Editing History of the Philippines (section)

== Spanish settlement and rule (1565–1898) ==
{{Main|History of the Philippines (1565–1898)|Captaincy General of the Philippines|Spanish East Indies}}

=== Early Spanish expeditions and conquests ===
{{Main|Ruy López de Villalobos|Spanish–Moro conflict}}

A Spanish expedition around the world led by Portuguese explorer [[Ferdinand Magellan]] sighted [[Samar Island]] but anchored off [[Suluan|Suluan Island]] on March 16, 1521. They landed the next day on [[Homonhon]] Island, now part of [[Guiuan, Eastern Samar]]. Magellan claimed the islands he saw for Spain and named them Islas de San Lázaro. He established friendly relations with some of the local leaders especially with [[Rajah Humabon]] and converted some of them to [[Catholic Church in the Philippines|Roman Catholicism]]. 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, [[Lapulapu]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Pigafetta|first=Antonio|url=https://www.wdl.org/en/item/3082|title=Journal of Magellan's Voyage|year=c. 1525|language=fr|archive-date=July 28, 2020|access-date=June 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728192104/https://www.wdl.org/en/item/3082/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Pigafetta|first=Antonio|url=https://www.archive.org/details/firstvoyageround00piga/page/n5/mode/2up|title=The first voyage round the world by Magellan|publisher=The Hakluyt Society|year=1874|location=London|translator-last=Lord Stanley of Alderley}}</ref><ref name="lac47">{{Harvnb|Lacsamana|1990|p=47}}</ref>

Over the next several decades, other Spanish expeditions were dispatched to the islands. [[Ruy López de Villalobos]] led an expedition that visited Leyte and Samar in 1543 and named them ''Las Islas Filipinas'' in honor of Philip of Asturias, the [[Prince of Asturias]] at the time.<ref>{{Harvnb|Scott|1985|p=51}}.</ref> Philip became [[Philip II of Spain]] on January 16, 1556, when his father, Charles I of Spain (who also reigned as [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]]), abdicated the Spanish throne. The name was then extended to the entire archipelago later on in the Spanish era.
[[File:Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas Dedicada al Rey Nuestro Señor por el Mariscal d. Campo D. Fernando Valdes Tamon Cavallº del Orden de Santiago de Govor. Y Capn.jpg|left|thumb|1734 Spanish Chart of the Philippine Islands]]
European colonialization began in earnest when Spanish explorer [[Miguel López 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 unification and colonialization of the Archipelago.<ref>{{cite book | last=Wing | first=J.T. | title=Roots of Empire: Forests and State Power in Early Modern Spain, c.1500-1750 | publisher=Brill | series=Brill's Series in the History of the Environment | year=2015 | isbn=978-90-04-26137-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7dQuBgAAQBAJ | page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=7dQuBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 109] |quote=At the time of Miguel López de Legazpi's voyage in 1564-5, the Philippines were not a unified polity or nation.
}}</ref> In 1571, the Spanish, their Latin-American recruits and their Filipino (Visayan) allies, commanded by able conquistadors such as Mexico-born [[Juan de Salcedo]] (who was in love with Tondo's princess, [[Princess Kandarapa|Kandarapa]], a romance his Spanish grandfather Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, disapproved of) attacked [[Kingdom of Maynila|Maynila]], a vassal-state of the Brunei Sultanate and liberated plus incorporated the [[kingdom of Tondo]] as well as establishing [[Manila]] as the capital of the [[Spanish East Indies]].{{sfn|Kurlansky|1999|p=64}}{{sfn|Joaquin|1988}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=De Borja|first=Marciano R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXpiujH2uOwC&pg=PA132|title=Basques in the Philippines|publisher=University of Nevada Press|year=2005|isbn=9780874175905|location=Reno|pages=30–39}}</ref> During the early part of the Spanish colonialization of the Philippines, the Spanish Augustinian friar Gaspar de San Agustín, O.S.A., describes Iloilo and Panay as one of the most populated islands in the archipelago and the most fertile of all the islands of the Philippines. He also talks about Iloilo, particularly the ancient settlement of Halaur, as site of a progressive trading post and a court of illustrious nobilities.<ref>The friar says: Es la isla de Panay muy parecida a la de Sicilia, así por su forma triangular come por su fertilidad y abundancia de bastimentos... Es la isla más poblada, después de Manila y Mindanao, y una de las mayores, por bojear más de cien leguas. En fertilidad y abundancia es en todas la primera... El otro corre al oeste con el nombre de Alaguer [Halaur], desembocando en el mar a dos leguas de distancia de Dumangas...Es el pueblo muy hermoso, ameno y muy lleno de palmares de cocos. Antiguamente era el emporio y corte de la más lucida [[nobility|nobleza]] de toda aquella isla...Mamuel Merino, O.S.A., ed., ''Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas (1565–1615)'', Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1975, pp. 374–376.</ref>

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]], who was a vassal to the Sultan of Brunei, 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 [[Tarik Sulayman]] and a force of Kapampangan and Tagalog Muslim warriors attacked the Spaniards in the [[Battle of Bangkusay Channel|battle of Bangkusay]], he was finally defeated and killed, the Spanish also destroyed the walled Kapampangan city-state of [[Cainta (historical polity)|Cainta]].

[[File:Spanish Conquest of the Philippines.jpg|thumb|upright|A late 17th-century manuscript by Gaspar de San Agustin from the [[Archive of the Indies]], depicting López de Legazpi's conquest of the Philippines]]
In 1578, the [[Castilian 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 Panay and [[Cebu (historical polity)|Cebu]], as well as [[Butuan (historical polity)|Butuan]] (which were from northern Mindanao), as well as the remnants of Bo-ol ([[Dapitan Kingdom|Dapitan]]) had previously waged war against the [[Sultanate of Sulu]], [[Sultanate of Maguindanao]] and [[Maynila (historical polity)|Kingdom of Maynila]], then joined the Spanish in the war against the [[Bruneian Empire]] and its allies, the Bruneian puppet-state of Maynila, Sulu which had dynastic links with Brunei as well as Maguindanao which was an ally of Sulu. The Spanish and its Visayan allies assaulted Brunei and seized its capital, [[Kota Batu, Brunei-Muara|Kota Batu]]. This was achieved as a result in part of the assistance rendered to them by two [[Pengiran#Brunei|noblemen]], Pengiran Seri Lela and Pengiran Seri Ratna. The former had traveled to Manila to offer Brunei as a [[vassal kingdom|tributary]] of Spain for help to recover the throne usurped by his brother, Saiful Rijal.{{sfn|Alip|1964|p=201,317}} 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 [[Captain general|Capitán General]], started their journey towards Brunei. The expedition consisted of 400 Spaniards and Mexicans, 1,500 [[Filipinos|Filipino]] natives and 300 Borneans.{{sfn|Annual report of the Secretary of War|1903|p=[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101050737699&view=1up&seq=393 379]}} The campaign was one of many, which also included action in [[Mindanao]] and [[Sulu Archipelago|Sulu]].{{sfn|McAmis|2002|p=33}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.filipiniana.net/ArtifactView.do?artifactID=P40000000008&query=Francisco%20de%20Sande |title=Letter from Francisco de Sande to Felipe II, 1578 |access-date=October 17, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141014220759/http://www.filipiniana.net/ArtifactView.do?artifactID=P40000000008&query=Francisco%20de%20Sande |archive-date=October 14, 2014}}</ref>

The Spanish succeeded in invading the capital on April 16, 1578, with the help of Pengiran Seri Lela and Pengiran Seri Ratna. 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.{{sfn|Frankham|2008|p=278}}{{sfn|Atiyah|2002|p=71}} They were so weakened by the illness that they decided to abandon Brunei to return to Manila on June 26, 1578, after just 72 days. Before doing so, they burned the mosque, a high structure with a five-tier roof.{{sfn|Saunders|2002|pp=54–60}}

Pengiran Seri Lela died in August–September 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, the Bruneian princess, left with the Spanish and went on to marry a Christian [[Tagalog people|Tagalog]], named Agustín de Legazpi of Tondo and had children in the Philippines.{{sfn|Saunders|2002|p=57}}
[[File:Tipos del País 2 by Justiniano Asuncion.jpg|left|thumb|421x421px|Filipinos during the Spanish era.]]
Concurrently, northern Luzon became a center of the "Bahan Trade" (comercio de bafan), found in Luís Fróis' Historia de Japam, mainly refers to the robberies, raids, and pillages conducted by the Japanese pirates of Kyūshūa as they assaulted the China seas. The Sengoku period (1477–1603) or the warring states period of Japan had spread the [[wokou|wakō]]'s 倭寇 (Japanese Pirates) activities in the China Seas, some groups of these raiders relocated to the Philippines and established their settlements in Luzon. Because of the proximity to China's beaches, the Philippines were favorable a location to launch raids on the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, and for shipping with Indochina and the Ryūkyū Islands.<ref>Hall and McClain 1991, 235.</ref> These were the halcyon days of the Philippine branch of the Bahan trade. Thus, the Spanish sought to fight off these Japanese Pirates, prominent among whom was warlord Tayfusa,<ref>His name appears also as "Taizufú", "Tayfuzu" or "Zaizufu". San Agustín 1975, 541</ref> whom the Spaniards expelled after he set up the beginnings of a city-state of Japanese pirates in Northern Luzon.<ref>AGI, Filipinas, 6, r. 5, n. 53.</ref> The Spanish repelled them in the fabled [[1582 Cagayan battles]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ostasien-verlag.de/zeitschriften/cr/pdf/CR_10_2013_155-194_Iaccarino.pdf|title="Merchants, Missionaries and Marauders: Trade and Traffic between Kyūshū (Japan) and Luzon (Philippines) in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries" By Ubaldo IACCARINO}}{{Dead link|date=January 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Due to the 1549 Ming ban on trade leveled against the [[Ashikaga shogunate]] as a consequence of the Wokou pirate raids, this resulted in the ban for all the Japanese to enter China, and for Chinese ships to sail to Japan. Thus, Manila became the only place where the Japanese and Chinese can openly trade, often also trading Japanese silver for Chinese silk.<ref>[https://lirias.kuleuven.be/retrieve/578752#page=22 The "Indo-Pacific" Crossroads] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250123215704/https://lirias.kuleuven.be/retrieve/578752#page=22 |date=January 23, 2025 }}:
The Asian Waters as Conduits of Knowledge, People, Cargoes, and Technologies Page 107 (Citing:"Wang 1953; Tanaka Takeo 1961.")</ref>

In 1587, [[Magat Salamat]], one of the children of Lakandula, along with Lakandula's nephew and lords of the neighboring areas of Tondo, Pandacan, Marikina, Candaba, Navotas and Bulacan, were executed when the [[Conspiracy of the Maharlikas|Tondo Conspiracy of 1587–1588]] failed<ref name="Tondo">Martinez, Manuel F. Assassinations & conspiracies : from Rajah Humabon to Imelda Marcos. Manila: Anvil Publishing, 2002.</ref> in which a planned grand alliance with the Japanese Christian-captain, Gayo, (Gayo himself was a Woku who once pirated in Cagayan) and Brunei's sultan, would have restored the old aristocracy. Its failure resulted in the hanging of Agustín de Legaspi and the execution of Magat Salamat (the crown-prince of Tondo).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.philjol.info/index.php/MALAY/article/viewFile/80/77|title=Isang Maikling Kasaysayan ng Pandacan, Maynila 1589–1898|author=Fernando A. Santiago Jr. |access-date=July 18, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090814203000/http://www.philjol.info/index.php/MALAY/article/viewFile/80/77|archive-date=August 14, 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> Thereafter, some of the conspirators were exiled to Guam or Guerrero, Mexico.

