THE BRITISH INVASION AND

OCCUPATION OF MANILA 1762-1764

 24 September 1762
 British Royal Navy and East India Company fleet of
fifteen tall ships sailed into Manila Bay with the
intention of seizing the city.
 The appearance of the flotilla flying British colors
caught Manileños by surprise; although Spain
entered the Seven Years War against Britain in
January of 1762, no one in the Philippines
anticipated that Britain would attack ‘the Pearl of
the Orient’.
BRITISH ARMY
 Sepoys, natives of the Indian Subcontinent
employed as soldiers of the East India Company,
 prisoners of war, the majority of whom were
French captives
 men, many of whom would have been
Englishmen and perhaps Americans pressed into
service
 Lascars, also natives of the Indian Subcontinent,
were expected to undertake “the labor of war”,
which included transporting weapons,
ammunitions and victuals from ship to shore to
battle-field, digging trenches, and burying the
dead.
INVASION OF MANILA
 Manila fell to the British on 3 October 1762 after
ten days of shelling and shooting and struggle.
 TheArchbishop and interim Governor of Manila,
Manuel Rojo del Rio y Vieyra, surrendered the
city to the British.
 The East India Company installed Dawsonne
Drake as the first British Governor of Manila.
 Drake, along with four other East India Company
officers, formed the Manila Council that ruled
city for the duration of the British occupation of
the city.
 The Treaty of Paris that formally ended the
Seven Years War returned Manila to the Spanish
in 1764.
SIMON DE ANDA Y SALAZAR
 But before Rojo surrendered to Manila to the
British, Simón de Anda y Salazar, judge of the
Audiencia of Manila, declared himself Governor
of the Philippines and promptly established an
alternative colonial capital in the pueblo of
Bulacan.
 Anda and his rebel army continued to engage the
invaders in full-blown battles and smaller-scale
clashes typical of guerrilla warfare until news of
the peace treaty arrived in Manila.
 Anda’s resistance succeeded in prohibiting the
expansion of the British stronghold beyond
Intramuros and Cavite.
ANGLO HISTORIOGRAPHY

 remarked that Britain’s conquest of Manila

“seemed to affirm Britain’s essential
invincibility”
 emphasizes desertions from Spanish forces and
the extent to which people in the Philippines
were willing to cooperate with the British
invaders.
SPANISH HISTORIOGRAPHY

 celebrates Simón de Anda’s heroic efforts

 denigrated both
 Archbishop Rojo, who is portrayed as a weak old man
who folded easily before the British, and the
 Chinese, who are characterized as traitors to the
King of Spain and the Catholic Church.
THE PROBLEM OF DESERTION

 Desertion was a problem for both the invading

British force as well as Anda’s rebel army.
 Under what conditions did soldiers desert?
 The British Royal Navy and East India Company
could not assume the loyalty of the French prisoners
of war, pressed Englishmen, Sepoys and Lascars they
had enlisted.
ENSURING LOYALTY
 Naval and Company leaders agreed that offering
financial rewards to the men in their service
would help to prevent desertions.
 In March 1763 the Manila Council increased the
pay that “Soldiers, Sepoys and Lascars” received.
 The Council also granted European soldiers a
generous daily ration of alcohol, and the Sepoys
and Lascars an additional dollar per month.
 The Manila Council went to great lengths to
ensure that their fighting men were promptly
paid their increased wages because “the
consequence that may attend the non-payment of
the troops may be very fatal.”
MASTERLESS PEOPLE
 Bargaining suggests that the British occupation of Manila
turned soldiers into masterless people.
 As the British and the Spanish were desperate for bodies,
ordinary soldiers could determine the price at which they
would sell their labor.
 This view of soldiers was again demonstrated when the
Manila Council offered a reward of 5000 dollars to any
person who would capture and deliver up Simón de Anda to
the British. In response, Anda offered an award of double
the price on his head, or 10000 dollars, to anyone who
would hand over, dead or alive, the British Governor of
Manila or the members of the Manila Council.
 Although no person ever claimed these rewards, the fact
that they were offered at all reveals that Simon de Anda
and the Manila Council perceived the soldiers from all
nations who converged in Manila and its hinterland in
1762-1764 as men with whom they were obliged to
negotiate.
FIGHTING MEN WERE NOT COMPLETELY FREE

