South-East Asia

Abstract

Three centuries of Spanish rule familiarized the Filipinos with Western forms of government and permitted a few Filipinos to gain practical experience in local administration. Though corrupt in practice, in theory and profession the colonial system of Spain was fine and uplifting. Spaniards and Filipinos may have failed always to maintain high standards, but those standards were ever before them in the laws and precepts of both the state and the church. There could be no better evidence that these standards did make an impression upon the Filipino mind than the rebellion of the Filipinos against Spanish rule. The Filipinos fought and died for political ideas they had learned from the West, although the Spaniards had not put into practice what they taught the Filipinos. The leaders of the revolution were not a band of armed peasants; they were cultivated and able men with wealth and influential connections. Given protection against outside aggression, it is quite possible that they would have provided the Philippines with a workable government.