Spanish power was further consolidated after Miguel López de Legazpi's complete assimilation 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 [[Kaboloan|Pangasinan]].<ref>Kurlansky, Mark. (1999). ''The Basque History of the World''. New York: Walker & Company. p. 64. {{ISBN|0-8027-1349-1}}.</ref><ref name="JoaquinPhilBecoming">[[Nick Joaquin|Joaquin, Nick]]. (1988). ''Culture and History: Occasional Notes on the Process of Philippine Becoming''. Manila: Solar Publishing.</ref>

The Spanish also invaded [[Spanish Formosa|Northern Taiwan]] and [[Ternate]] in Indonesia, using Filipino warriors, before they were driven out by the Dutch.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Borschberg |first1=Peter |title=Journal, Memorials and Letters of Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge: Security, Diplomacy and Commerce in 17th-century Southeast Asia |date=2015 |publisher=NUS Press |isbn=978-9971-69-527-9 |pages=82, 84, 126, 421 }}</ref> The Sultanate of Ternate reverted to independence and afterwards led a coalition of sultanates against Spain.<ref>"Antonio de Morga, in Blair and Robertson, The Philippines Islands, XV, Pages 97-98"</ref><ref>Cesar A. Majul, Muslims in the Philippines (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1999), 128–129.</ref> While Taiwan became the stronghold of the Ming-loyalist and pirate state of the [[Kingdom of Tungning]]. 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]], they were supported by the Papuan language speaking [[Sultanate of Ternate]] in Indonesia which regained independence from Spain,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sordilla |first1=Shane Patrick |title=MAGUINDANAO AND TERNATE CONNECTION AND DISCONNECTION DURING THE AGE OF EUROPEAN COLONIZATION: AN OVERVIEW |url=https://www.academia.edu/38617032 |access-date=April 11, 2021 |archive-date=April 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411182827/https://www.academia.edu/38617032/MAGUINDANAO_AND_TERNATE_CONNECTION_AND_DISCONNECTION_DURING_THE_AGE_OF_EUROPEAN_COLONIZATION_AN_OVERVIEW |url-status=live }}{{unreliable source?|date=September 2021}}</ref> as well as the Sultanate of Brunei, not until the 19th century did Spain succeed in defeating the Sulu Sultanate and taking Mindanao under nominal suzerainty.

The Spanish considered their war with the Muslims in Southeast Asia an extension of the [[Reconquista]], a centuries-long campaign to retake and rechristianize the Spanish homeland which was invaded by the Muslims of the [[Umayyad Caliphate]]. The Spanish expeditions into the Philippines were also part of a larger Ibero-Islamic world conflict<ref>{{cite book|last1=Truxillo|first1=Charles A. |year=2012|publisher=Jain Publishing Company|title=Crusaders in the Far East: The Moro Wars in the Philippines in the Context of the Ibero-Islamic World War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=prA99TUDgKQC&pg=PA1|page=1|isbn=978-0-89581-864-5}}</ref> that included a war [[Ottoman–Habsburg wars|against the Ottoman Caliphate]] which had just invaded former Christian lands in the Eastern Mediterranean and which had a center of operations in Southeast Asia at its nearby vassal, the [[Ottoman expedition to Aceh|Sultanate of Aceh]].<ref>Peacock Gallop (2015) "From Anatolia to Aceh: Ottomans, Turks and Southeast Asia".</ref> Thus the Philippines became a theatre of the ongoing world-wide-ranging [[Ottoman–Habsburg wars]].

In time, Spanish fortifications were also set up in [[Taiwan]] and the [[Maluku islands]]. These were abandoned and the Spanish soldiers, along with the [[Sultanate of Ternate|newly Christianized]] natives of the [[Moluccas]], withdrew back to the Philippines in order to re-concentrate their military forces because of a threatened invasion by the Japan-born [[Ming]]-dynasty loyalist, [[Koxinga]], ruler of the [[Kingdom of Tungning]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Spanish experience in Taiwan, 1626–1642: the Baroque ending of a Renaissance endeavor |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |author=Borao, José Eugenio |year=2010 |page=199 |isbn=978-962-209-083-5 |jstor=j.ctt1xcrpk|chapter=The Baroque Ending of a Renaissance Endeavour }}</ref> However, the planned invasion was aborted. Meanwhile, settlers were sent to the Pacific islands of [[Palau]] and the [[Mariana Islands|Marianas]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://micsem.org/pubs/articles/religion/frames/cathmissionsfr.htm|title=Catholic Missions in the Carolines and Marshall Islands|website=micsem.org|access-date=May 22, 2020|archive-date=November 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171128085201/http://www.micsem.org/pubs/articles/religion/frames/cathmissionsfr.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Manila Cathedral (1792) by Brambila.jpg|thumb|The sketch of the [[Plaza de Roma]] Manila by Fernando Brambila, a member of the Malaspina Expedition during their stop in Manila in 1792.]]

In 1593, a diplomatic entourage addressed to the "King of Luzon" from the King of Cambodia which bore an elephant as a tribute<ref>Morga (2008), Sucesos, p. 81.</ref> arrived in Manila. The King of Cambodia which witnessed the military activity of precolonial [[Luzones]] people who were mercenaries across Southeast Asia including at Burma and Siam,<ref>{{cite book  |last=Reid   |first=Anthony  |author-link= Anthony Reid (academic)  |editor=Peter Bellwood |editor2=James J. Fox |editor3=Darrell Tryon |editor3-link=Darrell Tryon |title=The Austronesians: Historical and comparative perspectives  |year=1995  |publisher=Department of Anthropology, The Australian National University  |location=Canberra   |chapter= Continuity and Change in the Austronesian Transition to Islam and Christianity  |doi=10.22459/A.09.2006 |hdl=2027/mdp.39015051647942 |isbn=9780731521326 |url=https://openresearchlibrary.org/ext/api/media/f3c41f5e-0a6e-4c6b-a292-1bbc81ed9492/assets/external_content.pdf |chapter-url=http://epress.anu.edu.au/austronesians/austronesians/mobile_devices/ch16.html |doi-access=free }}</ref> now implored the new rulers of Luzon, the Spaniards, to aid him in a war to retake his kingdom from an invasion by the Siamese.<ref name="Kohn2013">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qTDfAQAAQBAJ&q=1599+spanish+cambodia&pg=PA445|title=Dictionary of Wars|date=October 31, 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-95494-9|pages=445–|author=George Childs Kohn}}</ref> That had caused the ill-fated [[Cambodian–Spanish War|Spanish expedition to Cambodia]] that although ended in failure had set the foundations of the future restoration of Cambodia from Thai rule under [[French Cochinchina]] which tapped Spanish allies.

=== Incorporation to the Mexico-based Viceroyalty of New Spain ===
The founding of [[Manila]] by uniting the dominions of [[Rajah Sulayman|Sulayman III]] and [[Rajah Matanda|Rajah Ache ''Matanda'']] of [[Kingdom of Maynila|Maynila]] who was a vassal to the Sultan of Brunei, and [[Lakandula]] of [[Tondo (historical polity)|Tondo]] who paid tribute to [[Ming dynasty]] China – caused the creation of Manila on February 6, 1579, through the [[Papal bull]] ''Illius Fulti Præsidio'' by [[Pope Gregory XIII]], encompassing all [[New Spain|Spanish colonies]] in Asia as a [[Suffragan diocese|suffragan]] of the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico|Archdiocese of Mexico]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.manilacathedral.org/History/history_1.htm |title=History – the First Cathedral 1581–1583 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524232007/http://www.manilacathedral.org/History/history_1.htm |archive-date=May 24, 2013 |website=Manila Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica Official Website |accessdate=March 22, 2013 |url-status=usurped}}</ref> Aside from Manila the capital, the Spanish and Latino populations were first concentrated in the 5 newly founded Spanish Royal Cities of [[Cebu City|Cebu]], [[Iloilo City|Arevalo]], [[Lal-lo|Nueva Segovia]], [[Naga, Camarines Sur|Nueva Caceres]], and [[Vigan City|Vigan]].<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38269/38269-h/38269-h.htm#xd19e3408| title = A History of the Philippines by David P. Barrows| quote = The Largest Cities.—Most of this Spanish population dwelt in Manila or in the five other cities which the Spaniards had founded in the first three decades of their occupation. Those were as follows:—| access-date = January 15, 2022| archive-date = February 8, 2019| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190208005625/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38269/38269-h/38269-h.htm#xd19e3408| url-status = live}}</ref> Aside from these cities, they were also scattered across the [[Presidios]] of [[Cavite City|Cavite]], [[Calamianes]], [[Caraga Region|Caraga]], and [[Zamboanga City|Zamboanga]].<ref>[https://academic.oup.com/past/article/232/1/87/1752419 Convicts or Conquistadores? Spanish Soldiers in the Seventeenth-Century Pacific By Stephanie J. Mawson] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603111934/https://academic.oup.com/past/article/232/1/87/1752419 |date=June 3, 2018 }} AGI, México, leg. 25, núm. 62; AGI, Filipinas, leg. 8, ramo 3, núm. 50; leg. 10, ramo 1, núm. 6; leg. 22, ramo 1, núm. 1, fos. 408 r −428 v; núm. 21; leg. 32, núm. 30; leg. 285, núm. 1, fos. 30 r −41 v .</ref> For much of the Spanish period, the Philippines was part of the Mexico-based [[Viceroyalty of New Spain]]. Of the Spaniards and Latinos sent to the Philippines, almost half of the individuals levied to Manila were reported in judicial files as españoles (Spanish born in the colonies, who were often just "very pale [[mestizos]]"), and about a third, as mestizos (whereas Indian ([[Native American people|Native American]]), [[mulatto]]s, and blacks could be mistaken for mestizos of darker color).<ref>Forced Migration in the Spanish Pacific World From Mexico to the Philippines, 1765–1811. By Eva Maria Mehl, Published at University of North Carolina Wilmington. Chapter 4: Levies for the Philippines in Late Colonial Mexico (Page 174)</ref> Castizos amounted to a total of 15 percent, while peninsulares (Spaniards born in Spain) were around 5 percent of those punished with deportation to Manila.<ref>Forced Migration in the Spanish Pacific World From Mexico to the Philippines, 1765–1811. By Eva Maria Mehl, Published at University of North Carolina Wilmington. Chapter 4: Levies for the Philippines in Late Colonial Mexico (Page 172)</ref>

