Pirates of the Pacific & the Spanish Empire

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Pirates of the Pacific & the Spanish Empire"
Not Just the Tudors
Host: Professor Suzannah Lipscomb
Guest: Christy Patricia Flannery
Release Date: December 16, 2024

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Introduction

In the episode titled "Pirates of the Pacific & the Spanish Empire," Not Just the Tudors delves into the intricate dynamics of the Spanish Empire in the Philippines, emphasizing the pivotal role of piracy in shaping colonial relationships. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb engages with historian Christy Patricia Flannery to explore how piracy, indigenous collaborations, and religious motivations intertwined to sustain Spanish rule in the Pacific.

Pre-Spanish Philippines: A Connected Archipelago

Timestamp: 02:59 – 04:10

Before the Spanish conquest in the mid-16th century, the Philippine archipelago was already a vibrant hub of transoceanic trade and cultural exchanges. Flannery highlights the Philippines' extensive connections with other parts of Asia:

"From the work of archeologists, there was trade with China. Chinese merchants were visiting the Philippines, had sultanates... Islam had arrived in the archipelago the century before Spanish rule."
— Christy Patricia Flannery [03:05]

The islands featured a decentralized political system with powerful sultanates engaging in trade and diplomatic missions, particularly with China. Islamic influence was already present, brought by merchants from present-day Indonesia, setting a complex pre-colonial societal structure.

Spanish Arrival and Expansion in the Pacific

Timestamp: 04:10 – 06:08

Spain's ambition to establish a route to Asia led to the exploration and eventual conquest of the Philippines. Flannery outlines the Spanish persistence in their Asian ambitions despite initial setbacks:

"Magellan actually died in the Philippines. He was killed in Cebu... It wasn't until 1561 that a voyage led by Legazpi made it to the Visayan Islands... this is really the beginning of Spanish presence in the islands that then lasts until the late 19th century."
— Christy Patricia Flannery [04:16]

The Spanish aimed to tap into the lucrative spice and silk trades, mirroring earlier endeavors like Columbus’s voyages. Their persistent efforts culminated in establishing a long-term colonial foothold in the Philippines.

Mechanisms of Spanish Conquest: Beyond Brute Force

Timestamp: 06:08 – 07:18

Contrary to the commonly held belief that Spanish conquest relied solely on brute force, Flannery presents a nuanced view where collaboration played a significant role:

"There is also many sustained instances of cooperation and collaboration between different groups of people in the Philippines and the Spanish."
— Christy Patricia Flannery [06:12]

While violence and repression were undoubtedly employed, the Spanish also formed alliances with local leaders to combat common threats, particularly piracy, facilitating a more stable and enduring rule.

Indigenous Perspectives on Piracy

Timestamp: 07:18 – 10:13

The indigenous populations viewed piracy as a pervasive threat that necessitated alliances with the Spanish. Flannery explains how piracy was integral to the local worldview:

"We can tell from archaeological records... that people don't want their families to be captured and taken away by their enemies, and they don't want their homes to be burned."
— Christy Patricia Flannery [07:36]

Piracy in the Philippines involved large-scale maritime raids, with captives and stolen goods being highly prized. The Spanish capitalized on this by partnering with local sultanates to form anti-piracy coalitions, which not only provided necessary resources but also legitimized Spanish authority.

The Role of Religion in Legitimizing Spanish Rule

Timestamp: 10:13 – 12:08

Religion was a cornerstone in the Spanish strategy to solidify their empire. Flannery discusses how Catholicism was interwoven with governance and military campaigns:

"Priests are acting as go-betweens between local communities and the representatives of the Spanish colonial government... fleets would be blessed before they go out to war."
— Christy Patricia Flannery [10:13]

The fusion of religious mission and military action fostered a unified identity among Spanish and indigenous populations, framing their struggles against piracy as a holy war against Islam and other non-Christian beliefs.

Piracy and Collaboration: Complex Relationships

Timestamp: 12:08 – 15:13

Piracy served both as a threat and an impetus for collaboration. Flannery emphasizes the dual nature of piracy in reinforcing Spanish legitimacy while also highlighting the precariousness of colonial rule:

"It could be both, because if the threat of this warfare is endemic... it’s a source of legitimacy and it's showing like this is what empire can do on the ground."
— Christy Patricia Flannery [12:18]

Collaborative efforts against pirates enabled the Spanish to integrate various indigenous groups into their colonial framework, ensuring a degree of stability and support crucial for maintaining their empire.

