Colonial experience

  Philippines was a colony of Spain and US for over 300 years. Spain was the first country to colonize Philippines. Spainish people administered Philippines as a province of New Spain and used their products for Spain monopoly trade. Galleons from Spain shipped oriental goods from Philippines to Manila and other countries (A). Spanish governed the Philippines until the end of 19th century. In 19th century, Spain's rule was threatened by many other countries such as China, Dutch and England. Moreover, Chinese and Filipinos revolted against Spanish in 1820s. Due to these reasons, Spain opened Philippines' port to world which made them to export sugar, coconuts and other oriental goods (D). However, Spain lost in Spanish-American war in 1898 and lost their important colony, Philippines (E).

Spanish Galleon

  After Philippines became independent from Spain, they were ruled again by US. US wanted to make Philippines as a supplier country to help US. They wanted raw materials from Philippines' land and expected Filipino to become a buyer of finished goods from US (A). From 1898 to 1946, US ruled Philippines for their own profit and made Filipinos to supply them for World war II (E).

  

Initial conquest

  Philippines suffered from bloody continuous conquest from Spain, US, and Japan. Philippines was first discovered on March 15, 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese navigator, while sailing to Spain (A). He tried convert Filipinos to Christianity and take control of their area. Magellan thought that fighting against the natives will be easy, however, Lapu Lapu who was the chief of the Mactans in the island proved him wrong. The Mactans recognized Magellan and immediately killed him leaving his men to surrender (C). 

  Even though Lapu Lapu first resisted foreign colonist, Spain returned for the conquest of the Philippines. With the force by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, they were able to conquer Philippines (C). Philippines had no special attractions or effective trade goods that would attract Spain. Although Philippines did not have much attraction, it was the only island that could be the stopping point in the middle of Atlantic Ocean. Spain's initial conquest of Philippines led Filipinos to convert to Christianity and adapt more developed Spanish culture. Slowly along with their conquest, the Mestizo culture emerged to the Philippine society. Also, churches of Christianity did not tolerate any old practices to Philippine which led Spanish culture to become more dominant (E).