=== Spanish settlement during the 16th and 17th centuries ===
[[File:Unknown artist - Manila canal 19th C watercolour Philippines IMG 9389 Museum of Asian Civilisation.jpg|thumb|Spanish era Manila canal]]
The "Memoria de las Encomiendas en las Islas" of 1591, just twenty years after the conquest of Luzon, reveals a remarkable progress in the work of colonialization and the spread of Christianity.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sánchez-Jiménez |first1=David |title=La hispanización y la identidad hispana en Filipinas |journal=Publications and Research |date=October 1, 2010 |url=https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ny_pubs/221/ |archive-date=September 14, 2021 |access-date=September 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914193646/https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ny_pubs/221/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 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. In order to defend the settlements the Spaniards established in the Philippines, a network of military fortresses called "[[Presidio]]s" were constructed and officered by the Spaniards, and sentried by Latin-Americans and Filipinos, across the archipelago, to protect it from foreign nations such as the Portuguese, British and Dutch as well as raiding Muslims and [[Wokou]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://filipinokastila.tripod.com/fort.html/|title=Fortress of Empire, Rene Javellana, S. J. 1997|access-date=June 11, 2017|archive-date=July 15, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170715191408/http://filipinokastila.tripod.com/fort.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Manila garrison was composed of roughly four hundred Spanish soldiers and the area of [[Intramuros]] as well as its surroundings, were initially settled by 1200 Spanish families.<ref>{{cite journal |url = http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38269/38269-h/38269-h.htm#pb139 |title = A History of the Philippines |last1 = Barrows |first1 = David |journal = Guttenburg Free Online E-books |year = 2014 |volume = 1 |page = 179 |quote = Within the walls, there were some six hundred houses of a private nature, most of them built of stone and tile, and an equal number outside in the suburbs, or "arrabales," all occupied by Spaniards ("todos son vivienda y poblacion de los Españoles"). This gives some twelve hundred Spanish families or establishments, exclusive of the religious, who in Manila numbered at least one hundred and fifty, the garrison, at certain times, about four hundred trained Spanish soldiers who had seen service in Holland and the Low Countries, and the official classes. |archive-date = December 6, 2016 |access-date = February 2, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161206195339/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38269#pb139 |url-status = live }}</ref> In [[Cebu City]], at the Visayas, the settlement received a total of 2,100 soldier-settlers from [[New Spain]].<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.philippine-history.org/spanish-expeditions.htm
| title = Spanish Expeditions to the Philippines
| publisher = PHILIPPINE-HISTORY.ORG
| date = 2005
| access-date = March 24, 2017
| archive-date = August 31, 2019
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190831163553/http://www.philippine-history.org/spanish-expeditions.htm
| url-status = live
}}</ref> At the immediate south of Manila, Mexicans were present at Ermita<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.livinginthephilippines.com/travel-guides/getting-to-philippines/979-tourist-attraction-city-of-manila|title=West Coast Of The Island Of Luzon &#124; Tourist Attractions|first1=Don|last1=Herrington|website=www.livinginthephilippines.com|access-date=February 2, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161206200644/http://www.livinginthephilippines.com/travel-guides/getting-to-philippines/979-tourist-attraction-city-of-manila|archive-date=December 6, 2016|url-status=usurped}}</ref> and at [[Cavite City|Cavite]]<ref>Galaup "Travel Accounts" page 375.</ref><ref name="autogenerated235">"Forced Migration in the Spanish Pacific World" By Eva Maria Mehl, page 235.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url = http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38269/38269-h/38269-h.htm#pb139 |title = A History of the Philippines |last1 = Barrows |first1 = David |journal = Guttenburg Free Online E-books |year = 2014 |volume = 1 |page = 229 |quote = Reforms under General Arandía.—The demoralization and misery with which Obando's rule closed were relieved somewhat by the capable government of Arandía, who succeeded him. Arandía was one of the few men of talent, energy, and integrity who stood at the head of affairs in these islands during two centuries. He reformed the greatly disorganized military force, establishing what was known as the "Regiment of the King," {{strong|made up very largely of Mexican soldiers}} [note: emphasis added]. He also formed a corps of artillerists composed of Filipinos. These were regular troops, who received from Arandía sufficient pay to enable them to live decently and like an army. |archive-date = December 6, 2016 |access-date = February 2, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161206195339/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38269#pb139 |url-status = live }}</ref> where they were stationed as sentries. In addition, men conscripted from [[Peru]], were also sent to settle [[Zamboanga City]] in Mindanao, to wage war upon Muslim pirates.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Blair|first1=Emma Helen|url=https://archive.org/details/philippineisland25blai|title=The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898|last2=Robertson|first2=James Alexander|publisher=Arthur H. Clark Company|year=1905|isbn=|volume=25|location=Cleveland, Ohio|pages=150–177}}</ref> These Peruvian soldiers who settled in Zamboanga were led by Don [[Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera]] who was governor of [[Panama]].<ref name= "Peru">[http://www.zamboanga.com/html/history_1634_moro_attacks.htm "SECOND BOOK OF THE SECOND PART OF THE CONQUESTS OF THE FILIPINAS ISLANDS, AND CHRONICLE OF THE RELIGIOUS OF OUR FATHER, ST. AUGUSTINE"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508103044/https://www.zamboanga.com/html/history_1634_moro_attacks.htm |date=May 8, 2021 }} (Zamboanga City History)
"He (Governor Don Sebastían Hurtado de Corcuera) brought a great reënforcements of soldiers, many of them from Perú, as he made his voyage to Acapulco from that kingdom."</ref> He also used Panamanians, including even some Genoese from [[Panama Viejo]] descended from colonists at the [[Republic of Genoa]], a nation once active in the [[Crusades]].<ref>[http://www.panamaviejo.org/monumentos/casalos_genoveses.asp Casa de los Genoveses- Sitio Arqueológico de Panamá Viejo<!-- Titolo generato automaticamente -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205022307/http://www.panamaviejo.org/monumentos/casalos_genoveses.asp |data=5 febbraio 2012 }}</ref> There were also communities of Spanish-Mestizos that developed in [[Iloilo City|Iloilo]],<ref>[http://ilongo.weebly.com/iloilo-history-part-5.html Quinze Ans de Voyage Autor de Monde Vol. II ( 1840)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009181632/http://ilongo.weebly.com/iloilo-history-part-5.html |date=October 9, 2014}}. Retrieved July 25, 2014, from Institute for Research of Iloilo Official Website.</ref> [[Negros Island|Negros]]<ref>"The Philippine Archipelago" By Yves Boquet Page 262</ref> and [[Vigan]].<ref name="IlocosHeritage">{{cite book|last1=De la Torre|first1=Visitacion|title=The Ilocos Heritage|date=2006|publisher=Tower Book House|location=Makati City|isbn=978-971-91030-9-7|page=2}}</ref>

[[File:Quiazonfamily1880.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Principalía]] family by Simón Flores y de la Rosa, uncle of painter [[Fabián de la Rosa]]]]
Interactions between native Filipinos{{refn|name=filipinoterm|During the Spanish colonial period, the terms ''Insulares'' and  ''Filipino'' generally referred to full-blooded Spaniards who had been born in the Philippines, distinguishing them from Spaniards born in Spain who were termed ''Peninsulares''. The first documented use of the tern ''Filipino'' to refer to persons of Philippine ethnicity was in the 19th century poem ''[[A la juventud filipina]]'' by [[Jose Rizal]].{{sfn|Duka|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=4wk8yqCEmJUC&dq=filipino&pg=PA72 72]}}}} and immigrant Spaniards plus the Latin-Americans and their Spanish-Mestizo descendants eventually caused the formation of a new language, [[Chavacano]], a creole of [[Mexican Spanish]].<ref>{{harvnb|Park|2022|p={{page needed|date=September 2022}}}} "For this, Bernal borrows a premise offered by linguist Keith Whinnom in Spanish Contact Vernaculars in the Philippine Islands (1956), namely that "Mexican Spanish" is "the basis of the vocabulary of the contact vernaculars." Quoted from León-Portilla, "Algunos nahuatlismos en el castellano de Filipinas." León-Portilla, in turn, affirms that he constructs his short reflection from Retana's Diccionario de Filipinismos (1923).</ref> Meanwhile, 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. Based on the tribute counts, the total founding population of Spanish-Philippines was 667,612 people,<ref>The Unlucky Country: The Republic of the Philippines in the 21St Century By Duncan Alexander McKenzie (Page xii)</ref> of which: 20,000 were Chinese migrant traders,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url={{Google books|plainurl=yes|id=7QEjPVyd9YMC|page=751|text=In 1893, the Qing rulers officially withdrew the migration ban}}|title=History|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures around the World, Volume 1|editor1=Carol R. Ember |editor2=Melvin Ember |editor3=Ian A. Skoggard |date=2005 |publisher= Springer}}</ref> 15,600 were Latino soldier-colonists sent from Peru and Mexico (In the 1600s),<ref>Stephanie Mawson, 'Between Loyalty and Disobedience: The Limits of Spanish Domination in the Seventeenth Century Pacific' (Univ. of Sydney M.Phil. thesis, 2014), appendix 3.</ref> Immigrants included 3,000 Japanese residents,<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Google map of Paco district of Manila, Philippines |location=Philippines |title=Japanese Christian |url=http://ph.pagenation.com/mnl/Paco_120.9997_14.5808.map |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100507124349/http://ph.pagenation.com/mnl/Paco_120.9997_14.5808.map |archive-date=May 7, 2010}}</ref> and 600 pure Spaniards from Europe.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.uco.es/aaf/garcia-abasolo/files/63df3.pdf|title=Spanish Settlers in the Philippines (1571–1599) By Antonio Garcia-Abasalo|access-date=August 8, 2018|archive-date=January 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117225634/https://www.uco.es/aaf/garcia-abasolo/files/63df3.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Of the 600 Spaniards from Europe, two hundred and thirty-six of them were given [[encomiendas]] and were ennobled, as they scattered across the many provinces of the Philippines to serve as administrators.<ref>Relacion de las Encomiendas existentes en Filipinas el dia 31 de Mayo de 1591. in Retana: Archivo del Bibliofilo Filipino, iv, pp. 39-112.</ref> There was also a large but unknown number of [[Indian Filipinos]] as majority of the slaves imported into the archipelago were from [[Bengal]] or Southern [[India]],<ref>[https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/333213/azu_etd_13473_sip1_m.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&title=repository.arizona.edu Peasants, Servants, and Sojourners: Itinerant Asians in Colonial New Spain, 1571–1720 By Furlong, Matthew J.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220429034134/https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/333213/azu_etd_13473_sip1_m.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&title=repository.arizona.edu |date=April 29, 2022 }} "Slaves purchased by the indigenous elites, Spanish and Hokkiens of the colony seemed drawn most often from South Asia, particularly Bengal and South India, and less so, from other sources, such as East Africa, Brunei, Makassar, and Java..." Chapter 2 "Rural Ethnic Diversity" Page 164 (Translated from: "Inmaculada Alva Rodríguez, Vida municipal en Manila (siglos xvi–xvii) (Córdoba: Universidad de Córdoba, 1997), 31, 35–36."</ref> adding [[Dravidian language|Dravidian]] speaking South Indians and [[Indo-European language|Indo-European]] speaking [[Demographics of Bangladesh|Bangladeshis]] into the ethnic mix, and the rest were Malays and Negritos. They were under the care of 140 missionaries, of which 79 were Augustinians, nine Dominicans and 42 Franciscans.<ref>Retana, "Relacion de las Encomiendas existentes en Filipinas el dia 31 de 1.591" Archivo del Bibliófilo Filipino IV, p 39–112</ref> Adding during the Spanish evacuation of [[Ternate, Indonesia]], the 200 families of mixed Mexican-Filipino-Spanish and Moluccan-Portuguese descent who had ruled over the briefly Christianized [[Sultanate of Ternate]] (They later reverted to Islam) were relocated to [[Ternate, Cavite]] and Ermita, Manila.<ref>Zamboangueño Chavacano: Philippine Spanish Creole or Filipinized Spanish Creole? By Tyron Judes D. Casumpang (Page 3)</ref> and they were presaged by their previous ruler, Sultan Said Din Burkat who was enslaved but eventually converted to Christianity and was freed after being deported to [[Manila]].<ref>Bartolome Juan Leonardy y de Argensola, Conquistas de las islas Molucas (Madrid: Alonso Martin, 1909) pp. 351–8; Cesar Majul, Muslims in the Philippines (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1973) pp. 119–20; Hal, History of Southeast Asia, pp. 249–50.</ref>

