Readings in Philippine History

Section 4
Pastor, Aaron Richard L. March 14, 2020
Prof. Jonalyn Nucum Alternative Class

We know that the Spanish government has colonized our country for so many years, because our
country has been rich in natural resources, and this is the main reason why foreign countries have
colonized our country. The Spanish conquest in the Philippines has led us to ask ourselves some
questions: What do you think would be the reason why Spanish easily conquered our land and spread
Catholicism to us? And whose fault it is? Do you think it has a positive effect on us and to our country?
And, what would be our culture if we weren't conquered?
The Spanish government successfully colonized our country by providing different kinds of feast
and rituals that Filipinos likes. Filipinos are fond in different beliefs and superstition that is why Spanish
took that as their advantage to slowly colonized our country and its citizen. It was difficult for the Spanish
to invade our country, because based on what I’ve read, since our country is an archipelago the Spaniards
have it difficult to spread Catholicism because of lack of their people and priest. The people and their
priest depleted during their sail going to our country, because they experience different kinds of
challenges such as catching diseases that no one can cure and when they came here in our country they
cannot adopt the climate of our country, because our climate here is very hot and humid. But despite
those challenges they face to conquer us, they still succeed to colonized us. The Spanish want to resettle
these people in small villages to big villages so that the clergy can build their churches, and they don't
want to have houses around their churches. But Filipinos do not want to leave the small village because
they grew up there and their livelihood, if the Filipinos migrate to big village their ecological balance will
be shattered because the way of living there is fishing and hunting. The Spaniards build Sunday houses on
every occasion for them to entertain Filipinos to come to big villages. The Spaniards also have option to
resettle Filipinos to big villages by doing the coercion but they did not do it unless there is a violence
occurred. The feast and the rituals they introduced to us serves as their trap and tactics for the Spaniards
to control us. If we were not colonized by the Spanish government, maybe we are not that develop
country today, we will remain the same that the one who leads us or who have the power is the “Datu”.
Our houses will be only be “bahay kubo” because the Spaniards is the one who taught us how to used
stones in building houses, and the Spaniards who taught us to dress properly, they introduce to us the
western coat and Americana for us not to wear anymore the traditional jacket and bahag for men. There
are a lot of things that Spanish colonization taught us, So the conquest of the Spaniards has not only a
negative effect, but also a positive effect.
In my conclusion, we Filipinos are also the one who blame why Spaniards easily colonized us
because Filipino people fell into the traps of Spaniards. Additionally, Filipinos before do not have unity
so they took that also as their advantage to invade us. In the movie “Heneral Luna” the leaders there do
not have trust to one another, and those who have potential in leading a battle they are the ones who are
being killed by high-ranking officials. If we work together and have unity before, maybe we haven’t
colonized that long by other countries.