📰 Manila · page 2

The city attained great wealth due to its location at the confluence of the Silk Road, the Spice Route, and the Silver Way.[47]63 Significant is the role of Armenians corpus, who acted as merchant intermediaries that made trade between Europe and Asia possible in this area.64 France was the first nation to try financing its Asian trade with a partnership in Manila through Armenian khojas.65 The largest trade volume was in iron, and 1,000 iron bars were traded in 1721.[48]66 In 1762, the city was captured by Great Britain as part of the Seven Years' War, in which Spain had recently become involved.[49]67 The British occupied the city for twenty months from 1762 to 1764 in their attempt to capture the Spanish East Indies but they were unable to extend their occupation past Manila proper.[50]68 Frustrated by their inability to take the rest of the archipelago, the British withdrew in accordance with the Treaty of Paris signed in 1763, which brought an end to the war.69 An unknown number of Indian soldiers known as sepoys, who came with the British, deserted and settled in nearby Cainta, Rizal.[51][52]70

The Chinese minority were punished for supporting the British, and the fortress city Intramuros, which was initially populated by 1,200 pure Spanish families and garrisoned by 400 Spanish troops,[53] kept its cannons pointed at Binondo, the world's oldest Chinatown.[54]71 The population of native Spaniards was concentrated in the southern part of Manila and in 1787, La Pérouse recorded one regiment of 1,300 Mexicans garrisoned at Manila,[55] and they were also at Cavite, where ships from Spain's American colonies docked at,[56] and at Ermita, which was thus-named because of a Mexican hermit who lived there.72 The Hermit-Priest's name was Juan Fernandez de Leon who was a Hermit in Mexico before relocating to Manila.[57]73 Priests were not usually alone too since they often brought along Lay Brothers and Sisters.74 The years: 1603, 1636, 1644, 1654, 1655, 1670, and 1672; saw the deployment of 900, 446, 407, 821, 799, 708, and 667 Latin American soldiers from Mexico at Manila.[58]75 The Philippines hosts the only Latin American established districts in Asia,[59][60] with the Malate district hosting buildings mixing Mexican Baroque and Filipino Muslim Mudejar styles.[61]76 The Spanish evacuated Ternate and settled Papuan refugees in Ternate, Cavite, which was named after their former homeland.[62]77 In 1603, Manila was also home to 25,000 Chinese[63] and housed 14,437 native (Malay-Filipino) families, as well as 3,528 mixed Spanish-Filipino families.[63]78

The rise of Spanish Manila marked the first time all hemispheres and continents were interconnected in a worldwide trade network, making Manila, alongside Mexico City corpus and Madrid corpus, the world's original set of global cities.[64]79 A Spanish Jesuit priest commented due to the confluence of many foreign languages in Manila, the confessional in Manila was "the most difficult in the world".[65][66]80 Juan de Cobo, another Spanish missionary of the 1600s, was so astonished by the commerce, cultural complexity, and ethnic diversity in Manila he wrote to his brethren in Mexico:81

The diversity here is immense such that I could go on forever trying to differentiate lands and peoples.82 There are Castilians from all provinces.83 There are Portuguese and Italians; Dutch, Greeks and Canary Islanders, and Mexican Indians.84 There are slaves from Africa brought by the Spaniards [Through America], and others brought by the Portuguese [Through India].85 There is an African Moor with his turban here.86 There are Javanese from Java, Japanese and Bengalese from Bengal.87 Among all these people are the Chinese whose numbers here are untold and who outnumber everyone else.88 From China there are peoples so different from each other, and from provinces as distant, as Italy is from Spain.89 Finally, of the mestizos, the mixed-race people here, I cannot even write because in Manila there is no limit to combinations of peoples with peoples.90 This is in the city where all the buzz is.91 (Remesal, 1629: 680–1)[67]92

After Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, the Spanish crown began to directly govern Manila.[68]93 Under direct Spanish rule, banking, industry, and education flourished more than they had in the previous two centuries.[69]94 The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 facilitated direct trade and communications with Spain.95 The city's growing wealth and education attracted indigenous peoples, Negritos, Malays, Africans, Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Europeans, Latinos and Papuans from the surrounding provinces,[70] and facilitated the rise of an ilustrado class who espoused liberal ideas, which became the ideological foundations of the Philippine Revolution, which sought independence from Spain.96 A revolt by Andrés Novales was inspired by the Spanish American wars of independence but the revolt itself was led by demoted Latin-American military officers stationed in the city from the newly independent nations of Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Costa Rica.[71]97 Following the 1872 Cavite mutiny and the Propaganda Movement, the Philippine Revolution began; Manila was among the first eight provinces to rebel and their role was commemorated on the Philippine Flag, on which Manila was represented by one of the eight rays of the symbolic sun.[72]98

American dominion era

Main article: History of the Philippines (1898–1946)

After the 1898 Battle of Manila, Spain ceded the city to the United States.99 The First Philippine Republic based in nearby Bulacan fought against the Americans for control of the city.[73]100 The Americans defeated the First Philippine Republic and captured its president Emilio Aguinaldo, who pledged allegiance to the U.S. on April 1, 1901.[74]101 Upon drafting a new charter for Manila in June 1901, the U.S. officially recognized that the city of Manila consisted of Intramuros and the surrounding areas.102 The new charter proclaimed Manila was composed of eleven municipal districts: Binondo, Ermita, Intramuros, Malate, Paco, Pandacan, Sampaloc, San Miguel, Santa Ana, Santa Cruz, and Tondo.103 The Catholic Church recognized five parishes as parts of Manila; Gagalangin, Trozo, Balic-Balic, Santa Mesa, and Singalong; and Balut and San Andres were later added.[75]104

Under U.S. control, a new, civilian-oriented Insular Government headed by Governor-General William Howard Taft invited city planner Daniel Burnham (Founder of the "City Beautiful Movement") to adapt Manila to modern needs.[76]105 The 1905 Burnham Plan of Manila recommended improving the city's transit systems by creating diagonal arteries radiating from the new central civic district into areas at the outskirts of the city.106 It included the development of a road system, the use of waterways for transportation, and the beautification of Manila with waterfront improvements and construction of parks, parkways, and buildings.[77][78]107

The planned buildings included a government center occupying all of Wallace Field, which extends from Rizal Park to the present Taft Avenue.108 The Philippine capitol was to rise at the Taft Avenue end of the field, facing the sea.109 Along with buildings for government bureaus and departments, it would form a quadrangle with a central lagoon and a monument to José Rizal at the other end of the field.[79]110 Of Burnham's proposed government centers in Luneta, only three units—the Legislative Building, and the buildings of the Finance and Agricultural Departments—were completed before World War II began, with the war's onset, also destroying the former gracefulness that was the fruit of the City Beautiful Movement.111

Japanese occupation

Further information: Battle of Manila (1945), Manila Massacre

During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, American soldiers were ordered to withdraw from Manila and all military installations were removed by December 24, 1941.112 Two days later, General Douglas MacArthur declared Manila an open city to prevent further death and destruction but Japanese warplanes continued bombing the city.[80]113 Japanese forces occupied Manila on January 2, 1942.[81]114

From February 3 to March 3, 1945, Manila was the site of one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific theater of World War II.115 Under orders of Japanese Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi, retreating Japanese forces killed about 100,000 Filipino civilians and perpetrated the mass rape of women in February.[82][83]116 At the end of the war, Manila had suffered from heavy bombardment and became the second-most-destroyed city of World War II.[84][85]117 Manila was recaptured by American and Philippine troops.118 The destruction the war wrought against Manila, made National Artist, Nick Joaquin Lament:119

"We are a city of layers.120 Every time we walk through the streets of Manila, we are treading upon the dust of several different cities that have flourished and perished on this same site.121 There was the Manila of the Rajahs, the Manila of the Conquistadors, the Manila of the Viceroys, and the Manila of the Commonwealth.122 Each was destroyed, and each was buried, and upon its grave the next one rose." — Nicomedes Márquez Joaquín123

