The Spaniards arrived in the Philippines in the 16th century and established colonial rule that lasted until 1898. They resettled Filipinos into planned towns centered around a plaza with a church, established the Catholic faith across the islands, and developed a colonial economy based on agriculture and trade. The Spaniards educated a Filipino elite class in Spanish language and culture to help administer the colony, while the general population became known as "indios" and were expected to pay tributes and provide forced labor to the Spanish. Overall, the Spanish period unified the islands under one colonial administration and introduced European cultural influences like Christianity, the Spanish language, and new economic systems, changing Filipino life.

1. How did the Spaniards
change Filipino life?
Spanish Colonialism Period,
1521-1898

2. Timeline of Spanish Conquest
August 10, 1519 – The Spanish fleet led by Ferdinand
Magellan sailed westward from Spain to search for
the Spice Islands on the other side of the world.
March 16, 1521 – The Spanish fleet arrived in the
vicinity of Samar.
March 31 – The Spaniards celebrated a mass in the
island of Limawasa, Leyte. The local chiefs, Rajah
Kolambu and Rajah Siagu, attended. The chiefs also
made an alliance with the Spaniards.
April 7 – The fleet visited the port of Cebu. They also
made an alliance with Rajah Humabon and baptized
the Rajah, his wife, and their followers. Magellan gave
the statue of the Santo Nino to the Queen of Cebu as
gift during the baptism.
April 27 – The Spaniards battled Lapu-Lapu, in behalf of
Humabon, in nearby Mactan island. Magellan was

3. They eventually reached the Moluccas (Spice
Islands), Indonesia; traded for cargoes of cloves
and sailed for Spain.
September 8, 1522 – The galleon Victoria reached
Spain. It was credited for the first circumnavigation
of the world.
Spain sent succeeding expeditions to the Spice
Islands, and later the Philippines, but failed.
April 27, 1565 – Another Spanish expedition led by
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi entered the port of Cebu.
When the Cebuanos opposed their landing, they
cannonaded the kingdom. The Cebuanos retreated
to the hills. The Spaniards established the first
Spanish settlement in the port, but Cebuanos
harrassed this settlement.
June 4 – The Cebuanos, led by Rajah Tupas, were

4. June 1569 – The Spaniards occupied Panay.
May 1571 – The Spaniards, with the aid of a large
Visayan force, attacked and defeated the Muslim
kingdom of Manila ruled by Rajah Sulayman.
They made Manila the capital of the colony. They
also defeated or forced to surrender to Spanish
rule the surrounding kingdoms.
May 1572 – They entered Ilocos and Pangasinan.
And within several years, the Spanish armies
defeated or intimidated the different kingdoms of
the Philippines into recognizing Spanish rule. Or
the Spanish missionaries convinced them to
accept foreign rule. Bicol, Samar, Leyte, and
Northern Mindanao became parts of the Spanish
colony.

5. Las Islas Felipinas:
Hispanization of the Filipinos
I. Establishing Spanish
towns
II. Spreading
Christianity
III. Supporting the
Colony
IV. Educating the Elite
V. Making the Indio

6. 1. Poblacion: the Spanish town
Early Philippines:
Villages lined up along the seashores and river
banks
Colonization:
Spanish soldiers collected tributes
Spanish missionaries evangelized the villagers
(Village set-up incovenient)
Solution: Resettlement
Process: Reduccion
Site: Poblaciones

7. “According to law, settlements had to center
around a rectangular plaza whose corners
corresponded to the four cardinal directions.
The plaza was to measure one and a half
times longer than its width, neither smaller
than 60 by 90 meters, nor bigger than 200 by
250 meters.... One side of the plaza was
reserved for the church, another for the
tribunal [town hall], a third the school, and the
fourth for the houses of prominent residents.
Streets started from the four corners and the
middle of the sides of the plaza, ... Straight
and properly measured at right angles with
one another. Houses were lined up along

8. Uniformly designed towns and cities

9. Poblaciones de la Provincia de Cebu

10. 2. Christianizing the Filipinos

11. Dividing the country into the five
missionary orders
1. Augustinians: Central and Southern Luzon,
Ilocos, Cebu and Panay
2. Franciscans: Bicol
3. Jesuits: the Visayas, except Cebu and Panay
4. Dominicans: Northern Luzon, except Ilocos
5. Augustinian Recollects: Northern Mindanao

