CHAPTER 4: HISPANIZATION

 

Section 1: Gradual Transformation of the Indigenous Society

I. Factors which might have influenced the Transformation

A. Spanish Population

1. 1583: Manila has 80 casa or household

2. Only 713 Spaniards in the colony

·        Some were sent to Moluccas leaving 646 in the Philippines

3. Late 16 century: Few Spanish Settlements near indigenous communities merged into one city (Cebu, Manila, Vigan)

B. Encomienda System

1. Framework of Legazpi’s colonization

II. Encomienda System

A. Meaning and Nature

1. Villages were entrusted as rewards for the discharge of the royal conscience

a. Encomienda — land held in trust

b. Encomiendero — land trustee

B. Laws and Regulations

1. Location for Settlements

2. Town Officials: the Alcalde and the Regidor

3. Encomiendero and foreigners shouldn’t live among the natives

4. New Agricultural tool: Plow (“araro” or “arado”)

5. Encomiendero’s Duties

a. Collect Tribute

i. must assist at mass for enlightenment and guidance

ii. assess tribute fairly

iii. survey area

iv. evaluate how much each payer can afford

b. Demand obligatory public service (polo)

C. Tribute Collection

1. Padron — census list: gives a good glimpse of the colonial society

a. Principalia

b. Married tribute payer

c. Widows and unmarried males

d. Exemptees

i. below eighteen and above sixty years of age

ii. the sick

iii. those who were working in the Church as Sacristans

2. Care and Concern for the tributes

D. Forced Labor

1. Healthy men are forced to do public works for forty days each year

2. Abuse by the officials

3. Revolt due to exploitations

a. Polistas were supposed to be paid “in their hands” a daily wage

b. They should not be taken to distant work sites

c. Food supplies were requisitioned for the workers

d. Government coffers were chronically empty

e. Towns remained unpaid

 

Section 2: The Indios

I. Upper Class

A. Former Datus and their relatives

B. Chinese capitalists and traders

C. Pampanga Native elite

1. land owners

2. competed with Chinese mestizos

3. assumed political leadership

II. Lower Class

A. Low level of education

1. due to economic underdevelopment

B. Most underdeveloped sectors

1. Mindanao

2. Mountain Province

C. Lifestyle

1. People lived in pre-ul ban subsistence economy of kaingin and barter exchange

2. Only tool was bob

3. Jesuits brought carabao to Agusan in 1884

4. People farmed lands by back-breaking methods

5. Had no permanent dwelling places

6. Lived nomadic lives

D. Bagani Code

1. divided into ranks

2. missionaries saw no reason for the practice

3. for the indios, it meant paying death with death

 

Section 3: Pronounced Economic Growth

I. Contact between Philippines and Mexico ended

A. galleon trade ceased altogether (1825)

II. Opening of Manila to foreign commerce

A. America

1. American boat Astrea, from Salem, Massachusetts

2. flats, wines, and compasses were brought

3. took back sugar, indigo, pepper, and tanned hide

4. 1st American consul, Andrew Sharp

5. three American firms carried cargo of sugar hemp

B. Britain

1. growth of sugar, tobacco, indigo, and hemp exports

2. John William Fargen, a British consul

C. Porn were open to foreign ships (1855)

1. Sual

2. Iloilo

3. Pampanga

III. Economic Growth in the Philippines

A. Iloilo

1. center of hand woven textile industry

2. rice production

3. conducive because of preexisting industries for growth

B. Nicholas Loney

1. arrived in Iloilo on July 13, 1856, the first English consul

2. bought sugar

3. manufactured cottons

4. his mercantile killed the native textile industry

C. Negros

1. growth of sugar industry was one of the most spectacular developments in the country

2. Ilongo elite and Chinese mestizos resorted to land grabbing

3. surplus income generated was spent on rice and cloth

4. natives were laborers

D. Bikol

1. abaca

2. there was prosperity in the country but no progress in Bikol

3. growth by farmers in small patches of land

E. Infusion of foreign capital

1. foreign firms exploited the natural resources

2. Indios remained poor

3. Chinese played an important role in Philippine economy