EUROPEAN CONTACT AND COLONIZATION IN ASIA

SPAIN AND THE PHILIPPINES

PHILIPPINES BEFORE SPANISH ARRIVAL7,100 ISLANDS SPREAD OVER 500,000 SQUARE MILES

SOCIAL STRUCTURES BEFORE SPANISH ARRIVAL

• Most people lived along the rivers in houses built on posts that set above the

water – people were called Tagalog (people living along the river).

• Low birth rates (as was common in Asia) –

• Lower class women worked hard and could not afford to take time off

• Upper class women wanted to protect their lineage and heritage

• All women practice birth control and sometimes abortion – which was done with a

combination of herbs and massage techniques. The Spanish looked down on this practice.

PRES SPANISH SOCIAL STRUCTURES CONTINUED

• Hygiene

• People lived on the water – they swam and bathed often

• People kept a basin of water by their front doors to wash feet before entering.

• The Spanish, and other Europeans, thought that bathing in water or rivers

opened the pores up and allowed harmful things to enter the body.

PRE SPANISH RELIGION IN THE PHILIPPINES• Indigenous Religion was Animism – a worldview that all things are alive and

have spirits – good and bad.

• There were spiritual leaders and healers who provided spiritual and

community leadership. People prayed, had rituals, songs and carvings.

• Buddhism and Hinduism arrived from 6th to 13th century – many fables and

stories in Philippines can be traced to India.

• Islam arrived in 14th century – part of Philippines conquered by the Muslim

Kingdom of Brunei.

• At the time of Spanish arrival, the indigenous religion of the Philippines was

already in decline.

PRESPANISH ECONOMICS AND TRADE

• Filipinos practiced subsistence agriculture and did not have surpluses.

• Grew mainly rice – supplemented by fish, root vegetables, fowl, and fish.

• Travelled by boat – did not have carts or draft animals

• Trade was accomplished by barter and the use of gold dust and salt as

currency.

PRE SPANISH TRADE

• 1405 C.E. – Date of the first Chinese trading with the Philippines

• There was extensive trading by boat amongst the many different islands in the

Philippines and some trading with other areas around.

• Boat making was a treasured skill in the Philippines

ECONOMICS

• Gold was mined in the highlands of the Philippines by groups of people with

slightly different cultures than those Tagalog people in the lowlands.

• People in the lowlands were the go-betweens and made deals to get gold

from the highlands and trade it with other islands in the Philippines and with

both the Chinese and the Japanese.

• By the time the Spanish arrived, most of the gold mines in the highlands were

not being actively mined.

GOLD AND SILVER – PRE SPANISH CONTACT

• Silver was more highly valued as currency in Asia, especially in China and

Japan.

• In China, taxes were collected in silver.

POLITICS AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE – PRE SPANISH

• Datus (local chiefs) controlled small communities of 30 to 100 houses.

• Datus controlled people, not land.

• Political systems stressed stability by creating systems for alliance building which

included gift giving, collective feasting, creating extensive family relations.

• Datus at top

• Nobility – often related to the Datus

• Commoners below the nobility – served in the Datus army and went to feasts

• Dependent class – like slaves, but often ‘free’ in many ways

SPANISH ARRIVAL IN PHILIPPINES

• 1565 – Spanish arrived in the Philippines

• 1571 – Spanish found the city of Manila.

POST SPANISH ARRIVAL ECONOMICS

• Spanish silver mines in the Americas were the most important in the world.

• The most important mine in the America was in Potosi.

• American mines produced over 150,000 tons of silver between 1500 and

1800.

• Spain shipped silver from the Americas to Asia, where it was traded with the

Chines, Japanese and others who used silver as currency. They would trade

the silver for gold and other goods.

ECONOMICS –AMERICAN SILVER, EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT AND WORLD TRADE

• American silver helped to finance most of Spain’s wars.

• England paid off its debt and started its most profitable trading companies

using gold and silver that Sir Francis Drake stole from Spanish ships sailing

between the Americas and Asia.

• Manila was a place where porcelain and silks from China, rugs from Persia,

spices (clove, mace, cinnamon, and pepper) from Java, jewels, stones, gems

and jewelry from all over Asia were gathered – which was all sent to Mexico.

MANILA GALLEONS – SPANISH SHIPS AND TRADE

POST SPANISH SOCIAL AND ECONOMICS

• American foodstuffs and products started to arrive in Asia and the Philippines

as early as 1538 (before Spain arrived in the Philippines).

• Corn, peanuts and sweet potatoes were cultivated throughout Asia and the

Philippines.

• Tobacco arrived in the Philippines in 1570, and opium soon followed.

SPANISH MILITARY GOVERNANCE

• Manila was surrounded by walls and forts.

• The Spanish and other European powers used extensive military spending on

equipment and fortifications to help gain an advantage in trading with Asian

peoples.

• “Trade cannot be maintained without war, nor war without trade.”

SOCIAL STRUCTURE AFTER SPANISH ARRIVAL

• Spain wanted to gather Filipinos into small villages and try to turn the Filipinos

into Christians.

• Slow progress was made.

• However, the Spanish continued to try to move Filipinos into more settled

communities.

ECONOMICS AFTER SPANISH ARRIVAL

• With the Spanish came more Chinese merchants, too.

• The Chinese plow and more draft animals were brought to the Philippines and this

brought an agricultural change – no longer was subsistence farming the norm.