 The Manila Council offered rewards to soldiers and

other persons who correctly identified “any person or
persons... inciting men from their fidelity.”
 Punishments for deserting were extreme during
peacetime.
 After 1740, men who deserted from the Spanish
military in the Philippines and were subsequently
caught were forced to endure the physical
punishment known as “the running of the bats” six
times (where the deserter ran naked through a tunnel
of soldiers who beat him with “baquetas” or thin rods
of iron or wood bearing metal tips as he passed), as
well as four years in the galleys.
 Deserters from the British Royal Navy generally
sentenced by courts martial to be whipped.
IN WARTIME, THE PUNISHMENT FOR
DESERTION WAS DEATH

 In August 1763 Francisco de la Cruz was captured by

the British and accused of encouraging two Sepoys to
defect to Anda’s army.
 De la Cruz had promised the Sepoys that if they went
with him to Pampanga, they would give paid 1000
dollars, as well as allowance of 100 dollars per month.
 They sentenced him to be carried through the suburbs
of Santa Cruz... causing his crime to be published at
the Corner of every street, until he reaches Quiapo,
and that he there be hanged within sight of the Post,
to deter others from following his example.
 The Sepoy who testified against de la Cruz, was
granted a reward of twenty-five dollars and “a
handsome sword of the value of 100 dollars” for
his loyalty to the British Crown and the East
India Company.
 Both of these prizes were “publically presented to
the Subadar on the Parade, before all the troops
in the Name of the Honourable Company, as a
mark of their Approbation of his Conduct, and
their confidence in his fidelity.”
FAITH AND FIDELITY

 Members of the British Manila Council were initially

convinced that they could persuade the natives that
the new British colonial government was their friend.
 The invaders believed that the natives had suffered
great abuses under Spanish rule, and would readily
welcome the British as liberators.
 One of the Council’s first moves was to prepare and
distribute manifestos written in Spanish and Tagalog
promising natives who swore alliance to King George
III that they would “be treated in every respect as his
Britannic Majesty’s Subjects”, and freed from
servitude and the burden of tribute which the
Spanish government had imposed.
 The Council also assured the natives that they would
be permitted to continue to live as Catholics as they
had done under Spanish rule.
FAITH AND FIDELITY
 Natives’ Catholic faith and relationships with the
regular clergy proved a solid foundation of their
fidelity to Spain.
 In a letter to Archbishop Rojo dated 8 October 1763,
the Governor-in-exile stated that “the natives
venerate their parish priests, ministers, and
missionaries” with “respect and love”.
 Anda argued that the Indians’ devotion to the colony’s
religious leaders, combined with the religious leaders’
“greater knowledge of the nature, customs, and
civilization of the natives, can maintain them and
incite them to the defense of the country against the
English Enemy.”
 Majority of the regular clergy could communicate
with the natives in their native languages.
 Since 1603 every missionary in the Philippines
were required to “know the language of the indios
whom he should instruct”.
 Fluency in indigenous languages made it easier
for priests to convince Indigenous people to fight
for Anda.
ROLE OF THE RELIGION
 The Priests were not only whispering words of
encouragement into their parishioners’ ears.
 Regular clergymen, particularly the Augustinians and
Dominicans, promoted the active participation of the
natives in the resistance by actively participating
Anda themselves.
 Dominican friars took up shovels and to dig trenches
around Anda’s stronghold in Bulucan.
 Augustinians transported rifles and lead to make
bullets to the rebel army.
 The Manila Council observed that “The Augustine
Friars” had even “appeared in Arms, contrary to their
ecclesiastical functions thereby occasioning the
effusion of much Human Blood.”
 Catholic natives were more willing to fight with Anda
when they could do so alongside their priests.
 British attacks on churches and convents may
have also swayed the decision of many devout
Indians to fight with Anda against the British.
 The sacking of a church in the pueblo of
Guadalupe provides insight into the religiosity of
many indigenous people in the occupied
Philippines, and the extent to which the British
sacking of their churches impacted upon this
community.
 Comprehending the response of the natives to the
British occupation requires recognizing that
Indians were not a homogenous group in the
Philippines.
 Distinguishing groups of loyal Indians enhances
our understanding of their fidelity to Spain under
the pressure of occupation.
 It was the Pampangans who proved to be the
Spanish empire’s allies during the British
occupation of Manila.
PAMPANGANS
 In 1765 the King of Spain issued a Real Cédula
that acknowledged the “outstanding services of
the Indians of the Pampanga Province” during
the British invasion of Manila.

