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1994
Philipines South East Asia
Bec2004-09-20 18:23:21
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leaving the same pattern of a powerful elite served by submissive "indigenos" pacified by the dream of a better existence in heaven.
Here is the gate of Fort Santiago, where the eradication of the islanders' original cultures was orchestrated. Friars went to war with the soldiers and converted almost everyone to the Catholic religion (by the cross and the sword), with the exception of a Muslim minority entrenched in the South on the island of Mindanao and in the Sulu Archipelago.
The independence movement that liberated Spain's American colonies did not reach the Philippines but the development of commercial agriculture (sugar, coffee and hemp), created a new class of landowners alongside the Church and the original indigenous nobility. There were no public schools until the 1860's, very few could read and education was completely in the hands of the Church. The new merchant class sent their children to be educated in Europe where they discovered liberal ideas that led José Rizal to form the Liga Filipina seeking reforms. The Spanish first jailed, then executed him in 1896. That gave the signal for the revolt of the Katipunan Association who wanted independence. They were defeated but the Spanish-American war broke out in 1998 and the Spanish were replaced by the Americans like in Cuba and Puerto Rico.
The new American masters took over, mouthing principles of democracy and human rights but changing very little in practice. The concept of "the rule of the people for the people" was foreign to the local elite for whom the privileges they enjoyed were part of a natural order of things sanctioned by the Church. It was also foreign to most of the people who had been taught that acceptance of their subservience would open the gates of heaven. Some rebelled but their guerillas were condemned by the Church and failed.
The Americans ruled through a Governor General until 1935 when a large measure of autonomy was granted,
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See photographs from:
Philippines Gallery
