Although early chronicles allude to slavery, early servitude was more in the nature of service in exchange for gratitude and protection than indentured slavery." Pre-Hispanic Philippine religion was animistic, but by the fifteenth century, Filipinos in the south were already being converted to Islam.
About a century later, with the sanction of the papacy, the most powerful monarch of Europe engaged in voyages of discovery and colonization. The papal bull of Pope Alexander VI divided the world into halves, one each for the Iberian Catholic monarchies: Spain and Portugal." The Philippine Islands fell in the Portuguese half, but because of inexact geographical knowledge, Spain laid claim to the Philippines when Fernao Magalhaes, more popularly known as Ferdinand Magellan, the first European to achieve the circumnavigation of the world, landed there on March 17, 1521. Ironically, Fernao Magalhaes was a Portuguese in the service of the Spanish king. Magalhaes was welcomed by the leader of the big island of Cebu but repelled by the chief of the small island of Mactan. When Magalhaes attacked Mactan to subjugate its chief, Lapulapu, however, the Portuguese captain was killed in the battle.
Later voyages of the Spanish sought to establish a permanent colony. A Spanish captain, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, named one of the islands "Filipinas," in honor of King Felipe II. The name was later taken for the entire archipelago. In 1571, an expedition led by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi established a Spanish colony in what is now Manila. With the help of some groups of Filipinos, he embarked on the conquest of the islands, a process that took hundreds of years.
During three centuries of Spanish imperialism, the whole archipelago was never placed under effective control by the Spaniards. Far fewer Spanish soldiers and settlers went to Asia than went to the Americas. The conquest of Mexico and Peru was destructive. It introduced diseases like small pox and syphilis, to which the Indians were not immune. With more sophisticated armaments, in a generation or so the Spaniards imposed their language and culture and brought about the mixture of races in what is now called Latin America. They were less successful in the Philippines.19 The friar was usually the only white man in a Filipino village. He was the religious and secular head, the confessor, and the representative of the king in the town. Because of his wide-ranging duties and scope of authority, he was prone to commit abuses, and he did.
The head of the colony was the governor-general. His complete title was "gobernador y capitan general y vice-real patron." As governor-general, he governed for the king of Spain; he headed the colonial government and was the chief legislator. As captain-general, he was the head of all armed forces; and as vice-royal patron, he represented the king as patron of the Catholic Church.20 In his last role, he often clashed with church leaders.
This elevated office, which is filled by a lieutenant general of the National Armies, is vested with extraordinary and the most important attributes.... Annexed to this office are those of Vice-Royal Patron of the Indias, Captain-General-in-Chief of the Army of Filipinas, Inspector General of all troops and institutions, Supreme Chief of Naval Forces, and President of all Corporations and Associations of an official character.21
His authoritarian rule was basically unchecked, except by the friars and the members of the priestly orders.
The imposition of Spanish rule was made possible by a policy of "divide et impera," "divide and rule." Dividing the Philippine peoples was easy because in the first place, they had never been unified by a central authority and were divided into many ethnolinguistic groups. There was no central government either. The Spaniards capitalized on internal feuds among the groups and used one to conquer another. In collaboration with the native leaders and with their armies, territories were declared under the sovereign rule of the Spanish monarch. To make efficient their quest for "god, gold, and glory," the Spaniards brought together the Filipinos from their scattered dwellings into reducciones, within hearing of church bells ("bajo de la campana").22 Proximity facilitated control, tribute collection, conversion, and the practice of Christianity as well as the enforcement of other impositions such as forced labor and government monopolies. The Spanish king granted encomiendas, lists of names for the purpose and privilege of collecting tributes, to Spanish military leaders and to other grantees, called encomenderos, in exchange for their services in the conquest. Filipinos who collaborated with the Spaniards often performed the task of tribute collection and were granted privileges and formal authority over others.23
The Spaniards granted those Filipinos principalia status, and over generations, they exercised their influence and power. They served as intermediaries to the Spanish conquerors. From among the principalia, gobernadorcillos were selected or chosen by lot.