Like most colonizers, the Spaniards made use of the Philippines for their own benefit. The Philippine islands have rich resources like spices which the Spaniards wanted. Also, the country is located in a strategic geographical position both in military and in trade because it’s located near many Asian countries. Colonizing the Philippines also means additional manpower and proceeds for Spain. The colonizers changed the lifestyle of Filipinos based on Spanish philosophy and culture. In the following, we will show and critically analyze the overall impact of Spanish colonization on the Philippines.
Motives
Spain’s motives for colonization can be summarized to 3 G’s which are:
- (God) Evangelization or the process of spreading the religion Christianity
- (Glory) To widen Spain’s territory sphere of influence
- (Gold) For economic and material benefits – source of raw materials and new market-
Strategies
The Sword and The Cross
These two symbols are what constituted the strategies or tactics used by the Spaniards in invading the Philippines. It made the pacification of the natives easier. The cross symbolizes religion while the sword symbolizes force. In the Spanish expeditions during 1521 to 1565, there were religious missionaries to promote Christianity and to convert non-believers to their faith. One prominent incident of this is when Magellan landed in Limasawa or Butuan where the first thing that they did was to hold a mass. The Filipino natives were enticed by the Christian ceremonies and they successfully converted the tribe’s leader, Rajah Humabon. After that, many people followed suit. This conversion of leaders was also used in other tribes as well to capture the hearts of the people.
Another successful attempt is in the expedition of Legazpi in 1565 where 5 Augustinians collaborated with Legazpi to convert more people to Christianity. This strategy was also used by the Spaniards to take advantage of the natives in enforcing the encomienda land system. the Augustinian, Franciscan, Dominican and Jesuit religious orders widened their owned lands from buying lands and from ‘donations.’ As a consequence, a large part of the lands in the Philippines are owned by these religious orders.
One of the strategies is the armed forces of the Spaniards called entrada. If religion failed to pacify the natives, force was used. The datus were also included in this. They were held captives and made as slaves by being carriers of equipment of soldiers and they join in the battles too but in the side of the Spaniards because they were ordered to.
Through the blood compact of Magallanes and Kulambo, Magallanes and Humabon, and even Legazpi, Sikatuna and Gala, the natives were enticed. This ritual symbolizes unity and is done by the slashing of the wrist of both parties and drinking the blood of the other fused with wine. The giving of gifts of Spaniards to the datus and their families were also strategies to occupy the Philippines.
Reduccion
Reduccion is the centralization of the Filipino community where churches, convents, casa real and plaza complexes can be found. Plazas are where people gather when there are events or celebrations like festivals. By using this system, the Spaniards can easily monitor the movements of Filipinos to prevent protests and to collect the taxes easier. There are also changes in the architectural designs of infrastructures.
Divide et Impera (Divide and Rule)
In line with reduccion, the people were categorized based on race and religion. For the still rebellious places, entrada was enforced. For those which are not, Spain turned the citizens to soldiers and were made to fight with their fellow Filipinos.
Policies and Programs
In the Spanish occupation, there exist 3 levels of power. At the highest is the governor general. He represents the King of Spain in the Philippines. Being granted cumplase, the governor general has the power to decide whether or not to enforce the laws coming from the King of Spain. In the provincial level, the alcalde mayor is the one ultimately in charge but what happens is commerce is monopolized in the area where the alcalde mayor is assigned to. And for level 1, the gobernadorcillo imposes the taxes while the cabeza de barangay collects it.
But those who hold these high positions in government are all of Spanish blood. There is therefore high discrimination, oppression and abuse of power.
Before the coming of the Spaniards, the tribes of the Philippines were independent of each other. The Spaniards united the Philippines geographically by the use of a centralized government but they isolated the people so they can easily quell rebellions from the Filipinos. The Church and the government go hand-in-hand in ruling the Philippines. But although the formal structure shows that the governor general is the most powerful, the one actually in power is the archbishop because he has the power to dismiss the governor general from his position. This is why Marcelo H. del Pilar calls the form of government during the Spanish occupation as “Frailocracy.”
The Spaniards implemented economic programs which are mainly about land ownership and taxes. The programs are encomienda, hacienda, imposition of different kinds of taxes, galleon trade, monopoly and polo y servicios.
The encomienda is a land ownership system with the use of titulo as proof of ownership. These are the lands given by the King of Span to its soldiers who joined the military expeditions. The landlords are called encomendero. They are the ones who collect the taxes or rent from the residents of their land. It is his obligation to protect the residents from any danger or threat like bandits and invaders. But as depicted in the picture, the contrary was happening.
