Why Were The Spaniards in the Philippines?

Frutos que pueden dar las reformas en Filipinas.

Author: Casimiro Herrero 

Published:1871

Translated into English by:   Maria Remedios Layug Zachary

                               Chapter III

SPIRIT AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CONQUEST OF THE PHILIPPINES.

To he who doubts that the objective of our monarchs and conquerors was not the evangelization and civilization of that remote country, open the history books and read the Royal Decrees or Laws of the Indies. The first thing it will say is that having surveyed the islands and determined in Madrid that there was nothing that could be gained from the islands, the ministers had proposed the monarchy to abandon them.  The pleas of the missionaries and the faith of our kings triumphed over the greedy desires of those who only sought wealth in the likes of Potosí and Peru.  This is the reason why the conquest of the Philippines was liberal and humanitarian, done only with the cross and the evangelical selflessness of the clergies and patriotism and enthusiastic christianity of some Spaniards.  This is the same reason that while in Latin Americas, the conquerors and their successors were enslaving the natives to use them in the mines; while in the old continent [Latin America], slavery was legal and the status of serfdom was common; while the men of science were debating if the natives were completely rational beings and could enjoy the rights of rational beings, Royal decrees were issued for the natives of the Philippines, declaring that the natives of the Philippines were not only free but also prohibiting under severe penalty the slavery of any of them.  They had no obligations to work for private individuals without corresponding remuneration.   

Then began that legislation which can be called paternal and which in the course of more than two centuries does not contain a single provision about the natives that can be criticized, not even by the most exaggerated thinkers of our time.

If this is glorious for those who ordered the conquest, the means by which the conquest was achieved are no less glorious.

This conquest was comprised of a handful of Spaniards to protect the missionaries, defend the Spanish flag and govern those who were declared subjects of Spain through persuasion and gentleness of the Gospel.  It was admired by nations that knew it and envied by those who wanted to conquer it.

 

There were no battles, nor armies, nor blood spilled other than that of zealous missionaries, whose selflessness and constant thought of the natives as their children, did all what charities inspire and religion teaches. They were able to impart to that cold and apathetic nature of the natives the love for Christian morality and Spanish race because the missionaries were the first to give examples that could not be resisted by even the most savage of hearts.

 

Before the end of the 16th century and a few years after the arrival of Legaspi on the Philippine shore, the flag of Castile waved peacefully throughout the islands of the Archipelago and was respected in China and Japan. Those vast territories in the islands of the Philippines were added to the empire of the Catholic kings of Spain, the only exchange from the natives was receiving the light of truth.

For more than two centuries, a subsidy of funds from Mexico was sacrificed so that the Philippines could be administered and its only aim was so that the natives of the Philippines could enjoy the benefits of civilization.     

Should not a conquest with such peaceful and disinterested characteristics and a government as paternal as the one the archipelago has enjoyed be called a glorious emblem for the nation that displays it on its coat of arms?¹  And should not the means through which this triumph was achieved call the attention of the government and thinkers when making reforms? 

 

Who doubts it?

¹ The Eagle of Saint John, adopted by Catholic monarchs to represent their devotion to John the Evangelist