Founding of Spanish Manila (1571): Legazpi Claims the Philippines

The founding of Spanish Manila took place on 24 June 1571, when the conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi created a city council on the site of the Muslim trading settlement of Maynila, at the mouth of the Pasig River. The new city became the capital of the Spanish Philippines and the Asian hub of the trans-Pacific galleon trade. It marked the start of more than three centuries of Spanish colonial rule centred on Manila.

Background: Spain reaches the Philippines

Spain’s claim to the islands began with the Magellan-Elcano expedition, which reached the archipelago in 1521; Magellan was killed at Mactan that year. Several later Spanish expeditions failed to establish a lasting presence. In 1543 one of them named the islands Las Islas Filipinas after Prince Philip, the future Philip II.

In November 1564 Miguel López de Legazpi, a Basque official in New Spain, sailed from the Pacific coast of Mexico with four ships and a few hundred men (figures of about 350 to 500 are given). He reached the Visayas in early 1565 and founded the first Spanish settlement at Cebu that year. The Augustinian navigator Andrés de Urdaneta then found the route back across the Pacific, which made a permanent colony possible.

The Cebu settlement struggled with food shortages and Portuguese pressure from the Moluccas. In 1569 Legazpi moved his base to Panay. There he heard reports of a rich port on Luzon to the north, where Chinese ships came to trade.

Maynila before the Spanish

Maynila was a fortified settlement on the south bank of the Pasig River, protected by a wooden palisade with cannon. Its ruling family was Muslim and had close links with the Sultanate of Brunei. Across the river lay Tondo, ruled by Lakandula. Both towns traded with Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian merchants.

The leading rulers of Maynila at this time were Rajah Matanda (also called Ache) and his nephew Rajah Sulayman. Settlements around Manila Bay had a long history before Islam arrived. The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, dated to AD 900, refers to places in the region and shows that local societies had writing, debt contracts and links with the wider Malay world centuries earlier. Islam spread to Manila in the 15th and 16th centuries through trade and marriage ties with Brunei, and by the 1570s its rulers were Muslim, although Islam was still new to much of the population.

Society in Luzon was organised into barangays, communities under datus, with nobles, freemen and dependants.

What happened

In May 1570 Legazpi sent his field commander Martín de Goiti and his young grandson Juan de Salcedo north with a small force and Visayan allies. After negotiations broke down, fighting broke out on 24 May 1570. The Spanish captured Maynila, which burned, but they were too few to hold it and withdrew to Panay.

In April 1571 Legazpi himself sailed for Luzon with a larger force, arriving in Manila Bay in May. This time the rulers of Maynila and Tondo agreed to accept Spanish authority, after negotiations and under the threat of force. Rajah Sulayman at first resisted.

Opposition was organised by Tarik Sulayman, a chief from Macabebe in Pampanga, who led a fleet of warboats against the Spanish. On 3 June 1571 he was defeated and killed at the Battle of Bangkusay, near Tondo. The victory removed the main armed resistance in the Manila Bay area.

On 24 June 1571 Legazpi formally established Manila as a Spanish city, appointing its first officials and city council and declaring it the capital of the colony. He began building a fort and a church on the site of Sulayman’s former stronghold.

Key people

• Miguel López de Legazpi (c. 1502-1572): leader of the expedition and first governor-general of the Philippines. He died in Manila on 20 August 1572.
• Martín de Goiti: Legazpi’s field commander, who led the 1570 attack on Maynila.
• Juan de Salcedo (c. 1549-1576): Legazpi’s grandson, who led campaigns across Luzon.
• Rajah Sulayman: ruler of Maynila who resisted the Spanish.
• Rajah Matanda and Lakandula: rulers of Maynila and Tondo who came to terms with the Spanish.

Building a colonial capital

In 1574 King Philip II granted Manila the title of “distinguished and ever loyal city”. The same year a large Chinese pirate fleet under Limahong (Lin Feng) attacked the city; Goiti was killed, but the Spanish and their allies repulsed the assault.

Manila soon became the political and religious centre of the colony. The Diocese of Manila was created in 1579, and its first bishop, the Dominican Domingo de Salazar, arrived in 1581. The Royal Audiencia, the high court, was established in 1583. In the 1590s, under Governor Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, the Spanish began replacing wooden defences with stone walls and rebuilt Fort Santiago in stone. The walled city became known as Intramuros, “within the walls”.

Most importantly, Manila became the Asian terminus of the Manila galleon trade. Chinese junks brought silk and porcelain, which were exchanged for American silver and shipped to Acapulco. A large Chinese community, the Sangleys, settled in the Parián district outside the walls, alongside Japanese, Malay and other residents.

Consequences

Manila’s foundation gave Spain a permanent base in Asia. From it, Spanish soldiers and missionaries extended colonial rule and Catholicism through much of Luzon and the Visayas, although Muslim sultanates in Mindanao and Sulu resisted for centuries.

The Spanish rewarded conquistadors and settlers with encomiendas, grants of the right to collect tribute from groups of local people in return for protecting them and supporting their conversion. The system, already used in the Americas, led to frequent abuses, which missionaries such as Bishop Salazar denounced to the crown.

For the peoples of Luzon, the conquest brought tribute, forced labour and the reorganisation of communities into Spanish-style towns around churches. It also brought new crops, institutions and the Catholic faith, which became central to Filipino identity.

Legacy

Manila remained the capital of the Spanish Philippines until 1898, apart from the British occupation of 1762-1764. In the 19th century it became the centre of the reform movement and the Philippine Revolution of 1896. Much of Intramuros was destroyed during the Battle of Manila in 1945, and parts, including Fort Santiago, have since been restored.

Rajah Sulayman is remembered in the Philippines as a symbol of resistance to colonial rule, and monuments to him and to Legazpi stand in the city. Manila marks 24 June as its founding day.

Timeline

• 1521: The Magellan expedition reaches the Philippines.
• 21 November 1564: Legazpi’s expedition sails from New Spain.
• 1565: Legazpi founds a Spanish settlement at Cebu.
• 1569: The Spanish move their base to Panay.
• 24 May 1570: Goiti and Salcedo attack and burn Maynila.
• May 1571: Legazpi arrives in Manila Bay; local rulers accept Spanish authority.
• 3 June 1571: Tarik Sulayman is killed at the Battle of Bangkusay.
• 24 June 1571: Legazpi establishes Manila as a Spanish city and capital.
• 20 August 1572: Legazpi dies in Manila.
• 1574: Limahong’s attack on Manila is repulsed.

Why it matters

The founding of Spanish Manila created the capital of the Philippines and Spain’s main base in Asia. By linking Chinese trade to American silver, Manila became one of the first truly global cities, and the events of 1570-1571 shaped the political, religious and cultural history of the Philippines for centuries.