Historical stories
History must be, above all,
the painting of a time, the portrait of a time.
When it is limited to being the portrait of a person or the painting of an era, of a life, only half is history. “Joseph Joubert.
When it is limited to being the portrait of a person or the painting of an era, of a life, only half is history. “Joseph Joubert.
Expedition to Philipines
Jose Lopez de Legazpi |
Early years
Birthplace of López de
Legazpi in Zumarraga,
Basque
Country
Born in 1502, Miguel López
de Legazpi was the youngest son of Don Juan Martínez López de Legazpi and Doña
Elvira de Gurruchátegui. He was born to a noble family and lived in the town of Zumárraga,
in the Basque
province of Guipúzcoa in Spain.
Between 1526 and 1527,
López de Legazpi worked as a councilor in the municipal government of his town.
Mexico
In 1528, Hernán Cortés
established settlements in North America and López de Legazpi traveled to Mexico (New Spain) to start a new life.
This was due to the death of his parents and his dissatisfaction with his
eldest sibling, who inherited the family fortune. In Tlaxcala, he worked with Juan Garcés
and Juan's sister, Isabel Garcés. López de Legazpi would go on to marry Isabel
and have nine children with her. Isabel died in the mid-1550s.
Between 1528 and 1559, he
worked as a leader of the financial department council and as the civil
governor of Mexico City.
Expedition to the Philippines
A route of the Spanish
expeditions in the Philippines.
In 1564, López de Legazpi
was commissioned by the viceroy, Luis de Velasco, to lead an expedition
in the Pacific Ocean, to find the Spice Islands where the earlier
explorers Ferdinand Magellan
and Ruy López de
Villalobos had landed in 1521 and 1543, respectively. The
expedition was ordered by King Philip II of Spain,
after whom the Philippines had
earlier been named by Ruy López de Villalobos. The viceroy died in July 1564,
but the Audiencia
and López de Legazpi completed the preparations for the expedition.
On November 19 or 20, 1564,
five ships and 500 soldiers, sailed from the port of Barra de Navidad, New Spain, in what is
now Jalisco state, Mexico (other sources
give the date as November 1, 1564, and mention 'four ships and 380 men').[citation
needed] Members of the expedition included six
Augustinian missionaries, in addition to Fr. Andrés de Urdaneta,
who served as navigator and spiritual adviser,[2] Melchor de Legazpi (Miguel
López de Legazpi's son), Felipe de Salcedo (one of Miguel López de Legazpi's
grandsons), and Guido de Lavezarez (a survivor of Ferdinand Magellan's
expedition).
López de Legazpi and his
men sailed the Pacific Ocean for 93 days. In 1565, they landed in the Mariana Islands, where they briefly
anchored and replenished their supplies. There they fought with Chamorro tribes and burned several
huts.
Arrival in the Philippines
A chief of Bohol island
named Catunao gave information to Miguel López about Cebu and accompanied López
as a guide.[3] López de Legazpi's expedition
anchored off the Indianized Rajahnate of Cebu on February 13, 1565,
but did not put ashore due to opposition from natives.[4]:77
On February 22, 1565, the
expedition reached the island of Samar
and made a blood compact
with Datu Urrao. The Spaniards then
proceeded to Limasawa and were
received by Datu Bankaw, then to Bohol,
where they befriended Datu Sikatuna
(or Catunao[5][6]) and Rajah Sigala. On March 16, 1565, López
de Legazpi made a blood compact
with Datu Sikatuna.[4]:77
On April 27, 1565, the
expedition returned to Cebu and landed there. Rajah Tupas challenged the Spaniards,
but was overpowered. The Spaniards established a colony, naming the settlements
"Villa del Santisimo Nombre de Jesús" (Town of the Most Holy Name of
Jesus) after an image of Sto. Niño in one of the native houses.[4]:77
Panay and Mindoro
In 1569, due to a scarcity
of food provisions in Cebu, López de Legazpi transferred to Panay town on the island of Panay,
where they were peacefully welcomed by the people in the Kedatuan of
Madja-as. Subsequently, they founded a second settlement, then
named Capiz and now the city of Roxas in Capiz
province, located on the bank of the Panay River. In 1570, López de Legazpi
sent Juan de Salcedo,
his grandson who had arrived from Mexico in 1567, to Mindoro (former location of the
Huangdom of Ma-i) to punish the Muslim Moro pirates who had been plundering
Panay villages. Salcedo also destroyed forts on the islands of Ilin and Lubang, respectively South and
Northwest of Mindoro[4]:79[7]
Luzon and the capture of Manila
In 1570, having heard of
the rich resources in Luzon, López de
Legazpi dispatched Martín de Goiti
to explore the northern region. Landing in Batangas with a force of 120 Spaniards,
de Goiti explored the Pansipit River,
which drains Taal Lake.[4]:79 On May 8, they arrived in Manila Bay. There, they were welcomed
by the natives. Goiti's soldiers camped there for a few weeks while forming an
alliance with the Muslim leader, Rajah
Ache (better known as Rajah Matanda),
who was a vassal under the Sultan of Brunei. López de Legazpi wanted to use
Manila's harbor as a base for trade with China. However, the Rajah's ally in
northern shores of Manila Bay, historically known as the young Bambalito of Macabebe,
asked Rajah Soliman (Old Ache) to revoke his alliance with the Spaniards. Rajah
Matanda refused because of the "word of honor" of the Spaniards.
