CONTEMPORARY WORLD ESSAYS, Essays (high school) of History

Download CONTEMPORARY WORLD ESSAYS and more Essays (high school) History in PDF only on Docsity! MIDTERM EXMINATION THE FILIPINO POINT OF VIEW i. Sinibaldo de Mas was a Spanish diplomat who reported to the Spanish government about the conditions of the Philippine islands. After an official visit in 1841, he concluded his report by expressing his personal conviction: The Spaniards, crossing new and remote seas, extended their domain of geography by discovering the Philippine Islands. They found anarchy and despotism there, and established order and justice. They encountered slavery and destroyed it and imposed political equality. They ruled their inhabitant with laws, and just laws. They Christianized them, civilized them, and defended them from the Chinese, from the Moro pirates and from the European aggressors: they spent much gold on them, and then they give them liberty. Task: Re-interpret and re-write this primary account from the Filipino point of view Sinibaldo de Mas was the Spanish diplomat during the 19th century. He was also an adventurer, poet and photographer that introduced photography to the Philippines in 1841. De Mas spent two-and-a-half years in the Philippines, and he wrote the Informe Sobre El Estado de las Filipinas in 1842, a report on the state of the Philippines in 1842. According to the report the Spaniards crossing new and remote seas, extended their domain of geography by discovering the Philippine Islands. They found anarchy and despotism there, and established order and justice. They encountered slavery and destroyed it and imposed political equality. They ruled their inhabitant with laws, and just laws. They Christianized them, civilized them, and defended them from the Chinese, from the Moro pirates and from the European aggressors: they spent much gold on them, and then they give them liberty which is contrary to what Filipinos felt and encounter during their regime. Spanish colonization left lasting marks such as an unaccountable, abusive elite, massive corruption,a dysfunctional system of government, Huge social disparities and a meddling of the Catholic Church with theocratic leanings. All of their report was positive which is very different on what Filipinos felt during their time in the philipines. Instead of saying that they all solved the problem in the Philippines, they should rather say that they did bring these problems to the Filipinos. The anarchy, despotism, slavery and unjust laws, they all are the ones who’s responsible for it. They are the one who exercise these kinds of negative works to Filipinos. ii. ASSESSMENT OF THE PRESENT AND PAST CHANGES Identify contemporary practices and traditions in Philippine society and compare it to the observations discussed in the primary accounts of Juan de Plasencia and Antonio Pigafetta. Politics and Religion One of the major contributions of Spanish to us is Catholicism. Spain introduced Catholic dogma and worship, a highly centralised government, bureaucracy and Roman law. The Philippines was divided into provinces composed of clustered villages, towns and cities. Friars from various religious orders kept watch. Ironically, its Catholic faith was always far from pure. Though Spain’s missionaries eradicated overt practices of animism, traditional beliefs in spirits and magic survived. However before that, Filipinos do not have a common religion. Due to our country having separated islands, most of the early tribes have different native religions. In today’s era Philippines has now different religion existing but still catholism is one of the biggest religion existing in the world but in todays era catholism is being exercise in pure and clear manner unlike in the times of Spanish colonization. Social The time that the Philippines was under Spanish rule makes up a major part of their history. Spain had control of the Philippines for more than 300 years, so it’s no surprise that there are many Filipino customs, traditions, and cultural norms that can be traced back to the Spanish. They left their mark probably more so than any other foreign nation to which the Philippines was subjected. One very interesting thing that the Spanish changed in our social about the Philippines was the use of native last