The Sultanate of Sulu[edit]

Main article: Sultanate of Sulu

The official flag of the Royal Sultanate of Sulu under the guidance of Ampun
Sultan Muedzul Lail Tan Kiram of Sulu.
In 1380, Karim ul' Makdum and Shari'ful Hashem Syed Abu Bakr, an Arab
trader born in Johore, arrived in Sulu from Malacca and established the
Sultanate of Sulu. This sultanate eventually gained great wealth due to its
diving for fine pearls.[70]
The Sultanate of Maguindanao[edit]
Main article: Sultanate of Maguindanao
At the end of the 15th century, Shariff Mohammed Kabungsuwan of Johor
introduced Islam in the island of Mindanao and he subsequently married
Paramisuli, an Iranun Princess from Mindanao, and established the Sultanate
of Maguindanao.[71] By the 16th century, Islam had spread to other parts of
the Visayas and Luzon.
The Bruneian Empire and the expansion of Islam[edit]

The Islamic center in Marawi city.

During the reign of Sultan Bolkiah in 1485 to 1521, the Bruneian Empire
decided to break the Dynasty of Tondo's monopoly in the China trade by
attacking Tondo and defeating Datu Gambang and then establishing the State
of Selurong (Kingdom of Maynila) as a Bruneian satellite-state.[72][73] A new
dynasty under the Islamized Rajah Salalila[74] was also established to
challenge the House of Lakandula in Tondo.[75] In addition to establishing the
satellite state of Manila, Sultan Bolkiah also married Laila Mecana, the
daughter of Sulu Sultan Amir Ul-Ombra to expand Brunei's influence in both
Luzon and Mindanao. Furthermore, Islam was further strengthened by the
arrival to the Philippines of traders and proselytizers from Malaysia and
Indonesia.[76] The multiple states competing over the limited territory and
people of the islands simplified Spanish colonization by allowing its
conquistadors to effectively employ a strategy of divide and conquer for rapid
conquest.
Spanish settlement and rule (15651898)[edit]
Main article: History of the Philippines (15211898)

Early Spanish expeditions and conquests[edit]

Main article: Spanish-Moro Conflict

Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the Philippines in 1521.

Parts of the Philippine Islands were known to Europeans before the 1521
Spanish expedition around the world led by Portuguese-born Spanish explorer
Ferdinand Magellan. Magellan landed on the island called Homonhon,
claiming the islands he saw for Spain, and naming them Islas de San Lzaro.
[77] He established friendly relations with some of the local leaders especially
with Rajah Humabon and converted some of them to Roman Catholicism.[77]
In the Philippines, they explored many islands including the island of Mactan.
However, Magellan was killed during the Battle of Mactan against the local
datu, Lapu-Lapu.
Over the next several decades, other Spanish expeditions were dispatched to
the islands. In 1543, Ruy Lpez de Villalobos led an expedition to the islands
and gave the name Las Islas Filipinas (after Philip II of Spain) to the islands of
Samar and Leyte.[78] The name was then extended to the entire archipelago
later on in the Spanish era.

A late 17th-century manuscript by Gaspar de San Agustin from the Archive of

the Indies, depicting Lpez de Legazpi's conquest of the Philippines
European colonization began in earnest when Spanish explorer Miguel Lpez
de Legazpi arrived from Mexico in 1565 and formed the first European
settlements in Cebu. Beginning with just five ships and five hundred men
accompanied by Augustinian monks, and further strengthened in 1567 by two
hundred soldiers, he was able to repel the Portuguese and create the
foundations for the colonization of the Archipelago. In 1571, the Spanish
occupied the kingdoms of Maynila and Tondo and established Manila as the
capital of the Spanish East Indies.[79][80]
Legazpi built a fort in Maynila and made overtures of friendship to Lakan
Dula, Lakan of Tondo, who accepted. However, Maynila's former ruler, the
Muslim rajah, Rajah Sulayman, refused to submit to Legazpi, but failed to get
the support of Lakan Dula or of the Pampangan and Pangasinan settlements
to the north. When Sulaiman and a force of Tagalog warriors attacked the
Spaniards in the battle of Bangcusay, he was finally defeated and killed.
At 1578, the Castille War erupted between the Christian Spaniards and
Muslim Bruneians over control of the Philippine archipelago. On one side, the

