Philippines History an Introduction

Introduction

This is an online collection of the various research and documents spanning from the Pre- colonial Philippines to the Spanish colonization. This focuses on the presentation of the significant historical events in the history of the Philippines which has greatly affected our lives at present.

Is history important?

It has been said that he who controls the past controls the future. History is important because it helps us to understand the present. If we will listen to what history has to say, we can come to a sound understanding of the past that will tell us much about the problems we now face. History also teaches us values, especially when it is taught to the children as it plays a role in shaping their values.

History Timeline

Objectives

• To know the importance of history and its significance in our lives as Filipino for better realization and appreciation of the historical events.
• To research on the historical events during the Pre- colonial era and the Spanish colonization period that has shaped our history
• To synthesize and evaluate on the events to test the development of the member’s intellectual skills and abilities based from the Bloom’s Taxonomy
• To be able to present the research and findings in an organized and creative way

The Pre-Colonial Philippines

Before taking “Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas” classes in college, students are being taught that the Spaniards discovered Philippines. But how about those who lived in the Philippines before the Spaniards came? Did they not discover the Philippines? Even before the Spaniards came there are already people in the said country. They even have their own religion, beliefs and culture. The first people that was said to be in the country were the Negritos, Malay and Indones. The Negritos or the Aytas migrated in the Philippines in land bridges. They are excellent in hunting and gathering foods. The Malays were the second race to come in the Philippines. They migrated to the Philippines through a boat called balangay. They have brought the knowledge about seafaring, farming and creation of fire when cooking. Third, was the Indones. They have more advanced knowledge in terms of agriculture, writing, boat building and jewerly-making.

Moreover, the Spaniards treated Filipinos before as if they don’t know anything, even calling them ‘indios’ which means an ignorant or an indigenous person. But I would say that the Filipinos before already has a culture and a living. An example of this is the Banaue Rice Terraces that may be found in themountains of Cordilleras. These rice terraces were built by the Ifugaos where they grow they crops and have a great water irrigation system. Early Filipinos does not only race crops but also medicinal herbs. Also, early Filipinos not just have agriculture as their sense of living but also, they do trade to different race. One of the evidences was the sculpture of boats at the top of a manunggul jar. It is said that this jar was a proof that early Filipinos knew how to boat and fish as well as significance that there was already the pottery industry.

Moreover, according to the recent study of Bellwood and Solheim, there are already trading happening from different countries, which all would pass the Philippines. Furthermore, early Filipinos have already their own beliefs and religion. They are already giving their praises to a god which they called “anitos”. They are believed to be their ancestors that have died that are still continuously guiding them. They have different gods for agriculture, rain and more. In addition, our ancestors also have classes and a sense of leadership. These classes are composed of datus, maharlika, timawa and the alipins. The datus are the head official of each barangays which makes them the most powerful.

There were two accounts that our professor, Ms. Rita Agudon told us to read so that we may further understand the topic pre-colonial Philippines. One of the accounts was the account of Antonio Morga, Morga’s Sucesos de Las Islas Filipinas. Antonio Morga is a Spanish jurists, historian as well as a soldier. His account was for the Filipino people as well as foreigners. This account was written descriptively about the culture and the traditions of early Filipinos. Descriptions on how early Filipinos dressed or put on their clothing, the type of clothing that they wear (e.g. for men, short collarless garments and strip of colored clothe wrapped above the waist), their occupation (e.g for women, they do needlework and for men, field labors, fishing, navigation and trading). Moreover, he further elaborated on jars, pintados, weapons and language. This article is dedicated both to Filipinos so that they would further love and appreciate the things that they have also to increase their esteem and be more proud of what they have as well as for the foreigners for them to not under estimate Filipinos and eliminate tagging Filipinos as ‘indios’.

Another account was about the written records written by a Chinese superintendent Chao Ju Kua. In his documents, he emphasizes that the early Filipinos were not barbarians or ignorant people, in fact he even pin pointed scenarios wherein written records from other countries would prove the culture and traditions of Filipinos. One of the reasons why he would want to write document about the history of the Philippines, is because there were unauthentic documents about it. The author would be on the side of Filipinos wherein he justifies the impudent calling of the Spaniards to our ancestors as ‘indios’. And with this, Filipinos are very thankful and grateful.

SHOUT LOUD AND BE PROUD! AKO’Y PILIPINO!

The Philippines under Spanish Occupation

The Spanish occupation started from 1565 and lasted until 1898. Spain launched an expedition in search of spices like cloves, ginger, sage and others in the islands of Moluccas as well as for Ferdinand Magellan to prove that the world is round by travelling westward instead of following the conventional route. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain are funding these expeditions to express their support. Magellan stopped by in the islands of the Philippines and discovered that Philippines contain the spices they were searching for. This was the start of Spain’s interest in the Philippines. A few years later, another expedition was launched which was headed by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. The country was then colonized using religion as a tool.