Rajah Soliman had his conditions for Bambalito that if they were able to kill
as least 50 Spaniards, he would revoke his alliance with López de Legazpi, and
the Old Ache would help to expel the conquerors. Bambalito rode back to
Macabebe and formed a fleet of two thousand five hundred moros consisting of
soldiers from the villages along Manila Bay particularly from Macabebe and Hagonoy.[8] On May 30, 1570, Bambalito
sailed to Tondo with Caracoas and encountered the Spaniards at Bangkusay
Channel, headed by Martin de Goiti on June 3, 1571. Bambalito and his fleet had
lost the battle, and after disputes and hostility had erupted between the two
groups, the Spaniards occupied the Islamized states of Tondo
and Maynila.
Manila was prepared by Goiti for López de Legazpi who left Panay.
In the same year, more
reinforcements arrived in the Philippines, prompting López de Legazpi to leave
Cebu for Panay and then for Luzon. He recruited 250 Spanish soldiers and 600
native warriors to explore the regions of Leyte and Panay. The following year,
he followed Goiti and Salcedo in Manila, after learning that the villages had
been conquered.
During the early phase of
the exploration of the northern part of the Philippines, López de Legazpi
remained in Cebu and did not accompany his men during their conquest of Manila
because of health problems and advanced age.
In Manila, López de Legazpi
formed a peace pact with the native councils as well as the local rulers, Rajah Sulayman and Lakan Dula, Lakan
and Rajah are same title of the native
royalty. Both groups agreed to organize a city council, consisting of two
mayors, twelve councilors and a secretary. López de Legazpi established a
settlement there on June 24, 1571, and he also ordered the construction of the
walled city of Intramuros. He
proclaimed the town as the island's capital, and the seat of the Spanish
government in the East Indies.[1]
Upon the defeat of
Bambalito, Legazpi orders the exploration of the villages north of Manila. In
September 1571, Goiti pacified Lubao and Betis, using riverine
tributaries of Rio Chico, then he reached the settlements in Calumpit and Malolos on November 14, 1571 and other
old villages mostly along Manila Bay. López de Legazpi had established a
government on the islands and became the first Spanish governor
of the Philippines.
Last years
López de Legazpi governed
the Philippines for a year before dying suddenly of a stroke in Manila on
August 20, 1572 after scolding an aide.[9][10] He died bankrupt, leaving a
few pesos behind,[quantify]
due to having spent most of his personal fortune during the conquest. He was
laid to rest in San Agustin
Church, Intramuros.
By the time of López de
Legazpi's death, the parts of the Visayas had passed to Spanish rule. The
Spanish met strong resistance from Muslim sultanates on the island of Mindanao, the Zambal tribes of Zambales, and the Igorot of the Cordilleran mountains, as
well as some Wokou pirates from China and Japan.[citation
needed]
Letters to
the King of Spain
During his final years,
López de Legazpi wrote several letters to Philip II of Spain about his journey
to the East Indies,
and the conquest he had achieved. These were collectively known as the
"Cartas al Rey Don Felipe II: sobre la expedición, conquistas y progresos
de las islas Felipinas" (Letters to the King Lord Philip II: on the
expedition, conquests, and progress of the Philippine Islands). The letters are
still preserved today at the General
Archive of the Indies in Seville, Spain.
Role of religion on the expedition
At the time of López de Legazpi's
arrival, the natives of the archipelago practiced Islam,
Hinduism, Buddhism and animism. Part of the motivation of the
Spaniards was to evangelize population and convert people to Roman Catholicism.
With the Augustinian, Franciscan and other friars, who had helped
him established a government on the islands, López de Legazpi worked to convert
the natives to the Christian religion. In 1609, Antonio de Morga, Alcalde of
Criminal Causes, in the Royal Audiencia of New Spain wrote:
After the islands had been
conquered by the sovereign light of the holy gospel which entered therein, the
heathen were baptized, the darkness of their paganism was banished and they
changed their own for Christian names. The islands also, losing their former
name, took — with the change of religion and the baptism of their inhabitants —
that of Filipinas Islands, in recognition of the great favors received at the
hands of his Majesty Filipe the Second, our sovereign, in whose fortunate time
and reign they were conquered, protected and encouraged, as a work and
achievement of his royal hands.[11]
Legacy
The López de Legazpi and
Urdaneta expedition to the Philippines effectively created the trans-Pacific Manila galleon trade, in which silver mined from Mexico and Potosí was exchanged for Chinese silk,
porcelain, Indonesian spices,
Indian gems and other goods precious to
Europe at the time. The trade route
formed an important commercial link between Latin America and the Asia-Pacific
with the trade products even carried over to Europe via the Havana Galleons, while
heavily financing the Spanish Empire.[12] The introduction of Western
ingredients, goods, and imperialism brought about the 'Hispanization' of the
islands.
