Philippine
Spanish Colonial
Era
Squad# 4
Jeremiah Pua, Jeremy Tan,
Aaron Ng, Matt Ibasco,
Jules Marcelino (kIA)
Socio-Economic
Life
Social Classes
• Peninsulares - Full-blooded Spanish living in the
Philippines and born in Spain.
• Insulares - Full-blooded Spanish living in the
Philippines and born in the Philippines as well.
• Ilustrados(The Enlightened Ones) - Wealthy group
of individuals born in the Philippines and were able
to study abroad.
• Chinese/Spanish Mestizos - People with mixed
racial origins and economically sufficient.
• Indio - Native/Full-blooded Filipinos.
• Sangley - Full-blooded Chinese living in the
Philippines.
Social Pyramid
Peninsulares/
Insulares
Ilustrados
Chinese/Spanish Mestizos
Indio/Sangley
Roman Catholicism in the
Philippines
• Magellan's Arrival to the islands of the Philippines mark
the first attempt to convert the Filipinos to Christianity.
This conversion was received by mixed responses.
• Most of the Filipinos received the conversion with open
arms, and were happily converted to Christianity. Some
did not like the conversion, such as Lapu-Lapu.
• He did not believe that the Filipinos needed to change, so
he killed Magellan, making him the first ever Philippine
hero.
• Thats not to say that Christianity should not have been
spread to our country, because if not, the Philippines
would mostly be a Muslim country
• After Magellan, the Spanish sent Miguel
Lopez de Legaspi to the Philippines, and he
conquered the Muslim settlement in Manila
during 1570.
• The religion slowly spread throughout the
Philippines, evident in present Filipinos, most
of whom are Christians.
Spread of Christianity in
the
Philippines
• Mass Baptism - Baptizing the Filipinos is very large
groups at once. It is said that the Filipinos interpreted
Baptism as healing, which relies on the presence of Holy
Water.
• Reduccion Policy - Moving small groups of Filipino
settlements into one, large town. This was to regulate the
Filipinos, and teach them the basics of Christianity.
• Early Attitude of the Spanish Clergy - early on, the
Spanish clergy was forced to learn the Filipinos' native
language if they want to teach them. Without Spanish
schools, the priests were forced to say Mass in the
Filipinos' native languages.
• Adaptation of Christianity to the local culture The Filipinos believed in spirits, which were
responsible for the good, and bad.
• They had statues and altars, all of which were
destroyed by the Spaniards.
• They replaced them with Christian adaptations
of their early beliefs, and used theatrical
presentations of Bible stories to appeal the
Filipinos.
Mercantilist System
• A economic theory and policy influential in
Europe from the 16th to the 18th century that
called for government regulation of a nation's
economy in order to increase its power at the
expense of rival nations.
• Mercantilism's emphasis on the importance of
gold and silver holdings as a sign of a nation's
wealth and power led to policies designed to
obtain precious metals through trade
Taxation System
• Cedula Tax - A form of taxation implemented
in 1884. This served as a paper which was
used as proof that one was a colony of Spain
and a legitimate member of a pueblo. Before,
Filipinos and Chinese only had to pay tribute,
but it was revised that all residents of the
Philippines were obliged to pay the cedula.
Bandala System
• A form of direct taxes that the spaniards
implemented in which the natives were
coerced to sell their products to the
government at very low prices.
Kasama System
• Under this arrangement, the landowners
supplied the seed and cash necessary to tide
cultivators over during the planting season,
whereas the cultivators provided tools and
work animals and were responsible for onehalf the expense of crop production.
• Usually, owner and sharecropper each took
one-half of the harvest, although only after the
former deducted a portion for expenses.
Polo y Servicio
• A system of forced labor for 40 days for men
ranging from 16 to 60 years of age who were
obligated to give personal services to
community projects. One could be exempted
from polo by paying the falla (corruption of the
Spanish Falta, meaning "absence") daily.
