1

Who were the fi rst 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 fi rst Filipinos. There are several theories:

Land Bridge TheorySome 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 TheoryAnthropologist H. Otley Beyer suggested how the fi rst 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.

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 TheoryAnthropologist F. Landa Jocano has proposed the Core Population Theory which suggests that rather than waves of migration of diff erent 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 diff erentiated 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.

Chapter 1: Philippines before the Americans

PRE-COLONIAL PHILIPPINES

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.

2

The Spanish EraPhilippine history changed when the explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived in 1521, beginning 333 years of Spanish colonization.

GALLEON TRADEThe 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.

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 fi rst 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.

3

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.

MUSLIM MINDANAOIn 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.

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.

4

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

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 fi libustero (anti-government activist) and heretic (anti-church) 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.

reformers and revolutionaries

The Revolutionaries

Rizal the Reformer

The Katipunan was different from previous

rebell ions. It advocated

not just reforms, but

independence from Spain

through armed revolution.

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.

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.

andres bonifacio

The era of Spanish rule was ending.