Spanish Era (1521-1898)
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Spain had three major goals for the occupation of the Philippine Islands. One was to colonise the Philippines and participate in the spice trade dominated by Portugal. Second, Spain wanted to use the islands' geographical location to trade with China and Japan and to spread their religious belief to those advanced civilizations. Third was for Spain to spread Catholicism in the archipelago itself.
While many history books claim that the first Mass in the archipelago was held on Easter Sunday of 1521, others present evidence that it was elsewhere. Some books claim that this was done on the same day in a little island near the present day Bukidnon Province. There is only one recorded Christian Mass in the Philippines that is provable, and it was that held at the island-port named Mazaua on Easter Sunday, 31 March 1521. This incident was recorded by the Vicentine diarist Antonio Pigafetta.
The Legazpi expedition of 1565 marked the beginning of the Hispanisation of the Philippines. This expedition was an effort to occupy the islands with as little bloodshed and conflict as possible, ordered by Phillip II. Lieutenant Legazpi was in charge of making peace with the natives and through swift military conquest. To do so, he set up colonies.
Under the encomienda system, Filipinos had to pay tribute to the encomendero of the area and in return the encomendero taught them the Christian faith and also protected them from enemies. Although Spain had used this system before, it did not working quite as effectively for the Filipinos as it did in America. The missionaries were not as successful in converting the natives as they had hoped. In 1579, Bishop Salazar and other clergymen were outraged because the encomenderos had abused their powers. Although the natives were resistant, they could not organise into a unified resistance towards the Spaniards due to geography, ethno-linguistic differences, and overall mutual indifference.
Read more about this topic: Roman Catholicism In The Philippines, History
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