It is believed that man first arrived in the Philippines around 67,000 years ago.
Spanish Settlement
It is the Portuguese born Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan who is attributed with “discovering” and the claiming the islands of the Philippines for Spain in 1521. Prior to 1521 there already was some knowledge of parts of the Philippines as the Spanish had previously conquered Malacca City in Malaysia and the Maluku Islands in Eastern Indonesia (known as “the Spice Islands”). From 1494 onwards the Portuguese controlled an established trade route with the Spice Islands which took them East from Spain and around Africa. It was Magellan who proposed an alternate route heading west in the hopes of establishing a new and lucrative trade route for the Spanish. Nobody had ever traveled West from Spain to Asia before.
Magellan’s fleet set off from Spain on 20th September 1519 with 5 ships and enough supplies to last the 270 sailors for 2 years. In December they made landfall in Rio De Janeiro. There they spent 3 months sailing along the coast looking for a way to sail through or around the continent. They were eventually forced to wait winter out in Saint Julian for a further 5 months. During this time Magellan managed to thwart an attempted mutiny which saw him lose control of 3 of his 5 ships. During this winter the Santiago was also lost in a storm while surveying surrounding waters, no men died when the Santiago went down.
After winter the fleet resumed searching for a safe passage to the Pacific Ocean. In October 1520, they found what is now called the Strait of Magellan and proceeded to sail through the strait on to the Pacific Ocean. It was while navigating the treacherous strait that the San Antonio deserted the rest of the fleet and sailed home to Spain. The fleet finally arrived in the Pacific at the end of November in 1520.
It took 3 months and 20 days to cross the Pacific – much longer than Magellan had anticipated. During this time around 30 men died as food ran scarce and exhaustion set in. It was 6th March 1521 when the fleet arrived at Guam, then inhabited by the Chamorro people. The Chamorro boarded the fleet and stole rigging, knives and other items. Magellan retaliated by sending out a party who stole their goods back and killed several Chamorro people.
On 16th March 1521 the fleet made landfall in the Philippines where Magellan befriended local leaders on the island of Limasawa. Their stay was short, it lasted only 1.5 months. On 31st March Magellan held the first Mass ever in the Philippines and planted a large cross on top of the islands highest hill. He then set about converting locals to Christianity and for the most part this was readily accepted. The island of Mactan, led by Chief Lapu-Lapu resisted any conversion to Christianity. Magellan subsequently led a party to subdue the Mactan natives by force. On the 27th April during a battle with Mactan natives the European invaders were overpowered and Magellan was killed. Not a trace of Magellan’s body was ever recovered, despite Chief Lapu-Lapu being offered a very generous bounty for it’s return. The chief intended to keep the body as a victory trophy of the war.
With Magellan dead, the fleet left the Philippines and set sail for the Spice Islands to trade for spices. From there, and with only 1 vessel being seaworthy, the remaining men set sail for Spain. On 6th September 1522 the Victoria made it back to Spain with only 18 or 19 men surviving the journey home. This was subsequently the first ship to ever circumnavigate the globe. Although Magellan never made the entire journey he is still credited as being the first man to circumnavigate the globe (since on separate occasions he did travel both East and West from Spain, essentially completing a full circle).
Here are some stamps depicting these events:
