British occupation of the Philippines
Encyclopedia
The British occupation of Manila occurred between 1762 and 1764, when a British force occupied Manila
, the Spanish colonial capital of the Philippines
, and the nearby principal port, Cavite
, both on Manila Bay
.
However, the unexpectedly strong resistance met from the provisional Spanish colonial government, established by members of the Royal Audience of Manila
and their Filipino allies, prevented the British forces from taking control of territory outside of Manila and Cavite. After these failures, the occupation was brought to an end as part of the wider peace settlement of the Seven Years' War
.
were at war, in what was later called the Seven Years War. As the war progressed, the neutral Spanish government became concerned that the string of major French losses at the hands of the British had become a threat to Spanish interests. Britain first declared war against Spain on 4 January 1762 and on 18 January 1762, Spain issued their own declaration of war against Britain. France successfully negotiated a treaty with Spain known as the Family Compact
which was signed on 15 August 1761. By an ancillary secret convention, Spain became hurriedly committed to making preparations for war against Britain.
On 6 January 1762 the British Cabinet
led by the Prime Minister
, the Earl of Bute
, agreed to attack Havana
in the West Indies, and approved Colonel William Draper
's 'Scheme for taking Manila with some Troops, which are already in the East Indies' in the East. Draper was commanding officer of the 79th Regiment of Foot, which was currently stationed in Madras, India
. On 21 January 1762 King George III signed the instructions to Draper to implement his Scheme, emphasizing that by taking advantage of the 'existing war with Spain' Britain might be able to assure her post-war mercantile expansion.
There was also the expectation that the commerce of Spain would suffer a 'crippling blow'. On arrival in India, Draper's brevet rank became brigadier general
. A secret committee of the East India Company
agreed to provide a civil governor for the administration of the Islands, and on July 1762 it appointed Dawsonne Drake for the post. Manila was one of the most important trading cities in Asia during this time and the Company wanted to extend its influence over the Archipelago.
, sailed into Manila Bay
from Madras. The expedition, led by Brigadier-General William Draper and Rear-Admiral Samuel Cornish, captured Manila, "the greatest Spanish fortress in the western Pacific".
The Spanish defeat was not really surprising. Former Governor-General of the Philippines
, Pedro Manuel de Arandia, had died in 1759 and his replacement Brigadier Francisco de la Torre had not arrived because of the British attack on Havana
in Cuba
. the Spanish Crown appointed the Archbishop of Manila Manuel Rojo del Rio y Vieyra
as temporary Lieutenant Governor. In part, because the garrison was commanded by the Archbishop , instead of by a military expert, many mistakes were made by the Spanish forces.
On 5 October 1762 (4 October local calendar), the night before the fall of the walled city of Manila
, the Spanish military persuaded Rojo to summon a council of war. Several times the archbishop wished to capitulate, but he was prevented. By very heavy battery fire that day, the British had successfully breached the walls of the bastion San Diego, dried up the ditch, dismounted the cannons of that bastion and the two adjoining bastions, San Andes and San Eugeno, set fire to parts of the town, and drove the Spanish forces from the walls. At dawn of October 6, British forces attacked the breach and took the fortifications meeting with little resistance.
During the siege the Spanish military lost three officers, two sergeants, 50 troops of the line, and 30 civilians of the militia, besides many wounded. Among the natives there were 300 killed and 400 wounded. The besiegers suffered 147 killed and wounded , of whom 16 were officers. The fleet fired upon the city more than 5,000 bombs, and more than 20,000 balls.
On 2 November 1762, Dawsonne Drake of the British East India Company
assumed gubernatorial office as the British governor of Manila. He was assisted by a council of four, consisting of John L. Smith, Claud Russel, Henry Brooke and Samuel Johnson. Villacorta managed to escape. When after several attempts Drake realized that he wasn't getting as many assets that he expected, he formed a War Council that he named Chottry Court, with absolute power to imprison anyone who he wished. Many Spanish, Mestizos, Chinese and Indians were brought into prisons for crimes, that as denounced by Captain Thomas Backhouse, were "only known to himself."
had organized a war council and dispatched Oidor Don Simón de Anda y Salazar
to the provincial town of Bulacan
to organize continued resistance to the British. The Real Audencia also appointed Anda as Lieutenant Governor and Visitor-General. That night Anda took a substantial portion of the treasury and official records with him, departing Fort Santigo through the postern of Our Lady of Solitude, to a boat on the Pasig River, and then to Bulacan. He moved headquarters from Bulacan to Bacolor in Pampanga
province, which was more secure from the British, and quickly obtained the powerful support of the Augustinians
.
