19 - History of the Philippines by David Prescott Barrows

Delve into one of the earliest comprehensive studies of Philippine history crafted by an American scholar. This remarkable work stems from the authors ethnological research on indigenous island tribes following the American war in the Philippines. Aimed at the Filipino audience, the author skillfully weaves the islands history into the expansive tapestry of European and American narratives, offering a unique perspective on the cultural and historical significance of the Philippines. (Summary by JoeD)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter eleven, Part one of a History of the Philippines.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Nathan Markham. The Philippines
during the period of European Revolution seventeen sixty two to

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eighteen thirty seven. The New Philosophy of the eighteenth century.
The middle of the eighteenth century in Europe was a
time when ideas were greatly liberalized. A philosophy became current
which professed to look for its authority not the churches
or hereditary custom and privilege, but to the laws of
God as they are revealed in the natural world. Men

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taught that if we could only follow nature, we could
not do wrong. Natural law became the basis for a
great amount of political and social discussion, and the theoretical
foundation of many social rits. This savage, ungoverned man was,
by many European philosophers and writers, supposed to live a freer,

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more wholesome, and more natural life than the man who
is bound by the conventions of society and the laws
of the state. Most of this reasoning we now know
to be scientifically untrue. The savage and the hermit are not,
in actual fact types of human happiness and freedom. Ideal
life for a man is found only in governed society,

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where there is order and protection, and where also should
be freedom of opportunity. But to the people of the
eighteenth century, and especially to the scholars of France, where
the government was monarchical and oppressive, and where the people
were terribly burdened by the aristocracy, this teaching was welcomed
as a new gospel. Nor was it devoid of grand

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and noble ideas, which carried out in a conservative way
have greatly bettered society. It is from this philosophy and
the revolution which succeeded it, that the world received the
modern ideas of liberty, equality, fraternity, and democracy. These ideas,
having done their work in America and Europe, are here

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at work in the Philippines today. It remains to be
seen whether a society can be rebuilt here on these principles,
and whether Asia too will be reformed under their influence.
Colonial conflicts between the great European countries during the latter
half of the eighteenth century there culminated the long struggle

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for colonial empire between European states, which we have been following.
We have seen how colonial conquest was commenced by the Portuguese,
who were very shortly followed by the Spaniards, and how
these two great Latin powers attempted to exclude the other
European peoples from the rich Far East and the great
New World which they had discovered. We have seen how

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this attempt failed, how the Dutch and the English broke
in upon on this gigantic reserve, drove the Spanish fleets
from the seas and despoiled and took of this great
empire almost whatever they would. The Dutch and English then
fought between themselves. The English excluded the Dutch from North America,
capturing their famous colony of New Amsterdam now New York

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and incorporating it sixteen seventy four with their other American
colonies which later became the United States of America. But
in the East Indies, the Dutch maintained their trade and power,
gradually extending from Island to Ireland until they gained what
they still possess and almost a complete monopoly of spice production.

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War between England and France in India, England in the
eighteenth century won great possessions and laid the foundation for
what had been an almost complete subjugation of this Eastern Empire. Here, however,
and even more so than in America, England countered a
royal and brilliant antagonist in the monarch of France. French

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exploration in North America had given France claims to the
two great river systems of the Saint Lawrence and the Mississippi,
the latter by far the greatest and richest region of
the temperate zone. So during much of this eighteenth century,
England and France were involved in wars that had for

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their prizes the possession of the continent of North America
and the Great Peninsula of India. This conflict reached its
climax between seventeen fifty six and seventeen sixty three. Both
states put forth all their strength. France called to her
support those countries whose reigning families were allied to her

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by blood, and in this way Spain was drawn into
the struggle. The monarchs of both France and Spain belonged
to the Great House of Bourbon. War was declared between
England and Spain in seventeen sixty two, Spain was totally
unfitted for the combat. She could inflict no injury upon
England and simply lay impotent and helpless to retaliate, while

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English fleets in the same year took Cavana in the
west and Manila in the east. English victory over French
in India and America. English power in India was represented
during these years by the greatest and most striking figure
in England's colonial history, Lord Clive. To him is due
the defeat of France and India, the capture of her possessions,

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and the founding of the Indian Empire, which is still
regarded as England's greatest possession. The French were expelled from
India in the same year that the great citadel of
New France in America, Quebec, was taken by the English
under General Wolfe the Philippines under the English Expedition from
India to the Philippines. The English were now free to