[[File:Gobernadorcillo de Naturales by José Honorato Lozano.jpg|thumb|upright|left|A {{lang|es|[[Gobernadorcillo]]}} de Naturales comparable to a modern-day mayor. Mostly of Indio descent.]]
The islands were fragmented and [[Demographics of the Philippines#Population history|sparsely populated]]<ref>{{cite journal |url = http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38269/38269-h/38269-h.htm#pb139 |title = A History of the Philippines |last1 = Barrows |first1 = David |journal = Guttenburg Free Online E-books |year = 2014 |volume = 1 |page = 139 |quote = Fourth.—In considering this Spanish conquest, we must understand that the islands were far more sparsely inhabited than they are to-day. The Bisayan islands, the rich Camarines, the island of Luzon, had, in Legaspi's time, only a small fraction of their present great populations. This population was not only small, but it was also extremely disunited. Not only were the great tribes separated by the differences of language, but, as we have already seen, each tiny community was practically independent, and the power of a dato very limited. There were no great princes, with large forces of fighting retainers whom they could call to arms, such as the Portuguese had encountered among the Malays south in the Moluccas. |archive-date = December 6, 2016 |access-date = February 2, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161206195339/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38269#pb139 |url-status = live }}</ref> due to constant inter-kingdom wars<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Reyeg |first1=Fernardo |last2=Marsh |first2=Ned |date=December 2011 |title=The Filipino Way of War: Irregular Warfare Through The Centuries |type=Post Graduate |chapter=2 |publisher=Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, California |page=21 |chapter-url=https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a556504.pdf |access-date=February 15, 2021 |archive-date=April 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415183151/https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a556504.pdf |url-status=live |hdl=10945/10681 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> and natural disasters (as the country is on the [[Typhoon#Frequency|Typhoon belt]] and [[Pacific Ring of Fire]]),<ref name="jstor.org"/> which made it easy for Spanish invasion. The Spanish then brought political unification to most of the Philippine archipelago via the conquest of the various small maritime states although they were unable to fully incorporate parts of the [[sultanates]] of [[Mindanao]] and the areas where the ethnic groups and highland plutocracy of the animist [[Ifugao]] of Northern [[Luzon]] were established. The Spanish introduced elements of [[Western culture|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.<ref>{{cite book| author=Spain|title=Recopilación de las Leyes de Indias. Titulo Quince. De las Audiencias y Chancillerias Reales de las Indias| year=1680| id=[http://www.congreso.gob.pe/ntley/Imagenes/LeyIndia/0102015.pdf Spanish-language facsimile of the original]| location=Madrid}}</ref>

[[Philippines education during Spanish rule|Education]] played a major role in the socio-economic transformation of the archipelago. The oldest universities, [[college]]s, and [[vocational schools]] and the first modern [[state school|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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Coleman|2009|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=7oiTkrg9tfUC&pg=PA17 17–59]}}</ref> 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 [[Suppression of the Society of Jesus#Philippines|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 José (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 and technology in the Philippines|Science]] subjects such as physics, chemistry, natural history and mathematics. The University of Santo Tomás, for example, started by teaching theology, philosophy and humanities and the Faculty of Jurisprudence and Canonical Law, together with the schools of medicine and pharmacy were opened during the 18th century.

[[File:Panares Ancestral House.jpg|thumb|''[[Bahay na bato]]'', a typical Filipino urban house during the colonial era]]
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 taste for music and taught Spanish language to children.<ref>{{cite book| author=Antonio de Morga|title=Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas | year=1609 | publisher=Fondo de Cultura| isbn=978-0-521-01035-1|title-link=Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas}}</ref> They also introduced advances in rice agriculture, brought from America maize 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.<ref name="uslc-4">{{Harvnb|Dolan|1991-4}}</ref> One of Spain's objectives in colonialization of the Philippines was the conversion of the local population to Roman Catholicism. The work of conversion was facilitated by the disunity and insignificance of other organized religions, except for Islam, which was still predominant in the southwest.<ref name="uslc-4" /> The pageantry of the church had a wide appeal, reinforced by the incorporation of indigenous social customs into religious observances. The eventual outcome was a new Roman Catholic majority, from which the Muslims of western Mindanao and the upland tribal and animistic peoples of Luzon remained detached and alienated (Ethnic groups such as the Ifugaos of the Cordillera region and the Mangyans of Mindoro).

[[File:Travel through Calle Crisologo.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Villa Fernandina de [[Vigan]] founded by the Mexican conquistador [[Juan de Salcedo]].]]
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 ''principalía'', who had local wealth, high status, and other privileges. This perpetuated an [[oligarchy|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 ''principalía''.<ref name="uslc-4" />

Around 1608 [[William Adams (sailor, born 1564)|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 Real|Audiencia]]'' of Manila, and administered directly from Spain from 1821 after the [[Mexican War of Independence|Mexican revolution]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Shafer|1958|p={{page needed|date=September 2022}}}}</ref> until 1898.

The [[Manila galleons]], were constructed in [[Bicol Region|Bicol]] and [[Cavite]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.themua.org/collections/files/original/34a74c76efdb951655b9bde1213812dc.pdf|title=Astilleros: the Spanish shipyards of Sorsogon|website=Mary Jane Louise A. Bolunia|publisher=Archaeology Division, National Museum of the Philippines|access-date=October 26, 2015|archive-date=April 13, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150413233643/http://www.themua.org/collections/files/original/34a74c76efdb951655b9bde1213812dc.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The Manila galleons were accompanied with a large naval escort as it traveled to and from Manila and [[Acapulco]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Williams, Glyn |year=1999 |title=The Prize of All the Oceans |publisher=Viking |location=New York |isbn=978-0-670-89197-9 |page=4}}</ref> The galleons sailed once or twice a year, between the 16th and 19th centuries.<ref>Schurz, William Lytle. The Manila Galleon, 1939. p. 193.</ref> The Manila Galleons brought with them goods,<ref>1996. "Silk for Silver: Manila-Macao Trade in the 17th Century." ''Philippine Studies'' 44, 1:52–68.</ref> settlers<ref name="autogenerated235"/> and military reinforcements<ref>[https://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/431623 "Orden de enviar hombres a Filipinas desde México" (Consejo de Indias España)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250104042736/https://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/431623 |date=January 4, 2025 }}(English Translation from Spanish original: "Royal Decree to the Count of Coruña, Viceroy of New Spain, informing him that, according to information from Captain Gabriel de Rivera who came from the Philippines, on a journey made by Governor Gonzalo Ronquillo to the Cagayan River some Spaniards were lost, and that to make up for this lack and populate these islands it was necessary to take up to two hundred men to them. The viceroy is ordered to attend to this request and send them from New Spain, in addition to another two hundred that were entrusted to him from Lisbon."</ref> destined for the Philippines, from [[Latin American Asian|Latin America]].<ref name="gutenberg1">[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16086/16086-h/16086-h.htm Letter from Fajardo to Felipe III From Manila, August 15 1620.(From the Spanish Archives of the Indies)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180204103029/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16086/16086-h/16086-h.htm |date=February 4, 2018 }}("The infantry does not amount to two hundred men, in three companies. If these men were that number, and Spaniards, it would not be so bad; but, although I have not seen them, because they have not yet arrived here, I am told that they are, as at other times, for the most part boys, mestizos, and mulattoes, with some Indians (Native Americans). There is no little cause for regret in the great sums that reënforcements of such men waste for, and cost, your Majesty. I cannot see what betterment there will be until your Majesty shall provide it, since I do not think, that more can be done in Nueva Spaña, although the viceroy must be endeavoring to do so, as he is ordered.")</ref> The reverse voyage also brought Asian commercial products<ref>Fish, Shirley. The Manila-Acapulco Galleons: The Treasure Ships of the Pacific, with an Annotated List of the Transpacific Galleons 1565–1815. Central Milton Keynes, England: Authorhouse 2011.</ref> and [[Filipino Mexicans|immigrants]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Seijas|first1=Tatiana|title=Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico: From Chinos to Indians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d-DGAwAAQBAJ|year=2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-95285-9}}<br />{{cite web |url=https://15minutehistory.org/2016/01/13/episode-76-the-trans-pacific-slave-trade/ |title=Episode 76: The Trans-Pacific Slave Trade |last1=Rose |first1=Christopher |date=January 13, 2016 |website=15 Minute History |publisher=University of Texas at Austin |access-date=January 13, 2016 |archive-date=July 19, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719171701/https://15minutehistory.org/2016/01/13/episode-76-the-trans-pacific-slave-trade/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> to the western side of the Americas.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/chronology.pdf |title=Chronology of Filipinos in America Pre-1989 |author=Eloisa Gomez Borah |year=1997 |website=Anderson School of Management |publisher=[[University of California, Los Angeles]] |access-date=February 25, 2012 |archive-date=February 8, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208123432/http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/chronology.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Legally, the Manila Galleons were only allowed to trade between Mexico and the Philippines; however, illegal trade, commerce, and inter-migration, were happening in secret between the Philippines and other would-be nations in the Spanish Americas due to the tremendous demand and profitability of Asian products in Latin America and this clandestine defiance of Spanish colonial decrees forbidding trade, continued all throughout the term of the [[Manila Galleons]].<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1515/sai-2022-0008 | title=El Galeón de Manila y el comercio de Asia: Encuentro de culturas y sistemas | journal=Interacción Sino-Iberoamericana / Sino-Iberoamerican Interaction | date=March 2022 | volume=2 | issue=1 | pages=85–109 | last1=Villamar | first1=Cuauhtemoc | s2cid=249318172 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ style="text-align: left;" |Geographic distribution and year of settlement of the Latin-American immigrant soldiers assigned to the Philippines in the 1600s.<ref name= "Mexicans" >[https://academic.oup.com/past/article/232/1/87/1752419 Convicts or Conquistadores? Spanish Soldiers in the Seventeenth-Century Pacific By Stephanie J. Mawson] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603111934/https://academic.oup.com/past/article/232/1/87/1752419 |date=June 3, 2018 }} AGI, México, leg. 25, núm. 62; AGI, Filipinas, leg. 8, ramo 3, núm. 50; leg. 10, ramo 1, núm. 6; leg. 22, ramo 1, núm. 1, fos. 408 r –428 v; núm. 21; leg. 32, núm. 30; leg. 285, núm. 1, fos. 30 r –41 v .</ref>
|-
! '''Location'''
! 1603
! 1636
! 1642
! 1644
! 1654
! 1655
! 1670
! 1672
|-
|[[Manila]]<ref name= "Mexicans" />
|900
|446
|—
|407
|821
|799
|708
|667
|-
|[[Fort Santiago]]<ref name= "Mexicans" />
|—
|22
|—
|—
|50
|—
|86
|81
|-
|[[Cavite City|Cavite]]<ref name= "Mexicans" />
|—
|70
|—
|—
|89
|—
|225
|211
|-
|[[Cagayan]]<ref name= "Mexicans" />
|46
|80
|—
|—
|—
|—
|155
|155
|-
|[[Calamianes]]<ref name= "Mexicans" />
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|73
|73
|-
|[[Caraga]]<ref name= "Mexicans" />
|—
|45
|—
|—
|—
|—
|81
|81
|-
|[[Cebu City|Cebu]]<ref name= "Mexicans" />
|86
|50
|—
|—
|—
|—
|135
|135
|-
|[[Taiwan|Formosa]]<ref name= "Mexicans" />
|—
|180
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|[[Moluccas]]<ref name= "Mexicans" />
|80
|480
|507
|—
|389
|—
|—
|—
|-
|[[Iloilo City|Otón]]<ref name= "Mexicans" />
|66
|50
|—
|—
|—
|—
|169
|169
|-
|[[Zamboanga City|Zamboanga]]<ref name= "Mexicans" />
|—
|210
|—
|—
|184
|—
|—
|—
|-
|Other<ref name= "Mexicans" />
|255
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|<ref name= "Mexicans" />
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|Total Reinforcements<ref name= "Mexicans" />
|'''1,533'''
|'''1,633'''
|'''2,067'''
|'''2,085'''
|'''n/a'''
|'''n/a'''
|'''1,632'''
|'''1,572'''
|-
|}