Anda eventually raised an army which amounted to over 10,000 combatants, most of them voluntary natives, and although they lacked enough modern weapons, they were successful in keeping the British forces confined within Manila. On 8 October 1762 Anda wrote to Rojo informing him that Anda had assumed the position of Governor and Capitan-General under statutes of the Council of the Indies which allowed for the devolution of authority from the Governor to the Audiencia in cases of riot or invasion by foreign forces, as such was the case. Anda, being the highest member of the Audiencia not captive by the British, assumed all powers and demanded the royal seal. Rojo declined to surrender it and refused to recognize Anda's as Governor-General.
The surrender agreement between Archbishop Rojo and the British military guaranteed the Roman Catholic religion and its episcopal government, secured private property, and granted the citizens of the former Spanish colony the rights of peaceful travel and of trade 'as British subjects'. Under British control, the Philippines would continue to be governed by the Real Audencia, the expenses of which were to be paid by Spain. However, Anda refused to recognize any of the agreements signed by Rojo as valid, claiming that the Archbishop has been made to sign them by force, and therefore, according to the statutes of the Council of the Indies, they were invalid. He also refused to negotiate with the invaders until he was addressed as the legal Governor-General of the Philippines
, returning to the British the letters that were not addressed to that effect. All of these initiatives were later approved by the King of Spain, who rewarded him and other members of the Audiencia, such as José Basco y Vargas
, who had fought against the invaders.
The isolated British force, which had been sent on the assumption that the seizure of Manila would undermine Spanish control, was insufficient. Severe disagreements then broke out between Dawsonne Drake and the military commanders who replaced Draper and Cornish, preventing either fruitful negotiations with Anda or effective military action.
signed on 10 February 1763. At the time of signing the treaty, the signatories were not aware that Manila had been taken by the British and consequently it fell under the general provision that all other lands not otherwise provided for be returned to the Spanish Crown. After Archbishop Rojo died on January 1764, the British military finally recognized Simón de Anda y Salazar as the legitimate Governor of the Philippines, sending him a letter addressed to the “Real Audiencia Gobernadora y Capitanía General”, after which Anda agreed to an armistice on the condition that the British forces were withdrawn from Manila by March.
The British ended the occupation by embarking from Manila and Cavite in the first week of April 1764, and sailing out of Manila Bay for Batavia, India, and England.
, who was emboldened by Spanish vulnerability, was promised all kinds of military help if he started a revolt against the Spanish government in the Ilocos Region
, but such aid never materialized. Silang was later assassinated by his own friends, and the revolt aborted after his wife
, who had taken over the leadership, was captured and executed together with the rest of the remaining rebel forces.
Sultan Alimuddin I, who had signed a treaty of alliance with the British forces after they had freed him from the fortress of Santiago in Manila, where he had been imprisoned accused of treason, was also taken with the evacuating forces, in the hope that he could be of help to the aspirations of the East India Company in the Sultanate of Sulu.
A number of Indian soldiers known as Sepoy
s, deserted the British forces and settled down in Cainta, Rizal
, which explains the uniquely Indian features of generations of Cainta residents.
Many valuable oil paintings by Spanish artists from the Palacio del Gobernador in Intramuros, rare maps, charts, historical manuscripts and official documents, precious books, letters and papers of religious orders, together with bundles of primary source materials about the Philippines during the 17th century, were taken away by Dawsonne Drake and his successor, Alexander Dalrymple, and eventually ended up at the British Museum in London or auctioned by Sotheby's
.
The conflict over payment by Spain of the outstanding part of the ransom promised by Rojo in the terms of surrender, and compensation by Britain for excesses committed by Governor Drake against residents of Manila, continued in Europe for years afterward.
had already appointed Simón de Anda y Salazar as the new Governor-General, a decision that was provided by the Council of the Indies and later ratified by the King of Spain, who later appointed both Anda and Basco as Governors-General of the Philippines. It was not the first time that the Audiencia had assumed responsibility for the defense of the Philippines in the absence of a higher authority; in 1646, during the Battles of La Naval de Manila
, it temporarily assumed the government and maintained the defense of the Philippines against the Dutch.
Captain Thomas Backhouse admitted the failure of the expedition when he reported to the Secretary of War in London that "the enemy was in full possession of the country."
As Francisco Leandro Viana, who was in Manila during the 20 month occupation, explained to the Spanish King in 1765, "the English conquest of the Philippines was just an imagined one, as the English did never own any land beyond the range of the cannons in Manila".
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
, the Spanish colonial capital of the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, and the nearby principal port, Cavite
Cavite
Cavite is a province of the Philippines located on the southern shores of Manila Bay in the CALABARZON region in Luzon, just 30 kilometers south of Manila. Cavite is surrounded by Laguna to the east, Metro Manila to the northeast, and Batangas to the south...
