HIST 1 LESSON GUIDE | Precolonial

and Early Spanish Era

Precolonial and Early Spanish Era

Introduction, p. 1
Key Concepts, p. 1
Learning Resources, pp. 1-9
Study Questions, p. 9
References, p. 10

INTRODUCTION
In the past lessons, we learned the basics of the discipline of history, such as the difference between
primary and secondary sources, the types of primary sources, and the process of content and context analyses.
The following lesson on the precolonial era and the early Spanish era will serve as our first attempt to
formally apply the concepts learned in the previous lessons. The two eras are merged into a single lesson since
much of the early Spanish era involves remaking precolonial cultures into something that was more acceptable
to Spanish standards. Nevertheless, some of the primary sources we will encounter in this lesson show that
precolonial mindsets were not entirely erased. By the end of the lesson, we will have covered the events that
will set up the Philippine revolution of the 19th century. The lesson is good for 2-3 hours. Shall we start?

KEY CONCEPTS
Boxer Codex, conquista espiritual, reduccion, principalia, friar, encomendero, indio, secularization

LEARNING RESOURCES
We begin the lesson by clarifying that prior to the arrival of Spain in the archipelago, technically the
Philippines did not yet exist. A number of communities and small kingdoms already thrived by the 16th
century. They had distinct political and economic systems, sometimes trading with each other, but they did
not consider themselves to be part of a single nation.
What were these people like? Outside of archaeological artifacts, we have very few written records made
by the inhabitants of the archipelago, to tell us themselves what their life was like. Unfortunately, the most
accessible primary sources for us in this class are records from the early colonial era, records of the encounters
between the first waves of colonizers and the people in the islands whom they encountered.
One such source is the Boxer Codex — notes, translated excerpts, and illustrations on which appear below.

A folio of rare Filipiniana: Boxer Codex

Carlos Quirino
Two very important works on the history of the Philippines appeared during the last two decades
as an aftermath of the last World War: the Doctrina Christiana of 1593, the first book printed in the
country; and the Boxer Codex circa 1595, a manuscript containing the first illustrations of Filipinos at
the time of the Spanish contact in the 16th century.
The previous owner of the manuscript was Lord Ilchester, whose Holland House in London was a
direct hit during the German bombing of 1942. What remained of his collection was put up for auction

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in 1947, and Prof. Charles R. Boxer, authority on the Far East, brought it for a modest sum. The
manuscript is now at the Lilly Library of the University of Indiana in the USA.
The importance of this unique manuscript lies not only in the description and historical allusions
to the various countries and regions covered, but in the faithful reproduction of the peoples and their
costumes. It has 75 colored drawings of inhabitants of the Philippines, Moluccas, New Guinea, Annam,
Formosa, Cambodia, Brunei, Achin (Sumatra), Siam, China and Japan, and descriptions of these places
in the 307-page manuscript. Fifteen deal with Filipinos. Hitherto, and for a century thereafter, pictures
of Filipinos were made abroad by European artists from descriptions or sketches made by travelers and
chroniclers. As a result such drawings bore only a faint resemblance to the originals.
In the Codex, however, Tagalog, Bisayan, Zambal, Cagayano and Negrito are depicted in vivid colors
with remarkable fidelity. The descriptions of the neighboring countries, as Prof. Boxer had pointed out,
are not original; that on China, for example, was based on Fray Martin de Rada’s narrative. Except for
drawings depicting the Chinese, those of inhabitants of adjoining countries are odd-looking, to say the
least. Quite obviously, the artist did not actually visit the places mentioned in the text, but drew from
imagination.
Chinese Lines. Prof. Boxer believes the drawings were the work of a Chinese artist, since the
features of persons portrayed are mostly of a Mongolian cast. The ideographs however are too well
brushed to be the work of any of the Spanish friars or Jesuits in 1595. The use of Chinese paper, ink and
paints of the Ming period, also suggests a Chinese artist. The influence however is tempered by the use
of several western forms. The decorated borders of foxes, birds, bees and flowers are reminiscent of the
marginal borders of the “Book of Hours” by the celebrated Parisian artist-printer, Geoffrey Tory, who
died in 1533.
The owner of the original Boxer Codex manuscript was most probably Luis Pérez Dasmariñas, son
of Governor-General Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, who was killed by Sangley [people of mixed Chinese and
indio descent] rowers in 1593. Luis succeeded his father to the governorship, and since Spanish colonial
governors were required to prepare a written record of the territories they governed for the
information of the king and other high officials in Madrid, it is likely that he ordered it written. The
Codex contains descriptions of the Bisayas, Zambales, the Mountain Province and Cagayan where he
had traveled during the incumbency of his father.
The contents of the document are not startingly new: they corroborate earlier or contemporary
accounts by Miguel de Loarca, Fray Juan Plasencia, Father Pedro Chirino, Dr. Antonio de Morga,
Francisco Colin et al. But in one little item of erotica, this document is unique: a drawing of “the wheel
of ring with round spurs… which they make of lead or brass and some of gold…” placed around the male
genital prior to copulation appears in the margin of one of the folios of the Codex. — Carlos Quirino