For the next 333 years,
from 1565 when Spain first established a colony in the country until the Treaty of Paris
on December 10, 1898, the Philippines was a Spanish colony (including the years
1762–1764 when the British
controlled Manila and the port city of Cavite but not the whole country)
Philippine independence declared
The conquest |
During the Spanish-American
War, Filipino rebels led by Emilio Aguinaldo proclaim the independence of the
Philippines after 300 years of Spanish rule. By mid-August, Filipino rebels and
U.S. troops had ousted the Spanish, but Aguinaldo’s hopes for independence were
dashed when the United States formally annexed the Philippines as part of its
peace treaty with Spain.
The Spanish colonized the
Philippines, a large island archipelago situated off Southeast Asia, in the
latter part of the 16th century. Opposition to Spanish rule began among
Filipino priests, who resented Spanish domination of the Roman Catholic
churches in the islands. In the late 19th century, Filipino intellectuals and
the middle class began calling for independence. In 1892, the Katipunan, a
secret revolutionary society, was formed in Manila, the Philippine capital on
the island of Luzon. Membership grew dramatically, and in August 1896, the
Spanish uncovered the Katipunan’s plans for rebellion, forcing premature action
from the rebels. Revolts broke out across Luzon, and in March 1897, 28-year-old
Emilio Aguinaldo became leader of the rebellion.
By late 1897, the
revolutionaries had been driven into the hills southeast of Manila, and
Aguinaldo negotiated an agreement with the Spanish. In exchange for financial
compensation and a promise of reform in the Philippines, Aguinaldo and his
generals would accept exile in Hong Kong. The rebel leaders departed, and the
Philippine Revolution temporarily was at an end.
In April 1898, the
Spanish-American War broke out over Spain’s brutal suppression of a rebellion
in Cuba. The first in a series of decisive U.S. victories occurred on May 1, 1898,
when the U.S. Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey annihilated the
Spanish Pacific fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines. From his exile,
Aguinaldo arranged with U.S. authorities to return to the Philippines and
assist the United States in the war against Spain. He landed on May 19, rallied
his revolutionaries, and began liberating towns south of Manila. On June 12, he
proclaimed Philippine independence and established a provincial government, of
which he subsequently became head.
His rebels, meanwhile, had
encircled the Spanish in Manila and, with the support of Dewey’s squadron in
Manila Bay, would surely have conquered the Spanish. Dewey, however, was
waiting for U.S. ground troops, which began landing in July and took over the
Filipino positions surrounding Manila. On August 8, the Spanish commander
informed the United States that he would surrender the city under two
conditions: The United States was to make the advance into the capital look
like a battle, and under no conditions were the Filipino rebels to be allowed
into the city. On August 13, the mock Battle of Manila was staged, and the
Americans kept their promise to keep the Filipinos out after the city passed
into their hands.
While the Americans
occupied Manila and planned peace negotiations with Spain, Aguinaldo convened a
revolutionary assembly, the Malolos, in September. They drew up a democratic
constitution, the first ever in Asia, and a government was formed with
Aguinaldo as president in January 1899. On February 4, what became known as the
Philippine Insurrection began when Filipino rebels and U.S. troops skirmished
inside American lines in Manila. Two days later, the U.S. Senate voted by one vote to ratify the Treaty of
Paris with Spain. The Philippines were now a U.S. territory, acquired in
exchange for $20 million in compensation to the Spanish.
In response, Aguinaldo
formally launched a new revolt–this time against the United States. The rebels,
consistently defeated in the open field, turned to guerrilla warfare, and the
U.S. Congress authorized the deployment of 60,000 troops to subdue them. By the
end of 1899, there were 65,000 U.S. troops in the Philippines, but the war
dragged on. Many anti-imperialists in the United States, such as Democratic
presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, opposed U.S. annexation of the Philippines,
but in November 1900, Republican incumbent William McKinley was re-elected, and the war continued.
On March 23, 1901, in a
daring operation, U.S. General Frederick Funston and a group of officers,
pretending to be prisoners, surprised Aguinaldo in his stronghold in the Luzon
village of Palanan and captured the rebel leader. Aguinaldo took an oath of
allegiance to the United States and called for an end to the rebellion, but
many of his followers fought on. During the next year, U.S. forces gradually
pacified the Philippines. In an infamous episode, U.S. forces on the island of
Samar retaliated against the massacre of a U.S. garrison by killing all men on
the island above the age of 10. Many women and young children were also
butchered. General Jacob Smith, who directed the atrocities, was court-martialled
and forced to retire for turning Samar, in his words, into a “howling
wilderness.”
In 1902, an American civil
government took over administration of the Philippines, and the three-year
Philippine insurrection was declared to be at an end. Scattered resistance,
however, persisted for several years.
More than 4,000 Americans
perished suppressing the Philippines–more than 10 times the number killed in
the Spanish-American War. More than 20,000 Filipino insurgents were killed, and
an unknown number of civilians perished.
In 1935, the Commonwealth
of the Philippines was established with U.S. approval, and Manuel Quezon was
elected the country’s first president. On July 4, 1946, full independence was
granted to the Republic of the Philippines by the United States.
With affection,
Ruben
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