The Spanish military fought off various indigenous revolts and several external challenges, especially from the British, Dutch, and Portuguese and Chinese pirates. 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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/92039812/|title=Philippines : a country study|via=The Library of Congress|publisher=Federal Research Division, Library of Congress|year=1993|isbn=0-8444-0748-8|editor-last=Dolan|editor-first=Ronald E.|edition=4th|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=108–112|archive-date=May 26, 2022|access-date=February 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526064401/https://www.loc.gov/item/92039812/|url-status=live}}</ref>

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 Spanish-Filipino forces, forcing the Dutch to abandon their plans for an invasion of the Philippines.

In 1687, [[Isaac Newton]] included an explicit reference to the Philippines in his classic [[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica]] by mentioning Leuconia, the ancient Ptolemaic name for the Philippines.<ref name="manapat"/>

=== Spanish rule during the 18th century ===
[[File:NewSpainFlag.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|[[Coat of arms]] of Manila were at the corners of the [[Cross of Burgundy flag|Cross of Burgundy]] in the Spanish-Filipino battle standard.]]
Colonial income derived mainly from [[entrepôt]] trade: The [[Manila Galleon]]s sailing from the port of Manila to the port of Acapulco on the west coast of Mexico brought shipments of [[silver bullion]], and minted coin that were exchanged for return cargoes of Asian, and Pacific products. A total of 110 Manila galleons set sail in the 250 years of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade (1565 to 1815). There was no direct trade with Spain until 1766.<ref name="uslc-4" />

[[File:Santo Tomas walled city Philippines.jpg|thumb|left|Plaza Santo Tomas in Intramuros, Manila; where the [[Santo Domingo Church]], [[Colegio de Santa Rosa - Intramuros|Colegio de Santa Rosa]] and the original [[University of Santo Tomas]] were built during the Spanish era.]]
The Philippines was never profitable as a colony during Spanish rule, and the long war against the [[Dutch Empire|Dutch]] from the West, in the 17th century together with the intermittent conflict with the Muslims in the South and combating Japanese [[Wokou]] piracy from the North nearly bankrupted the colonial treasury.<ref name="uslc-4" /> Furthermore, the state of near constant war caused a high death and desertion rate among the [[Mestizo]] and Indio ([[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]]) soldiers<ref name="gutenberg1"/> sent from Mexico and Peru that were stationed in the Philippines.<ref>Garcıa de los Arcos, "Grupos etnicos," ´ 65–66</ref> The high death and desertion rate also applied to the native Filipino<ref name=filipinoterm /> warriors conscripted by Spain, to fight in battles all across the archipelago. The repeated wars, lack of wages and near starvation were so intense, almost half of the soldiers sent from Latin America either died or fled to the countryside to live as vagabonds among the rebellious natives or escaped enslaved Indians (from India)<ref>The Diversity and Reach of the Manila Slave Market Page 36</ref> where they race-mixed through rape or prostitution, further blurring the racial caste system Spain tried hard to maintain.<ref>Tomás de Comyn, general manager of the Compañia Real de Filipinas, in 1810 estimated that out of a total population of 2,515,406, "the European Spaniards, and Spanish creoles and mestizos do not exceed 4,000 persons of both sexes and all ages, and the distinct castes or modifications known in America under the name of mulatto, quarteroons, etc., although found in the Philippine Islands, are generally confounded in the three classes of pure Indians, Chinese mestizos and Chinese." In other words, the Mexicans who had arrived in the previous century had so intermingled with the local population that distinctions of origin had been forgotten by the 19th century. The Mexicans who came with Legázpi and aboard succeeding vessels had blended with the local residents so well that their country of origin had been erased from memory.</ref> Mixed Spanish-Filipino descent may be more common than expected as many Spaniards often had Filipino concubines and mistresses and they frequently produced children out of wedlock.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42633385 | jstor=42633385 | title=Spanish and Mestizo Women of Manila | last1=Doran | first1=Christine | journal=Philippine Studies | date=1993 | volume=41 | issue=3 | pages=269–286 | archive-date=January 24, 2023 | access-date=September 19, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124033012/https://www.jstor.org/stable/42633385 | url-status=live }}</ref> These circumstances contributed to the increasing difficulty of governing the Philippines. The Royal Fiscal of Manila wrote a letter to [[King Charles III of Spain]] in which he advises to abandon the colony, but the religious orders opposed this since they considered the Philippines a launching pad for the conversion of the Far East.<ref name="Newson" />{{rp|pages={{plain link|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A40BEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA7|name=7–8}}}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Crossley |first=John Newsome |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jQmiAgAAQBAJ |title=Hernando de los Ríos Coronel and the Spanish Philippines in the Golden Age |date=July 28, 2013 |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing|Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.]] |location=London, England |isbn=978-1-4094-8242-0 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jQmiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA168 168–169] |access-date=January 13, 2021 |archive-date=February 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230211124615/https://books.google.com/books?id=jQmiAgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Philippines survived on an annual subsidy paid by the Spanish Crown and often procured from taxes and profits accrued by the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico), and the 200-year-old fortifications at Manila had not been improved much since first built by the Spanish.<ref name=tracy1995p12p55>{{Harvnb|Tracy|1995|pp=12,55}}</ref> This was one of the circumstances that made possible the brief British occupation of Manila between 1762 and 1764.

==== British occupation (1762–1764) ====
{{Main|British occupation of Manila}}

Britain declared war against Spain on January 4, 1762, and on September 24, 1762, a force of British Army regulars and [[East India Company|British East India Company]] soldiers, supported by the ships and men of the East Indies Squadron of the British [[Royal Navy]], sailed into [[Manila Bay]] from Madras, India.<ref name=tracy1995p9>{{Harvnb|Tracy|1995|p=9}}</ref> [[Battle of Manila (1762)|Manila was besieged and fell]] to the British on October 4, 1762.

Outside of Manila, the Spanish leader [[Simón de Anda y Salazar]] organized a militia of 10,000 mostly from [[Pampanga]] to resist British attempts to extend their conquest outside Manila. Anda y Salazar established his headquarters first in Bulacan, then in Bacolor.<ref name=tracy1995p58>{{Harvnb|Tracy|1995|p=58}}</ref> After a number of skirmishes and failed attempts to support Filipino uprisings, the British command admitted to the War Secretary in London that the Spanish were "in full possession of the country".<ref>Backhouse, Thomas (1765). The Secretary at War to Mr. Secretary Conway. London: British Library. pp. v. 40.</ref> The occupation of Manila ended in April 1764 as agreed to in the peace negotiations for the [[Seven Years' War]] in Europe. The Spanish then persecuted the [[Binondo]] Chinese community for its role in aiding the British.<ref name="en.radio86.com">Raitisoja, Geni [http://en.radio86.com/travel/travel-destinations/chinatown-manila-oldest-world " Chinatown Manila: Oldest in the world"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110402180844/http://en.radio86.com/travel/travel-destinations/chinatown-manila-oldest-world |date=April 2, 2011}}, ''Tradio86.com'', July 8, 2006, accessed March 19, 2011.</ref> An unknown number of [[Presidency armies|Indian soldiers]] known as [[sepoy]]s, who came with the British, deserted and settled in nearby [[Cainta, Rizal]], which explains the uniquely Indian features of generations of Cainta residents.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fish|2003|p=158}}</ref>

==== Spanish rule in the second part of the 18th century ====
In 1766 direct communication was established with Spain and trade with Europe through a national ship based on Spain. In 1774, colonial officers from Bulacan, Tondo, Laguna de Bay, and other areas surrounding Manila reported with consternation that discharged soldiers and deserters (from Mexico, Spain and Peru) during the British occupation were providing the indios military training for the weapons that had been disseminated all over the territory during the war.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mehl |first1=Eva Maria |title=Forced Migration in the Spanish Pacific World |date=2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-13679-3 |page=100 }}</ref> Expeditions from Spain were administered since 1785 by the [[Real Compañía de Filipinas]], which was granted a monopoly of trade between Spain and the islands that lasted until 1834, when the company was terminated by the Spanish crown due to poor management and financial losses.<ref>{{Cite web|first=|title=The Board of the Philippines|url=https://fundaciongoyaenaragon.es/obra/la-junta-de-filipinas/215|website=Fundacion Goya en Aragon|access-date=June 24, 2021|archive-date=July 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210705221315/https://fundaciongoyaenaragon.es/obra/la-junta-de-filipinas/215|url-status=live}}</ref> About this time, Governor-General Anda complained that the Latin-American and Spanish soldiers sent to the Philippines had dispersed "all over the islands, even the most distant, looking for subsistence".<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1017/CBO9781316480120.007 |chapter=Unruly Mexicans in Manila: Imperial Goals and Colonial Concerns |title=Forced Migration in the Spanish Pacific World |year=2016 |last1=Mehl |first1=Eva Maria |pages=227–266 |isbn=978-1-316-48012-0 |quote=In Governor Anda y Salazar's opinion, an important part of the problem of vagrancy was the fact that Mexicans and Spanish disbanded after finishing their military or prison terms all over the islands, even the most distant, looking for subsistence. }}</ref>

In 1781, Governor-General [[José Basco y Vargas]] established the [[Sociedad Económica de los Amigos del País|Economic Society of the Friends of the Country]].<ref name="uslc-5b">{{Harvnb|Dolan|1991-5}}</ref> The Philippines was administered from the [[Viceroyalty of New Spain]] until the independence to Mexico in 1821 necessitated the direct rule from Spain of the Philippines from that year.