EXCERPTS FROM THE BOXER CODEX
Dressed to the Hilt in Cagayan. “Regarding their dress and costume, the men wear bahaques and
a skirt of black cloth, wide and long up to the mid-thigh. The majority of the natives use leather soles,
and there is a creek where people live who make them. The bahaque comes from the dried bark of a
tree, and on their head they wear a band of the same bark. This same apparel they have for mourning.

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“All the people, except those mentioned above,

ordinarily use this dress. All the time they are in
mourning they do not eat rice nor drink wine, only
borona (corn), camotes and other herbs. They wear
their hair long to the shoulders and short at the front
up to the temples. They wear on their heads crowns
made of fragrant herbs.
“Their weapons are lances and shields a fathom
long and three-fourths of a fathom wide. They have
some quilted arms and a cap similar to the colored
morion, and some daggers of more than eight fingers
in width and a palm and a half in length, with heads
of ebony, with which they can cut off a head with a
stroke. Others use a bow and arrow, although the
majority of these fletchers are Negritos.
“The indios of Purrao [Aparri?] which is near the
source of the river Tajo [Cagayan], use for weapons
cured buffalo hides which are strong and hard to
penetrate; they have corselets and moriones and
spears which are long and wide. These are their arms
for war.”
Woman from the pages labelled Cagayanes

The Tattoo Tradition of the Bisayas. “The Bisayas are accustomed to paint their bodies with
some very elegant paintings. They do them with iron or brass points heated with a fire, and they have
artisans who are adept at it. They do them with such order, symmetry and coordination that they elicit
admiration from those who see them.
“They are done in the manner of illuminations, painting all parts of the body, such as the chest, the
stomach, legs, arms, shoulders, hands and muscles, and among some the posteriors.
“The women paint only the hands very elegantly. To the men these paintings serve as if they were
dressed, and thus they seem although they usually go naked, and wear nothing on the body except a
cotton cloth two fathoms long, or a bit more, and three-fourths of a fathom wide, which with a few
polished turns they wrap around the waist and between the legs so as to cover their private parts and
posteriors, with the rest of the body naked.
“This cloth they call in their tongue bahaque, and with this the paintings look as well as if they were
dressed very elegantly. They have another kind of dress, which consists of some cotton cloths that they
make into a morning wear. They are closed at the front. The men carry on their heads very fine head-
dresses of many colors which become a sort of Turkish turban. They call these in their language purones
/ putong in Tagalog, and they are certainly nice-looking and elegant. The young men wear them very
finely with many strips of gold….”

