Philippines 1800+ (or if befor it's ok) - Essay Example

This prestigious status granted to the upper class was known as the encomienda, and they would organize the natives to makeup a soldier battalion for the king, which would in turn be used to fight against other subsequent invaders such as the Dutch and the Britons. However, those granted this state misused it, and eventually the system of governance was abolished by 1700, with an introduction of the administrative provinces, which were then administered by the provincial governors, selected amongst the colonists (Meyer, 33).

The church also played a major role in the administration of the colony, through managing the sentiments of the inhabitants, and the powers of the church leaders, also referred to as the friars, were even greater than those of the governor responsible for governing an administrative province. The major characteristic of the Spanish governance in the colony was the establishment of a plaza in every city, which formed the administrative center, where the government, the church and the market area were located, while the residential areas then surrounded the administrative center (Burrell, 112). . Taxation was a requirement for the residents of the colony, who had to pay a tribute that consisted of the tax to the government and a certain percentage as tithe to the church.

Forced labor was the other aspect that was introduced into the Philippines colony, where the residents had to provide 40 days of community labor, which was eventually reduced to 15 days in 1884, for all peoples aged 16 to 60 years (Burrell, 72). However, the forced labor system created a corruption avenue for the encomienda, who would ask for a bribe in exchange for absentia to the mandatory communal work. It is both the abuse of power by the religious orders and the abuse of power by the encomienda that led to the Philippine revolution of 1898, which brought the end of the colonization of the Philippines by the Spanish Empire.

The formation of the rebel groups in readiness for the revolution started in 1896, and by the December of 1897, the rebel groups had spread throughout all the provinces and caused a major stalemate with the provincial governments, making it hard for the governments to undertake their administrative roles (Burgan, 64). The ability of the Spanish to resist the rebels was weakened by the breakout of the Spanish-American war in 1898, which forced the Spanish to enter into a treaty with the Americans to sell the Philippines colony to America at $20 million, as well as turn in Guam and Puerto Rico, thus formerly ending the Spanish rule of the Philippines (Burrell, 98).

On the other hand the patriot Filipinos had taken the acquisition of much of the territory, and declared the independence of First Philippine Republic in July 1898, but the American