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.

Also due to the Filipinos’ fear of the friars, the influence of the religion became more widespread. Christianity was likened to the Filipinos’ pagan gods called anitos by including saints, the ritual of giving offerings, ceremonies and rituals of the old were transformed to masses and baptisms, and babaylan and catalonan to priests.. This is also called “Folk Catholicism.” To help in pacification, Spain created the image of an unforgiving God and the concept of Hell.

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.

Blood Compact

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

Political Structure

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.”

Economy

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 different taxes are classified into two categories: the direct and indirect taxes. During the Spanish occupation, taxes were everywhere, maybe even to the point where it has become unreasonable.

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.

The galleon trade, a.k.a. Manila-Acapulco Trade, was implemented to monopolize the trading industry of the Philippines and Mexico and to impose boletas to the merchants. The boletas is also a form of tax which, when paid, allows a merchant to have a space in the galleon. The government also controls the price and production in the industry of wine, tobacco, betelnut, fireworks, and others.

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.

In the coming of the Spaniards in the country, many changes were brought about. Some of these are the results of the strategies that they used in seizing the Philippines.

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.

If you will compare Spain to other that had interest and colonized Philippines, Spain would emerge as the nation that had widespread influences all over the archipelago. Spain’s influence can be seen with how the Filipinos act – siesta, manyana habit, fiesta, etc. Also, Spanish upbringing as well as their religion and style of education should not be forgotten. One thing that sets the Spaniards from their counterparts is that they were able to inculcate their ways of life into our own culture. Another thing is that, most Filipinos adhered to these changes without any second thought that is why these changes became part of their routines and was like a habit that is hard to break. In more than 3 decades that the Spanish were present here, Filipinos lived with them side by side.

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.

Reminiscing the Past: A conclusion

Philippine history is really a long story to foretell since our country really has great and undoubted experiences to convey. We, Filipinos, know that the Philippines has a lot to express. That’s why studying Philippine history makes every Filipino appreciative and proud of their identity and country.

The History of the Philippines begun when first humans arrived in the country. As some of us know, Filipino culture in the past was valued and alreay developed even before the colonizers came. The rich culture of Philippine forefathers is evident in their social classes, home, manner of dressing, body accessories, education, music and dance, science, arts and literature, even their way to courtship and marriage, burial and mourning. Filipino forefathers also valued education. Filipinos have their own way of living even before colonizers started controlling our country.

Philippine history basically evolves around colonization. Spaniards were the first colonizers of the Philippines which lasted about 300 years. The Spaniards transplanted their social, economic, and political institutions halfway across the world to the Philippine archipelago. The imposition of the Roman Catholic faith upon the Filipino population permanently influenced the culture and society of the Philippines. By Christianizing the Filipinos, the Spanish Catholic missionaries were in effect remodelling Filipino culture and society according to the Hispanic standard. They would be Hispanizing the Filipinos, teaching them the trades, manners, customs, language and habits of the Spanish people.

American Influences can still be seen in the country's system of education, literature, art, architecture, science, industry, home, food, clothes, religion, pastimes, music and dances. Filipinos took education seriously which resulted to the high social status of some Filipinos. The Filipinos learned how to read, speak and write English in a short matter of time. Education was the most useful means or ways in pursuing a peaceful relationship with the Filipinos. Through education, the Americans influenced the Filipinos and taught them to love the American culture as well as to prioritize American products.

The arrival of the Japanese caused tremendous fear, hardships and suffering among the Filipinos. The Filipinos lost their freedom of speech and expression. The development of art was also stopped. There were Filipinos spies hired by the Japanese to point those who were suspected of being part of the guerrilla movement. Also, the Japanese made some changes in the system of education.

Philippine history gives more light to many Filipinos. But as what was said in the documentary “Siglo Filipino: Odyssey of a Nation”, we can see that the history of the Philippines is a never-ending cycle of a time of hope and of hopelessness. We can view the Philippines as a country which has never had a chance to prove itself to the world because of foreign oppression and internal conflicts. But being a Filipino by heart and loving our country, we can really prove ourselves. It is never impossible for our country to be economically stable. The Filipino people are great and have proven themselves to history itself. So the only thing that’s left is for all the Filipinos to realize that.

About

This website is an impartial fullfillment of the academic requirements of KAPIL 2 for Term 1 SY: 2010-2011. Kaspil also known as Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas is a course, which focuses on the History of the Philippines.

Members:

• Mylene Cheung
• Germaine Gabuyo
• Rizza Mancenido
• Albert Reyes
• April Sanches
• Joyseline Seno

This website is dedicated to our kaspil 2 professor Ms. Rita Agudon