On the Ancient Afterworld. “Although it is true that in these islands of Luzon, Panay and Cebu
there is an infinity of languages, one different from the others and as consequence different garbs —
some barbaric, others medium and still others of a very high conception — almost all agree as to pagan

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rites and ceremonies; and if in some parts they differ somewhat, the degree is so slight that it would be
inconvenient to dwell on each group.
“Regarding the first, it is to be noted that these people have and revere one God, the maker of all
things, whom some call bathala, others may-ari, others diwata; and although they profess belief in this
God as creator of all things, they neither know when He made, nor how nor why His abode is in heaven.
“They have always known, and have knowledge of, that they have a soul which on leaving the body
goes to a certain place that some call casanaán and others makang. They say this is divided into two
large places: an arm is in the middle of the sea, which some say is for the soul of mariners who are
dressed in white; and the other is for the rest who are dressed in red for greater attraction.
“They say that the souls who inhabit these places die seven times, and some others are resuscitated
and undergo the same travail and miseries that they undergo in their bodies in this world; but they have
the power to remove and give health, which they effect through the air; and for this reason they revere
and ask of them for help by holding drinking feasts.”

On Burial Traditions. “Generally in these islands the dead are buried without delay, although not
all are given the same pomp by the common people. They do no more than cover the deceased with a
white sheet and bury the body next to their house or field. Later they hold a drinking feast and with this
conclude the ceremony.
“But the chiefs are covered with the richest silken sheets they have and placed in an incorruptible
wooden coffin in which some gold is placed in accordance with the rank of the deceased, and bury him
under a house which they have built for the purpose, where all the dead relatives are interred, and
enclose the grave with curtains and place a lighted lamp over the grave and food as offerings for the
dead, depending on the importance of the deceased; sometimes a man or a woman is placed on guard
all the time even after three or four years have passed. In some places they kill slaves and bury them
with their masters in order to serve them in the afterlife; this practice is carried out to the extent that
many load a ship with more than 60 slaves, fill it up with food and drink, place the dead on board, and
the entire vessel including the live slaves are buried in the earth.
“They hold offerings by drinking for more than a month. Others keep the corpse in the house for
seven days so that the fluids may flow, and in the interim with all that fetid smell they are drinking
without halting. Later they remove the flesh from the bones and throw it to the sea. The bones are then
placed in an earthen jar. After a considerable time, if they deem fit, they bury the jar or leave it in their
house. But the most repugnant and horrible thing they do is when interring the bones they drink with
the bones serving as cups; and this is what they [do] from Bataan to Mariveles.
“There are others who do not bury their dead, but take them to a hill and there hurl them out and
then flee hurriedly because they believe that he who is last to leave will die, and for this reason there
are a few who dare carry them: those who take the risk do so because they are well paid for it. When
burying the dead they do not pass it through the main door, but through a window: and if they do so,
close it later and change it to another part of the house, because they believe that those who pass where
the dead has passed would also die.
“Mourning for the dead consists of abstaining from eating rice for the same number of years as
prescribed in the dowry, and only by husbands over their wives — the rest are permitted to do so.
Depending on how the surviving spouse feels over the death or a lack of it, the widower — if a chief —
enters a curtain and in four days eats nothing, because it is said that if this is not done he would become
crazy. During all this time a priest sings and dances around the mourner. If the deceased person has

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slaves or his parents have them, all shave their heads in mourning, and all male relatives do likewise;
the parents cut partly their hair, and nobody wears silk or gold ornaments for a long time.
“The men in some parts wear collars of rattan, and women on their wrists; they do not bathe or
end their mourning until some [other?] person is killed; then they remove the collars, hold a solemn
drinking feast and end their mourning.”

