{"id":544,"date":"2018-05-12T10:18:05","date_gmt":"2018-05-12T17:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.palomar.edu\/mcastillo\/?page_id=544"},"modified":"2025-10-07T01:09:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T08:09:34","slug":"the-philippines","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.palomar.edu\/mcastillo\/the-philippines\/","title":{"rendered":"I – The Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"An<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The history of the Philippines<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(I – reading for understanding, the past tense of be and regular and irregular verbs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Philippines is located south of Taiwan, east of Vietnam, and north of Indonesia.  It contains over 7,000 archipelago islands, and its inhabitants speak many dialects (over 70 are known to be spoken on the islands), the principal of which is “Tagalog” which is spoken by all Filipinos and is taught in school along with English as a second language. The Philippines was<\/span> colonized by people from Malasia and Indonesia and other Pacific islanders thousands of years ago, but it was<\/span> the Spanish who made<\/span> their mark claiming the islands for Spain on March 16, 1521 through the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan<\/a> (or Fernando Magallanes) who led<\/span> an expedition to the Homonhon Islands.  He was<\/span> the first European to have traveled to the Philippines and also the first to have died there after battling with and being killed by the warrior Lapu Lapu and his clansmen from Mactan, Visaya, Cebu.  Magellan wanted<\/span> to convert the Filipinos to Christianity, but Lapu Lapu refused<\/span> and thus started<\/span> a war with Magellan.  When Magellan set<\/span> sail to Mactan in Cebu to try to convert Lapu Lapu and his tribe to Christianity, he was<\/span> met with resistance by Lapu Lapu who eventually killed<\/span> and beheaded<\/span> him.  As a result out of the five ships and 300 men that Magellan had, only one ship, the Victoria, and 18 men survived<\/span> and managed<\/span> to sail back to Sevilla, Spain on September 6, 1522 after one year circumnavigating the globe.  The news of Magellan’s discovery and claim to the island urged<\/span> Spain to continue the settlement of the Philippines and grew<\/span> strength when they conquered<\/span> Mexico.  After their conquest of Mexico, they decided<\/span> to continue their settlement of the Philippines through the expeditions of Garcia Jofre Loaisa (1525), Sebastian <\/span>Cabot<\/span> <\/span>(1526), <\/span>Alvaro<\/span> <\/span>de Saavedra (1527), Rudy Lopez de Villalobos (1542) and Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (1564). Only the last two actually reached<\/span> the Philippines; and only Legazpi succeeded<\/span> in colonizing the Islands.  In fact, some cities in the Philippines are named after Legazpi. Legazpi reconquered<\/span> the Philippines by building ships in a small town called Barra de Navidad where there are lots of hardwood trees from which the Spaniards made ships.  Going to the Philippines by going south to Tierra del Fuego in Chile was<\/span> too dangerous and the journey took too long. The route from Mexico to the Philippines was a shorter route, and eventually trade was<\/span> established between Acapulco and Manila called the Manila Galleon trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spanish Expeditions to the Philippines<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Spanish discovered that there were<\/span> so many hardwood trees in the area from which they could build strong ships to sail to the Philippines, Legazpi realized<\/span> it was a good idea to build ships in Barra de Navidad instead of sailing all the way around South America through the Tierra del Fuego in Chile, a trip that was too long and too dangerous.  By building ships in Barra de Navidad Legazpi and his men could sail to the Philippines quicker.  By taking this shorter route the Spaniard had established a shorter route to the Philippines and were able to recolonize the Philippines.  Thus, Legazpi was<\/span> able to reconquer the Philippines and establish the first ever the Manila-Mexico trade route by way of Barra de Navidad and later through the port of Acapulco which later became<\/span> known as the Manila-Acapulco trade route of the Manila Galleon.  During his reconquest of the Philippines Legazpi brought<\/span> not only Spaniards but native Mexicans who were willing to leave their country of Mexico and become new settlers in the new Spanish colony of the Philippines.  Is it no wander that many Filipinos are Catholics and carry a Spanish names and have similar customs?   No doubt, Filipinos and Spanish and\/or Mexicans are distant relatives (or “paisanos” as they say in Spanish).  Due to the cultural contact with the Filipinos, the “Tagalog” language has been  enriched with Spanish words and expressions.  During the 300 years that the Philippines was recolonized, many people spoke not only Tagalog but also Spanish.  Due to the cultural contact with the natives, over 20% of the Filipino language contain Spanish words and phrases, and many Filipinos the during the 300 years of Spanish conquest were speaking Spanish as well as Tagalog.  Even the authors’s great grandparents used to speak Spanish well when they were<\/span> young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubric for this exercise in reading for understanding<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0 – 1 mistake – Student has no problem understanding the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 mistakes – Student has little problems understanding the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 mistakes – Student is showing problems in reading for comprehension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 mistakes – Student has significant problems understanding the story.<\/p>\n\n\n