 In recognition of “the valor with which they

confronted the enemy, and the gusto with which
not a few of them scarified their lives”, the Real
Cédula granted village status and a coat of arms
to the pueblo of Bacolor, thirty-five miles north of
Manila, and made this town the capital of the
province of Pampanga.
 The Pampangans not only mobilized against the
British in 1762-1764. During this period they
also supported the Spanish crown to put down
the large Indigenous uprisings that emerged in
other Provinces after Manila had fallen.
 The Pampangan soldier Miguel Bicus killed
Diego Silang, the leader in the Ilocos Province.
 The King of Spain decreed that Bicus and his
sons would be free from the obligation of tribute.
WHAT WAS THE FOUNDATION OF THIS
LONGSTANDING ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE
PAMPANGANS AND THE SPANISH?

 rational response to the geopolitical environment

the Pampangans and Spanish inhabited
 the Pampangans benefited from the protection
Spaniards provided against the “fierce sambals who
periodically terrorized the fertile valley” in the first
half of the seventeenth century.”
 Common Catholic faith
 The Pampangans were the among the first
Indigenous converts to Catholicism in the
Philippines.
 In the eighteenth century Pampangans trained as
priests in the Seminary of St Clement.
 In 1903 Pampanga had more churches than any
other province in the Philippines.
SILANG AND PALARIS
 Diego Silang led an armed uprising in the Ilocos
province in the northwest of Luzon.
 Juan de la Cruz Palaris headed the revolt in
Pangasinan province

 These rebellions were not minority movements.

 Thousands of indigenous people mobilized behind
Silang and Palaris between 1762 and 1764.
SILANG AND PALARIS
 Silang rebellion primarily aimed to free Ilocanos
from tribute and personal service.
 Silang and his supporters also demanded the
removal of the Alcalde from office.

 The Palaris rebellion began in the town of

Binalatongan pueblo in the Pangasinan province
also in late 1762 when the Indians resident here
refused to pay the annual tribute and demanded
earlier tribute payments be reimbursed.
WHAT ROLE DID THE BRITISH PLAY IN THESE
REBELLIONS?

 In 1763 Silang wrote to Anda, declaring that his

objective of removing the corrupt Principalia
from power did not undermine his loyalty to the
crown, and his commitment to defeat the British.
 He simultaneously pursued an alliance with the
British Manila Council.
WHAT ROLE DID THE BRITISH PLAY IN
THESE REBELLIONS?
 In May 1763 Silang wrote to a letter to the invaders
in which he recognized King George III “as my king
and master” on the premise that Illocanos would be
released from tribute, and allowed to continue to
practice their religion.
 His letter to the Manila Council was accompanied by
a gift of “twelve loaves of sugar, twelve baskets of
Calamy, and 200 cakes or balls of Chocolate”

 Silang pointed out that “paddy, wheat, cattle, good

coco, wine, sugar, onions, garlic, fowl, horses, cotton,
[and] a kind of liquor called bassia...and other useful
effects” were plentiful in his province, inferring these
could be traded for weapons and manpower.
WHAT ROLE DID THE BRITISH PLAY IN
THESE REBELLIONS?