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strike a blow at France's ally Spain, and in Madras,
an expedition was prepared to destroy Spanish power in the Philippines.
Notice of the preparation of this expedition reached Manila from
several sources in the spring and summer of seventeen sixty two.
But with that fatality which pursued the Spaniard to the

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end of his history in the Philippines, no preparations were
made by him until on the twenty second of September,
a squadron of thirteen vessels anchored in Manila Bay through
the mist The stupid and negligent authorities of Manila mistook
them for Chinese trading junks, but it was the fleet
of the English Admiral Cornish, with a force of five

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thousand British and Indian soldiers under the command of General Draper.
For her defense, Manila had only five hundred fifty men
of the Regiment of the King and eighty Filipino artillerists.
Yet the Spaniards determined to make resistance from behind the
walls of the city. Surrender of Minus Nilla to the English.

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The English disembarked and occupied Malat from the churches of Malat,
Ermita and Santiago. Their British bombarded Manila, and the Spaniards
replied from the batteries of San Andres and San Diego,
the firing not being very effective on either side. On
the twenty fifth, Draper summoned the city to surrender, but

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a council of war held by the archbishop, who was
also governor, decided to fight. On thirty six hundred Filipino
militia from Papanga, Bulacan, and Laguna marched to the defense
of the city, and on the third of October, two
thousand of these Filipinos made a sally from the walls
and recklessly assaulted the English lines, but were driven back

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with slaughter. On the night of the fourth of October,
a breach in the walls was made by the artillery,
and early in the morning of the fifth, four hundred
English soldiers entered, almost without resistance. A company of Malaysia
on guard at the Puerto Real was bayoneted, and the
English then occupied the plaza and here received the surrender

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of the fort of Santiago. The English agreed not to
interfere with religious liberty, and honors of war were granted
to the Spanish soldiers. Guards were placed upon the convent
of the nuns of Santa Clara and the Biterios, and
the city was given over to pillage, which lasted for
forty hours and in which many of the Chinese assisted

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independent Spanish capital under Anda at Bulacan. The English were
thus masters of the city, but during their period of
occupation they never extended their power far beyond the present
limits of Manila. Previous to the final assault and occupation
of Manila, the authorities had nominated the waiter Don Simon

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de Anda isalasad Lieutenant Governor and Judge at large of
the islands, with instructions to maintain the country in its
obedience to the King of Spain, and left the capital
on the night of October fourth, passing in a little
banca through the Nipa swamps and Estetos on the north
shore of Manila Bay to the provincial capital of Bulacan.

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Here he called together the provincial of the Augustinian monks,
the Alcalde mayor of the province, and some other Spaniards.
They resolved to form an independent government representing Spain and
to continue their resistance. This they were able to do
as long the British remained in the islands. The English
made a few short expeditions into Bulacan and up the

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Pasig River, but there was no hard fighting and no
real effort made to pursue Anda's force. The Chinese welcomed
the English and gave them some assistance, and for this
Anda slew and hanged great numbers of them. The Philippines
returned to Spain by the Treaty of Paris in seventeen
sixty three. Peace was made by which France surrendered practically

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all her colonial pass sessions to England, but England returned
to Spain her captures in Cuba and the Philippines. In
March seventeen sixty four, there arrived the Spanish frigate Santa Rosa,
bringing the first Lieutenant of the King for the Islands,
Don Francisco de Ratore, who brought with him news of
the Treaty of Paris and the orders to the English

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to abandon the islands. Resistance of the English by the Friars.
In resistance to the English and in the efforts to
maintain Spanish authority, a leading part had been taken by
the Friars. The sacred orders, said Martinez de Sufiga, had
much to do with the success of Senor Anda. They

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maintained the Indians of their respective administrations loyal to the orders.
They inspired the natives with horror against the English as
enemies of the king and of religion, inciting them to
die fighting to resist them. They contributed their estates and
their property, and they exposed their own person. Since the
great dangers the Friars were certainly most interested in retaining

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possession of the islands, added most to lose by their
falling into English hands increase of the Jesuits in wealth
and power. In this zealous movement for defense, however, the
Jesuits bore no part, and there were charges made against
them of treasonable intercourse with the English, which may have
had foundation, and which are of significance in the light

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of what subsequently occurred. At the close of the eighteenth century,
all the governments of Catholic Europe were aroused with jealousy
and suspicious hatred against the Jesuits. The society, organized primarily
for missionary labor, had gradually taken on much of a
secular character. The society was distinguished, as we have seen
in its history in the Philippines, by men with great