, both on Manila Bay
Manila Bay
Manila Bay is a natural harbor which serves the Port of Manila , in the Philippines.The bay is considered to be one of the best natural harbors in Southeast Asia and one of the finest in the world...
.
However, the unexpectedly strong resistance met from the provisional Spanish colonial government, established by members of the Royal Audience of Manila
Royal Audience of Manila
The Royal Audience of Manila was the highest tribunal of the Spanish Empire with jurisdiction over all territories administered by the Captaincy General of the Philippines, an administrative unit that had been established in 1574 as a dependency of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.The Governor-General...
and their Filipino allies, prevented the British forces from taking control of territory outside of Manila and Cavite. After these failures, the occupation was brought to an end as part of the wider peace settlement of the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
.
Historical Background
At the time, Britain and FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
were at war, in what was later called the Seven Years War. As the war progressed, the neutral Spanish government became concerned that the string of major French losses at the hands of the British had become a threat to Spanish interests. Britain first declared war against Spain on 4 January 1762 and on 18 January 1762, Spain issued their own declaration of war against Britain. France successfully negotiated a treaty with Spain known as the Family Compact
Pacte de Famille
The Pacte de Famille is one of three separate, but similar alliances between the Bourbon kings of France and Spain.- The first Pacte de Famille :...
which was signed on 15 August 1761. By an ancillary secret convention, Spain became hurriedly committed to making preparations for war against Britain.
On 6 January 1762 the British Cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
led by the Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
, the Earl of Bute
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute KG, PC , styled Lord Mount Stuart before 1723, was a Scottish nobleman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain under George III, and was arguably the last important favourite in British politics...
, agreed to attack Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
in the West Indies, and approved Colonel William Draper
William Draper (British Army officer)
Sir William Draper KCB , was a British military officer who conquered Manila in 1762, but lost Minorca in 1782. He was involved in 1774 with a key meeting that agreed an early set of cricket rules including the leg before wicket rule.- Biography :Draper was born in Bristol, then the second largest...
's 'Scheme for taking Manila with some Troops, which are already in the East Indies' in the East. Draper was commanding officer of the 79th Regiment of Foot, which was currently stationed in Madras, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. On 21 January 1762 King George III signed the instructions to Draper to implement his Scheme, emphasizing that by taking advantage of the 'existing war with Spain' Britain might be able to assure her post-war mercantile expansion.
There was also the expectation that the commerce of Spain would suffer a 'crippling blow'. On arrival in India, Draper's brevet rank became brigadier general
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
. A secret committee of the East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
agreed to provide a civil governor for the administration of the Islands, and on July 1762 it appointed Dawsonne Drake for the post. Manila was one of the most important trading cities in Asia during this time and the Company wanted to extend its influence over the Archipelago.
Offensive actions
On 24 September 1762, a British fleet of eight ships of the line, three frigates, and four store ships with a force of 6,839 regulars, sailors and marinesRoyal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...
, sailed into Manila Bay
Manila Bay
Manila Bay is a natural harbor which serves the Port of Manila , in the Philippines.The bay is considered to be one of the best natural harbors in Southeast Asia and one of the finest in the world...
from Madras. The expedition, led by Brigadier-General William Draper and Rear-Admiral Samuel Cornish, captured Manila, "the greatest Spanish fortress in the western Pacific".
The Spanish defeat was not really surprising. Former Governor-General of the Philippines
Governor-General of the Philippines
The Governor-General of the Philippines was the title of the government executive during the colonial period of the Philippines, governed mainly by Spain and the United States, and briefly by Great Britain, from 1565 to 1935....
, Pedro Manuel de Arandia, had died in 1759 and his replacement Brigadier Francisco de la Torre had not arrived because of the British attack on Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. the Spanish Crown appointed the Archbishop of Manila Manuel Rojo del Rio y Vieyra
Manuel Rojo del Rio y Vieyra
Manuel Antonio Rojo del Rio y Vieyra was a Mexican friar who served as the Archbishop of Manila and Governor-General of the Philippines at the commencement of the 1762–1764 British occupation of Manila.-Early life:Rojo del Rio was born in Tula, Mexico on September 24, 1708...
as temporary Lieutenant Governor. In part, because the garrison was commanded by the Archbishop , instead of by a military expert, many mistakes were made by the Spanish forces.
On 5 October 1762 (4 October local calendar), the night before the fall of the walled city of Manila
Intramuros
Intramuros is the oldest district in the present day city of Manila, the capital of the Republic of the Philippines. Nicknamed the "Walled City", Intramuros is the historic fortified city of Manila, the seat ot the government during the Spanish Colonial Period. Its name in Latin, intramuros,...
