The Sangley rebellion was a Sangley Chinese rebellion which took place in Manila, Philippines, in October 1603.
The reasons for the rebellion are unclear, but they seemed to have originated in the suspicions of the Spanish Archbishop Benavides against Chinese ambitions to control the Philippines.
The former Governor of the Philippines, and failed conqueror of Cambodia, Luis Pérez Dasmariñas died during the rebellion when, overconfident of Spanish strength, he attacked a vastly superior number of Chinese. When cautioned from attacking by his fellow officers, he famously treated them as cowards and retorted that "twenty five Spaniards were enough to conquer the whole of China". When Luis led a force of Spaniards to try to apprehend the Chinese, he and his men were all killed by the Chinese who mounted the heads of several hundred of the Spaniards on poles throughout Manila.
The rebellion was then quelled by the Spaniards, together with the support of Filipinos and the Japanese settlement at Dilao. The Japanese especially showed no mercy in the repression. Altogether 20,000 Chinese were killed.
Famous quotes containing the word rebellion:
“O make me a mask and a wall to shut from your spies
Of the sharp, enamelled eyes and the spectacled claws
Rape and rebellion in the nurseries of my face....”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)