MANILA

MANILA. Spaniards founded the distinguished and ever-loyal city of Manila in 1571, after early settlements in the central Philippines proved economically weak. In 1565 Miguel López de Legazpi (c. 1510–1572) sailed from Mexico and settled in Cebu. Manila, however, was a better location for the Spaniards because of its magnificently protected bay on the southwest coast of Luzon, closer to the wealth of China. Upon arrival, they destroyed a Muslim settlement under a Rajah Sulayman. The Spaniards resided within a fortress, known as Intramuros, on the banks of the Pasig River, while the Tagalog and Pampango natives lived in villages with a marketplace and a Catholic church. The Spanish governors, known as "the City and Commerce," hoped that trade would flourish with riches from American silver and Chinese goods. The trade with China usually gave Manila prosperity and stability. Merchants with silks, porcelain, and manufactured items came to the entrepôt to trade for American silver brought by galleons from Acapulco. An average of 128 tons of silver a year crossed the Pacific Ocean between 1565 and 1815, when the last galleon put into Manila Harbor.

The forty-two thousand people of the city embodied many different histories. There were significant numbers of Japanese Christian refugees, possibly fifteen thousand sangley (Chinese), seven thousand Spaniards, and a majority of twenty thousand indios (natives) from Tagalog, Pampango, and Visayan groups. Manila faced constant threats from Muslim raids, Chinese piracy, and Dutch attacks. The British captured the city in 1762 but returned it to Spain in the 1763 Treaty of Paris.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Flynn, Dennis O., and Arturo Giráldez. "Born with a 'Silver Spoon': The Origin of the World Trade in 1571." Journal of World History 6 (1995): 201–221.

Morga, Antonio de. History of the Philippine Islands from Their Discovery by Magellan in 1521 to the Beginning of the XVII Century; with Descriptions of Japan, China and Adjacent Countries. Translated by E. H. Blair and J. A. Robertson. Cleveland, 1907. Translation of Sucesos de las islas Filipinas (1609).

Phelan, John Leddy. The Hispanization of the Philippines: Spanish Aims and Filipino Responses, 1565–1700. Madison, Wis., 1959.

Schurz, William Lytle. The Manila Galleon. New York, 1939.

Zaragoza, Ramón Ma. Old Manila. Singapore, 1990.