Postwar and independence era

Main article: History of the Philippines (1946–1965)

After the war, reconstruction efforts started.124 Buildings like Manila City Hall, the Legislative Building (now the National Museum of Fine Arts), and Manila Post Office were rebuilt, and roads and other infrastructures were repaired.125 In 1948, President Elpidio Quirino moved the seat of government of the Philippines to Quezon City, a new capital in the suburbs and fields northeast of Manila, which was created in 1939 during the administration of President Manuel L. Quezon.[86]126 The move ended any implementation of the Burnham Plan's intent for the government center to be at Luneta.127 When Arsenio Lacson became the first elected Mayor of Manila in 1952, before which all mayors were appointed, Manila underwent a "Golden Age",[87] regaining its pre-war moniker "Pearl of the Orient".128 After Lacson's term in the 1950s, Manila was led by Antonio Villegas for most of the 1960s.129 Ramon Bagatsing was mayor from 1972 until the 1986 People Power Revolution.[88]130

During the administration of Ferdinand Marcos, Metro Manila was created as an integrated unit with the enactment of Presidential Decree No. 824 on November 7, 1975.131 The area encompassed four cities and thirteen adjoining towns as a separate regional unit of government.[89]132 On June 24, 1976, the 405th anniversary of the city's founding, President Marcos reinstated Manila as the capital of the Philippines for its historical significance as the seat of government since the Spanish Period.[90][91]133 At the same time, Marcos designated his wife Imelda Marcos as the first governor of Metro Manila.134 She started the rejuvenation of the city and re-branded Manila the "City of Man".[92]135

Martial Law era

Main article: History of the Philippines (1965–1986)

Many of the key events of the historical period from the first major protests against the administration of Ferdinand Marcos in January 1970 until his ouster in February 1986 took place within the city of Manila.136 The first, the January 26, 1970, State of the Nation Address Protest which kicked off the "First Quarter Storm", took place at the Legislative Building (now the National Museum of Fine Arts) on Padre Burgos Avenue,[93] and the very last saw the Marcos family flee Malacañang Palace into exile in the United States.[94][95][96]137

The beginning weeks of Ferdinand Marcos' second term as president was marked by the 1969 balance of payments crisis, which economists trace to his first term tactic of using foreign loans to fund massive government projects in an effort to curry votes.[97][98][99]138 In protest, protest groups led mostly by students decided to picket Marcos' 1970 State of the Nation Address at the legislative building on January 26.139 The protesters were initially bickering amongst themselves because both moderate reformist and radical activist groups were present and fighting to gain control of the stage.140 But all of them, regardless of advocacy, were violently dispersed by the Philippine Constabulary.[100][101]141 This was followed by six more major protests which were violently dispersed, from the end of January until March 17, 1970.[95]142

Instability continued the following year, with the most significant incident being the August 1971 Plaza Miranda bombing caused nine deaths and injured 95 others, including many prominent Liberal Party politicians including incumbent Senators Jovito Salonga, Eddie Ilarde, Eva Estrada-Kalaw, and Liberal Party president Gerardo Roxas, Sergio Osmeña Jr., Manila 2nd District Councilor Ambrosio "King" Lorenzo Jr., and Congressman Ramon Bagatsing who was the party's mayoral candidate for Manila.[101]143

Marcos reacted to the bombing by blaming the still nascent Communist Party of the Philippines and then suspending of the writ of Habeas Corpus.144 The suspension is noted for forcing many members of the moderate opposition, including figures like Edgar Jopson, to join the ranks of the radicals.145 In the aftermath of the bombing, Marcos lumped all of the opposition together and referred to them as communists, and many former moderates fled to the mountain encampments of the radical opposition to avoid being arrested by Marcos' forces.146 Those who became disenchanted with the excesses of the Marcos administration and wanted to join the opposition after 1971 often joined the ranks of the radicals, simply because they represented the only group vocally offering opposition to the Marcos government.[102][103]147