The Chinese Pirate Threat and Massacres

Timestamp: 15:13 – 18:22

The rise of Chinese pirate fleets in the 17th century posed a significant external threat to the Spanish-controlled Philippines, leading to severe reprisals against the Chinese community:

"We see three large-scale massacres of Chinese people in the Philippines in the 17th century... at least 15,000 people were really slaughtered on each of those occasions."
— Christy Patricia Flannery [15:29]

These massacres were fueled by fears of a pirate invasion and mistrust towards the burgeoning Chinese population, who were integral to the galleon trade but increasingly viewed as potential allies of the pirates.

British Invasion: Pirates or Imperialists?

Timestamp: 18:22 – 21:00

The British invasion of Manila during the Seven Years' War was perceived by the Spanish as another piratical threat, despite the British viewing themselves as legitimate imperialists:

"They lay siege to the city. They sack churches... stealing the jewels off the indigenous women’s wrists and taking captives. So really they’re acting like pirates."
— Christy Patricia Flannery [18:34]

The British ended up following the familiar patterns of piracy, which the Spanish capitalized on to galvanize local support against them.

Restoration of Spanish Rule and Aftermath

Timestamp: 21:00 – 26:06

The capture and subsequent siege of Manila by the British led to significant turmoil. Flannery details the efforts to restore Spanish rule, highlighting indigenous revolts and continued resistance:

"Shortly after the city falls, there are huge indigenous revolts break out in Luzon... both sides claim to be Catholic and with God's favor on their side."
— Christy Patricia Flannery [24:30]

The eventual defeat of the British and the suppression of indigenous rebellions reaffirmed Spanish authority, showcasing the resilience of their colonial strategy.

Forced Migration of Chinese Migrants

Timestamp: 26:06 – 29:10

In the aftermath of the British invasion, the Spanish colonial government resorted to drastic measures against the Chinese population, leading to forced migrations:

"The entire Chinese nation in the Philippines are through a government inquiry labeled traitors... people are forced to leave, boarded onto ships, and sent back to China or neighboring regions."
— Christy Patricia Flannery [26:13]

This period of forced migration was marked by widespread scapegoating and violent repression, severely disrupting the Chinese community's presence in the Philippines.

Alliances with Mysore: Geopolitical Dynamics

Timestamp: 29:10 – 31:46

Amidst ongoing imperial rivalries, the Spanish sought alliances beyond the Philippines to counter British ambitions. Flannery explains the strategic alliance with the Indian state of Mysore:

"The governor of the Philippines sends an embassy to Sultan of Mysore who was an enemy of the British... to deal with these anti-Britain alliances."
— Christy Patricia Flannery [29:24]

This alliance reflected the global nature of colonial conflicts, with European powers seeking to bolster their positions through strategic partnerships across continents.

Conclusion: Re-examining the Spanish Empire Through Piracy

Timestamp: 31:46 – 34:17

Flannery emphasizes the importance of understanding the Spanish Empire through the lens of piracy to uncover the complexities of colonial interactions:

"Piracy really emerges there as this really central threat... it's a way to access indigenous people's experiences of empire and responses to empire."
— Christy Patricia Flannery [32:04]

By acknowledging both collaboration and resistance, this perspective restores agency to the colonized populations, illustrating that the Spanish Empire was sustained through multifaceted relationships rather than mere domination.

"Without the collaboration and cooperation, there wouldn't have been a Spanish empire in the Philippines... It restores agency to those who are colonized."
— Christy Patricia Flannery [33:50]

Final Remarks

Professor Lipscomb and Christy Flannery conclude the episode by underscoring the nuanced understanding of colonialism that emerges from studying piracy's role. Recognizing the active participation and agency of indigenous and migrant communities provides a more comprehensive and balanced view of the Spanish Empire's legacy.

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Notable Quotes:

• "Piracy really emerges there as this really central threat." — Christy Patricia Flannery [32:04]
• "It restores agency to those who are colonized." — Christy Patricia Flannery [33:50]
• "This is a very different world to 2024 in which so much has attributed to the intervention of God." — Christy Patricia Flannery [12:08]

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Conclusion

This episode of Not Just the Tudors offers a compelling exploration of the Spanish Empire's reliance on combating piracy to maintain control over the Philippines. By integrating indigenous collaborations and the complexities of colonial relationships, historian Christy Patricia Flannery provides a richer, more intricate portrayal of colonialism, challenging the simplistic narrative of Spain's dominance through sheer force.

