Significant Filipino History

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Recommended: Colonization of the Philippines

Filipino Heritage

Since being born here in the United States I have not had the chance to learn more about my families heritage. I only know of what I was told by my parents and relatives, but I don't know Philippines like I think I should. In this I-search topic paper I will look for answers to questions that cannot be answered without researching facts. I am hoping to understand what it was like to be Filipino in the U.S. and maybe focus on what struggles Filipino's faced when they arrived here in the United States. I would also like to find out more about some of the important Filipino people and significant history dates along with learning more about what my ancestors did that helped future generations of Filipinos to survive today.

One of the biggest historical events in Philippines history was during the Spanish colonization. When the Spanish arrived, there were already many different groups living in the Philippines all with different languages being spoken due to being descendants of South and South East Asia. "The Spaniards used a strategy to colonize the islands that was similar to the one they used to colonize the New World (Nadeau, 2008)". They used local leaders of groups to help them adapt their own people into the Spanish culture. After the Christopher Columbus discovered the America, Spain sent Ferdinand de Magellan a Portuguese contractor along with a fleet of men to find another route to Asia. This is when spices were in high demand and merchants who controlled the ports were charging very high prices.

Magellan offered to baptize the locals into Christianity, all agreed except King Lapu Lapu of Mactan island, who rejected the idea of being baptized but instead wanted to fight Magellan and his me...

... middle of paper ...

... and were greatly outnumbered. Relief came when Francis B. Harrison of New York was elected as Governor-General of the Philippines and supported the idea of Philippines independence. As he gained Filipino's trust and loyalty he made it possible for Filipino's to be included in the upper house assembly and created a Filipinization policy.

The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and U.S. military bases in 1941. Both forces were no match for the Japanese who were well equipped with advanced weaponry. The Japanese soon occupied the Philippines from 1942 to 1945. During this time a guerilla movement was forming against the Japanese made up of farmers and peasants that were tired of unfair practices by the foreign occupants. They teamed up with the American forces to defeat the Japanese only to be arrested later due to accusations of having ties to communists by the CIA.

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