 The British promptly accepted Silang’s offer.

 This delivered allies in the north of the country,
much needed victuals, as well as the possibility of
raiding Augustinian convents in Illocos.
 Soon after receiving Silang’s letter and gift, the
Manila Council dispatched a detachment of
twenty Europeans and thirty Seapoys with arms
and ammunition to Illocos to support Silang
against Anda’s troops who had been mobilized to
put down the rebellion.
WHAT ROLE DID THE BRITISH PLAY IN
THESE REBELLIONS?

 There is no evidence that the Palaris ever

reached out to the British as Silang did, although
the British certainly attempted to forge an
alliance with the Pangasinans. When the Manila
Council “received advice that the Province of
Pangasinan had revolted from Senor Anda” in
March 1763, it promptly resolved to dispatch
a letter to the Governor and Chiefs of the
province, offering them our Friendship and
Protection, promising to assist them as much as
in our Power and to secure them the free exercise
of their religion with an open commerce.
MUSLIMS AND THE BRITISH
 If there was one person who truly welcomed the
British into Manila as liberators it was the Sultan of
Sulu and Sabah A’zim-ud-Din, who exemplified the
perfect victim of cruel, Spanish imperialism that
informed the British invasion and occupation of
Manila.
 The Sultan and his son Mohammed Israel were being
held prisoners of the Spanish in Manila when the city
fell to the British, and they eagerly welcomed the
British as liberators.
 The British Naval Officer Alexander Dalrymple
declared that these men, “tired of Spanish Control,
threw of their yoke, and put themselves under our
Protection.”
MUSLIMS AND THE BRITISH
 During the British occupation of Manila, A’zim-
ud-Din and his son entered into a mutual defence
and trade treaty with the East India Company.
 The treaty granted the Company the right to
“erect Forts or Factories” in Jolo, the capital of
the Sulu province, and its dependent territories.
 The Company soon escorted the Sultan and
Mohammed Israel to Jolo as they had requested.
 To kick-start a healthy trading relationship
between the two parties, the Company also
“advanced to Prince Israel the sum of 1,000
Dollars” that he was to repay “in the goods of his
Country”.
THE CHINESE: WHAT ROLE DID THE CHINESE
PLAY IN THE BRITISH OCCUPATION OF MANILA?