Transcript

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb. If you'd like Not Just the Tudors ad free to get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit. With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my own on Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, Brilliant Rivals and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com subscribe.

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from? Like, what's the history behind bacon wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Maite Gomez Rejon. Our podcast Hungry for History is back and this season we're taking an even bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history, seeing that the most popular cocktail is the Margarita, followed by the Mojito from Cuba and the pina colada from Puerto Rico. Listen to Hungry for history on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and welcome to Not Just the Tudors from History Hit, the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs, from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to samurais, relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft. Not in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors. First conquered in the mid 16th century, the islands of the Philippines were the center of the so called Spanish East Indies, a vital and valuable maritime trade hub for the transport of spices and silk to Europe against threats from Moro raiders in the borderlands to Chinese pirate fleets and the British invasion of Manila. Spanish rule found its way to stability, even legitimacy, through, surprisingly enough, its attitudes and reaction to piracy. Joining me today to discuss her work on the global Spanish Empire and the vital recovery of indigenous history in the Pacific is Christy Patricia Flannery, a historian and research fellow at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. Her marvelous new book, Piracy and the Making of the Spanish Pacific World asks the crucial questions about why we continue to tell the history of conquest and how we challenge the historical and enduring absence of indigenous and migrant voices from it. I'm Professor Susannah Lipscomb and you're listening to Not Just the Tudors from History Hit. Christy, welcome to the podcast.

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

Thank you for having me, Susanna. It's nice to be here.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

We start by talking about the islands of the Philippines before the Spanish conquest. What can you tell me?

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

I think one interesting thing about the Philippine archipelago is that it was already very connected to other parts of Asia before Europeans arrived. So this era of transoceanic connections and long distance trade doesn't begin when the Spanish arrive in the middle of the 16th century. So from the work of archeologists that there was trade with China. Chinese merchants were visiting the Philippines, had sultanates. So it was a kind of decentralized political system. And some sultans are more powerful than others. And some of the more powerful sultanates had sent delegations to China where they tried trade missions, diplomatic missions. Islam had arrived in the archipelago the century before Spanish rule, at least so through Southeast Asia, with merchants visiting from present day Indonesia. So by the time the Spanish arrived, there were already people with Islamic names and people practiced that religion. That's interesting to think about those connections that precede, you know, what Europeans might think of as the beginning of globalization.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

And when did the Spanish first settle? Why was expansion into the Pacific so appealing to them?

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

So I think it's interesting to think back to when the Spanish first set out to discover the New World. The goal was always to go to Asia. And you know, Marco Polo had visited this fantastic lands of China, had come back to Europe with these stories of great riches. I think ever from that time, there's a real desire to find a oceanic route to get to Asia. And it was only when Columbus, you know, really was really trying to sail to Asia that he accidentally discovers the Americas. So just because Spain discover Americas and begin conquest of the Americas does not mean that they abandoned the idea of getting to Asia. And so we think historians of the Spanish Pacific world try to point out that they've imagined and real conquests of Asia and the Americas are unraveling at the same time. Gelan, who is a Portuguese, a mariner, but in the service of Spanish crown, he comes to Manila 1521. He gets to Manila quite early, just a couple of years after the conquest of Tenochtitlan or Mexico City. Magellan actually died in the Philippines. He was killed in Cebu. And then after magellan in the 20, I think 300 something men left Spain, but only 20 returned three years later. They don't let go of that dream. Still to conquer Asia, there are four more expeditions get to the Spice Islands, these archipelagos of Southeast Asia. And it wasn't until 1561 that a voyage that sets up from the Pacific coast of Mexico, led by a man called Legazpi, does make it to the Visayan Islands in the center of the Philippines. And this is really the beginning of Spanish presence in the islands that then lasts until the late 19th century, until 1898 where there's civil war or anti colonial war in the Philippines, conflict between Filipinos wanting their independence in Spain and then flows into this Spanish American war. And then, you know, that moment, those Philippines to come from that moment onwards as an American colony.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

And how was Spanish conquest possible?

