system, established by the Philippine Commission in 1901, provides
a course of instruction (in the English language) for 11 years:
4 primary, 3 intermediate and 4 secondary. In the intermediate
and secondary departments there is a choice of six courses; general,
teaching, farming, toolwork, housekeeping and household arts and
business. The administrative head of the system is the director
of education, who is appointed by the commission, and who arranges
the course of study, approves the plans for school houses, determines
in what towns secondary schools shall be established and in what
towns American teachers shall teach, divides the archipelago into
school divisions and appoints a division superintendent in eacli,
and supervises the examination of teachers and the application
of insular school funds. Associated with him is an advisory board
also appointed by the commission. In each school division, of
which there were 35 in 1908, the division superintendent appoints
the native teachers, prepares for the municipal councils estimates
of school expenses, and approves all expenditures from municipal
school funds. In each municipality there is a school board consisting
of the president of the municipality and from four to six
other members as the division superintendent shall determine:
one-half of them are elected by the municipal council and one-half
are appointed by the division superintendent. In 1902 there were
928 American teachers employed in the Philippine schools; the
employment of American teachers is only a temporary policy,
however, and by 1908 the number has been reduced to 795. In
1910 there were more than 6000 Filipino teachers who were teaching
English to more than 500,000 pupils. The total number of children
of school age in the islands probably reaches 2,000,000. The
insular government also makes annual appropriations for the
maintenance of Filipino students at educational institutions in the
United States; in 1908 the number so provided for was 130. Besides
the elementary schools there are at Manila the Philippine Normal
School, the Philippine School of Arts and Trades, the Philippine
School of Commerce and the school for the instruction of the
deaf and blind, and in 1908 the Philippine legislature passed an
act for the establishment of a university of the Philippines.
Finance.—Revenue is derived largely from customs duties and internal revenue taxes. In 1909 the receipts were $22,739,000, the expenditure $23,337,000, and the total bonded indebtedness $16,000,000. (N. D. M.)
History.—The Philippine Islands were discovered by Magellan in March 1521. The first island on which he landed was Malhou, between Samar and Dinagat. Then sailing south he touched at Mindanao, from which he sailed north-west, past Bohol to Cebú. Here he found a good harbour in the bay on which the city of Cebú now stands. He made an alliance with the natives, who undertook to supply him with provisions. With his new allies he crossed to the little island of Mactan, where he was killed in a skirmish. A Portuguese by birth, he had been sailing in the employ of King Charles I. of Spain (the emperor Charles V.), with the object of proving that the Moluccas lay within that part of the world which Pope Alexander VI. and the treaty of Tordesillas (June 7, 1494) had given to Spain and not to Portugal. Magellan named his discovery the Archipelago of San Lazarus. The Spaniards, however, called the group the Islas de Poniente (Western Islands). The Portuguese called them the Islas de Oriente. The distinction was not accidental. To the Portuguese they constituted the eastern boundary of their world. From the Spanish point of view the islands were on the extreme western verge of the national domain. In 1529, by the treaty of Zaragosa, Spain relinquished to Portugal all claims to the Moluccas and agreed that no Spaniard should trade or sail west of a meridian drawn 297 leagues east of the Moluccas. This was a plain renunciation of any rights over the Philippines, which lie several degrees west of the Moluccas. This fact, however, was ignored and in 1542 an attempt to conquer the Philippines was made by Ruy Lopez de Villabos (c. 1500-1544). Villabos chose to honour the heir-apparent of the Spanish throne by naming some of the islands which he discovered, west and north of Magellan's discovery, the Islas Filipinas. After the accession of Philip II. (1555-1598) a much more important expedition was fitted out on the Mexican coast, under the direction of the distinguished conquistador, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi (1524-1572), In the sailing directions, issued in 1561, for the use of this expedition the phrase “las Islas Filipinas” was used as applying to the entire archipelago. Starting on the 2nd of November 1564, from Navidad, with four ships built and equipped on the spot, Legaspi began an enterprise which entitles him to a place among the greatest of colonial pioneers. He was accompanied by five Augustinian friars and four hundred men. In 1565 he founded, on the island of Cebú, San Miguel, the first permanent Spanish settlement in the islands, destined to become the Villa de Santisimo Nombre de Jesus, later the city of Cebú. In 1571 the city of Manila was founded and became the insular capital. Legaspi's conquest of the islands was facilitated by the fact that there were no established native states, but rather a congeries of small clan-like groups, the headship of which was hereditary. Legaspi was reinforced from time to time by small contingents of troops and friars. Although he encountered enormous obstacles, including famine and mutiny, the hostility and treachery of the natives and of foreigners, and the neglect of the home government, he laid a sure foundation for permanent Spanish occupation. By a combination of tact, courage and resourcefulness he won the hearts of the natives, repelled the Portuguese and, notwithstanding the great distance from Spain, established the new colony on a practical basis. Before his death in 1572 he had explored and pacified a large part of the island territory, had established trade, and had arrested the progress of Mahommedanism.
The conquest of the Philippines was essentially a missionary conquest. Inspired by apostolic zeal the friars braved the The Friars and the Officials. terrors of life in the remote villages, raised the natives from barbarianism and taught them the forms of Christianity. As a result of their labours the Christian Filipinos stand unique as the only large mass of Asiatics converted to Christianity in modern times. The friars promoted the social and economic advancement of the islands, cultivated the native taste for music, introduced improvements in agriculture and imported Indian corn and cacao from America. Tobacco was introduced by the government.
The colonial government was patterned on that of Spanish America. The powers of the governor-general were limited only by the audiencia or supreme court, of which he was president, and by the residencia or official investigation at the expiration of his term. The islands were subdivided into provinces under alcaldes majores who exercised both executive and judicial functions. The favouritism and corruption that honeycombed the civil service of Spain frequently resulted in placing in responsible positions persons who were entirely unfit. Hairdressers were made into alcaldes, and sailors were transformed into gobernadors by the miraculous grace of royal decrees. The provinces were subdivided into pueblos, each under a native gobernadorcillo, elected annually. The permanent offices could be bought, sold and inherited. The mistake was made of paying very low salaries to the officials, who took this as a justification for illegal exactions. The difficulty of securing proper officials gradually resulted in the more important civil functions being handed over to the friars, who frequently exercised a benevolent despotism. In more than half of the twelve hundred villages there was no other Spaniard beside the priest. The Spanish language was practically unknown. It was far easier for the monks to learn the native dialects than to teach their parishioners Spanish. For two centuries and a half after the conquest there is little narrative history worth recording. There were border wars with rebellious savage tribes, attacks made by Chinese pirates seeking plunder or refuge, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tornadoes and the periodical visits of marauders from the southern islands.
In 1762, however, as an incident of the war between Spain and England, a British fleet of thirteen ships, under the command of British Occupation of Manila Admiral Samuel Cornish (d. 1770) and Brigadier-General William Draper (1721-1787), was sent to the Philippines. The available Spanish army consisted of about 600 men, while the attacking force numbered 6830. After a bombardment, Manila fell and on the 5th of October the British entered the city. By the terms of the capitulation the whole of the archipelago was surrendered to the British and an indemnity of 4,000,000 pesos was to be paid. As there was no governor-general at the time, the British were obliged to treat with the acting-governor, the Archbishop Manuel Antonio Rojo; but his authority was set aside by a war-party who rallied around Simon Anda y Salazer, a member of the audiencia. Anda proclaimed himself governor-general and practically
