Captaincy General of the Philippines

The Captaincy General of the Philippines was Spain's Asian colony from 1565 to 1898, ruled from Manila across the Pacific. Legazpi sailed from Mexico in 1564, took Cebu in 1565 and in 1571 founded Manila on its bay, the walled Intramuros that governed the archipelago for three centuries. The colony lived by the galleon: every year or two the great ship sailed Acapulco bound with Chinese silks bought at Manila, returning with American silver that paid the colony's soldiers and priests. The captain general, also royal audiencia president, ruled with friars who held the parishes, the schools and, their enemies said, everything else. Chinese revolts bloodied the Parian; Dutch and English squadrons probed and left; the British held Manila itself in 1762–64. The nineteenth century opened the ports to world trade, creole and mestizo money built schools, and Rizal's novels woke the nation he would die for in 1896. Aguinaldo declared independence in June 1898; that December Paris gave the islands to America for twenty million dollars, with Guam thrown in and the Carolines sold to Germany the next year, ending the captaincy and beginning the American Philippines.