page_title: Filipinos
section_title: Hispanic settlement and rule (1521–1898)
hierarchical_section_title: Filipinos / History / Hispanic settlement and rule (1521–1898)
caption_attribution_description: English: Native Filipinos, called "Indios" by the Spanish. Detail from Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas (1734). From left to right, mainly translated from the Spanish captions as indicated: a native couple dressed for Church, a native woman dressed in a "chinina" (Chinese-style blouse or shirt) and a "tapis" (skirt); she is carrying a basket of wild guava fruit, two children, one dressed in a loincloth, the other naked. Both are carrying various items, incuding a crab, A Visayan man, armed with a "balarao" (knife or dagger) and a sword in the background are a couple performing a native dance
context_page_description: Filipinos are the people who are native to or citizens of the country of the Philippines. Filipinos come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups. Currently, there are more than 185 ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines; each with its own language, identity, culture and history. The number of individual languages listed for Philippines is 185. Of these, 183 are living and 2 are extinct. Of the living languages, 175 are indigenous and 8 are non-indigenous. Furthermore, as of 2019, 39 are institutional, 67 are developing, 38 are vigorous, 28 are endangered, and 11 are dying.
context_section_description: The Philippines was settled by the Spanish. The arrival of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese: Fernão de Magalhães) in 1521 began a period of European colonization. During the period of Spanish colonialism the Philippines was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which was governed and controlled from Mexico City. Early Spanish settlers were mostly explorers, soldiers, government officials and religious missionaries born in Spain and Mexico. Most Spaniards who settled were of Andalusian ancestry but there were also Catalan, Moorish and Basque settlers. The Peninsulares (governors born in Spain), mostly of Castilian ancestry, settled in the islands to govern their territory. Most settlers married the daughters of rajahs, datus and sultans to reinforce the colonization of the islands. The Ginoo and Maharlika castes (royals and nobles) in the Philippines prior to the arrival of the Spanish formed the privileged Principalía (nobility) during the Spanish period.
  The arrival of the Spaniards to the Philippines attracted new waves of immigrants from China, and maritime trade flourished during the Spanish period. The Spanish recruited thousands of Chinese migrant workers called sangleys to build the colonial infrastructure in the islands. Many Chinese immigrants converted to Christianity, intermarried with the locals, and adopted Hispanized names and customs and became assimilated, although the children of unions between Filipinos and Chinese that became assimilated continued to be designated in official records as mestizos de sangley. The Chinese mestizos were largely confined to the Binondo area until the 19th century. However, they eventually spread all over the islands, and became traders, landowners, and moneylenders.
  In the 16th and 17th centuries, thousands of Japanese traders also migrated to the Philippines and assimilated into the local population.
  British forces occupied Manila between 1762 and 1764 as a part of the Seven Years' War,. However, the only part of the Philippines which the British held was the Spanish colonial capital of Manila and the principal naval port of Cavite, both of which are located on Manila Bay. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris (1763). At the end of the war the treaty signatories were not aware that Manila had been taken by the British and was being administered as a British colony. Consequently, no specific provision was made for the Philippines. Instead they fell under the general provision that all other lands not otherwise provided for be returned to the Spanish Empire. Many Indian Sepoy troops and their British captains mutinied and were left in Manila and some parts of the Ilocos and Cagayan. The ones in Manila settled at Cainta, Rizal and the ones in the north settled in Isabela. Most were assimilated into the local population.
  A total of 110 Manila-Acapulco galleons set sail between 1565 and 1815, during the Philippines trade with Mexico. Until 1593, three or more ships would set sail annually from each port bringing with them the riches of the archipelago to Spain. European criollos, mestizos and Portuguese, French and Mexican descent from the Americas, mostly from Latin America came in contact with the Filipinos. Japanese, Indian and Cambodian Christians who fled from religious persecutions and killing fields also settled in the Philippines during the 17th until the 19th centuries.
  With the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1867, Spain opened the Philippines for international trade. European investors such as British, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Russian, Italian and French were among those who settled in the islands as business increased. More Spaniards arrived during the next century. Many of these European migrants intermarried with local mestizos and assimilated with the indigenous population.
caption: Native Filipinos as illustrated in the Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas (1734)
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