The dominating impulse in this remote exten sion of Spanish power had been religious rather than commercial. The new conquest was to be an outpost of Christianity facing the great Asiatic heathen world. From it as a base the missionaries could prosecute' their labors effec tively in China and Japan. Religious purposes and interests continued to dominate the life of the islands for over three centuries. They never were in the true sense of the term a Spanish colony, but a great mission like the more famil iar Jesuit missions in Paraguay and California. It is as a mission that the history of Spanish rule should be studied and its results estimated. To convert the natives, to collect them in villages where they would live under the oversight of the pastor with the faithful obedience of the flock to the shepherd and prepare themselves for salva tion, was the simple ideal of the mission. That it was in a large measure achieved is the very general testimony of fairly dispassionate observ ers. The Christian population steadily increased, and the requirements of religion, while rigorously enforced, were not more burdensome than in Europe. There was little real oppression and hardly any exploitation of the people. Planta tion slavery, the dark page in West Indian colonization, never existed. Schools were pro vided in the pueblos and in the larger towns hospitals and colleges; the native languages were given literary form, grammars and dictionaries were compiled and translations made of the simpler literature of the devotional life. The Christian population of the islands formed a unique community, the only large body of Asiat ics permanently converted to Christianity in modern times. In its general framework the ad ministration of the islands as a Spanish de pendency was modeled on the system introduced into America, which in turn was an adaptation of that existing in the provinces of Spain. At the head was the Governor with viceregal powers, having by his side the Audiencia or Supreme Court. This body served not only as the highest court of appeal, but also as a cheek upon the arbitrary authority of the Governor. Another important restraint upon that official was the residencie, or obligation to stand ready to answer all charges of misbehavior which should be preferred during a period of six months, after the termination of his tenure of office. The heads of the provincial administration were the .1.1celdcg Moyores, whose functions Were both executive and judicial. In his judicial duties the Alealde Mayor was assisted by an assessor and a notary. The administrative division below the province was the pueblo or village, which was ruled. by the Petty Governor, who was origi nally elected by the general suffrage of the mar ried inhabitants of the pueblo, but in later years was chosen by a small body of thirteen electors. Within the pueblos the population was subdivided into little clan-like groups of forty or fifty fami lies called barangays, a survival of the earlier native organization, each under a barangay head man (cabcza de barangay). Each family was assessed a tribute of 10 seals, about $1.25, and the headmen were responsible for its collection. The petty governors and headmen of barangays were Filipinos; the higher administrative officers were Spaniards. The inhabitants of these pu eblos were all natives. No Spaniards were al lowed to live in these mission villages except the friars, who exercised there the firm but ordinarily gentle sway of the parent or schoolmaster. In the few Spanish towns there existed the ordinary municipal organizations that prevailed in Span ish America. There was the town corporation `el Cabildo' (chapter), consisting of two alcables (justices), eight regidores (aldermen,), a regis trar, and a constable. The members of the Ca bildo held office permanently. Membership could be bought and sold or inherited.
At the head of the ecclesiastical administration stood the Archbishop of the Bishops of CebO, Segovia, and Caceres, and the Provincials of the four great Orders of friars (the Domini cans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and barefooted Franciscans), and of the Jesuits. The members of these Orders (the regular clergy) greatly pre ponderated in numbers and influence over the secular clergy, who were mostly natives.
The economic development of the islands was rendered impossible by the manufacturers in Spain, who demanded protection against Asiatic competition in the markets of Mexico and Peru, and secured the restriction of the imports from the Philippines to the cargo of an annual ship.
Under this handicap the islands never were a self-supporting, much less an income-yielding.. de pendency. They were always a burden upon the treasury of New Spain. Their principal trade was with China and was in the hands of the Chinese. The vast majority of the pueblos were simple self-supporting communities of farmers and small 'artisans.
Secluded from the outside world, the domestic history of the Philippines is distinctively pa rochial in its character. There is little progres sive political or economic evolution from gen eration to generation. Progress is manifested by the extension of the missions and the ameliora tion of the life of the natives. Much of the in ternal history is made up of the various conflicts between the clergy and the political administra tion or between the Archbishop and the friars. The chief incidents in external history are the volcanic eruptions, the incursions of the Chinese or Moro pirates, the attacks of the Dutch, etc. The events of the great Seven Years' War rudely interrupted this placid life. Spain. drawn into the maelstrom of this conflict in the vain hope of recovering Gibraltar, lost the Floridas and saw Havana and Manila fall before English fleets. The preliminaries of peace, however, had been agreed upon before the news reached England of the capture of Manila, and the conquest was therefore relinquished to Spain. The reforming Government of Charles III. exerted its activities even to the remote Philippines. The Royal Phil ippine Company was chartered to carry on direct trade between Spain and the islands (1785). Three years earlier the enterprising Governor General Basco y Vargas, to make the colony self supporting, introduced the Government tobacco monopoly (1782), by which lands suitable for growing tobacco were arbitrarily pressed into that service and the cultivators compelled by forced labor to produce stipulated anmunts to be sold to the Government at fixed prices. This system of compulsory labor was practically the first attempt really to exploit the resources of the islands, and during the following century was fruitful in abuses and of the seeds following revolt. It was abolished in 1882. In this connection should be mentioned the poles y serricios, forty days' required labor on the roads, bridges, public build ings. etc., which was exacted of the natives in addition to their tribute. These requirements for public service could be canceled for from one to three dollars. The official class men were ex empt from this burden.
The Mexican Revolution severed the ancient con nection of New Spain with the 'Western Islands,' and the Spanish Constitution of 1812, which em bodied the principles of the French Revolution, and which put all parts of the Spanish Empire on an equality and admitted the Philippines to representation in the Cortes, led the natives to believe that now they would be exempt from trib ute and polos y serricios. Consequently, when the news came that Ferdinand VII. in 1814 had abolished the Constitution of 1812, the flocanos rose in rebellion. Henceforward the agitations of home politics and the example of the Spanish American States steadily undermined the old time stability of conditions in the Philippines. The mission system could not be maintained in its integrity. The number of Spaniards in the islands increased, the spirit of colonial exploita tion grew, the monastic Orders which com bined the functions of landlords and spiritual guides were more and more pervaded with the mercantile spirit. Nor did their predominant influence in the government of the islands at all diminish in an age progressively hostile to cleri cal control. The opening of the Suez Canal brought the Philippines relatively near to Europe and more than ever exposed them to the con tending forces of modern thought. Promising young Filipinos completed their education in Europe. By a few weeks' voyage they found themselves in many respects transported from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth. That they should contentedly return to the earlier age was impossible. The Spaniards did not weather the transition. The final collapse began with the insurrection of 1896. which was prima rily an agrarian revolt aimed at the expulsion of the Orders from their estates and the islands.