Sangley Rebellion

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Spanish depiction of Sangley, Chinese in the Philippines, Boxer Codex, late 16th c.

The Sangley Rebellion was a Sangley (Filipinos of Chinese descent) rebellion which took place in Manila, Captaincy General of the Philippines, in October 1603. It ended in the massacre of over 20,000 Chinese in Manila by the Spanish, Japanese, and Filipinos.[1][2]

Background[]

Chinese settlement[]

Chinese merchants had been making trading voyages to Manila prior to the Spanish arrival, which was noted in the first Spanish records of the area by Magellan in 1521 and in 1527. In 1570, the Spanish conquered Manila. The locals had only started developing a monarchical institution recently under Muslim influence and did not put up sustained opposition to Spanish occupation once their king's town was destroyed. The Chinese had been settled across the Pasig River in an area granted to them by the Muslim king. They were initially friendly towards the Spanish, who had rescued a disabled Chinese ship off of Mindoro in 1571. Some of the rescued visited Manila in 1572 with large cargo shipments and in 1573, the first cargo of Chinese goods was shipped off to Acapulco across the Pacific Ocean. Trade with the Chinese continued until the Chinese made up practically all the trade entering the Americas from Manila.[3]

Spanish control[]

Chinese Sangley in the Philippines

However armed conflict between the Chinese and Spanish soon erupted. In 1574, the pirate Lin Feng tried to take Manila on 29 November and 2 December, being repelled both times. He withdrew to Pangasinan where he was ejected in March 1575 by a force of Spanish and Filipino soldiers. An officer from the Ming dynasty, , who had been sent to track down Lin Feng, was received cordially in Manila. He returned to Fujian with two Spanish envoys and two priests hoping to gain permission to proselytize in China. Although the initial reception to the Spanish was positive, the negotiations soon floundered, and the relationship between the Chinese and Spanish became more violent.[4]

By 1586, the Spanish had become concerned with the amount of profit the Chinese were making from trade. The Chinese also outnumbered the Spanish, numbering 10,000 in Manila in comparison to only 2,000 Spaniards. They were relocated out of the city to a swampy area northeast of the city walls. Despite the setback, it soon turned into a thriving town with a pond in its center. By 1590 the Chinese dominated industries such as bread-making, book-binding, tavern-keeping, and stone-masonry. In 1587, the Dominicans built a church to proselytize to the Chinese and letters from 1589 and 1590 show that there was considerable interest from the Chinese to convert and adapt their culture. By 1603 it had become an established practice to appoint a Christian Chinese as mayor over all the Chinese.[5] This however did not prevent further the Spanish from further limiting Chinese enterprises. Around 1600 the Spanish started selling a limited number of residence permits, only 4,000, to the Chinese at 2 reals each. The Spanish also tried to restrict Chinese trade. A decree was approved in 1589 to make all prices of Chinese imports uniform and agreed upon prior to the trading season. In 1593 Peru was closed to Chinese imports while Spanish voyages to China were prohibited and only certain Spaniards were allowed to trade Chinese goods.[6]

Armed conflict[]

In 1593, the governor Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas was killed in a mutiny by his Chinese rowers. The rowers fled to Vietnam, where most of them stayed, but some made it to China where their leader was punished. The Spanish feared an attack by the local Chinese and forced them to relocate to the north side of the Pasig. In 1596, 12,000 Chinese were ejected from Manila and sent back to China. In 1603, fear of the Chinese, dependence on them, the China trade, and continued immigration led to the massacre of over 20,000 Chinese.[1]

Incident[]

Background[]

Chinese official from the Ming dynasty

Two Fujian adventurers, Yan Yinglong and Zhang Yi, told Gao Cai, a eunuch tax and mines commissioner in Fujian, that there was a mountain of gold on the Cavite Peninsula in Manila Bay. A plan was made to send a naval expedition to obtain said gold by attacking Manila, but several censors protested this. Provincial authorities did not actually believe there was gold where Zhang Yi described but felt they had to send some kind of expedition, if only to prove Zhang false. So an assistant county magistrate, Wang Shihe, and a company commander, Yu Yicheng, were sent to confirm the veracity of Zhang's story. Zhang was also brought along in chains.[1]

