Antonio Pigafetta, an Italian gentleman who accompanied the expedition of Fernando de Magallanes.

His description of Palawan was

1521 leaf illustrates the sense of wonder that natural world of the Pacific. The first Spanish settlers in the islands were fascinated by
grotesque creatures and sublime prospects.
1543 The Spanish were able to reach the archipelago from the west coast of New Spain and they established the galleon trade.
1571 Legaspi founded Manila on the island of Luzon as trading center. Spanish officers and traders clustered in the walled city.
1578 The San Francisco Corporation founded the San Lazaro Hospital.
1596 In Manila the Hospital de San Juan de Dios, for the care of poor Spaniards.
1601 Opened the Colegio de San Jose
1611 The same religious orders established many of the institutions that would shape the study of nature during the Spanish period.
1631 Increasing number of lepers.
1641 In Cavite, the Hospital de San Jose was established.
1768 Retained control of its teaching until their expulsion from the archipelago.
1737 The teaching emphasized theology and philosophy, but the order added a law faculty.
1871 Permitted the organization of faculties of medicine and pharmacy.

1875 The Colegio de San Jose was incorporated into the University of Santo Tomas as the College of Medicine and Pharmacy.

SCIENCE AND THE SPANISH COLONIAL STATE

1762 & 1764 The British had occupied the Manila

1767 Carlos III expelled the Jesuits from Spain and they were also forced out of the Philippines.
1780 Jose Basco y Vargas tried to develop agriculture through the establishment of the Real Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais.
1785 The Real Compania de Filipinas was chartered to expand commerce between Manila and Spain and provide an alternative to the
galleon trade with the Americas
1819 By the end of the century it was reestablished.
1820 Nearly paralyzed by cholera epidemic.
1830 The government opened the port of Manila to foreign commerce.
1848 The first steamships arrived in Manila harbor.
1855 The government granted access to Iloilo, Zamboanga and Sual.
1860 Having successful innovation I farming and compiled a library of 3,500 volumes in arts, sciences and agriculture as well as
established a museum of natural history.
1863 The school established a framework, still grossly inadequate for a state system of primary education.
1868 Vessels use the Suez Canal, reducing the journey between Europe and the Philippines
 1871 The arrival of Sebastian Vidal y Soler marked the beginning of reliable local taxonomic work in botany and scientific forestry.
1870 Improvements in education and in communication had a new generation of mestizos and criollos to take interest in the sciences.
1873 The first telegraph lines appeared.
1880 Cable linked Manila more closely to Europe
1882 The Carriedo waterworks opened
1887 Produced the first maps of the terrestrial magnetism section.
1890 The installation of telephone lines and train students to use miscroscopes.
1892 Local ambitionsand resentments found expression in moderate groups as Jose Rizal’s Liga Filipina
1895 An electric light system and opened the courses a Faculty of Science
1899 An astronomical section

THE GOSPEL OF AMERICAN COLONIAL SCIENCE

1898 Signaled the entry of new colonial power in Southeast Asia

1899 The army established a biological laboratory under the direction of Lt. Richard P. Strong.
1901 Strong took charge of its Biological laboratory and The American-dominated Manila Medical Society was established.
1903 Merged into the new Philippine Islands Medical Association.
1905 The Bureau of Government Laboratories was recognized and expanded
1906 The omnibus Philippine Journal of Science, first issue from the bureau
1907 The government founded the medical school, reproduced the Johns Hopkin’s emphasis on laboratory instruction and a new
hospital with modern laboratory facilities.
1908 The government sponsored the Far Eastern Association for Tropical Medicine.
1909 Freer proudly announced to a new class of Filipino medical students.
1910 The medical school became part of the new University of the Philippines.
1914 The laboratory staff had to cope with an influx of over 126,000 fecal specimens.
1914 & 1920 The government bureaus, supported the rapid “Filipinization” policy of Francis Burton Harrison, governmor-general.

CONVERTING TO NATIONAL SCIENCE

1903 The Filipinos had constituted half the colonial bureaucracy, appointed mostly at lower levels.
1920 Filipino scientists dominated the Bureau of Science
1921 90% of the 14,000 public servants were Filipinos
1922 & 1935 The Rockefeller Foundation was a major sponsor of scientific and public health projects in the Philippines.
1930 Americans occupied only 1% of government posts, mostly at senior levels or in research positions.
1932 G. Signian reported “a new spirit of research and scientific investigation” on the wards of the San Juan de Dios Hospital
1933 The second Philippine Science Convention, Quezon endorsed a proposal for a National Research Council
1935 Under the leadership of Manuel L. Quezon, officially signaled the increasing autonomy of the Philippines.
1936 Camilo Osias, the president of the National University, observed that under the new order, there is a special to men and women of
science
1941 The Japanese invasion the disintegration of Philippine research and educational activities and the destruction.
1945 Filipinos had to rebuild local institutions of science.
1946 The new Republic of the Philippines founded.
1951 The Philippine Association for the Advancement of Science was organized
1952 The new observatory recording earth tremors and bouncing high frequency waves off the ionosphere.
1956 The government created a National Science Board to support for research projects.
1957 Began a program in solar physics, focusing on the study of sunspots.
1960 The only decent research laboratories were at the International Rice Research Institute.
1977 Had surpassed the Philippines in the production of scientific papers.