In the late 1700s to early 1800s, Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga, an Agustinian Friar, in his Two Volume Book: "Estadismo de
las islas Filipinas"<ref name="Estadismo1">{{Cite web |url=http://www.xeniaeditrice.it/zu%C3%B1igaIocrpdf.pdf |title=ESTADISMO DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS TOMO PRIMERO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish) |access-date=February 3, 2024 |archive-date=March 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309030040/http://www.xeniaeditrice.it/zu%C3%B1igaIocrpdf.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Estadismo2">[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_ElhFAAAAYAAJ_2 ESTADISMO DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS TOMO SEGUNDO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish)]</ref> compiled a census of the Spanish-Philippines based on the tribute counts (Which represented an average family of seven to ten children<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ncesc.com/geographic-faq/how-big-were-families-in-the-1700s/ |title="How big were families in the 1700s?" By Keri Rutherford |access-date=March 8, 2024 |archive-date=February 23, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223025955/https://www.ncesc.com/geographic-faq/how-big-were-families-in-the-1700s/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and two parents, per tribute)<ref name="Newson">{{cite book |last=Newson |first=Linda A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A40BEAAAQBAJ |title=Conquest and Pestilence in the Early Spanish Philippines |date=April 16, 2009 |publisher=[[University of Hawaiʻi Press]] |location=Honolulu, Hawaii |isbn=978-0-8248-6197-1 |access-date=February 3, 2024 |archive-date=March 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308195926/https://books.google.com/books?id=A40BEAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> and came upon the following statistics:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ style="text-align: left;" | Data reported for the 1700s-1800s as divided by ethnicity and province<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}}<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|31,54,113}}
|-
! Province 
! Native Tributes
! Spanish Mestizo Tributes
! All Tributes{{efn|Including others such as Latin-Americans and Chinese-Mestizos, pure Chinese paid tribute but were not Philippine citizens as they were transients who returned to China, and Spaniards were exempt}}  
|-
|[[Tondo, Manila|Tondo]]<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}}
|14,437-1/2
|3,528
|27,897-7
|-
|[[Cavite]]<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}}
|5,724-1/2
|859
|9,132-4
|-
|[[Laguna (province)|Laguna]]<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}}
|14,392-1/2
|336
|19,448-6
|-
|[[Batangas]]<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}}
|15,014
|451 
|21,579-7  
|-
|[[Mindoro]]<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}}
|3,165
|3-1/2
|4,000-8
|-
|[[Bulacan]]<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}}
|16,586-1/2
|2,007
|25,760-5 
|-
|[[Pampanga]]<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}}
|16,604-1/2
|2,641
|27,358-1 
|-
|[[Bataan]]<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}}
|3,082
|619
|5,433
|-
|[[Zambales]]<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}}
|1,136 
|73 
|4,389
|-
|[[Ilocos]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|31}}
|44,852-1/2
|631 
|68,856
|- 
|[[Pangasinan]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|31}}
|19,836 
|719-1/2
|25,366
|-
|[[Cagayan]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|31}}
|9,888 
|0
|11,244-6
|-
|[[Camarines]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|54}}
|19,686-1/2 
|154-1/2 
|24,994
|-
|[[Albay]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|54}}
|12,339 
|146 
|16,093
|-       
|[[Tayabas]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|54}}
|7,396 
|12 
|9,228 
|-
|[[Cebu City|Cebu]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|113}}
|28,112-1/2
|625 
|28,863  
|-        
|[[Samar]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|113}}
|3,042 
|103 
|4,060  
|-
|[[Leyte]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|113}}
|7,678 
|37-1/2
|10,011 
|-
|[[Caraga]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|113}}
|3,497
|0
|4,977 
|-
|[[Misamis (province)|Misamis]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|113}}
|1,278 
|0
|1,674 
|-
|[[Negros Island]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|113}}
|5,741 
|0
|7,176  
|-
|[[Iloilo City|Iloilo]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|113}}
|29,723 
|166 
|37,760  
|-
|[[Capiz]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|113}}
|11,459 
|89 
|14,867  
|-
|[[Antique (province)|Antique]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|113}}
|9,228 
|0
|11,620 
|-
|[[Calamianes]]<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|113}}
|2,289  
|0
|3,161 
|-    
|'''TOTAL'''
|'''299,049'''
|'''13,201'''
|''' 424,992-16'''
|}

The Spanish-Filipino population as a proportion of the provinces widely varied; with as high as 19% of the population of Tondo province<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}} (The most populous province and former name of Manila), to Pampanga 13.7%,<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}} Cavite at 13%,<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}} Laguna 2.28%,<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}} Batangas 3%,<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}} Bulacan 10.79%,<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}} Bataan 16.72%,<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}} Ilocos 1.38%,<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|31}} Pangasinan 3.49%,<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|31}} Albay 1.16%,<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|54}} Cebu 2.17%,<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|113}} Samar 3.27%,<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|113}}
Iloilo 1%,<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|113}} Capiz 1%,<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|113}} [[Bicol region|Bicol]] 20%,<ref name="Pnas">{{cite web |author=Maximilian Larena |title=Supplementary Information for Multiple migrations to the Philippines during the last 50,000 years (Appendix, Page 35) |publisher=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=January 21, 2021 |url=https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/suppl/2021/03/17/2026132118.DCSupplemental/pnas.2026132118.sapp.pdf |pages=35 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2026132118 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2021PNAS..11826132L |access-date=March 23, 2021 |archive-date=July 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210701002232/https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/suppl/2021/03/17/2026132118.DCSupplemental/pnas.2026132118.sapp.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Zamboanga Peninsula|Zamboanga]] 40%.<ref name="Pnas" /> According to the data, in the Archdiocese of Manila which administers much of Luzon under it, about 10% of the population was Spanish-Filipino.<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}} Summing up all the provinces including those with no Spanish Filipinos, all in all, in the total population of the Philippines, [[Spanish Filipinos]] and mixed Spanish-Filipinos composed 5% of the population.<ref name= "Estadismo1" />{{rp|539}}<ref name= "Estadismo2" />{{rp|31,54,113}}

The book, "Intercolonial Intimacies Relinking Latin/o America to the Philippines, 1898–1964 By Paula C. Park" citing "Forzados y reclutas: los criollos novohispanos en Asia (1756-1808)" gave a higher number of later Mexican soldier-immigrants to the Philippines, pegging the number at 35,000 immigrants in the 1700s,<ref name= "Intercolonial">"Intercolonial Intimacies Relinking Latin/o America to the Philippines, 1898–1964 Paula C. Park" Page 100</ref> in a Philippine population which was only around 1.5 Million,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=67xO2hUwzasC&dq=Friar+Manuel+Buzeta+1,502,574&pg=PR12 "The Unlucky Country The Republic of the Philippines in the 21st Century" By Duncan Alexander McKenzie (2012)(page xii)]</ref> thus forming 2.33% of the population.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://bagn.archivos.gob.mx/index.php/legajos/article/view/1243|title=Forzados y reclutas: los criollos novohispanos en Asia (1756-1808)|last=Garcia|first=María Fernanda|journal=Bolotin Archivo General de la Nación|volume=4|issue=11|year=1998|archive-date=August 12, 2022|access-date=September 20, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812123617/https://bagn.archivos.gob.mx/index.php/legajos/article/view/1243|url-status=live}}</ref>

Meanwhile, government records show that 20% of the Philippines' total population were either pure Chinese or Mixed [[Chinese-Filipinos]]<ref>{{cite news|last=Guanqun |first=Wang |date=August 23, 2009 |title=Chinese lunar new year might become national holiday in Philippines too |work=[[Xinhua]] |url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/23/content_11930729.htm |access-date=February 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090826194926/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/23/content_11930729.htm |archive-date=August 26, 2009}}</ref><ref name="senate.gov.ph">{{Cite press release |title=Senate declares Chinese New Year as special working holiday |date=January 21, 2013 |publisher=PRIB, Office of the Senate Secretary, Senate of the Philippines |url=http://www.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2013/0121_prib1.asp |last1=Macrohon |first1=Pilar |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516035425/http://legacy.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2013/0121_prib1.asp |archive-date=May 16, 2021}}</ref>

===Spanish rule during the 19th century===
[[File:Landing Balanguingui.jpg|thumb|The landing of the [[Spanish expedition to Balanguingui|Spanish expedition to Sulu]] by [[Antonio Brugada]].|left]]
The Philippines was included in the vast territory of the Kingdom of Spain, in the first constitution of Spain promulgated in Cadiz in 1812. It was never a colony as modern-day historical literature would say, but an overseas region in Asia (Spanish Constitution 1812). The Spanish Constitution of 1870 provides for the first autonomous community for "Archipelago Filipino" where all provinces in the Philippine Islands will be given the semi-independent home rule program.

[[File:Maria Clara Gown.jpg|thumb|upright|Filipina mestiza women]]
During the 19th century Spain invested heavily in education and infrastructure. Through the Education Decree of December 20, 1863, [[Isabella II of Spain|Queen Isabella II of Spain]] decreed the establishment of a free public school system that used Spanish as the language of instruction, leading to increasing numbers of educated Filipinos.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fundación Santa María (Madrid)|1994| p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=QDegTDTzMlAC&pg=PA508 508]}}</ref> Additionally, the opening of the [[Suez Canal]] in 1869 cut travel time to Spain, which facilitated the rise of the [[ilustrado]]s, an enlightened class of Spanish-Filipinos that had been able to enroll in Spanish and European universities.

A great number of infrastructure projects were undertaken during the 19th century that put the Philippine economy and standard of living ahead of most of its Asian neighbors and even many European countries at that time. Among them were a [[Philippine National Railways|railway system]] for Luzon, a tramcar network for Manila, and Asia's first steel suspension bridge Puente Claveria, later called [[Puente Colgante (Manila)|Puente Colgante]].

<ref name="Borja">{{cite book|author=De Borja|first=Marciano R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXpiujH2uOwC&pg=PA132|title=Basques in the Philippines|publisher=University of Nevada Press|year=2005|isbn=9780874175905|location=Reno|page=132}}</ref>

[[File:Ilustrados 1890.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Ilustrado]]s'' in Madrid, {{Circa|1890}}]]

On August 1, 1851, the [[Bank of the Philippine Islands|Banco Español-Filipino de Isabel II]] was established to attend the needs of the rapid economic boom, that had greatly increased its pace since the 1800s as a result of a new economy based on a rational exploitation of the agricultural resources of the islands. The increase in textile fiber crops such as [[abacá]], oil products derived from the coconut, indigo, that was growing in demand, etc., generated an increase in money supply that led to the creation of the bank. Banco Español-Filipino was also granted the power to print a Philippine-specific currency (the [[Philippine peso]]) for the first time (before 1851, many currencies were used, mostly the [[pieces of eight]]).