The Ming delegation arrived in March 1603 and was received by the governor, Pedro Bravo de Acuña. They were treated well but when they treated to administer justice in the Chinese community, they were ordered to stop. In May they made it clear to the governor that they did not actually believe there was a mountain of gold but was obliged to obey their orders. So the governor let them go to Cavite where they took a basket of dirt and then left for China. The Spanish did not actually believe the expedition had been sent just to search for gold. The Archbishop of Manila Miguel de Benavides, O. P. suspected that it had been a probe sent to spy on Manila in preparation for a major Chinese invasion. They feared that the local Chinese would cooperate with said invasion. The Spanish, Filipinos, and even Japanese residents began to threaten the Chinese.[7][2]

Rebellion[]

Japanese inhabitants of the Philippines

A large group of Chinese planned a strike. The Chinese mayor, Juan Bautista de la Vera, a wealthy Catholic, tried to dissuade them but found that his own adopted son was the leader. They tried to persuade him to become their leader but he refused and reported them to the Spaniards. The Spaniards arrested him after finding gunpowder in his house and eventually executed him.[7]

Alerted to the unrest among the Chinese, the Spanish shut the city gates on the night of 3 October. One Spanish family was murdered north of the Pasig while an attack on the church in Tondo was repelled by Spanish soldiers. However their commander, Luis Pérez Dasmariñas, became overconfident of Spanish strength, and decided to pursue the Chinese. When cautioned from attacking by his fellow officers, he famously derided them as cowards and retorted that "twenty five Spaniards were enough to conquer the whole of China".[8] They followed the Chinese into a swamp where they were surrounded and cut down.[7]

On 6 October, the Chinese rebels crossed the Pasig and prepared an attack on the city walls with ladders and siege towers. While they had obtained some firearms from the Spaniards they had defeated, it was not enough to overcome the artillery on the walls. Their haphazard assaults were defeated and their ladders and towers demolished by cannon shots. After a day or two, Spanish and Japanese soldiers started to sortie out and attack the Chinese with support from Filipino auxiliaries. The Chinese fled and were pursued throughout the countryside in the following weeks. Those who were captured were killed and no prisoners were taken in the aftermath. An estimated 15,000 to 25,000 Chinese were slaughtered.[9][2]

Aftermath[]

After the slaughter, the Spanish realized that they could not survive without Chinese trade and industry. The remaining Chinese merchants were assured that normal trade would continue as usual. Letters were sent to Fujian and Guangdong authorities explaining what had happened. In Fujian, the officials blamed most of what had occurred on Zhang Yi, but replied that the Spanish should not have killed the Chinese of their own initiative and the widows and orphans should be sent back to China. No further action was taken. Because the Chinese town had been devastated, Chinese merchants visiting Manila in 1604 were given fine lodging inside the walled city. Trade quickly returned to normal with the trade value for 1606-1610 averaging over 3 million pesos per year, the highest 5-year average in the history of the trade.[10]

The Chinese continued to live under Spanish rule. Although they were exempt from labour and petty personal dues required of the Filipinos, the Chinese had to pay a license fee of 8 pesos per year with additional extortion and harassment from sellers. They were also subject to population control in addition to the license fee, with an idealized limit of 6,000, but in reality the Chinese population in 1620s and 1630s ranged from 15,000 to 21,000. The Chinese petitioned the king of Spain for self-government but this was rejected in 1630. As the Chinese population continued to swell, reaching 33,000-45,000 by 1639, they entered other industries such as farming. They were laborers on their own in outlying areas, employed on estates of religious orders, or used as farm labor in forced settlement projects. This large rural Chinese population rebelled again in 1639, resulting in another massacre.[11]

Notes[]

  1. ^ a b c Willis 1998, p. 358.
  2. ^ a b c Boxer, p.261
  3. ^ Willis 1998, p. 353-354.
  4. ^ Willis 1998, p. 355-356.
  5. ^ Willis 1998, p. 356-358.
  6. ^ Willis 1998, p. 356.
  7. ^ a b c Willis 1998, p. 359.
  8. ^ South East Asia, Colonial History By Paul H. Kratoska, p.135
  9. ^ Willis 1998, p. 359-360.
  10. ^ Willis 1998, p. 360.
  11. ^ Willis 1998, p. 361.

References[]

  • Borao, José Eugenio, The massacre of 1603: Chinese perception of the Spaniards in the Philippines National Taiwan University Pdf
  • Boxer C.R.,The Christian Century in Japan, Carcanet, Manchester, 2001, ISBN 1-85754-035-2
  • Willis, John E. (1998), Relations with the Maritime Europeans, 1514-1662
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