KR - Cebu

The Cebuano-Spanish entente, however, was short-lived. Wrapped in imperial conceit, Magellan proceeded to impose his own view of a unitary order on what was then a highly decentralized system of local communities. The Spaniards found themselves embroiled in a conflict with the recalcitrant inhabitants of the nearby island of Mactan. On April 27, some 1,500 Mactan warriors led by Lapulapu routed a Spanish force of 60 men in a dawn battle that left Magellan dead on the shore of the tiny island. Four days later, Cebuanos of the main port itself turned on the Spaniards, killing or capturing a number of them and sending the remnants of the ill-fated Spanish expedition to wander through other seas. The sudden change of events indicated that there was more going on under the surface than the foreigners appreciated of perceived.

On 8 September 1522, what remained of the Spanish expedition reached Sanlucar de Barrameda, the port from which Magellan had sailed three years earlier, completing what would be called “the first circumnavigation of the globe.” The travails of the long and difficult voyage, however, had reduced the once proud expedition to a single ship and 18 men.

Magellan’s coming would be remembered as the “European discovery of the Philippines”. The Philippine islands and Sugbo (which would appear in the Western records as Zubu, Subuth, Cubu, and then later Cebu) – entered Western consciousness and then lapsed back into obscurity.

The island “reappeared” 44 years later when, on 27 April 1565, another Spanish expedition dropped anchor off the Cebu port. This time, the expedition, led by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, had a hostile reception. More than 2,000 Cebuano warriors, armed with lances and bright, vari-colored headdresses, boarded proas (native sailcraft) to meet the Spaniards. The Spanish ships opened fire and scattered the Cebuanos. The Spaniards landed and took control of a settlement that, at the time, was described as one with some 300 houses and a population of more than 2,000.

On 8 May 1565, the ceremony of founding a Spanish settlement in Cebu took place. With Legazpi presiding, ground was broken for a triangular fort which would evolve into the Fort San Pedro and sites marked off for the Spanish quarters and a church, the beginning of today’s Basilica del Santo Niño. As it was the feast day of St. Michael, the settlement was called Villa de San Miguel. Cebu had become the site of the first permanent Hispanic settlement in Southeast Asia, the “Cradle of Christianity in Asia,”
and the first base for the Spanish conquest of the archipelago. It was to be the navel for a history that would transform the archipelago.

It was, in its founding, a mere Spanish foothold. There were sporadic assaults on the fledgling Spanish settlement, and it was not until 4 June 1565 that Cebuanos under Rajah Tupas entered into a peace treaty acknowledging the authority of the Spanish King.