objectives in its policy toward the Philippines, its only colony
in Asia: to acquire a share in the spice trade, to develop contacts with China and
Japan in order to further Christian missionary efforts there, and to convert the
Filipinos to Christianity. Occupation of the islands was accomplished with
relatively little bloodshed, partly because most of the population (except the
Muslims) offered little armed resistance initially.

Church and state were inseparably linked in carrying out Spanish policy.
Responsibility for conversion of the indigenous population to Christianity was
assigned to several religious orders: the Dominicans, Franciscans, and
Augustinians (known collectively as the friars) and to the Jesuits.

Religion played a significant role in Spain's relations with and attitudes toward
the indigenous population. The Spaniards considered conversion through baptism to
be a symbol of allegiance to their authority. Although they were interested in
gaining a profit from the colony, the Spanish also recognized a responsibility to
protect the property and personal rights of these new Christians.

The church's work of converting Filipinos was facilitated by the absence of other
organized religions, except for Islam, which predominated in the south. The
missionaries had their greatest success among women and children, although the
church had a wide appeal, it was reinforced by the incorporation of Filipino
social customs into religious observances. The eventual outcome was a new cultural
community of the main Malay lowland population, from which the Muslims (known by
the Spanish as Moros, or Moors) and the upland tribal peoples of Luzon remained
detached and alienated.

Indirect rule helped create in rural areas a Filipino upper class, principalía or
the principales (principal ones). This group had local wealth; high status and
prestige; and certain privileges. The principalía was larger and more influential
than the preconquest nobility, and it created and perpetuated for Spanish control.

As time went on, many uprisings occurred to protest the Spanish maltreatment of
the natives such as forced taxes and labor, and indiscriminate incarceration for
no major reasons at all. Both the clergy and the government officials were guilty.

These early "disturbances" were dealt with effectively by the Spanish authorities
by employing the divide and conquer strategy. Ilocanos or Kapampangans from the
north, for instance, were sent to quell the rebellion in the Bicolanos or the
Visayans in the south, or Bicolanos were dispatched to troubled areas in the north
or in the Tagalog region.

Taking advantage of the clannishness of the Filipinos, this shrewd tactic served
the Spaniards well and for a long time. It was only much later that a gradual
awakening of latent nationalism took place among the Filipino people.

Spain ruled the country for 327 years. In the 1800's a movement was born to revolt
against the Spainards. Jose Rizal was one of the men that was in the movement for
reform and anti-clerical learning. Rizal was executed, which started the
Philippine Revolution in 1896 that was lead by Andres Bonifacio. Bonifacio was the
founder of a secret anti-Spanish organization called Katipunan which stood for
Brotherhood. On June 12, 1898 Philippine republic was proclaimed independent. The
republic was short-lived and the Spanish-American war broke out.

The Spanish found neither spices nor exploitable precious metals in the
Philippines. The ecology of the islands was little changed by Spanish importations
and technical innovations, with the exception of corn cultivation and some
extension of irrigation in order to increase rice supplies for the growing urban
population. The colony was not profitable, and a long war with the Dutch in the
seventeenth century and intermittent conflict with the Moros nearly bankrupted the
colonial treasury. Annual deficits were made up by a subsidy from Mexico.

Among the most significant and enduring changes that occurred under Spanish rule
was that the Filipino idea of communal use and ownership of land was replaced with
the concept of private, individual ownership and the conferring of titles on
members of the principalía. Spain also laid the foundation for a feudal health
care system

"Do all the good you can,

To all people you can,
In everyway you can."