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

What most Filipinos would know, Filipinos today were school students studying history. The dominant story is still that the Spanish established and maintained rule for almost three centuries by brute force alone. And it's a history that we think that emphasizes violence and really the use of repression against peoples. There are stories of sultans who are really forced to submit to Spanish because their wives and daughters are maybe taken hostage or they're threatened for the safety of the women in their families. So really kind of at the barrel of a gun or the pointy edge of a sword, this idea of conquest. And what I try and do in my book is show that violence is certainly present and there is brutal repression, but there is also many sustained instances of cooperation and collaboration between different groups of people in the Philippines and the Spanish. And we see that the threat of piracy, which changes over time, is really a threat that the Spanish and different groups of Filipinos can rally together against and really unites different groups and allows them to establish a foothold in the islands and to expand that and sustain rule for a very long time.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

Of course, the so called pirates were doing much the same thing as the colonial forces. They were. They're taking land, they're taking riches for their own gain. Do we have any evidence of how indigenous peoples viewed what is, at least on the surface, a similar threat?

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

Well, when Legatsky first arrives in Visayan Islands, the group of islands in the middle of the Philippines, what he really does in his next few years are he and his men is kind of enter into this world of raiding that already exists in the Philippines. So this is. There's a world of maritime raiding where the people of some islands, you know, going out to sea in like large fleets of karakoas, some very large boats and some small boats will arrive in a fleet and lay siege to a lowland village, sack the village, try and take captives. The human captives are prized possession, and, you know, also taking food and other items that value, like textiles, and coming back with those captives and stolen goods back to their own community, and redistributing a lot of those prizes among the pirates or the sailors. And this is a world where this kind of maritime violence or raiding is endemic. And the Spanish really just enter this world. They form partnerships or alliances with one Sultan or another, and then join forces with them to raid their enemies. I think it's a way that they can obtain the resources that are really essential to their very vulnerable early colony surviving. They need food and they need labor. And so it's the way that they obtain resources. And I think they also kind of quickly realize it's a way to gain legitimacy in the eyes of some. And I don't know how people on the ground perceive it. We can tell from archeological record, at least, and from the records of Spanish interactions with dattous or chiefs, that this is a real threat. That people don't want their families to be captured and taken away by their enemies, and they don't want their homes to be burned. I mean, the difference with the Spanish to other stuff, these Asian pirates of the era might be religion that the Spanish colonists, the conquest mission officially, and that people on the ground do, I think, have a strong religious agenda. And their desire is not just to establish a presence in the islands and to exploit natural resources and people, to extract values, to convert people to Catholicism. And so that's something that really sets them apart. They don't like Islam. They fight against, you know, Muslim pirates, or they're fighting against Muslims. They're trying to strongly encourage people to be baptized, to accept their faith. They try and wipe out or suppress non Christian beliefs. So, you know, that's something that distinguishes, I think, the European pirates from the others in the region.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

So if we take that with this idea of trying to legitimize Spanish rule and think about the first major threat of piracy from the morrow raiders in the borderlands, Is there a sense in which the Spanish are packaging this as a religious crisis, trying to gain support for what could be called a holy war?

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

Sure. I think for early modern Spaniards who are thinking about 17th and early 18th centuries, there's a sincere conviction that this expansion of Islam is a threat to their empire in Asia. And that for people to be loyal to Spain really required them to be Christians, be Catholic and identify as Catholic, and that shared religious identity would almost forge these bonds of empire. So to have another religion come in and threaten to take away believers, I think was really perceived as an acute threat. And we see. What do we mean? What do I mean when I talk about Spain in the Philippines? And the Spaniards, like a lot of people on the ground. A lot of Spaniards on the ground are friars of missionaries. And the missionaries were working with communities to build churches. The churches often are fortified and double as a fort where people could take refuge in the case of the pack by pirates. Priests are acting as go betweens between local communities and the representatives of the Spanish colonial government coming up with deals by which the colonial government would give communities weapons like cannons or cannonballs, gunpowder, and the communities providing boats and labor. So the priests are so key to the, I guess the formation of indigenous anti piracy naval units. That religion. That's another reason why religion is so central. And there's a lot of crucial beliefs or practices around these campaigns so that fleets would be blessed before they go out to war. Certain losses or victories would be attributed to God. You know, if we're winning, then God is supporting us. Stories of miraculous survival. So, you know, there's a priest or a member of the fleet is shot by a bullet, but miraculously doesn't die. It might be because, you know, this belief that there's a miraculous protection of that person. So this is a very different world to 2024 in which so much has attributed to the intervention of Gome.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

And what you're suggesting is that warfare does in no way hinder imperial legitimacy. It supports it.

