Chapter 1: Philippines before the Americans

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Chapter 1: Philippines before the Americans
PRE-COLONIAL PHILIPPINES
Who were the first se lers of the Philippines? Anthroplogists have
long tried to answer this question, but even today there is no general
agreement as to who were the first Filipinos. There are several theories:
Land Bridge Theory
Some archaeologists have suggested that at least 30,000 years ago,
exposed bodies of land connected the Philippines with mainland
Asia. They believe that migrating people walked over these land
bridges to reach the Philippines.
However, this theory has been disproved: scientist Fritjof
Voss used geologic studies of the earth’s crust to show that the
Philippines was never part of mainland Asia.
Waves of Migration Theory
Anthropologist H. Otley Beyer suggested how the
first people may have come to the Philippines:
1. The “Dawn Men” came to the Philippines
around 250,000 years ago.
2. The Negritos, an aboriginal pygmy group,
came about 25,000 years ago.
3. The Indonesians came to the Philippines
by sea about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago.
4. The Malays, who also came by sea,
brought the Iron Age culture and became
the dominant cultural group in pre-Spanish
Philippines.
The Waves of Migration theory has been rejected by modern scientists,
because there is li le geological or archaeological evidence to support it.
Core Population Theory
Anthropologist F. Landa Jocano has proposed the
Core Population Theory which suggests that rather
than waves of migration of different groups, the early
inhabitants of Southeast Asia were of the same ethnic
group with a similar culture.
Then, through a gradual process over time driven by
environmental factors, groups differentiated themselves
from each other.
Professor Jocano claims that Filipinos are products
of the long process of evolution and movement of people,
and that many aspects of Filipino physical evolution and
culture have a local origin.
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The Spanish Era
Philippine history changed when the explorer Ferdinand Magellan
arrived in 1521, beginning 333 years of Spanish colonization.
Magellan’s expedition arrived
accidentally while searching for
the ‘Spice Islands’ (in modern-day
Indonesia), seeking spices such
as pepper, nutmeg, cloves and
cinnamon which had become very
popular in Europe. They were
the first Europeans to visit and
report about the islands which
later became known as Las Islas
Filipinas, or Philippines.
From 1500 until the 1800s, the Spanish Empire
(dark areas on the map) was the largest in the
world, and included colonies in South America,
North America, Africa and Asia.
GALLEON TRADE
The Spanish were disappointed
because the Philippines did not
have many spices.
However, the Philippines
did play an important role for
the Spanish empire: Manila
served as a hub of the annual
galleon trade.
Spanish galleons (boats)
carried silver from the mines
of Mexico to Manila and then
on to China, then returned
along the same route carrying
Chinese silks, ceramics and
spices to the Philippines and
onward to Spain.
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Christianization and resistance
The Roman Catholic Church was very enthusiastic about the
Philippines. The Pope in Rome viewed the islands as fertile ground
for recruiting new converts. Through the Spanish king as
“Royal Patron” of the Catholic Church, priests from
the Augustinian, Dominican, Franciscan, Jesuit,
Benedictine, and Recollect orders were sent as
missionaries.
Although the colony was
supposed to be administered by
the Spanish Colonial government,
in truth it was largely run by the
Spanish friars or “los frailes” as
they were known.
Their religious orders were given huge
tracts of land, and controlled the land and
people where they were assigned.
In many cases they were abusive to
the natives; this caused a great deal of
resentment.
In response to the oppressive policies
of the friars and the Spanish colonial
government, there were hundreds of
a empted uprisings.
Sadly, these revolts failed.
MUSLIM MINDANAO
In the southern Philippines, the Muslim
sultanates of Mindanao (Maguindanao
and Sulu) resisted Spanish colonial rule,
and were therefore not integrated with
the rest of the islands.
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reformers and revolutionaries
Rizal the Reformer
Dr. Jose Rizal was a doctor, writer, poet, and social reformer
who wanted the Philippines to become a province of Spain.
He was a member of the Propaganda Movement. In 1892 he
organized La Liga Filipina, which advocated social reforms
through legal means. But the Spanish authorities
treated Rizal as a filibustero (antigovernment activist) and heretic (antichurch) because of his novels
Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.
In 1896, he was executed by the
Spanish. He is now a national hero of
the Philippines.
The Revolutionaries
In 1892, the Filipino nationalists Andrés Bonifacio, Ladislao Diwa, Teodoro
Plata, Deodato Arellano, Valentin Diaz, Jose Dizon, and others founded
Katipunan (Kataas-taasang Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng
Bayan). It was national in scope, and had a systematic structure.
Th e Ka tip un an w as
iou s
dif fe re nt fro m pr ev
te d
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no t ju st re fo rm s,
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lut
th ro ug h arm ed re vo
andres bonifacio
The Spanish Government reacted with
more repression. Thousands of Filipino
suspects were arrested, questioned under
torture, and then imprisoned or deported to
the Carolines or to the Spanish island colony
of Fernando Po in faraway Africa. Hundreds
of them were executed. By the late 1890s, the
Katipunan army had grown strong enough
to threaten continued Spanish rule in the
islands.
In 1896 the Spanish Government sent
the “Ejercito Expedicionario” (Expeditionary
Army) to strengthen their position, but lost
control of most of the Philippines to the
Katipunan Army.
By January 1898 the Royal Spanish Army
controlled only Manila and a few other cities
such as Cebu and Iloilo.
The era of Spanish
rule was ending.