On November 21, 1564, five ships and 500 soldiers set sail from the Jalisco coastal town of Barra de Navidad under the command of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi with the ultimate goal of setting up a colony in Las Islas Filipinas, the archipelago discovered four decades earlier by Ferdinand Magellan.
On February 13, 1565, Lopez de Legazpi anchored off the island of Cebu, where he quickly established a settlement. Over the next six years he supervised the relatively nonviolent colonization of the archipelago named in honor of Philip II of Spain.
To mark the start of this epic voyage, Barra de Navidad is hosting a commemorative festival from November 21 to 23. Included in the program will be an historical appraisal of Lopez de Legazpi, the Basque navigator who in 1545 had traveled to New Spain (Mexico) to start a new life.
Lopez de Legazpi was an unheralded clerk working in the financial department of the Mexico City government when he was surprisingly commissioned by the viceroy to lead the planned expedition to the “Spice Islands.” Members of his expedition included six Augustinian missionaries, in addition to Father Andrés de Urdaneta, who served as navigator and spiritual adviser.
Historical evidence suggests Lopez de Legazpi and his men sailed for 90 days before reaching the Mariana Islands.
He took possession of Cebu with hardly any resistance from the natives and his subsequent conquest of the Philippines unfolded with minimal bloodshed.
Lopez de Legazpi established a settlement in Manila on June 24, 1571 and ordered the construction of the walled city of Intramuros. He proclaimed Manila as the islands’ capital, and was installed as the first Spanish governor of the Philippines.
The expedition to the Philippines created the Manila Galleon trade, in which silver mined from Mexico was exchanged for silk, porcelain, spices, gems and other precious goods that were transported back to Europe. The trade route formed an important link between Latin America and the Far East and attributed significantly to the financial health of the Spanish Empire.
Prior to Lopez de Legazpi’s arrival, the Filipinos practiced various native religions, as well as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. As in Mexico, the Augustinian and Franciscan friars worked hard to convert the natives to Roman Catholicism and banish pagan practices. Today, the Philippines are 80-percent Catholic.
Lopez de Legazpi governed the Philippines for only a year before dying of heart failure inside the city he built. The Philippines formed part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. The Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on June 12, 1898.