Project in

History



Submitted by:
Efren B. Adenit Jr.
Submitted to:
Ka. Jhong









The Positive and Negative things that the Spaniards
introduced in the Philippines_________________________
Good and bad things that the Spaniards introduced in the Philippines

Religion is one of the good things that the Spaniards introduced in the Philippines during the
Spanish rule. The Philippines is one of the two Roman Catholic countries in Asia. Education is
another treasure that the Spaniards have given us, in fact in the 18th century, we are
considered to be one of the most educated countries in the Asia. Some of the schools that are
present in the period were Universidad de San Ignacio, Universidad de San Carlos, Universidad
de Santo Toms, Universidad de San Felipe de Austria, and many more. Another good thing
that the Spaniards influenced us is Language. Before Spanish language was introduced in the
Philippines, the Philippines have many languages and Spanish language help the Philippines to
unite. Cultures and Festivals were also introduced by the Spanish. Many of the modern festivals
in Philippines came from the cultures that the Spanish gave us. Philippines is one of the
countries that has the most number of festivals per year and that makes the tourist want to visit
Philippines. Business is yet another virtue that the Spanish influenced the Philippines. In the
business world, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) play a big role in the
social and political development of the nation. And it can be traced back that the PCCI was once
used by the Spanish and Spanish company such as Compaia General de Tabacos de
Filipinas.

Of course there are some vices that the Spaniards brought to the Philippines during the Spanish
rule. One of the vices is slavery. Since the Spanish is the colonial country and Philippines is the
one being colonized, the Spaniards have taken advantage of its power and abuse it. Slavery
has a big impact in the Philippines because until present days, we, Filipinos still inherit some of
the characteristics that will affect our country, characteristics such as low self esteem.
The Philippines was very lucky because our country was rich in natural resources. And that is
the reason why many foreign countries had colonized our country. Spain is one of the foreign
countries that colonized our country for more than three hundred years. They are the reason
why Filipinos experienced suffered, hardship, persecution etc. during their colonization. But the
Spanish had also contributes good things in our country especially to us Filipinos. The Spanish
colonization in the Philippines lead to us to make some questions in our mind on how does the
Filipino survived? Even though they experienced the inhumanity of the Spaniards. We can say
that the Filipino during the time of the Spanish was so very poor and pity because the Spaniards
treated the Filipino people not as human being but as their slaves. They abused the Filipino.
The life of the Filipinos during the Spanish colonization was so very difficult. They never
experienced the freedom. Even though there are many negative things that the Spaniards
given to the Filipinos but there is still positive contributions that the Spanish government given to
us. And one of this positive contribution is their culture. The Spanish people introduced us what
are their culture like they introduced us their Latin alphabet, the art of painting, the appearance
of Theocratic Literature, the persistence of folk and colonial art and the Hispanic music and
western musical instrument. These contributions brought such good things in the Filipinos
because it helped us to improve our culture and ourselves. The Spanish government also
helped the Filipino in their educational situation.
First and foremost, the colonization of the Spaniards introduced the Philippines to the "modern
world". As a matter of fact, the Philippines wasn't even a country when the Spaniards came. It
was just a series of islands with different tribes living in different "barangays." BUT they did have
a form of organization. The positive effect simply is that the coming of the Spaniards, aside from
bringing together the 1000+ islands under one flag, helped the Philippines become a modern
country. The Europeans were at the forefront of progress and modernity at the time. Clearly,
one negative effect was the maltreatment of the Spaniards (most particularly the friars) towards
the Indios. But a positive effect that grew out of that was the birth of Nationalism, which Rizal
and the other ilustrados brought into fruition. Now fast-forward to today. If you notice how
divided the nation is in terms of social classes (the poor are the majority in terms of numbers but
are the minority in terms of power while the rich are the complete opposite), as well as the
corruption, it all goes back to the Spanish colonial times. The way the friars and the Spanish
government ran the country is still the same way people run the country today. It's whoever has
the money has the power. Don't get me wrong, I think it's unfair to blame the Spaniards for it,
since the Philippines has gone this far already. All I'm saying is that corruption, this hacienda
mentality, goes all the way back to the Spanish colonial period. I hope this answers your
question.
By the way, I think the Catholicism, originally wasn't so good, but at the same time it wasn't so
bad either. The Spaniards used it to "brainwash" the Indios into doing what they (the colonizers)
wanted (e.g. the friars were one of the most corrupt people during the Spanish colonial period
but no one could touch them because they were "God's servants"). But the Catholicism also
brought the people together and now is part of the beautiful and colorful Filipino culture.