With Magellan dead, the Spaniards left but another expedition came fifty years later, this time led by the Mexican-Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legaspi who headed towards the north to Manila. On the ashes of Sulayman's Muslim domain at the mouth of the Pasig River, the Ever Loyal City of Manila was established by the Spaniards. It was a medieval-type enclave, protected by massive stonewalls with ramparts, battlements and drawbridges, and surrounded by a moat. The vessels that plied the lucrative Pacific route were called Manila Galleons. Manila enjoyed periods of prosperity but it also suffered invasions and wars of conquest.
Historical accounts relate incursions by Chinese pirates, Dutch, Portuguese and British marauders.
In 1898, the United States of America sent invading armies to plaster the First Philippine Republic of 1898, Asia's first constitutional democracy. The Philippines became an American colony for fifty years. After the war, Manila was the second most-destroyed city in the world, next to Warsaw. Today, Manila is the political capital of the Philippine Republic. It has close to 12 million inhabitants.