newly Christianized Non-Muslim Visayans of the Kedatuan of Madja-as and

Rajahnate of Cebu plus the the Rajahnate of Butuan (Which were from
Northern Mindanao), had previously waged war against the Sultanate of Sulu
and Kingdom of Tondo, then joined the Spanish in the war against the
Sultanate of Brunei and its' allies, the Bruneian puppet-state of the Kingdom
of Maynila and the Sultanate of Sulu which had dynastic links with the
Sultanate of Brunei. The Spanish and its Visayan allies assaulted the
Sultanate of Brunei and seized its capital, Kota Batu. This was achieved as a
result in part of the assistance rendered to them by two noblemen, Pengiran
Seri Lela and Pengiran Seri Ratna. The former had travelled to Manila to offer
Brunei as a tributary of Spain for help to recover the throne usurped by his
brother, Saiful Rijal.[81] The Spanish agreed that if they succeeded in
conquering Brunei, Pengiran Seri Lela would indeed become the Sultan, while
Pengiran Seri Ratna would be the new Bendahara. In March 1578, the Spanish
fleet, led by De Sande himself, acting as Capitn General, started their
journey towards Brunei. The expedition consisted of 400 Spaniards, 1,500
Filipino natives and 300 Borneans.[82] The campaign was one of many, which
also included action in Mindanao and Sulu.[83][84]
The Spanish succeeded in invading the capital on 16 April 1578, with the help
of Pengiran Seri Lela and Pengiran Seri Ratna. The Sultan Saiful Rijal and
Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan Abdul Kahar were forced to flee to Meragang
then to Jerudong. In Jerudong, they made plans to chase the conquering army
away from Brunei. The Spanish suffered heavy losses due to a cholera or
dysentery outbreak.[85][86] They were so weakened by the illness that they
decided to abandon Brunei to return to Manila on 26 June 1578, after just 72
days. Before doing so, they burned the mosque, a high structure with a fivetier roof.[87]
Pengiran Seri Lela died in AugustSeptember 1578, probably from the same
illness that had afflicted his Spanish allies, although there was suspicion he
could have been poisoned by the ruling Sultan. Seri Lela's daughter left with
the Spanish and went on to marry a Christian Tagalog, named Agustn de
Legazpi of Tondo and had children in the Philippines.[88]
In 1587, Magat Salamat, one of the children of Lakan Dula, along with Lakan
Dula's nephew and lords of the neighboring areas of Tondo, Pandacan,
Marikina, Candaba, Navotas and Bulacan, were executed when the Tondo
Conspiracy of 15871588 failed[89] in which a planned grand alliance with
the Japanese Christian-captain, Gayo, and Brunei's Sultan Bolkieh, would
have restored the old aristocracy. Its failure resulted in the hanging of Agustn
de Legazpi (great grandson of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and the initiator of the
plot) and the execution of Magat Salamat (the crown-prince of Tondo).[90]
Spanish power was further consolidated after Miguel Lpez de Legazpi's

complete assimilation of the Kedatuan of Madja-as, his subjugation of Rajah

Tupas, the Rajah of Cebu and Juan de Salcedo's conquest of the provinces of
Zambales, La Union, Ilocos, the coast of Cagayan, and the ransacking of the
Chinese warlord Limahong's pirate kingdom in Pangasinan.
The Spanish and the Moros of the Sultanates of Maguindanao, Lanao and Sulu
also waged many wars over hundreds of years in the Spanish-Moro Conflict,
not until the 19th century did Spain succeed in defeating the Sulu Sultanate
and taking Mindanao under nominal suzerainty.
Spanish settlement during the 16th and 17th centuries[edit]
The "Memoria de las Encomiendas en las Islas" of 1591, just twenty years
after the conquest of Luzon, reveals a remarkable[according to whom?]
progress in the work of colonization and the spread of Christianity. A
cathedral was built in the city of Manila with an episcopal palace,
Augustinian, Dominican and Franciscan monasteries and a Jesuit house. The
king maintained a hospital for the Spanish settlers and there was another
hospital for the natives run by the Franciscans. The garrison was composed of
roughly two hundred soldiers. In the suburb of Tondo there was a convent run
by Franciscan friars and another by the Dominicans that offered Christian
education to the Chinese converted to Christianity. The same report reveals
that in and around Manila were collected 9,410 tributes, indicating a
population of about 30,640 who were under the instruction of thirteen
missionaries (ministers of doctrine), apart from the monks in monasteries. In
the former province of Pampanga the population estimate was 74,700 and 28
missionaries. In Pangasinan 2,400 people with eight missionaries. In Cagayan
and islands Babuyanes 96,000 people but no missionaries. In La Laguna
48,400 people with 27 missionaries. In Bicol and Camarines Catanduanes
islands 86,640 people with fifteen missionaries. The total was 667,612 people
under the care of 140 missionaries, of which 79 were Augustinians, nine
Dominicans and 42 Franciscans.[91]
The fragmented nature of the islands made it easy for Spanish colonization.
The Spanish then brought political unification to most of the Philippine
archipelago via the conquest of the various states although they were unable
to fully incorporate parts of the sultanates of Mindanao and the areas where
tribes and highland plutocracy of the Ifugao of Northern Luzon were
established. The Spanish introduced elements of western civilization such as
the code of law, western printing and the Gregorian calendar alongside new
food resources such as maize, pineapple and chocolate from Latin America.
[92]