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capacity and liking for what we may call practical affairs,
as distinguished from purely religious or devotional life. The Jesuits
were not alone missionaries and orthodox educators, but they were scientists, geographers, financiers,
and powerful and almost independent administrators. Among heathen peoples. They

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had engaged so extensively and shrewdly in trade that their estates, warehouses,
and exchanges bound together the fruitful fields of colonial provinces
with the busy marts and money centers of Europe. Their
wealth was believed to be enormous. Properly invested and carefully guarded,
it was rapidly increasing. What, however, made the order exasperating

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alike to rulers and peoples were the powerful political intrigues
in which members of the order engaged strong and masterful
men themselves. The field of state affairs was irresistibly attractive,
Their enemies charged that they were unscrupulous, and the means
which they employed to accomplish political ends. It is quite
certain that the Jesuits were not patriotic in their purposes

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or plans. They were an international corporation that members belonged
to known one nation. To them, the society was greater
and more worthy of devotion than any state in which
they themselves lived and worked. Discussion of the Society of
Jesus europad, however, reached the belief to which it adheres

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today that a man must be true to the country
in which he lives and find shelter and protection, and
in which he ranks as a political member, or elsincer
odium and punishment. Thus it was their indifference to national
feeling that brought about the ruin of the Jesuits. It
is significant that the rulers, the most devoted to Catholicism,

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followed one another in decreeing their expulsion from their dominions.
In seventeen fifty nine, they were expelled from Portugal, in
seventeen sixty four from France, and April second, seventeen sixty seven,
the degree of confiscation and banishment from Spain and all
Spanish possessions was issued by King Carlos the Third. Within

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a year there aft, after the two most powerful princes
of Italy, the King of Naples and the Duke of Parma, followed,
and the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta expelled
them from that island. The friends of the order were
powerless to withstand this united front of Catholic monarchs, and
in July seventeen seventy three, Pope Clement the fourteenth suppressed

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and dissolved the society, which was not restored until eighteen fourteen.
The Jesuits expelled from the Philippines. The order expelling the
Jesuits from the Philippines was put into effect in the
year seventeen sixty seven. The instructions authorized the governor, in
case of resistance, to use force of arms as against

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the rebellion. Besides their colleges in Manila, Tonclo, Cavite, Leete, Samar,
Bool and Negros, the Jesuits administered curacies in the Vicinity
of Manila and Cavite Province, i Mindoro and Marinduque, while
the island Trians of Bohol, Samar and Leyte were completely

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under their spiritual jurisdiction in Mindanao. Their missions, a dozen
or more in number, were found on both the northern
and southern coasts. Outside of the Philippines proper, they were
the missionaries on the Ladrones or Marianas. Their property in
the Philippines, which was confiscated by the government, amounted a

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one million, three hundred twenty thousand pesos, although a great
deal of their wealth was secreted and escaped seizure through
the connivance of the governor. Raun Governor Anda's charges against
their religious orders, Donzimon de Anda had been received in
Spain with great honor for the defense which he had
made in the islands, and in seventeen seventy returned as

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Governor of the Philippines. His appointment was bitterly resented by
the Friars. In seventeen sixty eight, Anda had addressed to
the King a memorial upon the disorders in the Philippines,
in which he openly charged the Friars with commercialists, neglect
of their spiritual duties, oppression of the natives, opposition of
the teaching of the Spanish language, and scandalous interference with

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civil officials and affairs. Honda's remedy for these abuses was
the rigorous enforcement of the laws actually existing for the
punishment of such conduct, and the return to Spanish of
friars who requires to respect the law. He was, however,
only partially successful in his policy. During the six years
of his rule, he labored unremittingly to restore the Spanish

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government and to lift it from the decadence and corruption
that had so long characterized it. There were strong traits
of the modern man in this independent and incorruptible official.
If he made many enemies, it is perhaps no less
to the credit of his character, and if in the
few years of his official life, he was unable to
restore the colony. It must be remembered that he had

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few assistants upon whom to rely, and was without adequate
means the Moro pirates. The Moros were again upon their forays,
and in seventeen seventy one even attacked a pari on
the extreme northern coast of Luson and captured a Spanish missionary.
Anda reorganized the Armada de Pintalos, and toward the end

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of his life, created also the Marina Sutil, a fleet
of light gunboats for the defense of the coasts against
the attack of pirates. English settlement. The hostility of the
Moto rulers was complicated by the interference of the English, who,
after the evacuation of Manila, continued to haunt the Sulu
archipelago with the apparent object of effecting a settlement by