• Slavery or Servitude was abolished in the Philippines in 1692 – but debt peonage

still survived. Debt peonage = you are a slave until you pay off a debt.

• Taxes on Filipinos was a huge part of the economy and this money was shipped to

Mexico to help finance the Spanish empire.

SPANISH POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SYSTEM –ENCOMIENDA

• First Encomienda in Philippines established in 1571 – used as a way to reward

soldiers with payments from inhabitants in the areas awarded to them.

• Encomienda was a feudal-type system, where an encomendero was given a certain

territory and was thus allowed to collect taxes from the inhabitants. A local called a

cabezas de barangay collected the taxes from the locals and gave it to the Spanish

encomendero.

• The ecomendero was supposed to protect his inhabitants, but usually, the

encomendero abused the system and the Filipinos to gain power and profit.

POST-SPANISH POLITICAL ISSUES

• Filipinos were considered to be legal minors who were to be protected by the Crown and the

church.

• Datus were controlled by the Spanish and did the Spaniards bidding.

• Philippines divided into 12 provinces (controlled by a Spanish alcade), which had its own

pueblos, which were divided into smaller barrios, and then even smaller sitios.

• The pueblos were officially controlled by an elected gobernadocillo who was a Filipino.

• Also, in the pueblos, people formed groups of 40 who were then controlled by the cabeza de

bangaray (a Filipino). This was hereditary until 1780 or so, when limited elections began.

• Local Filipinos also held positions as judges for issues taking place in the pueblos.

POST-SPANISH POLITICS

• The only Spaniard allowed to live in the Filipino pueblos was the priest.

• The main power was in the hands of the Spanish man who controlled the

entire, a governor who worked with the Audiencia.

• The Audiencia was composed of four Spanish judges and the governor was

one of them. However, the Audiencia would conduct an inquiry at the end of

the governor’s term. This helped to keep the governor under some

supervision.

RELIGION – CHRISTIAN CONVERSION

• Very expensive to send missionaries to the Philippines.

• Missionaries dies from disease and had to be replace frequently.

• Many Filipinos were attracted by the rituals, pageants and various ceremonies

of the Christian church.

• Spanish missionaries often beat or whipped Filipinos who did not follow the

rules

RELIGION AND SOCIAL ISSUES

• Despite abuses, most Filipinos converted to Christianity. However, Filipinos

often simply combined some of their pre-Christian beliefs into a Christian

framework. This is called SYNCHRETISM and happened all over the world in

European colonies.

• It took anywhere from 8 months to 2 years for a missionary to get from

Europe to the Philippines.

• Missionaries started an education system, mostly related to religious issues.

• Most Filipinos did not learn Spanish.

INTRODUCTION OF NEW WORLD CROPS TO ASIA

• “No large group of the human race in the Old World was quicker to adopt

American food plants than the Chinese.” – Afred Crosby, historian

• China had ¼ or world’s population but only 1/12 of world’s arable

land

• Sweet potatoes, potatoes maize (corn), peanuts, chili peppers,

pineapple, cashew, and manioc (cassava) all poured into China in

1500s and 1600s thanks to contact

• “Sweet potato became the poor man’s staple in Fujian (S. China)” –

Crosby

• Sweet potatoes and potatoes could be planted on hillsides where

rice could not be grown – huge help

• Lan, a Chinese historian, says one reason China is most populous

region today is due to introduction of New World food crops –

population couldn’t have grown without it

• The Chinese plow and more draft animals were brought to the Philippines and

this brought an agricultural change – no longer was subsistence farming the

norm.

• Tobacco to China – about 1549

• Said to prevent malaria by Chinese soldiers – partially true since

mosquitos disliked smoke

• Very common as a way to relieve boredom, show off wealth

(elaborate tobacco pipes, purses made of tobacco, etc.)

• Issues with tobacco – leaches the soil of nutrients, weathered soil can’t

hold water, not as productive for growing other crops

• Not to mention smoking it is deadly …

THE MIGHTY POTATO

• 1760s England – an acre yielded (grew) 1,300 – 1,500 pounds of wheat,

barley, and oats

• An acre of potato yielded 25,000 pounds

• Could grow in the seasons when wheat, barley, and oats did not; did NOT

exhaust the soil

• Saved France from famine in 1769 and 1770 when there were massive crop

failures due to weather – potato filled in the gaps, easier to grow in harsh

conditions (from the Andes originally)

• 167 days in 1925 two Polish researchers only ate potatoes. No weight gain,

no health issues, no desire to eat other foods – a very useful crop!

FOOD PRODUCTS TO EUROPE

• “The potato is the fruit that feeds more than half of Germany, Switzerland,

Great Britain, Ireland, and many other countries.” – Diderot’s Encyclopedia

• “Potatoes, by feeding rapidly growing populations, permitted a handful of

European nations to assert dominion over most of the world between 1750

and 1950.” – William McNeill, historian

• End of hunger means Europeans could focus on inventions, growing economy,

and further conquest

ASSIGNMENT

• Please make a chart using specific CD’s from the lecture which does the following:

Document the key changes in Social, Economic, Political and Religious life in the

Philippines from before Spanish contact to after Spanish contact.

• After you have created the chart, answer the following questions:

1. Was Spanish contact positive or negative for the local Filipinos? Explain.

2. Was Spanish contact positive or negative for the Spanish? Explain.