The hacienda is also a form of land ownership. These lands were given to the friars to supposedly promote the agricultural interest of the Philippines but it has become a symbol of power among the friars and was used for their personal interests instead.
The direct taxes are the tithe, sanctorum and tribute. The tithe is the payment of the ten percent of an individual’s annual income to the government. The sanctorum is the tax being paid as support to the church but it is actually used for the colonization expenses of the Philippines. The tribute is the tax or rent given to the landlord a resident is under.
On the other hand, the indirect taxes are the bandala and buwis sa adwana. The bandala is the selling of the produce of farmers by force to the government. The price is dictated by the government that most of the time, was not according to the marketing regulations present at the time. The buwis sa adwana is the tariff that is imposed on products being imported.
Lastly, polos y servicios is, simply put, forced labor. Involved in this are men within the age range of 18 to 60 years old. They are mandated to work for 40 days for the goals of Spain like building galleons for the galleon trade and building infrastructures. One can be exempted from forced labor by paying falla. Usually, the 40 days rule is not followed and the forced labor will go on for months.
Culture and Society
- Peninsulares = Spaniards who grew up in Spain
- Insulares = Spaniards who grew up in the Philippines
- Spanish Mestizos = half-Spaniards
- Principalia = former Filipino tribe leaders before the invasion of Spain (datus, rajahs, maharlikas and others)
- Chinese Mestizos = half-Chinese
- Chinese = Chinese living in the Philippines
- ‘Indios’ = what the Spaniards derogatorily call the Filipinos
As you can see in the pyramid, there is discrimination even among the Spaniards but they are naturally at the top. The principalias are in the middle of the pyramid to pacify the Filipino leaders and is a tactic to prevent revolts. The Chinese were also regarded higher than the Filipinos in their own country.
First and foremost is the change in religion. One of the objectives of Spain is to propagate Christianism in the world. It has a great influence to the Filipinos even after the Spanish occupation. It changed the belief of Filipinos in paganism or in worshipping anitos and nature. They learned to worship one God.
Second is the change in education. Education in the prehispanic period is informal. The children are only taught by their parents in vocations that can be used in their everyday lives. But with the coming of the Spaniards, education was formalized and it focused on the doctrines of Christianity.
Another change is in the land ownership. Before, there is communal ownership of the land or in other words, the lands are owned and cared for by everyone. The Spaniards privatized the lands and enforced ownership systems where the landlords are friars and other Spaniards. In addition to this, the social status of Filipinos also changed. The Spaniards were higher than the Filipinos. And ordinary Filipino citizen were viewed as lowest. Oppression was prevalent.
These changes have really affected the way of living of the Filipinos not only during the Spanish occupation but also in the present time. Not all the changes brought about by the Spaniards were supported by the Filipinos but due to the use of physical force, the Filipinos were forced to obey.
The programs the Spaniards implemented significantly lowered the moral of the Filipinos. This is also the reason why many Filipinos suffered and died. An example of this is Christianism. The Spaniards put fear in the hearts of Filipinos with the concept of hell and an unforgiving God. This also gave the Spanish friars the power to make the Filipinos obedient.
Some of the changes during the Spanish occupation can be seen even today. Like in religion, the Philippines is known as a Christian country. Many Filipinos still follow this religion.
Spanish Colonialism Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation
Analysis
Spaniards were first encouraged to start sending expeditions to Asia because of their search for spices. These spices are used in trading. Most of the time, these spices are not inherently present in Europe so there is no other way to gather those spices but to travel outside of Europe. During those times, it was difficult to bring in to Europe spices from Asia because of threats of bandits and because of the Turkish Empire’s control over routes from Asia to Europe. Because of this factors that most of the time leads to rarity of spices in Europe, prices of spices rise up the moment they arrive to European markets before it gets sold.
There is this motive that the Spaniards had in mind when they decided to colonize the Philippines. This motive can be collectively called as the God, Gold and Glory. The Spaniards used God because they wanted to spread Roman Catholicism to territories that they will colonize. Since the Philippines as an archipelago is rich in resources such as minerals like gold, silver, metal and the like, the Spaniards wants to capitalize on these resources for them to utilize and for them to benefit from. Spices can also be regarded as wealth because it is one of the most priced commodities available in European market. This fact about spices being considered as a wealth for a country that have lots of it made Spanish monarchs greedy for this prized item. This move by the Spaniards was economically motivated and to add up to their plan of strengthening their economic stability, they focused and monopolized tobacco in the galleon trades here in the Philippines. Most of the time, Spanish conquistadors colonize territories because they want those territories to be named after them and be known in their country of origin.