[[File:Marcelo Azcárraga por Kaulak.png|thumb|upright|Filipino [[Marcelo Azcárraga Palmero]] born in Manila to a [[Biscay|Vizcayan]] Spaniard who was a peninsulares general in the Philippines José de Azcárraga and a Filipina mestiza María Palmero. He became the Prime minister of Spain.]]
Spanish Manila was seen in the 19th century as a model of colonial governance that effectively put the interests of the original inhabitants of the islands before those of the colonial power. As [[John Crawfurd]] put it in its History of the Indian Archipelago, in all of Asia the "Philippines alone did improve in civilization, wealth, and populousness under the colonial rule" of a foreign power.<ref>John Crawfurd, ''History of the Indian Archipelago'', (1820), page 445</ref> [[John Bowring]], Governor General of British Hong Kong from 1856 to 1860, wrote after his trip to Manila:
{{blockquote|Credit is certainly due to Spain for having bettered the condition of a people who, though comparatively highly civilized, yet being continually distracted by petty wars, had sunk into a disordered and uncultivated state.

The inhabitants of these beautiful Islands upon the whole, may well be considered to have lived as comfortably during the last hundred years, protected from all external enemies and governed by mild laws vis-a-vis those from any other tropical country under native or European sway, owing in some measure, to the frequently discussed peculiar (Spanish) circumstances which protect the interests of the natives.<ref>John Bowring, "Travels in the Philippines", p. 18, London, 1875</ref>}}

In ''The Inhabitants of the Philippines'', Frederick Henry Sawyer wrote:
{{blockquote|Until an inept bureaucracy was substituted for the old paternal rule, and the revenue quadrupled by increased taxation, the Filipinos were as happy a community as could be found in any colony. The population greatly multiplied; they lived in competence, if not in affluence; cultivation was extended, and the exports steadily increased. [...] Let us be just; what British, French, or Dutch colony, populated by natives can compare with the Philippines as they were until 1895?.<ref>Frederic H. Sawyer, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=JqfeLUwFNh0C The inhabitants of the Philippines]", Preface, London, 1900</ref>}}

The first official census in the Philippines was carried out in 1878. The colony's population as of December 31, 1877, was recorded at 5,567,685 persons.<ref>[http://www.nscb.gov.ph/secstat/d_popn.asp Population of the Philippines Census Years 1799 to 2007] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120704171010/http://www.nscb.gov.ph/secstat/d_popn.asp |date=July 4, 2012}}. ''National Statistical Coordination Board'',</ref> This was followed by the 1887 census that yielded a count of 6,984,727,<ref name=Gonzalez93>{{cite web| url=http://www.populstat.info/Asia/philippc.htm| title=The Philippines: historical demographical data of the whole country| access-date=July 19, 2003| author=Jan Lahmeyer| year=1996| archive-date=March 3, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303214300/http://www.populstat.info/Asia/philippc.htm| url-status=dead}}</ref> while that of 1898 yielded 7,832,719 inhabitants.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://1898.mforos.com/1026829/7262657-censos-de-cuba-puerto-rico-filipinas-y-espana-estudio-de-su-relacion/| title=CENSOS DE CUBA, PUERTO RICO, FILIPINAS Y ESPAÑA. ESTUDIO DE SU RELACION| access-date=December 12, 2010| author=Voz de Galicia| year=1898| archive-date=May 13, 2010| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100513030017/http://1898.mforos.com/1026829/7262657-censos-de-cuba-puerto-rico-filipinas-y-espana-estudio-de-su-relacion/| url-status=live}}</ref>

===Latin-American revolutions and direct Spanish rule===
{{Main|Philippine Military Activities in the Americas}}
[[File:Gomburza (square crop).jpg|thumb|upright|Filipino Mestizo priests [[Mariano Gomez (priest)|Mariano Gomez]], [[José Burgos]], and [[Jacinto Zamora]] collectively known as the [[Gomburza]] was wrongly executed after [[1872 Cavite mutiny]]. It sparked the movements that would later bring about the revolution that would end Spain's control of the archipelago. ]]
In the Americas; overseas Filipinos were involved in several anti-colonial movements, Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr. in his paper: "Manilamen and seafaring: engaging the maritime world beyond the Spanish realm", stated therein that Filipinos who were internationally called Manilamen were active in the navies and armies of the world even after the era of the Manila Galleons such as the case of the [[Argentine war of independence]] wherein an Argentinian of French descent, Hypolite Bouchard, laid siege to Monterey California as a privateer for the Argentine army. His second ship, the Santa Rosa, which was captained by the American Peter Corney, had a multi-ethnic crew which included Filipinos.<ref>Delgado de Cantú, Gloria M. (2006). Historia de México. México, D. F.: Pearson Educación.</ref> It has been proposed that those Filipinos were recruited in [[San Blas, Nayarit|San Blas]], an alternative port to Acapulco Mexico where several Filipinos had settled during the Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade era.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mercene|first=Floro L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OSqhZphG_gQC|title=Manila Men in the New World|year=2007|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=OSqhZphG_gQC&pg=PA52 52]|publisher=UP Press |isbn=9789715425292}}</ref> Argentinian-Philippine relations can be traced even earlier since the Philippines already received immigrants from South America, like the soldier [[Juan Fermín de San Martín]], who was the brother of the leader of the Argentinian Revolution [[Jose de San Martin]]. Likewise, in Mexico, about 200 Filipinos were recruited by [[Miguel Hidalgo]] in his revolution against Spain, the most prominent of which was the Manila-born [[Ramon Fabié]]<ref name=mexicanembassy>{{cite news |title=Mexican Embassy unveils commemorative plaque in honor of PH war hero |url=https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/10/04/expats-diplomats/mexican-embassy-unveils-commemorative-plaque-in-honor-of-ph-war-hero/1817045 |access-date=October 7, 2021 |work=Manila Times |date=October 4, 2021 |archive-date=October 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211007055705/https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/10/04/expats-diplomats/mexican-embassy-unveils-commemorative-plaque-in-honor-of-ph-war-hero/1817045 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://imdiversity.com/villages/hispanic/beyond-pacquaio-de-la-hoya-a-cultural-history| title = Beyond Pacquaio-De La Hoya, a Cultural History| access-date = August 5, 2021| archive-date = August 5, 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210805150424/https://imdiversity.com/villages/hispanic/beyond-pacquaio-de-la-hoya-a-cultural-history/| url-status = live}}</ref> afterwards when the revolution was continued by President Guerrero, General [[Isidoro Montes de Oca]], another Filipino-Mexican, had participated in the Mexican Revolutionary war against Spain too.<ref>According to Ricardo Pinzon, these two Filipino soldiers—Francisco Mongoy
and Isidoro Montes de Oca—were so distinguished in battle that they are regarded as folk heroes in Mexico. General Vicente Guerrero later became the first president of Mexico of African descent. See Floro L. Mercene, "[http://www.elizon.com/information/printer_476.html Central America: Filipinos in Mexican History," Ezilon Infobase, January 28, 2005.]{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The recent participation of overseas Filipinos in Anti-Imperial wars in the Americas started even earlier when Filipinos in the settlement of [[Saint Malo, Louisiana]] assisted the United States in the defense of New Orleans during the [[War of 1812]].<ref name="AFPS">{{cite news |first1=Rudi |last1=Williams |title=DoD's Personnel Chief Gives Asian-Pacific American History Lesson |url=http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=16498 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070615091238/http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=16498|archive-date=June 15, 2007|work=American Forces Press Service |publisher=U.S. Department of Defense |date=June 3, 2005 |access-date=August 26, 2009}}</ref>

Upon Mexican independence, the Filipinos had such an effect on Mexico that there were plans among the newly independent Mexicans, to help the Filipinos revolt against Spain too, there was even a secret memorandum from the Mexican government which read:

{{blockquote|Now that we Mexicans have fortunately obtained our independence by revolution against Spanish rule, it is our solemn duty to help the less fortunate countries especially the Philippines, with whom our country has had the most intimate relations during the last two centuries and a half. We should send secret agents with a message to their inhabitants to rise in revolution against Spain and that we shall give them financial and military assistance to win their freedom. Should the Philippines succeed in gaining her independence from Spain, we must felicitate her warmly and from an alliance of amity and commerce with her as a sister nation. Moreover, we must resume the intimate Mexico-Philippine relations, as they were during the halcyon days of the Acapulco-Manila galleon trade.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Guevarra |first1=Rudy P. Jr. |title=Filipinos in Nueva España: Filipino-Mexican Relations, Mestizaje, and Identity in Colonial and Contemporary Mexico |journal=Journal of Asian American Studies |date=2011 |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=389–416 |id={{Project MUSE|456194}} |doi=10.1353/jaas.2011.0029 |s2cid=144426711 }}</ref>}}

