The Philippines to the end of Spanish Rule

Abstract

During the first half of the seventeenth century the Spanish hold upon the Philippines was strenuously challenged by the Dutch. Although they came into the island world of South-East Asia mainly in order to wrest control over the spice trade from the Portuguese, the Dutch were equally concerned to break the power of Spain. Quite apart from their general hostility to Spain as the enemy of their independence, they were impelled by two special considerations. In the first place the Spaniards from their Philippine bases could give vital assistance to the Portuguese in the Moluccas; in the second Manila’s strategic position as an entrepôt for Far Eastern trade offered dazzling opportunities of which the Dutch were only too well aware. Hence their onslaught upon the Hispano-Portuguese power in the Moluccas was accompanied by a grim naval warfare waged year after year in Philippine waters. It began in 1600 with an attempt by Oliver van Noort to intercept the Acapulco galleon. When he failed to do so, he cruised about Manila Bay plundering Chinese and Filipino shipping. But at the battle of Mariveles the Spaniards inflicted so severe a check on him that he had to limp away with the loss of one of his ships.