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

It could be both, because if the threat of this warfare is endemic and if the Spanish state is not providing protection against its vassals, its followers from protecting them from war, then that's going to quickly erode any kind of sense of authority they might have any kind of sense of legitimacy. So it's both like a source of vulnerability. But when things go well, I think it's a source of legitimacy and it's showing like this is what empire can do on the ground. And maybe this is why people supported in some way. This is why ordinary Filipinos living in a small island in the middle of the Philippines may have decided to collaborate. You know, they're also not to downplay violence. So we know that if a community decides to not support Islamis, they're also met with quite brutal repression. Any rebellions were put down very harshly. The leaders of rebellions were hunted down and hanged. And the bodies of these leaders would be and heads and gleams sent to different parts of Ireland. So there was also this very real threat of violence at the same time.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

And what effect did this have on relationships between the Spanish and the indigenous peoples then if native communities were being called on to fight in anti piracy campaigns?

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

Well, there's an interesting rebellion that happens in the island of Bohol in the visayas in the 1750s in a case where the pressures of fighting these anti piracy wars became unbearable for a local population. So in this case, you know, a lot of the men were away fighting pirates for extended period of time. During that time, women and children are left to do a lot of the labor of not only caring for the elderly, caring for children, but also agricultural work to keep their families fed. And men, the men return from being away and they're not happy at the situation. And, you know, the state's still expecting indigenous people to pay tribute, kind of head tax that indigenous people and Chinese people in the Philippines are obliged to pay to the state when Europeans are exempted. And the other ways that these communities were supporting war, beyond providing military labour, where they also build, cutting down timber to build boats and doing the work of building boats, and then also the portion. I mean, they're also using rice that would be taken to feed the fleet. There's a lot of extra pressure on a community to fight a war. And as we would know from other times and places, and in this particular case, there was a conflict, there was conflict between a priest and people in the community that blew up into a revolt. And the dagahoy is a brother and sister duo. Kill a priest and then lead people into the hills. And really that there's. The revolt in that island continues for decades. And in the priest accounts are the only accounts that we have. We don't have the words of the rebels who led the revolts. They do mention, like, the pressures of war as kind of contributing factors. So it's not always a case of that the war garners legitimacy, but in many cases it does enough to ensure the survival of the empire.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

The second major threat came by way of Chinese pirate fleets focused on capturing Manila. How did an external threat turn to a cycle of violence against the migrant Chinese communities within the Philippines itself?

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

So as I mentioned earlier, there were already Chinese traders, Chinese fleets coming to the Philippines before Europeans arrived, but after the Spanish arrived in the islands and especially after they established colony in Manila, it was in 1571, the rapid growth of a very large Chinese community in Manila. This is a community of, you know, merchants and sailors, but also people who are coming to settle, migrants to coming to settle in the Philippines. And this community is really growing because of this huge promise of the galleon trade that silver is coming from Mexico and Chinese merchants are bringing goods from China and across Asia and they're traded in Manila. And then there's also. We see tensions between Spaniards, Filipinos and Chinese. And very early on in this of the colony, there's a threat of a Chinese pirate invasion. So we see the first couple of years of Manila existing in a Chinese fleet attack there's early evidence of his first alliances between local Filipinos and Spanish joining forces to fight against these pirates. The threat of a Chinese pirate invasion grows a lot in the 17th century. And that coincides in China. China's thrown into civil war. A Ming Qing transition. Two different forces are fighting for control of the country. And that conflict is an opportunity for these giant pirate fleets to bloom and grow in this part of the Pacific world. These pirate fleets are so powerful, they capture Taiwan in the middle of the 17th century, which was a Spanish and a Dutch colony. And so after the pirates captured Taiwan, the Spanish are paranoid that came Manila's next are going to come for us. And it does look like their fears were well founded. And the pirates in Taiwan send in a mystery to Manila, tell them that the pirates are coming and they need to pay tribute. And it's really the fear of this looming pirate invasion that explodes into massacres, like large scale massacres of Chinese people in Manila. Because the fear is if these Chinese pirates invade, the Spanish really didn't trust local Chinese people living in Manila and their descendants. And they thought they all side with, they're a fifth column and they'll side with the pirates against us. So we see three large scale massacres of Chinese people in the Philippines in the 17th century. And each one of those occasions we think at least 15,000 people were really slaughtered on each of those occasions. It's just really extremely. But what kind of cycle of extreme violence and death disappears in the 17th century? And it coincides with the civil war in China ends. The Qing restore their authority over the coastline. They have a scorched earth policy where they destroy a lot of villages along the southern coast and force people to move inland and they recapture Taiwan, which is a pirate's nest there in 1680. So these huge, vast pirate fleets disappear and that threat of a Chinese pirate invasion, Spanish and other people in the Philippines are concerned, isn't really a threat anymore. And so we don't see that violence or there's massacres on that scale after that.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

By the late 18th century, Spain faced another invasion, this time from the British Royal Navy and the East India Company. Why was this viewed as just another piratical invader?

