This section is largely about the long
period of colonial mayhem and senseless slaughter which followed
Magellan's “discovery” of the Philippines in April 1521.
Desperately short on supplies and not at all certain where he was,
Magellan (a Portuguese in Spanish employ) landed near the site of
present-day Cebu, the second-largest city in the nation. He made the
literally fatal mistake of believing that the first chieftain he ran
into was the most powerful one in the area. Magellan died fighting a
rearguard action against forces of a rival chieftain so his crew
could escape. This chieftain responsible for Magellan's death was
named Lapu Lapu. After a long period of obscurity, he was resurrected
by nationalists as an proto-anti-colonialist. He has been honored in
statues and postage stamps, and the principle town of the chieftain's
native island is named after him (l. 1019).
In the mid 1540's, the Philippines
received its present name by a subsequent explorer in honor of the
king of that time, Philip II of Spain (i. 1162).
“[F]or the next three hundred years,
the Spanish authorities in Mexico were to manage the Philippines as
an imperial subsidiary, in effect making the archipelago a colony of
a colony.” (l. 1176)
Spaniards first set eyes on the future
site of Manila on 3 May 1570, with predictably unfortunate results
for the Muslim chieftain and natives who happened to be living there.
The city was officially founded on June 24 of the following year.
Interpretation of the ancient past is a
political football in a way which would be familiar from anyone who
has spent any time in the Balkans. Intellectuals attempt to influence
the national narrative about exactly how long ago the archipelago was
settled, whether settlers came from continental Asia, etc. However,
there is little or no written evidence about life prior to the
arrival of Chinese merchants, Malay Muslim imams,
and Vietnamese farmers and fishermen, the primary foreign groups to
precede Europeans to the Philippines. A fondness of amulets (l .1102)
and marathon oratory (l. 1152) could be interpreted as signs of the
existence of animism and an oral tradition, respectively, in
societies of the region, whose infrequent writings on bamboo and tree
bark have long since rotted or put to the torch.
The Spaniards
dubbed the indigenous group of Malay Muslim heritage “Moros”,
after the Moors that they found closer to home (l. 1094).
The tendency of
various islanders to see themselves as separate communities made it
easier for Spanish, and later American, colonialists, to divide and
conquer (l. 1237)
The title quotation is from Joseph
Conrad's Lord Jim, and is
cited (slightly inaccurately) at location 818.
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