• Bahala Na- It comes from the words "Bathala Na"
more or less meaning "Leave It To God' or "Come
What May". It means that we are defeatist in our
attitude to life and we are only willing to do as much
as what is necessary.
• Padrino System- It is the value system where one
gains favor, promotion or political appointment
through family affiliation or friendship, as opposed
to one's merit.
• Veneration Of Saints- It is the special act of
honoring a saint. It is often shown outwardly by
respectfully bowing or making a sign of the cross
before a saint's icon relics or statues. It is practiced
by Catholic Churches.
• Praying of the Rosary- It is the act of recalling
in a prayerful manner, the life of Jesus in
which it is categorized into several mysteries,
whose names are according to the emotion
during those periods of Christ’s life.
Decline of the
Spanish Rule
The Rise of the Ilustrados
• In 1781, the Philippines was now administered directly
from Spain. Developments in and out of the country
helped to bring new ideas to the Philippines.
• The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 cut travel time to
Spain. This prompted the rise of the Ilustrados, an
enlightened Filipino upper class, since many young
Filipinos were able to study in Europe.
• Enlightened by the Propaganda Movement to the
injustices of the Spanish colonial government and the
"frailocracy", the Ilustrados originally clamored for
adequate representation to the Spanish Cortes and later
for independence.
• José Rizal, the most celebrated intellectual
and radical Ilustrado of the era, wrote the
novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo,
which greatly inspired the movement for
independence.
• The Philippine Revolution began in 1896.
Rizal was implicated in the outbreak of the
revolution and executed for treason in 1896.
The Propaganda
Movement
• The Propaganda Movement (1872-1892) called for
the assimilation of the Philippines as a province of
Spain so that the same laws will be applied in the
Philippines and that the inhabitants of the
Philippines will experience the same civil liberties
and rights as that of a Spanish citizen.
• Men like Marcelo H. del Pilar, Graciano Lopez
Jaena, and Jose Rizal bombarded both the Spanish
and Filipino public with nationalist literature. Rizal's
novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo
became the bibles of Philippine nationalism.
• In February 15, 1889, the Filipino
propagandists were able to get together
behind a new publication in Barcelona which
they called La Solidaridad, and which for its
more than five years of its existence became
the principal organ of the propaganda
movement.
• It aimed mainly to advocate the Filipino cause
at the Spanish parliament.
• As the movement was failing in Europe, Jose
Rizal returned to the Philippines and created
his La Liga Filipina in 1892. It also failed after
his arrest a just few days after the creation of
the group.
The Katipunan
• On the night of July 7, 1892, when Rizal was
banished and exiled to Dapitan in Mindanao,
Andrés Bonifacio, a member of the La Liga
Filipina, founded the Katipunan in a house in
Tondo, Manila.
• Bonifacio did establish the Katipunan when it
was becoming apparent to anti-Spanish
Filipinos that societies like the La Liga Filipina
would be suppressed by colonial authorities
• The men gathered around a flickering table
lamp, performed the ancient blood compact,
and signed their membership papers with their
own blood.
• It was agreed to win more members to the
society by means of the triangle method in
which an original member would take in two
new members who did not know each other,
but knew only the original member who took
them in.
• Thus, original member A, for instance, would
take in new members B and C. Both B and C
knew A, but B and C did not know each other.
Declaration of
Independence
• In the presence of a huge crowd, independence was
proclaimed on June 12, 1898 between four and five in the
afternoon in Cavite at the ancestral home of General
Emilio Aguinaldo some 30 kilometers South of Manila.
• The event saw the unfurling of the National Flag of the
Philippines, made in Hong Kong by Marcela Agoncillo,
Lorenza Agoncillo, and Delfina Herboza, and the
performance of the Marcha Filipina Magdalo, as the
Nation's National Anthem, now known as Lupang
Hinirang, which was composed by Julián Felipe and
played by the San Francisco de Malabon marching band.