On Omens of Old. “They do not allow anything to be eaten where the rice is planted, because they
believe that he who does so will either die or turn mad.
“When it rains while the sun is shining and the sky is somewhat reddish, they say anitos unite to
war on them and they are in great fear; and neither women nor children are allowed to go down their
houses until the rain stops and the sky clears up.
“When the earth shakes they say the anitos do it, and so they all go about delivering blows to the
house and making much noise, saying that with these the anitos become scared and stop the
earthquake.
“If somebody sneezes, or they hear a lizard’s clucking, or if some snake crosses their path, they turn
back saying that those are signs that God has sent and that it is not His will for them to continue, and
that if they proceed some evil would befall them….
“They believe in dreams, whether good or bad: if good, they consider it as a good sign, and if bad a
bad sign. In the latter case, they hold maganitos or offerings and prayers to their gods and anitos. They
remain sad until an omen signifying some good for them turns up….
“They use herbs to attract those whom they like and correspondingly use others on those whom
they dislike.
“Finally, they utter a thousand and one words when building a house; before they put on a roof
they place a scarecrow at the highest part of it so that the owl may not perch on
it, because they take it as an omen that those who will live in it will die. And if
in the house where they live a swallow or snake should perch or enter, they
abandon it or hold a drinking feast or a maganito because they fear that they
would die if they do not do so.”

You can scan the QR code to see a few more illustrations from the Boxer Codex!

So these were the natives of the archipelago as seen through Spanish eyes and
recorded in their writings. For more information about the natives derived from
objects and artifacts, you can scan the QR code on the left to open the Ayala Museum’s
YouTube playlist entitled “Gold & Splendor.”

In 1521, a Spanish expedition led by the Portuguese explorer Fernão de Magalhães

(Ferdinand Magellan) landed on the shores of the archipelago, which would mark the
Spanish empire’s first contact with people from this region. It is important that we avoid saying “Magellan
discovered the Philippines,” because the word “discover” implies being the first to know about an object or a
place. As we read above, people were already living and thriving in the archipelago even before 1521! If we
keep using the word “discover,” then, we’re upholding the problematic idea that a place does not exist unless
the West knows about it. L

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It’s also important to note that Magellan’s expedition had no intentions of colonizing yet in 1521. The
Philippines as a whole country would only begin taking shape — politically and literally — upon the arrival of
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 1565. Prior to 1565, maps of the country Filipinas were mostly of eastern Visayas
only, then later, Visayas and Mindanao. Legazpi eventually claimed Luzon as part of Filipinas.
This makes the literal shape of our country something that was imposed on us by our colonizers, especially
if we note that literally nobody in Luzon, Visayas, or Mindanao asked to be treated as one political entity, until
all three were claimed by the Spanish empire. But that is how colonialism works.

Is this clear?
For the most part of the Spanish colonial period, only the following areas were actually under Spanish
rule: the lowlands of Luzon, the bigger Visayan islands, and northern Mindanao. For the foreigners, this was
apparently enough to claim that the entire archipelago belonged to Spain.
The Spanish king ruled its Philippine colony through the viceroyalty of Mexico. Mexico was also part of
the Spanish empire by this time, colonized earlier than us in 1519. This meant that whatever practices or royal
decrees were implemented to Mexico, applied to the Philippines as well — such as conquista espiritual,
spiritual conquest.
The “frontliners” of colonization included the Spanish militia, administrators, and missionaries. The
Catholic Church and the Spanish Crown had this unique arrangement called patronato real de las Indias: in this
arrangement, rulers were given a duty to send missionaries to the “New World,” or the non-Christian lands
newly “discovered” by the European nations. Spain was granted permission to do whatever had to be done to
fulfill the duty of preaching and converting.
In the Philippines, the missionaries sent to do this came from different religious orders, beginning with
the Franciscans and Jesuits who arrived in 1578 and 1581. These missionaries were the ones in charge of
spiritually conquering the natives, by convincing them to convert to Christianity.
How do you convince a group of people to turn away from beliefs they have had for hundreds of years?
Think about it. A number of missionaries used what we call folk Catholicism, where the Catholic religion was
merged with the anito beliefs of the natives.

