Miguel López de Legazpi
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| Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. Mula sa La Ilustracion Filipina. |
Important Dates:
1564, López de Legazpi was commissioned by the viceroy, Luis de Velasco, to lead an expedition in the Pacific Ocean, to find the Spice Islands where the earlier explorers Ferdinand Magellan and Ruy López de Villalobos. The expedition was ordered by King Philip II of Spain, after whom the Philippines had earlier been named by Ruy López de Villalobos.
July 1564 The viceroy died but the Audiencia and López de Legazpi completed the preparations for the expedition.
February 13, 1565 López de Legazpi's expedition anchored off Cebu, but did not put ashore due to opposition from natives
February 22, 1565 the expedition reached the island of Samar and made a blood compact with Datu Urrao. The Spaniards then proceeded to Limasawa and were received by Datu Bankaw, then to Bohol, where they befriended Datu Sikatuna and Rajah Sigala.
March 16 1565, Legazpi made a blood compact with Datu Sikatuna.
April 27, 1565, the expedition returned to Cebu and landed there. Rajah Tupas challenged the Spaniards, but were overpowered by them. The Spaniards established a colony, naming the settlements "Villa del Santisimo Nombre de Jesús" (Town of the Most Holy Name of Jesus) after an image of Sto. Niño in one of the native houses.
1567 Juan de Salcedo, grandson of Legazpi arrived in Cebu
1569, due to scarcity of food provisions in Cebu, Legazpi transferred to Panay and founded a second settlement on the bank of the Panay River.
1570, Legazpi sent Juan de Salcedo to Mindoro to punish 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. Legazpi heard of the rich resources in Luzon, Legazpi dispatched Martín de Goiti to explore the northern region. Landing in Batangas with a force of 120 Spaniards and 600 Visayans, de Goiti explored the Pansipit River, which drains Taal Lake
May 1570 Salcedo returned to Panay, there to meet with Legaspi and the maistre de campo Goiti who had also arrived from another expedition to discuss the final leg of their odyssey in the islands – the conquest of Luzon and the thriving community of Manila which, with its 4,000 inhabitants, was under the rule of a Muslim noble named Rajah Soliman.
May 3, 1570 Goiti and Salcedo sailed out of Panay in two small ships with a hundred soldiers and accompanied by a fleet of 14 or 15 vessels of the Pintados. They again passed through Mindoro which remained hostile and attacked its principal village whose inhabitants took a refuge behind walls mounted with some columns. But that was all their firepower. The natives were armed with badly tempered lances which could not penetrate a good coat of mail and daggers and arrows which the Spaniards dismissed as weapons of little value. Defeated, they became willing vassals of the Spaniards and paid tribute to them.
May 8 1570, Goiti and Salcedo arrived in Manila Bay. There, they were welcomed by the natives. Goiti's soldiers camped there for a few weeks, while forming an alliance with the Muslim tribal chief, Rajah Sulayman. Legazpi wanted to use Manila's harbor as a base for trade with China, but Sulayman refused.
May 24, 1570, after disputes and hostility had erupted between the two groups, the Spaniards occupied the Islamic kingdoms of Tondo and Manila using scores of colonized Cebuanos as a bulk of the Spanish army.
April 1571, Legaspi sailed to Manila with a fleet of 4 ships accompanied by 23 outriggers of the Pintados. As the Spaniards entered the bay for a second time, the natives themselves set fire to their homes before fleeing to Tondo where Lakan Dula was chief
May 19 1571, the feast day of Santa Potenciana, when Legaspi landed to take control of Manila in the name of the Spanish king. Within the week, Legaspi announced that, in accordance with the command of the king, he would give home lots and repartimientos to all those who would settle in the place, prompting virtually the whole force who came with him – captains, soldiers and gentlemen – to stay and be its first residents. All in all, they numbered some 250 men – the soldados-ciudadanos.
June 3, 1571, Legazpi proclaimed the new Spanish City of Manila, making it the capital of the colony that he had called Nuevo Reyno de Castilla
June 24, 1571, the feast day of St. John the Baptist, López de Legazpi established a settlement in Manila and he also ordered the construction of the walled city of Intramuros. He proclaimed the town as the island's capital, and the seat of the Spanish government in the East Indies. With the help of Augustinian and Franciscan friars, he established a government on the islands, and went on to become the first Spanish governor of the Philippines. Two alcaldes ordinarios, one alguacil mayor, 12 regidores and one escribano were appointed to constitute the municipal government of Manila.
August 15, 1571 On the day of Goiti’s arrival in Manila, Salcedo started his own epic trek across Luzon to the Bicol region with 100 soldiers. He first went to subdue the hostile natives in Cainta near Laguna de Bay and skirted the bay where some 24 to 26,000 natives lived in scattered villages. Then he crossed over to the opposite coast with sixty men and, amid rumors of gold, reached Paracale at Camarines. His expedition suffered much in the long march to the eastern coast of Luzon, and after ascertaining the existence of gold mines there, went back to Manila.
August 20, 1572 López de Legazpi governed the Philippines for a year before dying of heart failure in Manila. He died poor and bankrupt, leaving a few pesos behind, due to having spent most of his personal fortune during the conquest. He was laid to rest in San Agustin Church, Intramuros.
Reference:
Reference:
- Miguel López de Legazpi from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_L%C3%B3pez_de_Legazpi
- http://ca.judiciary.gov.ph/index.php?action=mnuactual_contents&ap=j40100&p=y
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