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treaty with the Sulu Sultan. They secured the succession of
the island of Balambangan, off the northern coast of Borneo.
This island was fortified and a factory was established, but
in seventeen seventy five the Moros attacked the English with
great fury and destroyed the entire garrison, except the governor
and five others, who escaped on board a vessel, leaving

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a great quantity of arms and wealth to the spoils
of the Moros. The English factors, who had taken up
business on the island of Jolo fled in a Chinese junk,
and these events, so unfortunate to the English, ended their
attempts to gain a position in the Sulu Archipelago until
many years later increase in agriculture. Anda died in October

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seventeen seventy six, and its successor, Don Jose Basco Ivaragas
was not appointed until July seventeen seventy eight. With Fiasco's governorship,
we see the beginning of those numerous projects for the
encouragement of agriculture and industry which characterized the last century
of Spanish rule. His blan Heneral Economico contemplated the encouragement

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of cotton planting, the propagation of mulberry trees and silkworms,
and the cultivation of spices and sugar. Premiums were offered
for success in the introduction of these new products, and
for the encouragement of manufacturing industries suitable to the country.
And its people. Out of these plans grew the admirable

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Socievad Economica de Amigos del Pais, which was founded by
Basco in seventeen eighty. The idea was an excellent one,
and the society, although suffering long periods of inactivity, lasted
for foli a century and from time to time was
useful in the improvement and development of the country and
stimulated agricultural experiments through its premiums and awards establishment of

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the tobacco industry. Up to this time, the Philippine revenues
had been so unproductive that the government was largely supported
by a subsidy of two hundred fifty thousand paces a
year paid by Mexico. Basco was the first to put
the revenues of the islands upon a lucrative basis. To him,
was due the establishment in seventeen eighty two of the

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famous tobacco monopoly Estanco de Tabaccos, which became of great
importance many years later as new and rich tobacco lands
like the gag Ai'an were brought under cultivation favorable commercial legislation.
The change in economic ideas which had come over Europe

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through the liberalizing thought of the eighteenth century is shown
also by a most radical step to direct into new
channels the commerce of the Philippines. This was the creation
in seventeen eighty five of a great trading corporation with
special privileges and crown protection, the Royal Company of the Philippines.
The company was given a complete monopoly of all the

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commerce between Spain and the Philippines, except the long established
direct traffic between Manila and Acapulco. All the old laws
designed to prevent the importation into the peninsula of wares
of the Orient were swept away. Philippine products were exempted
from all customs duties either on leaving Manila or entering Spain.

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The vessels of the Company were permitted to visit the
ports of China, and the ancient and absurd prohibition which
prevented the merchants of Manila from trading with India and
China was removed, though still closing the Philippines against foreign trade.
This step was a veritable revolution in the commercial legislation
of the Philippines. Had the project been ablely and heartily supported,

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it might have produced a development that would have advanced
prosperity half a century. But the people of Manila did
not welcome the opening of this new line of communication.
The ancient commerce with Acopulco was a valuable monopoly to
those who had the right to participate in it, and
their attitude toward the new company was one either of
indifference or hostility. In seventeen eighty nine, the port of

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Manila was opened and made free to the vessels of
all foreign nations for the space of three years for
the importation and sale exclusively of the wares of Asia,
but the products of Europe, with the exception of Spain,
were forbidden. The Royal Company was recharted in eighteen o
five and enjoyed its monopoly until eighteen thirty, when its

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privileges lapsed and Manila was finally opened to the ships
of foreign nations. Conquest of the Igorot provinces of Luson
Basco was a zealous governor and organized a number of
military expeditions to occupy the Igorot country in the north.
In seventeen eighty five, the Heathen egorotes of the missions

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of Paniki and Utoi or Nleva Viscaya revolted and had
to be reconquered by a force of musketeers from Cakayan
conquest of the Bataness Islands. Basco also affected the conquest
of the batanis Islands to the north of Luson, establishing
garrisons and definitely annexing them to the colony. The Dominican

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missionary shortly before this time had attempted to convert these
islands to Christianity, but the poverty of the people and
the fierceness of the typhoons which sweep these little islands
prevented the activation of anything more than camotes and tarro,
and had made them unprofitable to hold. Basco was honored, however,
for his reoccupation of these islands, and on his return

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to Spain had the expiration of his governorship, received the
title of Count of the Conquest of the Botanists. End
of Chapter eleven, Part one recording by Nathan Markham