Chapter I
THE PHILIPPINE BACKGROUND
a. Early History
Spanish sovereignty, first brought to the Philippines by Magellan in 1521, was firmly establish by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi when he founded the first permanent Spanish settlement on the island of Cebu, Legaspi successors quickly and, for the most part, peacefully brought the larger part of the island under Spanish control. Augistinian friars accompanied Legaspi, and were soon followed by another religious orders, so that by the end of a century, the larger part of the island was Christian. Priests diected the building of roads and bridges, founded and directed the schools, supervised local native officials, rsolved their problems, and defended them against the exactions of Spansih governors and encomenderos. In the unceasing raids carried on by the Muslim Moros form the southern island on Christian settlements, parish priests frequently had to organize the resistance and, more than once, put themselves art the head of the native militia to carry the war against the enemy.
By the end of the eighteenth century, however, the stirrings of a new era were discernible. The introduction of the tobacco monopoly, the promotin of agriculture by enlighten governors-general like Jose Basco y Vargas an by the Royal Philippine Company, the relaxing of restriction against foreignes, the opening of the Philippines to world trade 1834 all helped to bring new life to the colony. Moreover, the growing economic prosperity gradually leaf too the rise of a well-to-do