Synthesis
There were many changes in the Filipino society during the Spanish colonization. Spanish policies imposed here were not that helpful for the Filipinos and most government officials were of Spanish by blood and Filipinos were the ones made to work tedious jobs. Spanish authorities did not show any sign of fairness towards the Filipinos especially in the division of responsibilities in polo y servicio. Because of this irresponsibility, Filipinos still work apart from their allotted time for work. Filipinos who were working in the Galleon Trade experienced misfortune because of the heavy loads Spanish authorities were asking of them. As a result, many workers died and later on separated families because of poverty being experienced.
Spanish policies, instead of making life easy and productive for Filipinos, only gave hardship in every day that the early Filipinos have to deal with it. The only known participation Filipinos were known for was giving service for the Spanish authorities which sometimes can be considered as slavery. Sad enough, early Filipinos did not have the courage to go against their masters despite all the hardship that they were experiencing.
A lot of things were brought about by the colonization that Spanish did here in the Philippines. Many were against it but some were for it. But because of the Spanish authorities’ style of governance and policy implementations, many Filipinos were madly against the Spanish rule over the archipelago. Instead of making life easy for the colony, Spanish authorities undeniably made it hard for the Filipinos to go about their day to day live because of their policies.
The dominant religion here in the Philippines can be credited to the arrival of Spanish friars. If it wasn’t for the friars, majority of the Filipinos wouldn’t be baptized to Catholicism. Majority of the Visayan and Mindanao region were already practicing Islam before Spanish landed on the lands of the archipelago. Only the Mindanao region and Sulu archipelago were the Philippine territories back then that were not under Spanish rule. Because majority of the archipelago before the Spanish arrived were practicing Islam, it would be safe to theorize that the whole archipelago would be under Islam if Catholicism did not arrive. Islam was introduced by Arab traders who were actively trading in the Visayan and Mindanao region.
Spanish introduced a centralized government upon their settlement here in the Philippines. They immediately put up a centralized government wherein it would be headed by the Governor-General. If it wasn’t for this innovation in governance that the Spanish brought here in the Philippines, it would still be difficult to manage the country mainly because of the Philippines is archipelagic in nature.
When it comes to language, history books mentioned that friars at first tried to learn the language that the inhabitants were using in order for them to peacefully baptize the natives of the archipelago. However, according to Marcelo H. Del Pilar friars were afraid to have natives educated because of their fear of rebellion and chaos against the Spanish monarch. That is why citizens who were Spanish by blood and those who can afford education were the only people who were able to get educated by Spanish friars in exclusive schools. If Spanish did not arrive here, most probably we would still be using our native language and would have further nourished it.
Evaluation
If you will look at it, there are good as well as bad effects of Spanish colonization here in the Philippines. One of the benefits the country got was the unification of local leaders in every island in the Philippines. Next is the centralized government wherein there is only one head of state that is in charge of the implementations of policies all across the archipelago. Another benefit is the introduction of Catholicism. Lastly, the sense of nationalism that led Filipinos to stand up and go against what they think is already too much burden for them to carry. On the other hand, Filipino inherited laziness. Examples of this laziness are the manyana habit, siesta during midday. Also, the native language of Filipinos deteriorated to some extent because it did not thrived in the years that Spain settled in the Philippines. Spanish language was taught in schools. As a conclusion, Spanish rule over the archipelago is leaned more towards the negative side since first, the Spain authorities did not encouraged thriving of the native language of the country. Instead, they used their native language but only a handful privileged Filipinos are blessed enough to learn Spanish. This loss in language started to Filipinos getting lost with their own identity as a group of people. Language itself can be used as a basis to determine a country’s culture, identity and sovereignty of a nation.
There have been ways and plans formulated to address the mentality present here in the Philippines. Before, Filipino First Policy was ratified that gave priority to Filipino investors, businessmen and industries in investing here in the Philippines. Work force or labour force here in the Philippines is slowly deteriorating with the increase of Filipino workers and professionals seeking greener pasture in other country. This so-called brain drain is primarily because of low salary of workers here. Because of this migration, Filipinos embrace the products present in the country they are working for and will later bring with them by the time they will come home. Industries producing products with substandard conditions are one of the things that kill our bid for economic stability. This condition is the root cause for Filipinos to start looking for foreign brands and imported goods. In order to counter this, industries here should increase the level of quality of certain if not most of the products that they are producing in the market. This nation is rich in productive and talented workers as well as rich natural resources that is why raising qualities of our nation’s products is not far from happening.
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