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

So the British decide to come to the Philippines during the Seven Years War. And so there's a decision made in Britain and England that fleets would simultaneously, you know, simultaneously in 18th century terms, attack both Havana and Cuba. So Spain's most valuable rich port in the Caribbean and Manila, Spain's most strategically important and rich stronghold in the Pacific. And I think this is an attempt to cripple the enemy, like from Britain to cripple the enemy, but potentially to seize control of these important strategic port cities and, you know, hold onto them and to make them key part of the British Empire. So the British don't see themselves as pirates. They see themselves as a new imperial power who would like to come and stay. And that's not what happens because when they arrive in the Philippines, they end up, I think, unwittingly following a, well, a very familiar pirate script as far as the local people were concerned. They lay siege to the city. They sack churches. There's soldiers running around the city, British soldiers, many of whom are South Asian soldiers, sailors running around in the frocks of priests. They're stealing the silverware from the churches, there's quotes. They even steal the jewels off the indigenous women's wrists and taking captives. So really they're acting like pirates, dude. And so it makes it easy for the Spaniards then to defame them and to rally a huge army against the British when they arrive. I'm Matt Lewis. And I'm Dr. Eleanor Yanaga. And in Gone Medieval, we get into the greatest mysteries, the gobsmacking details, and latest groundbreaking research from the greatest millennium in human history. We're talking Vikings, Normans, Kings and popes who were rarely the best of friends. Murder, rebellions and crusades. Find out who we really were by subscribing to Gone Medieval from History hit on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

And from the British perspective, they probably saw themselves as liberators and expected they would be welcomed as many colonial powers did. But what did they find instead?

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

They definitely believed many of the British officials who, you know, both organized that campaign and who ended up there on the ground, men like Dawson Drake, who'd been a governor of Madras, an Indian born insignia company officer, and then the first and last British governor of Manila. He really believed, from I could tell of his writings, that the British would be welcomed by the oppressed indigenous peoples of the Philippines. They would be happy to throw off the Spanish joke, as they would have said. And it's very interesting that one of the documents that I looked at in the archives, the British issue something like an olive branch peace treaty for the local people. And they would post around statements, write, produce posters that would be put up around Manila saying, you know, we're here, we're not going to sack, rob you. You're free to continue to practice the Romish religion. Are you free to be Catholics? And you know, they Kind of laid out the terms and conditions, correct, A surrender and a government. And I think really shocked when they found a very harsh resistance from the beginning of the siege, that instead of laying out red carpet for them, they were manning the barricades. You know, and there's another quote from a British officer who said that Pampangan militiamen, who are indigenous peoples from a Pampanga province were, like, dying, gnawing on the bayonets. So, like, they were just completely shocked that there would be disloyalty. And I think the success of the mission relied on local support that was not forthcoming.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

What changed when Britain seized Manila?

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

It's a powerful change in a colonial power is kicked out of its colonial capital. So Manila was a walled city. You can still see some of those walls, you know, standing today in Intramuros, the walled center of the city. Inside this walled city, there was a government palace and important, where the governor lived, where the government would meet, make decisions. There's also all the religious orders. The major Catholic missionary orders had big churches and convents in that walled city. So it's really a center of imperial and religious power. And for the British to take the walled city and kick out the Spaniards and to pull down Spanish flags and raise Union Jack, it was very powerful, you know, symbolic and real defeat at the time. The acting governor of Manila was a priest, Governor Rochoff, and he did surrender to the British. And I think he. He tried to, I think, minimize the destruction and death that came with war. For whatever reason, he didn't surrender. I think he saw as a temporary deal until things would be worked out in Europe between the rulers of his countries. He really then becomes maybe like a comfortable prisoner of war in the city. Many people flee, and one oidor or a judge in the government of Spain, Simone de Ander, fled to a province outside the capital and in a city called Bacalor originally. And from there, he really rules in exile. And he raises a huge army that's mostly indigenous, has a large Chinese mestizo regiment, Spaniards, and then also British soldiers and South Asian soldiers who are fleeing from the East India Company Royal Navy forces. Andrew is commanding this huge army that then we see that for the next two years, from late 1762 until, you know, mid-1764, kind of girmishing. And there's some battles, it kind of skirmishes and battles between this force and the British. But things become very interesting then when shortly after the city falls, there are huge indigenous revolts break out in Luzon.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

And how was Spanish rule ultimately restored?