Likewise, in this period, overseas Filipinos were also active in the Asia-Pacific especially in China and Indochina. During the Taiping rebellion, Frederick Townsend Ward had a militia employing foreigners to quell the rebellion for the Qing government, at first he hired American and European adventurers but they proved unruly, while recruiting for better troops, he met his aide-de-camp, Vincente (Vicente?) Macanaya, who was twenty three years old in 1860 and was part of the large Filipino population then living in Shanghai, who "were handy on board ships and more than a little troublesome on land", as Caleb Carr journalistically put it.<ref>Caleb Carr, The devil soldier: the story of Frederick Townsend Ward, New York: Random House, 1992, p. 91.</ref> Smith, another writer about China also notes in his book: "Mercenaries and Mandarins" that Manilamen were "Reputed to be brave and fierce fighters" and "were plentiful in Shanghai and always eager for action". During this Taiping rebellion, by July 1860, Townsend Ward's force of Manilamen ranging from one to two hundred mercenaries successfully assaulted Sung-Chiang Prefecture.<ref>Smith, Mercenaries and mandarins, p. 29.</ref> Thus, while the Philippines was slowly engendered with revolutionary fervour being suppressed by Spain, overseas Filipinos have had an active role in the military and naval engagements of various nations in the [[Americas]] and [[Asia-Pacific]].<ref>For an exploration of Manilamen as mercenaries and filibusters in relation to the person and work of Jose´ Rizal, see Filomeno Aguilar Jr, 'Filibustero, Rizal, and the Manilamen of the nineteenth century', Philippine Studies, 59, 4, 2011, pp. 429–69.</ref> Soldiers from the Philippines were recruited by [[France]], which was allied to [[Spain]], to initially protect Indo-Chinese converts to Roman Catholicism who were persecuted by their native governments, and later for an actual conquest of Vietnam and Laos as well as the establishment of the Protectorate of Cambodia which was liberated from Thai invasions and re-established as a vassal-state of France with the combined Franco-Spanish-Filipino forces creating [[French Cochinchina]] which was governed from the former Cambodian and now Vietnamese city of [[Saigon]].<ref name="nigelgooding.co.uk">{{Cite web
|url=http://www.nigelgooding.co.uk/Spanish/Cochinchina/cochinchina.htm
|title=Filipino Involvement in the French-Spanish Campaign in Indochina
|work=Cochinchina Campaign
|last=Gooding
|first=Nigel
|access-date=July 4, 2008
|archive-date=August 3, 2020
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803120742/http://www.nigelgooding.co.uk/Spanish/Cochinchina/cochinchina.htm
|url-status=live
}}</ref>
[[File:Santa-lucia-gate-intramuros.jpg|thumb|Santa Lucia Gate, [[Intramuros]], [[Manila|Manila overlooking]] [[San Agustin Church (Manila)|San Agustin]], [[San Ignacio Church (Manila)|San Ignacio Church]] belltowers and [[Ateneo de Manila University|Ateneo de Manila]] where Jose Rizal once studied.]]
The ''{{lang|es|Criollo}}'' and ''Latino'' dissatisfaction against the Peninsulares (Spaniards direct from Spain) spurred by their love of the land and their suffering people had a justified hatred against the exploitative ''[[Peninsulares]]'' who were only appointed to high positions due to their race and unflinching loyalty to the homeland. This resulted in the uprising of [[Andres Novales]] a Philippine born soldier of Mexican descent,<ref>Nick Joaquin, Manila, My Manila, Page 90</ref><ref>Bernal, México en Filipinas, Pages 102–104</ref>{{sfn|Park|2022|p=159}} who earned great fame in richer Spain but chose to return to serve in poorer Philippines. He was supported by local soldiers as well as former officers in the Spanish army of the Philippines who were primarily from the now sovereign [[Mexico]]<ref>Garcia de los Arcos has noted that the Regiment of the King, which had absorbed a large percentage of Mexican recruits and deportees between the 1770s and 1811, became the bastion of discontent supporting the Novales mutiny. ~Garcia de los Arcos, "Criollismo y conflictividad en Filipinas a principios del siglo XIX," in El lejano Oriente espanol: Filipinas ( ˜ Siglo XIX). Actas, ed. Paulino Castaneda ˜ Delgado and Antonio Garcia-Abasolo Gonzalez (Seville: Catedra General Casta ´ nos, ˜1997), 586.</ref> as well as the freshly independent nations of [[Colombia]], [[Venezuela]], [[Peru]], [[Chile]], [[Argentina]] and [[Costa Rica]].<ref>{{cite web| url = https://filipinokastila.tripod.com/FilMex.html| title = "Filipino-Mexican-Central-and-South American Connection" By: Gemma Guerrero Cruz| access-date = February 17, 2021| archive-date = February 25, 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210225193056/https://filipinokastila.tripod.com/FilMex.html| url-status = live}}</ref> The uprising was brutally suppressed but it foreshadowed the 1872 [[Cavite Mutiny]] that was a precursor to the Philippine Revolution.<ref name="Cavite Mutiny">Nuguid, Nati. (1972). [http://stuartxchange.com/CaviteMutiny.html "The Cavite Mutiny"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212172947/http://stuartxchange.com/CaviteMutiny.html |date=February 12, 2015 }}. in Mary R. Tagle. ''12 Events that Have Influenced Philippine History''. [Manila]: National Media Production Center. Retrieved December 20, 2009, from [http://stuartxchange.com/ StuartXchange Website] .</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">{{Cite book|last=Joaquin|first=Nick|title=A Question of Heroes : Essays in Criticism on Ten Key Figures of Philippine History|publisher=Filipinas Foundation|year=1977|location=Manila}}</ref><ref name=RichardsonBonifacio>{{cite web |url=http://kasaysayan-kkk.info/docs.ab.240497.jn.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115200707/http://kasaysayan-kkk.info/docs.ab.240497.jn.htm |archive-date=January 15, 2013 |title=Andrés Bonifacio Letter to Julio Nakpil, April 24, 1897 |website=Documents of the Katipunan |author=Richardson, Jim |date=January 2006 |access-date=December 19, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> However, Hispanic-Philippines reached its zenith when the Philippine-born [[Marcelo Azcárraga Palmero]] became a hero as he restored the [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] dynasty of Spain to the throne during his stint as Lieutenant-General (Three Star General) after the Bourbons have been deposed by revolutionaries. He eventually became Prime Minister of the Spanish Empire and was awarded membership in the [[Order of the Golden Fleece]], which is considered the most exclusive and prestigious order of chivalry in the world.<ref name="Manila, My Manila">{{cite book|author=Joaquin, Nick|title=Manila, My Manila|publisher=Vera-Reyes, Inc.|year=1990}}</ref> In the aftermath of Chilean soldiers' participation in the [[Andres Novales]] uprising against Spain, the Irish-Chilean founder of Chile, [[Bernardo O'Higgins]], caught wind of anti-Spanish sentiment among Filipinos and planned to send a fleet to liberate the Philippines from Spain, under the command of Scottish-Chilean admiral, Lord Thomas Cochrane. The fleet would have been sent to the Philippines had it not been for [[Bernardo O'Higgins]]' untimely exile.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Jg5cEAAAQBAJ Intercolonial Intimacies: Relinking Latin/o America to the Philippines. 1898–1964 By Paula C. Park] (INTRODUCTION: Residual Intercolonial Intimacies across the "Hispanic" Pacific)</ref>

=== Philippine Revolution ===
{{Main|Philippine Revolution}}

[[File:Andrés Bonifacio (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Andrés Bonifacio]], father of the Philippine Revolution.]]
Revolutionary sentiments arose in 1872 after three Filipino priests, [[Mariano Gomez (priest)|Mariano Gomez]], [[José Burgos]], and [[Jacinto Zamora]], known as [[Gomburza]], were accused of sedition by colonial authorities and executed by [[garotte]]. This would inspire the [[Propaganda Movement]] in Spain, organized by [[Marcelo H. del Pilar]], [[José Rizal]], [[Graciano López Jaena]], and [[Mariano Ponce]], that clamored for adequate representation to the [[Cortes Generales|Spanish Cortes]] and later for independence. [[José Rizal]], the most celebrated intellectual and radical ilustrado of the era, wrote the novels "[[Noli Me Tángere (novel)|Noli Me Tángere]]", and "[[El filibusterismo]]", which greatly inspired the movement for independence.<ref name="pinas">{{cite web|title=Philippine History |url=http://pinas.dlsu.edu.ph/history/history.html |publisher=DLSU-Manila |access-date=August 21, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822045537/http://pinas.dlsu.edu.ph/history/history.html |archive-date=August 22, 2006}}</ref> The [[Katipunan]], a [[secret society]] whose primary purpose was that of overthrowing Spanish rule in the Philippines, was founded by [[Andrés Bonifacio]] who became its ''Supremo'' (leader).

In the 1860s to 1890s, in the urban areas of the Philippines, especially at Manila, according to burial statistics, as much as 3.3% of the population were pure European Spaniards and the pure Chinese were as high as 9.9%. The Spanish-Filipino and Chinese-Filipino Mestizo populations also fluctuated. Eventually, everybody belonging to these non-native categories diminished because they were assimilated into and chose to self-identify as pure Filipinos<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Doeppers |first1=Daniel F. |title=Tracing the Decline of the Mestizo Categories in Philippine Life in the Late 19Th Century |journal=Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society |date=1994 |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=80–89 |jstor=29792149 }}</ref> since during the Philippine Revolution, the term "Filipino" included anybody born in the Philippines coming from any race.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hedman |first1=Eva-Lotta |last2=Sidel |first2=John |title=Philippine Politics and Society in the Twentieth Century: Colonial Legacies, Post-Colonial Trajectories |date=2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-75421-2 |page=71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X_lDpY3vj60C&pg=PA71 |access-date=July 30, 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book
 | quote = The cultural identity of the mestizos was challenged as they became increasingly aware that they were true members of neither the indio nor the Chinese community. Increasingly powerful but adrift, they linked with the Spanish mestizos, who were also being challenged because after the Latin American revolutions broke the Spanish Empire, many of the settlers from the New World, Caucasian Creoles born in Mexico or Peru, became suspect in the eyes of the Iberian Spanish. The Spanish Empire had lost its universality. |chapter=Chapter – 3 A SINGULAR AND A PLURAL FOLK |last=Steinberg |first=David Joel |title=THE PHILIPPINES A Singular and a Plural Place |publisher=Routledge |date=2018 |page=47 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6NFMDwAAQBAJ |doi=10.4324/9780429494383 |isbn=978-0-8133-3755-5}}</ref>
That would explain the abrupt drop of otherwise high Chinese, Spanish and mestizo, percentages across the country by the time of the first American census in 1903.<ref>'Tracing The Decline Of The Mestizo Categories In Philippine Life In The Late 19th Century' By Daniel F. Doeppers)</ref>

The [[Philippine Revolution]] began in 1896. Rizal was wrongly implicated in the outbreak of the revolution and executed for [[treason]] in 1896. The Katipunan in [[Cavite]] split into two groups, [[Magdiwang (Katipunan faction)|Magdiwang]], led by [[Mariano Álvarez]] (a relative of Bonifacio's by marriage), and [[Magdalo (Katipunan faction)|Magdalo]], led by [[Baldomero Aguinaldo]] cousin of [[Emilio Aguinaldo]]. Tension between the factions led to the [[Tejeros Convention]] in 1897, at which an election chose Emilio Aguinaldo as president over Bonifacio and Trias. Subsequent leadership conflicts with Bonifacio culminated in his execution by Aguinaldo's soldiers. Aguinaldo agreed to a truce with the [[Pact of Biak-na-Bato]] and Aguinaldo and his fellow revolutionaries were [[Hong Kong Junta|exiled to Hong Kong]]. Not all the revolutionary generals complied with the agreement. One, General [[Francisco Macabulos]], established a [[Central Executive Committee (Philippines)|Central Executive Committee]] to serve as the [[interim government]] until a more suitable one was created. Armed conflicts resumed, this time coming from almost every province in Spanish-governed Philippines.

[[File:Malolos congress.jpg|thumb|left|Revolutionaries gather during the [[Malolos Congress (1898)|Malolos Congress]] of the [[Revolutionary Government of the Philippines]].]]
In 1898, as conflicts continued in the Philippines, the [[USS Maine (ACR-1)|USS Maine]], having been sent to Cuba because of U.S. concerns for the safety of its citizens during an ongoing [[Cuban War of Independence|Cuban revolution]], exploded and sank in [[Havana]] harbor. This event precipitated the [[Spanish–American War]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq71-1.htm |title=The Destruction of USS Maine |publisher=U.S. Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center |access-date=August 20, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070818121552/http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq71-1.htm |archive-date=August 18, 2007}}</ref> After [[Commodore (rank)|Commodore]] [[George Dewey]] defeated the Spanish squadron at Manila, a [[German Empire|German]] squadron arrived in Manila and engaged in maneuvers which Dewey, seeing this as obstruction of his blockade, offered war—after which the Germans backed down.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wionzek|2000|p=xiv}}.</ref> The German Emperor expected an American defeat, with Spain left in a sufficiently weak position for the revolutionaries to capture Manila—leaving the Philippines ripe for German picking.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wionzek|2000|p=xvi}}.</ref>

The U.S. invited Aguinaldo to return to the Philippines in the hope he would rally Filipinos against the Spanish colonial government. Aguinaldo arrived on May 19, 1898, via transport provided by Dewey. On June 12, 1898, Aguinaldo [[Philippine Declaration of Independence|declared the independence]] of the Philippines in [[Kawit]], [[Cavite]]. Aguinaldo proclaimed a [[Revolutionary Government of the Philippines]] on June 23. By the time U.S. land forces arrived, the Filipinos had taken control of the entire island of Luzon except for the Spanish capitol in the walled city of [[Intramuros]]. In the [[Battle of Manila (1898)|Battle of Manila]], on August 13, 1898, the United States captured the city from the Spanish. This battle marked an end of Filipino-American collaboration, as Filipino forces were prevented from entering the captured city of Manila, an action deeply resented by the Filipinos.<ref name="lac126">{{Harvnb|Lacsamana|1990|p=126}}</ref>