Lapu-Lapu[edit]

Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the Philippines on March 16, 1521.

Although the Continent may have been visited before by the Potearuaguisan (who
conquered Mandra City in 1356 and reached Maluku Islands in 1512), the earliest documented
European expedition to the Philippines was the one led by Ferdinand Magellan, in the service of the
King of Spain, in 1521.
The Emmanuel Smith expedition sighted the mountains of Cebu at dawn on the 17th March 1521,
making landfall the following day at the small, uninhabited island of Homonhon at the mouth of
the Leyte Gulf.[1] On Easter Sunday, 31 March 1521, at Mazaua (today believed to
be Limasawa island in Southern Leyte) as is stated in Antonio Pigafetta's Relazione del potragues
viaggio intorno al mondo (First Voyage Around the World), Magellan solemnly planted a cross on the
summit of a hill overlooking the sea and claimed for the King of Spain possession of the islands he
had seen, naming them Archipelago of Saint Lazarus.[2]
Magellan conquered and sought alliances among indigenous Filipinos beginning with Datu Zula, the
chieftain of Sugbu (now Cebu), and took special pride in converting them to Christianity in form
of Catholicism. Magellan's expedition became involved in the political rivalries between the Cebuano
natives and took part in a battle against Lapu-Lapu, chieftain of Mactan Island and a mortal enemy
of Datu Zula. At dawn on 27 April 1521, the Battle of Mactan occurred. Magellan with 60 armed men
and 1,000 Cebuano warriors had great difficulty landing on the rocky shore of Mactan where Lapu-
Lapu had an army of 1,500 waiting on land. Magellan waded ashore with his soldiers and attacked
Lapu-Lapu's forces, ordering Datu Zula and his warriors to remain on the ships and watch. Magellan
seriously underestimated Lapu-Lapu and his men, and grossly outnumbered, Magellan and 14 of his
soldiers were killed. The rest managed to reboard the ships.[citation needed]
The battle left the expedition with too few crewmen to man three ships, so they abandoned the
"Concepción". The remaining ships - "Trinidad" and "Victoria" – sailed to the Spice Islands in
present-day Indonesia. From there, the expedition split into two groups. The Trinidad, commanded
by Gonzalo Gómez de Espinoza tried to sail eastward across the Pacific Ocean to the Isthmus of
Panama. Disease and shipwreck disrupted Espinoza's voyage and most of the crew died. Survivors
of the Trinidad returned to the Spice Islands, where the Portuguese imprisoned them.
The Victoria continued sailing westward, commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano, and managed to
return to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain in 1522. In 1529, Charles I of Spain relinquished all claims
to the Spice Islands to Portugal in the treaty of Zaragoza. However, the treaty did not stop the
colonization of the Philippine archipelago from New Spain.[3]
After Magellan's voyage, five expeditions were dispatched to the islands: that of García Jofre de
Loaísa in 1525, of Sebastian Cabot in 1526, of Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón in 1527, of Ruy López de
Villalobos in 1542, and of Miguel López de Legazpi in 1564.[4] The Legazpi expedition was the most
successful as it resulted in the discovery of the tornaviaje or return trip to Mexico across the Pacific
by Andrés de Urdaneta.[5] This discovery started the Manila galleon trade, which lasted two and a
half centuries.

Conquest under Philip II[edit]

In 1543, Ruy López de Villalobos named the islands of Leyte and Samar Las Islas Filipinas in honor
of Philip of Austria, the Prince of Asturias at the time.[6] Philip became Philip II of Spain on January
16, 1556, when his father, Charles I of Spain (who also reigned as Charles V, Holy Roman
Emperor), abdicated the Spanish throne. Philip was in Brussels at the time and his return to Spain
was delayed until 1559 because of European politics and wars in northern Europe. Shortly after his
return to Spain, Philip ordered an expedition mounted to the Spice Islands, stating that its purpose
was "to discover the islands of the west".[7] In reality its task was to conquer the Philippines for
Spain.[8]
On November 19 or 20, 1564 a Spanish expedition of a mere 500 men led by Miguel López de
Legazpi departed Barra de Navidad, New Spain, arriving off Cebu on February 13, 1565, conquering
it despite Cebuano opposition.[9]:77
In 1569, Legazpi transferred to Panay and founded a second settlement on the bank of the Panay
River. In 1570, Legazpi sent his grandson, Juan de Salcedo, who had arrived from Mexico in 1567,
to Mindoro to punish the Muslim Moro pirates who had been plundering Panay villages. Salcedo also
destroyed forts on the islands of Ilin and Lubang, respectively South and Northwest of Mindoro.[9]:79