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

So Simone de Ander leads this army, which, you know, originally it's the main threat or the main enemy is this British. But by the end of 1762 or a few months after the invasion, the real threat that Spanish perceived is actually this homegrown indigenous and Chinese rebels. And much of Luzon, which is a big northern island of the Philippines, as people rise up in revolt and they see this opportunity of the Spanish being kicked out of Manila and kind of weakened as a chance to either completely kick the Spanish out of their lands or to kind of recalibrate the colonial bargain. And so in cities like Bikini Locos in northwestern province of Luzon, people, there's a big mob come to the house of the bishop and are demanding the temporary pause on tribute. And they demand that the Spanish kind of governor of the province is fired and replaced with someone they like more. This revolt then turns into a war. This force of loyalists are fighting, not really the British, but they're fighting this war against their own people or against people of different provinces. Both sides claim to be Catholic and with God's favor on their side, both sides have flags that we know have Catholic symbols like crosses on them, or they would wear crosses embroidered on their shirts or drawn on their shirts somehow to provide protection against bullets and arrows. And it's really that ultimately I think this army, mostly indigenous army of loyalists, defeat the rebels and defeats the British. And from the ashes the empire is standing.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

What can you tell me about the subsequent forced migration of all Chinese born migrants from the islands?

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

So I think from the late 17th century until the British invade in the early 1760s, see that as a time of better relations between the Spanish and the Chinese in the Philippines and maybe a period of more cooperation or at least less extreme violence. And I think in that time moral piracy presents opportunities for Chinese people to show their loyalty and to fight against this enemy. It's a chance to be kind of incorporated into the nation as Catholics and vassals. But in the British attack, it really shatters whatever comivencia or you know, living together arrangements that had worked out. And there's, you know, huge climate of mistrust. And for example, doesn't trust any Chinese person. He says in letters, though at the same time we know that he was working with number of Chinese people to go and recruit other Chinese people to come and join his army. And there's definitely a Chinese regiment and the loyalist forces. By the loyalty of many individuals, the entire Chinese nation in the Philippines are through a government inquiry labeled traitors. And the king ruled that Chinese People who were traitors during the war should be forcibly, should be exiled or expelled in the same kind of language is used in this law to expel Chinese as the Spanish monarchy used a century earlier to expel Morisco from Spain. And so the people are rounded up in their homes as far away as Cebu and Northern Luzon, not only in Manila but across the islands who were rounded up by soldiers sent to Manila, put in a camp and there's a market hall that was turned into a camp where people were forced to live under armed guard. And then they were forced to board merchant ships that were coming to and from China, some with Chinese captains, some Spanish captains are forced to board their ships and ostensibly go back to China. And it's very possible that many went back, but many, many went to Batavia or other port cities in the region. And it was really this climate of blaming the Chinese, collectively scapegoating them for that war. I think it's interesting that very potent gossip stories about the Chinese deed in the war. There were stories like oh, they cut their ears off priests and made them drink horse urine out of a cup that would be used in a Catholic mass. So these kind of stories where there's no radical reliable evidence of that happening, like a priest test or evidence from the time it allegedly occurred. But years later these stories of Chinese complicity and extreme anti Catholic or violence emerged. And I think lend helped this kind of campaign to gain popular support within 10 years of expelling almost all China born men from the territories that the Spain had control over in the Philippines also, many would have fled either during the war or in the immediate aftermath because they could see the writing on the wall of being scapegoated. About a Decade later, by 1771, 72 the Spanish government realized that it was not a good policy and that the Chinese needed their valuable colonists and essential partners in this colonial project. And the government tries to actively recruit Chinese workers and migrants from southern China to come back to the Philippines. It does take many decades for the numbers to recover for obvious reasons.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

How did an alliance with the Indian state of Mysore continued what had now become a central facet of Spanish government in the Philippines? Alliance is born out of a very real fear of maritime violence.