12. Missionary strategy
Spread the gospel using the local languages:
Ilocano, Pangasinan, Kapampangan, Tagalog,
Bicolano, Ilonggo, Cebuano-Bisaya, Waray
Bajo de la Campana: churches built in the towns
and people required to live near them
Prohibited animistic practices: ancient altars and
icons destroyed, and native priests captured and
banished or killed
Introduced Catholic Rituals and celebrations: mass,
baptism, confession, anointing of sick, fiestas,
Christmas, Holy Week

13. Native-speaking Spaniards

14. Churches from Batanes to Luzon

15. To Visayas and Mindanao

16. From pagan icons to Catholic
icons

17. The Filipinos’ Christian heritage

18. 3. The Colonial Economy
Galleon Trade (1565-1815)
Philippines became a transhipment point for the
export of Oriental products to Spanish (Latin)
America.
Cash-crop Cultivation and Export (1800’s)
The government encouraged or mandated the
planting of farmlands into tobacco, sugar, and
abaca. These crops were for export.

19. Asian products crossed the Pacific aboard
the galleons

20. The galleons’ sailing route

21. Cargoes of the galleons
Trip to America
1. silk cloth, cotton cloth
2. spices (pepper,
cloves, etc)
3. porcelain (bowls, jars,
etc)
4. metal ware
5. woodwork
6. medicinal plants
7. perfume
Return trip to the
Philippines
1. income from the sale
2. Royal Situado
(money for support of
the colonial
administration)
3. occasionally,
American flora and
fauna, products. Also
religious images,
Spanish soldiers,
Spanish missionaries

22. Tobacco monopoly: provinces such as the Ilocos and
Cagayan Valley were required to produce certain
volume of tobacco, if not they paid penalties.

23. Most of the provinces of Iloilo, Negros, Cebu
were turned into sugar haciendas.

24. The slopes of Bicol were planted with abaca plant which
were made into the Manila Hemp, cordage for ships.

25. However, Philippine agriculture
and industries suffered
Many farmlands left uncultivated because
farmers were sent to work in the shipyards to
build the galleons.
Many ricelands were replaced with cash crops
such as tobacco, sugar, abaca.
The local textile weaving industry was
abandoned because of the cheap textiles
(cloths) from China and India.
Metal craft was undeveloped due to preference
for metal ware from Asian countries.

26. 4. Educating the Filipino Elite
The Spaniards established schools in each town.
These were sort of parochial schools, organized
and supervised by the local Spanish priests. Boys
and girls in separate classes.
They taught the 4Rs: Reading, (W)Riting,
(A)Rithmetic, and most importantly Religion.
Instruction was in the Philippine languages.
Spanish was only taught in select schools for rich
Filipino, Mestizo, and Spanish children.

27. Colegios y Universidades de los
Espanoles

28. Separate College for Girls
While the boys took
courses on
Philosophy, Rhetorics,
History, some
Sciences.
The girls attended
finishing schools
which trained them for
their proper roles as
women in society:
sewing, embroidery,
singing, dancing,
playing the piano.

29. Hispanized the Elite
They became Spanish in speech, dress,
manners, in their lifestyle. They felt more
closer to the Spaniards than to the lower
class Filipinos
They also became Spanish in sentiments.
Most of the elite accepted and believed
in the necessity of Spanish rule. That it
was Spanish rule that gave the Filipinos
civilization. That without Spanish rule,
the country would fell into ruins.

30. 5. Making the Indio
[Indio is the name given for Filipinos during the Spanish period.]

31. From Timagua (freeman) to
Subject
Under Spanish rule:
Paid tributes (taxes) – eight
reales (one peso) annually in
money or in kind (rice, cotton
cloth, gold, even chicken). In
1884, tribute was replaced by
the cedula (individual tax).

32. The Indios also:
Worked on government projects (polo or
forced labor) – each year a Filipino (18-
60 yrs old) worked for 40 days. In the
19th century, shortened to 15 days.
Polistas worked in groups building
roads, bridges, churches, town halls,
hospitals, and in shipyards for the
government.
Observed the Bandala – planted crops
according to the orders of the
government and sells the harvest to the

33. Thus, the arrival of the Spaniards created
a new period in Philippine history:
1. Spanish did not replace the local
languages, but other aspects of Filipino
culture were Hispanized: food, dress,
houses, economy, entertainment.
2. The formerly independent barangays
(kingdoms) were united under the
colony called Las Islas Felipinas under
the administration of a governor-general
(the Spanish king’s representative).
3. The animistic religion was replaced by