Bajo de la campana
Of course, colonization did not only take place on the spiritual level. Conquista espiritual was accompanied
with physical resettlement, through a policy we call reduccion. Reduccion was the forced relocation of natives
from their scattered settlements all over the archipelago to designated areas (called cabeceras or poblacions)
where the natives could be converted and taxed more efficiently.
In 1573, two decades after Magellan and crew’s arrival, the king of Spain issued a royal ordinance that
regulated how towns in the colonies were to be organized. With the implementation of this ordinance, natives
came to know life as bajo de la campana (under the bell). Literally, day-to-day life was dictated by the ringing
of the bells, such that the farther one lived from the sound, the less civilized one was considered to be. Some
of the reasons the bells would ring:
à To remind people to pray at 6AM, 12NN, 6PM
à To call people to mass
à To announce a birth, death, or marriage
à To signal a fire, typhoon, or pirate attack
à To cleanse the air of evil spirits

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Below is the foundational plan of a city in Argentina that is also what would’ve been implemented in the
towns in the Philippines. Note the plaza or open square at the center. Around it were the church and the
convento (or friar’s residence), government buildings, and houses of prominent Spaniards and indios, all
arranged in a grid.
Interestingly, many towns around the country are still arranged like this today. Unfortunately, by forcing
natives to relocate, precolonial barangay systems were broken down and remade to meet Western standards.

Foundational Plan of San Juan de la Frontera, Argentina

What else happened?

Women were taught by the Spanish to cover themselves up, even though a number of indigenous groups
did not have a problem with women leaving their upper bodies bare. The Spanish preached modesty and
humility, carrying over from Europe to the Philippines the idea that women led men to sin.

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With the reduccion policy in place, the colonial government enlisted the help of precolonial datus for tax
collection and other political matters. These ex-datus eventually became known as the principalia class. When
the Spanish introduced the concept of land ownership, it also remade the precolonial mentality that nobody
could own land, only the things that came from the land. The principalia quickly took advantage of this by
claiming as their own private property the lands which had once belonged to their barangays. They found
ways to profit from positions they occupied in the new world, and solidified their relationships with Spaniards
by selling their lands to hacienda owners or donating them to the so-called friar estates.

The friar and the encomendero

When discussing the early Spanish era, it is impossible to not talk about two other types of people: the
friar and the encomendero.
The friar or prayle held what is probably the most important position in the Philippine colony. He belonged
to a religious order, much like the early missionaries, and he lived at the heart of the town. It was the friar’s
duty to continue the conquista espiritual, but unlike the missionaries, many friars did not believe in folk
Catholicism and were more aggressive in destroying precolonial anito beliefs. Back then, one could not even
leave the town unless they had the friar’s permission.
Friars were also in charge of educating the natives, but they did not teach natives their Spanish language.
The language would have given natives access to the same knowledge that the friars had.
Because of their central role in society, friars were often given special treatment by natives who wanted
their favor, like the principalia we mentioned earlier who would contribute land to friar estates even when,
with the priestly vow of poverty, friars were technically not allowed to hold wealth or private property.
The friar’s main rival was the encomendero. The encomendero was an official who was enticed to serve in
the colonies by the promise of land from the Spanish Crown. The encomendero received this land, plus a share
in the natives’ taxes, in exchange for protecting the natives who belonged to his encomienda and providing
them with religious instruction.
When natives paid taxes, they usually paid in kind. But then the rice, eggs, salt, liquors that natives paid
would be resold at much higher prices in Manila, or the encomenderos would use faulty scales to cheat natives
into paying more. Friars used this greed as basis for complaining to the king that encomenderos were
destroying the image of Christianity for the natives. So by 1700, the encomienda system was no more.

What about the friars?

In the 1770s, Philippine parishes became secularized by order of the Spanish Crown. Secularization meant
that parishes would no longer be under friars from religious orders, but under secular priests who answered
to diocesan bishops. By the late 18th century, the Jesuit order had left the Philippines, so bishops saw their
absence as an opportunity to further reduce the power held by friars.
Since there was a new need for secular priests, seminaries became open for the first time to men from
native and mestizo (mixed-race) families.