Library of the University of Santo Toms in Manila, 1887

Education played a major role in the socioeconomic transformation of the

archipelago. The oldest universities, colleges, and vocational schools and the
first modern public education system in Asia were all created during the
Spanish colonial period, and by the time Spain was replaced by the United
States as the colonial power, Filipinos were among the most educated
subjects in all of Asia.[93] The Jesuits founded the Colegio de Manila in 1590,
which later became the Universidad de San Ignacio, a royal and pontifical
university. They also founded the Colegio de San Ildefonso on August 1, 1595.
After the expulsion of the Society of Jesus in 1768, the management of the
Jesuit schools passed to other parties. On April 28, 1611, through the
initiative of Bishop Miguel de Benavides, the University of Santo Tomas was
founded in Manila. The Jesuits also founded the Colegio de San Jos (1601)
and took over the Escuela Municipal, later to be called the Ateneo de Manila
University (1859). All institutions offered courses included not only religious
topics but also science subjects such as physics, chemistry, natural history
and mathematics. The University of Santo Toms, for example, started by
teaching theology, philosophy and humanities and during the 18th century,
the Faculty of Jurisprudence and Canonical Law, together with the schools of
medicine and pharmacy were opened.
Outside the tertiary institutions, the efforts of missionaries were in no way
limited to religious instruction but also geared towards promoting social and
economic advancement of the islands. They cultivated into the natives their
innate[citation needed] taste for music and taught Spanish language to
children.[94] They also introduced advances in rice agriculture, brought from
America corn and cocoa and developed the farming of indigo, coffee and
sugar cane. The only commercial plant introduced by a government agency
was the plant of tobacco.
Church and state were inseparably linked in Spanish policy, with the state
assuming responsibility for religious establishments.[95] One of Spain's
objectives in colonizing the Philippines was the conversion of the local
population to Roman Catholicism. The work of conversion was facilitated by
the absence of other organized religions, except for Islam, which was still
predominant in the southwest. The pageantry of the church had a wide
appeal, reinforced by the incorporation of indigenous social customs into
religious observances.[95] The eventual outcome was a new Roman Catholic
majority, from which the Muslims of western Mindanao and the upland tribal
peoples of Luzon remained detached and alienated (such as the Ifugaos of
the Cordillera region and the Mangyans of Mindoro).[95]
At the lower levels of administration, the Spanish built on traditional village
organization by co-opting local leaders. This system of indirect rule helped
create an indigenous upper class, called the principala, who had local wealth,
high status, and other privileges. This perpetuated an oligarchic system of

local control. Among the most significant changes under Spanish rule was
that the indigenous idea of communal use and ownership of land was
replaced with the concept of private ownership and the conferring of titles on
members of the principalia.[95]
Around 1608 William Adams, an English navigator contacted the interim
governor of the Philippines, Rodrigo de Vivero y Velasco on behalf of
Tokugawa Ieyasu, who wished to establish direct trade contacts with New
Spain. Friendly letters were exchanged, officially starting relations between
Japan and New Spain. From 1565 to 1821, the Philippines was governed as a
territory of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from Mexico, via the Royal Audiencia
of Manila, and administered directly from Spain from 1821 after the Mexican
revolution,[96] until 1898.
Many of the Aztec and Mayan warriors that Lpez de Legazpi brought with
him eventually settled in Mexico, Pampanga where traces of Aztec and Mayan
influence can still be found in the many chico plantations in the area (chico is
a fruit indigenous only to Mexico) and also by the name of the province itself.
[97]

Location of the "Capitana General de las Filipinas"

The Manila galleons which linked Manila to Acapulco traveled once or twice a
year between the 16th and 19th centuries. The Spanish military fought off
various indigenous revolts and several external colonial challenges, especially
from the British, Chinese pirates, Dutch, and Portuguese. Roman Catholic
missionaries converted most of the lowland inhabitants to Christianity and
founded schools, universities, and hospitals. In 1863 a Spanish decree
introduced education, establishing public schooling in Spanish.[98]

Coat of arms of Manila were at the corners of the Cross of Burgundy in the
Spanish-Filipino battle standard.
In 1646, a series of five naval actions known as the Battles of La Naval de
Manila was fought between the forces of Spain and the Dutch Republic, as
part of the Eighty Years' War. Although the Spanish forces consisted of just
two Manila galleons and a galley with crews composed mainly of Filipino
volunteers, against three separate Dutch squadrons, totaling eighteen ships,
the Dutch squadrons were severely defeated in all fronts by the SpanishFilipino forces, forcing the Dutch to abandon their plans for an invasion of the
Philippines.