Editing Miguel López de Legazpi (section)

===Role of religion on the expedition===
At the time of López de Legazpi's arrival, the natives of the archipelago practiced [[Islam]], [[Hinduism]], [[Buddhism]] and [[animism]]. Part of the motivation of the Spaniards was to evangelize the population and convert people to [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]]ism.

With the [[Augustinians|Augustinian]], [[Franciscan]] and other friars, who had helped him establish a government on the islands, López de Legazpi worked to convert the natives to the Christian religion. In 1609, Antonio de Morga, Alcalde of Criminal Causes, in the Royal Audiencia of New Spain wrote:

<blockquote>After the islands had been conquered by the sovereign light of the holy gospel which entered therein, the heathen were baptized, the darkness of their paganism was banished and they changed their own for Christian names. The islands also, losing their former name, took — with the change of religion and the baptism of their inhabitants — that of Filipinas Islands, in recognition of the great favors received at the hands of his Majesty Filipe the Second, our sovereign, in whose fortunate time and reign they were conquered, protected and encouraged, as a work and achievement of his royal hands.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/7phip10.txt | title=History of the Philippine Islands | author=Antonio de Morga | author-link=Antonio de Morga | publisher=Project Gutenburg | access-date=2004-12-01}}</ref></blockquote>