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

Yeah, this post 70s war era in the Pacific is an interesting time. I think there might be a tendency among historians to think of that time. Okay, it's the beginning of the age of revolutions and we're beginning to see the seeds of anti colonial movements that would bring down the British Empire in North America or at least bring down the British Empire in what is now the United States of America and would spark French and Haitian revolutions and Latin American wars for independence. But this post 70s war era is also a period of imperial expansion and consolidation in the Pacific. And the British, while they were defeated in Manila, Royal Navy grows a lot in the period. And at the end of the decade or two after this war, British expand their control and presence in India at this time. And you know, the Spanish at the same time are expanding into Northern California. So this is this era of imperial expansion and rivalry and conflict between the Spanish and the British. And this is a context in which the governor of the Philippines, you know, sends an embassy to Sultan of Mysore who was an enemy of the British and fighting a war with the British. And Sultan of Mysore, he had a representative in Europe and goldsmith who says he went to the Vatican at some point before coming to Spain. It ends up in the court of Spain speaking very well connected, influential men in the royal court. And that's when this idea of an alliance is first presented in Spain. Word then gets through Spanish imperial bureaucracy to Manila that they should send an embassy and there's a deal that if they wanted uniforms for their soldiers and weapons, they'll send us trade goods from Asia. But more importantly, maybe this anti British alliance and Spain does send this an emissary and load the ship up with goods to go. They do ultimately make sultan. I returned with an elephant as a gift for the king. The elephant, something to think about when you're on a long flight from the Antipodes to Spain. But an elephant made it all the way on a ship back to Spain. Now resides in the Natural History Museum in Madrid. And this is really, I think, an effort, a kind of global effort to deal with these anti Britain alliances in this part of the world where the British Empire is a threat. And also at the same time, British are poking around Australia. Captain Cook comes to Australia and 1771 in the First Fleet. British convicts come to Botany Bay in 1788. So the places are very close to the Philippines and in Spain's area of importance.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

Well, this has all been fascinating and I've learned so much. But I want to sort of bring it all together by asking you finally then why you think it's so important to re examine the Spanish Empire through the lens of piracy, particularly when considering indigenous and migrant experiences during the time.

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

I would say I did not think that I would write a book about pirates, but when I went to the archives and I was reading reports that governors and priests who on the ground in the Philippines, Spanish governors and Spanish priests had written to the Crown and his. The Council of the Indies in Spain, or priests had written to their superiors in Europe. Piracy really emerges there as this really central threat. So I think our job as historians is to listen to the voices that we find, even those European voices that are telling us, hey, you need to pay attention to this. And then if that's what made me first pay attention to piracy, when I really looked at that issue of maritime violence, it was also revealed itself as a way to access indigenous people's experiences of empire and responses to empire. And in ways that maybe more simplistic understanding of an empire as one that was built on brute force alone and as people being forced and having no real choice but to submit to Spanish rule. It definitely paints a more complex picture of what colonialism looked like on the ground. And we see that while there's sustained indigenous resistances in many forms to Spanish and other imperial power and violence in the Philippines, there's also very important and widespread instances of collaboration. Even if that was coming from a place of necessity, does give us insight into why people made the choices they did and how those choices made an impact. Without the collaboration and cooperation, there wouldn't have been a Spanish empire in the Philippines. And it's consistent with what we know about, I think, empire in the Americas and what more recent scholarship has shown about the way that empire is working.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

Colonial Latin America, and it restores agency to those who are colonized. It means that you're not minimising the violence done against them, but you're saying that they are more than just victims.

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

I think people who are making difficult decisions in difficult circumstances and who are able to, as best as possible, make decisions that are protecting them, individuals and their kin. And I think as moderns, it's very hard to think about what was it like to be a person at that time, but we can maybe all. It's not easy, but it's possible to identify with decisions that people might make to protect their own home or their own families and to protect them from violence. Maybe that's something that we can all make sense of.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

Well, Christy, thank you so much for introducing us to a completely new way of approaching the history of colonialism, and particularly the Spanish Empire, but also the British. Thank you so much for your time.

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

Thank you, Suzanne.

[Professor Susanna Lipscomb]

Thanks for listening to this episode of Not Just the Tudors from History Hit. And also thanks to my researcher, Alice Smith and my producer, Rob Weinberg. Remember, you can also listen to all of these podcasts on YouTube and watch hundreds of documentaries. When you subscribe at History, it's well worth it. And if you would be so good as to follow not just the Tudors on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, you'll get each new episode as soon as it's released.

[Christy Patricia Flannery]

Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from? Like, what's the history behind bacon wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Mayte Gomez Rejon. Our podcast, Hungry for History is back, and this season we're taking an even bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history, seeing that the most popular cocktail is the margarita, followed by the mojito from Cuba and the pina colada from Puerto Rico. Listen to Hungry for history on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.