 In the aftermath of the occupation, all Chinese were

condemned for collaborating with the British.
 In June 1764 Simon de Anda wrote a letter to King
Charles III that accused the Chinese of being traitors
as well as godless heathens, and recommended that
all Chinese be expelled from the Philippines.
 The King accepted Anda’s advice and decreed the
expulsion of the Chinese on 17 April 1766.
 It took until June the following year for the decree to
arrive in Manila.
 In addition to the 3000 or more Chinese who fled
Manila before expulsion was officially decreed, 2460
Chinese were forcibly removed from the Philippines
between 1767 and 1772.
CHINESE
 The Chinese eagerly supported the British
invasion from its earliest stages until the last
ship sailing a union jack sailed out of the Bay of
Cavite.
 The Augustinian priest and historian Joaquín
Martínez de Zúñiga wrote in his 1803 Historia De
Las Islas Philipinas that “from the moment [the
British] took possssion of Manila, these Chinese
gave them every aid and accompanied them in all
their expeditions.”
CHINESE
 The Manila Consultations leave no doubt that
large numbers of Chinese collaborated with the
British Navy and the East India Company.
Letters from British Army captains indicate that
Chinese soldiers were quickly integrated into the
multi-ethnic units mobilized to fight against
Anda’s rebel army.
 Chinese aided the British as local guides and
spies.
CHINESE
 The Parián had traditionally had a degree of
autonomy from the Spanish colonial Government in
Manila.
 When the British arrived they discovered that this
Chinese community had its own Governor, mayors,
guards, and other ministers and officials who
traditionally oversaw the day-to-day running of the
neighborhood.
 These political leaders also traditionally managed
relationships between the Chinese and the Spanish
colonial government, including the collection and
payment of the tribute or head tax that Manila’s
Chinese residents were obliged to pay.
GO-BETWEENS
 Several non-Chinese helped the invaders’ cause
by serving as go-betweens for the Chinese and
British.
 O’Kennedy was the most prominent of these
intermediaries.
 Originally from Ireland, Diego O’Kennedy had
been in Manila since at least 1756.
 By 1761 the foreigner married Doña Maria
Cayetana Esguerra, the daughter of an elite and
land-rich Manileño family.
 O’Kennedy was one of the first people to declare
himself a “obedient humble servant” of the
British Manila Council.
GO-BETWEENS
 O’Kennedy evidently had working relationships
with leaders of the Parián and understood how
this Chinese community was organized.
 The Irishman’s knowledge and networks enabled
him to negotiate with the Chinese on behalf of
the British, facilitating the contracting of
Chinese soldiers and other workers required to
undertake the labor of occupation.
 O’Kennedy also organized for the Manila Council
to purchase a range of goods from Chinese
suppliers, including dried fish and sugar.
APOSTACY
 The willingness of so many Chinese to cooperate with
the British attests to the inability of missionaries to
cement devotion in a population that did not in large
numbers buy into the evangelical Catholic project of
the Dominicans who oversaw the attempted
conversion of this community.
 The main reason that the Chinese were expelled from
Manila after 1766 was their collective crime of
apostacy - their abandonment or renunciation of their
Catholic faith.
 Chinese treason affirmed for the Council of the Indies
that those Chinese who had sought baptism in the
Philippines were false converts who ostensibly
changed their religion to avoid earlier expulsions, and
to enjoy ten years free from the obligation of tribute, a
privilege applied to all New Christians in the
Philippines.
 In May 1763 public notices signed by Anda in
both Castilian and Chinese appeared in the
neighbourhood of Santa Cruz.
 These granted in the name if the Spanish King “a
general pardon... for the lives of all such Chinese
as still remain and had sided with the English”,
on the condition that they registered their
presence, and refrained from taking up arms
against Spaniards or assisting the invaders in
any other way.

 The Manila Consultations reveal that several
Chinese and Chinese mestizos were active allies
of Anda. British assumptions of Chinese
disloyalty to the Spanish Crown enabled them to
be effective double-agents for the Governor-in-
exile. By mid-1763 British captains began to
realise that the “Chinese are employed as spies.”
 Manila’s Chinese population did not have to
choose between supporting the Spanish or
supporting the British during the occupation.
Many Chinese attempted to take advantage of
this situation without necessarily supporting
either European power.
CONCLUSION
 The British occupation of Manila in 1762-1764 was
undoubtedly a crisis for Spanish colonial rule in the
Philippines.
 The British Royal Navy and East India Company abruptly
ended 191 years of unbroken Spanish control of the Manila
when their combined force captured the city in late 1762.
 Spain’s temporary loss of Manila created an unprecedented
opportunity for a range of imperial subjects in the
Philippines to contest Spanish authority.
 Soldiers deserted from Spanish ranks, merchants in Manila
collaborated with the invaders, and thousands of Indigenous
peasants rose up in rebellion in the provinces north of Manila,
demanding the abolition of the tribute system, and in
Pangasinan, the expulsion of all Spaniards, including Spanish
priests, from their lands.

 The Spanish empire in the Philippines was
remarkably strong under the pressures imposed by
the British invasion and occupation of Manila.
 The resilience of the Spanish empire in the
Philippines in 1762-1764 was underscored by the
willingness of thousands of natives people, the
Pampangans in particular, to become soldiers in
Anda’s army.
 These loyal natives united behind Anda to fight not
only the British invaders, but also the rebellious
Ilocanos and Pangasinans who they ultimately
defeated.
 The fidelity of so many indigenous people to Spain
during the Seven Years War testifies to the role of
Catholicism as a cohesive force among converted
Indians.