Assessment
The British failure to extend control beyond Manila and Cavite made their occupation's continuation unviable. Captain Thomas Backhouse reported to the Secretary of War in London that "the enemy is in full possession of the country".
The British accepted the written surrender of the Philippines from Archbishop Rojo on 30 October 1762, but the Royal Audience of Manila had already appointed Simón de Anda y Salazar as the new Governor-General as provided for under the statutes of the Council of the Indies, as was pointed out by Anda and retrospectively confirmed by the King of Spain, in his re-appointment of both Anda and Basco. It was not the first time that the Audiencia had assumed responsibility for the defense of the Philippines in the absence of a higher authority; in 1646, during the Battles of La Naval de Manila, it temporarily assumed the government and maintained the defense of the Philippines against the Dutch.
As Francisco Leandro Viana, who was in Manila during the 20-month occupation, explained to the Spanish King in 1765, "the English conquest of the Philippines was just an imagined one, as the English never owned any land beyond the range of the cannons in Manila".
Read more about this topic: British Occupation Of Manila
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