Where were the “Filipinos” during this time?

If you’ve noticed, the term “Filipino” does not appear much in this lesson. That is because “Filipino” during
the early years of the Spanish colonial era referred only to Spaniards and occasionally mestizos who were

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born in the Philippine archipelago. Spaniards who were born in their home country distinguished themselves
from Filipinos by continuing to call themselves Spaniards.
The natives of the archipelago were called indios, or literally Indians. When did they start breaking out of
this label; when did they start thinking of themselves as Filipinos? That is a story for another lesson.

STUDY QUESTIONS
Once you have finished reading, we can now process our insights and takeaways from the lesson. It is alright
for you to take your time with your processing, so to help you achieve this, here are following the Study
Questions for this lesson:
1. In what ways were precolonial cultures changed through the influence of the Spaniards?
2. What did the bell symbolize in Spanish colonial society? In the modern day, what object or instrument
do you think performs the same purpose as the bell of the Spanish era?
3. In what ways were the friar and the encomendero different? In what ways were they alike?
4. Some events in this lesson involve the giving of names, as well as the changing of names from one to
another. In your opinion, do names have power?
If you’re having difficulty making sense of the questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your teacher and
classmates! Just remember prior to the Synchronous Session for the specified Module, you will need to
post your answers to the Study Questions in our Module 2: Forum.
REFERENCES
Abinales, Patricio N., and Donna J. Amoroso. State and Society in the Philippines. 2nd ed. Quezon City: Ateneo
de Manila University Press, [2017].
Ayala Museum. “How Did We Express Faith? | ATIN: Stories from the Collection.” YouTube video, 4:19.
October 9, 2019. https://youtu.be/OP3TSd5Buyo.
---. “How Did We Show Off Our Skills? | Atin: Stories from the Collection.” YouTube video, 3:15. August 28,
2019. https://youtu.be/lg1r3x-9kTE.
---. “What Did We Do For Beauty? | Gold Pegged Teeth | In Focus: Arts and Objects Explained.” YouTube
video, 2:01. October 27, 2019. https://youtu.be/UY91fc-Ve18.
---. “What Do Designs on Pre-colonial Gold Say? | In Focus: Gold Pectoral Discs & Belt Buckles.” YouTube
video, 2:03. January 13, 2021. https://youtu.be/KQVag1a5doQ.
de San Agustin, Gaspar. “San Agustin’s Letter on the Filipinos” [excerpt]. In Vol. 40 of The Philippine Islands,
1493-1803. Edited by Emma Blair and James Robertson. Cleveland, OH: A.H. Clark, 1903.
Gutay, Femilou. “Bajo de la Campana: The ‘Reduccion’ Policy.” Order of Friars Minor – OFM Province of San
Pedro Bautista. https://www.ofmphil.com/bajo-de-la-campana.
Ocampo, Ambeth. “When people lived ‘bajo la campana.’” Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 27, 2016.
https://opinion.inquirer.net/94927/when-people-lived-bajo-la-campana.
Quirino, Carlos. “A folio of rare Filipiniana: Boxer Codex.” In Filipino Heritage: The Making of A Nation. Edited
by Alfredo R. Roces, 1003-1008. Manila: Lahing Pilipino Publishing, 1977.
Spain - King Philip II. Royal Ordinances Concerning the Laying Out of New Cities, Towns or Villages [excerpt].
http://www.jstor.com/stable/2506027.

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📸 Boxer Codex - The Lilly Library Digital Collections, Lilly Library LMC 2444. Indiana University –
Bloomington, USA. http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/omeka/lilly/items/show/93.

📸 Foundational Plan of San Juan de la Frontera. Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain.
https://vistasgallery.ace.fordham.edu/items/show/1726.

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