, the Spanish military persuaded Rojo to summon a council of war. Several times the archbishop wished to capitulate, but he was prevented. By very heavy battery fire that day, the British had successfully breached the walls of the bastion San Diego, dried up the ditch, dismounted the cannons of that bastion and the two adjoining bastions, San Andes and San Eugeno, set fire to parts of the town, and drove the Spanish forces from the walls. At dawn of October 6, British forces attacked the breach and took the fortifications meeting with little resistance.
During the siege the Spanish military lost three officers, two sergeants, 50 troops of the line, and 30 civilians of the militia, besides many wounded. Among the natives there were 300 killed and 400 wounded. The besiegers suffered 147 killed and wounded , of whom 16 were officers. The fleet fired upon the city more than 5,000 bombs, and more than 20,000 balls.
Occupation of Manila
Once Manila fell to British troops, the churches and government offices were ransacked, valuables were taken and historical documents such as Augustinian records, government documents and even the copper plates for the grand 18th-century Murillo Velarde map of the Philippines were ransacked along with the naval stores at the Cavite Naval Yard, the paintings in the Governor General’s Palace, the contents of Intramuros churches and the possessions of most wealthy houses. Rape, homicide and vandalism also rampaged through the city in what is known as the first "Rape of Manila". To top it all off, the British demanded a ransom of four million dollars from the Spanish government to stop the plundering of the city, something to which Archbishop Rojo agreed in order to avoid further destruction.On 2 November 1762, Dawsonne Drake of the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
assumed gubernatorial office as the British governor of Manila. He was assisted by a council of four, consisting of John L. Smith, Claud Russel, Henry Brooke and Samuel Johnson. Villacorta managed to escape. When after several attempts Drake realized that he wasn't getting as many assets that he expected, he formed a War Council that he named Chottry Court, with absolute power to imprison anyone who he wished. Many Spanish, Mestizos, Chinese and Indians were brought into prisons for crimes, that as denounced by Captain Thomas Backhouse, were "only known to himself."
Resistance Movement
In the meantime the Royal Audience of ManilaRoyal Audience of Manila
The Royal Audience of Manila was the highest tribunal of the Spanish Empire with jurisdiction over all territories administered by the Captaincy General of the Philippines, an administrative unit that had been established in 1574 as a dependency of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.The Governor-General...
had organized a war council and dispatched Oidor Don Simón de Anda y Salazar
Simón de Anda y Salazar
Simón de Anda y Salazar was a Spanish Basque governor of the Philippines from July, 1770 to October 30, 1776.-Oidor at the Royal Audience of Manila and Lieutenant Governor:...
to the provincial town of Bulacan
Bulacan, Bulacan
Bulacan or Bulakan is a 1st class partially urban municipality in the province of Bulacan, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 72,289 people in 13,577 households. It is 35 km north of Manila...
to organize continued resistance to the British. The Real Audencia also appointed Anda as Lieutenant Governor and Visitor-General. That night Anda took a substantial portion of the treasury and official records with him, departing Fort Santigo through the postern of Our Lady of Solitude, to a boat on the Pasig River, and then to Bulacan. He moved headquarters from Bulacan to Bacolor in Pampanga
Pampanga
Pampanga is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the City of San Fernando, Pampanga. Pampanga is bordered by the provinces of Bataan and Zambales to the west, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija to the north, and Bulacan to the southeast...
province, which was more secure from the British, and quickly obtained the powerful support of the Augustinians
Augustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...
.
Anda eventually raised an army which amounted to over 10,000 combatants, most of them voluntary natives, and although they lacked enough modern weapons, they were successful in keeping the British forces confined within Manila. On 8 October 1762 Anda wrote to Rojo informing him that Anda had assumed the position of Governor and Capitan-General under statutes of the Council of the Indies which allowed for the devolution of authority from the Governor to the Audiencia in cases of riot or invasion by foreign forces, as such was the case. Anda, being the highest member of the Audiencia not captive by the British, assumed all powers and demanded the royal seal. Rojo declined to surrender it and refused to recognize Anda's as Governor-General.
The surrender agreement between Archbishop Rojo and the British military guaranteed the Roman Catholic religion and its episcopal government, secured private property, and granted the citizens of the former Spanish colony the rights of peaceful travel and of trade 'as British subjects'. Under British control, the Philippines would continue to be governed by the Real Audencia, the expenses of which were to be paid by Spain. However, Anda refused to recognize any of the agreements signed by Rojo as valid, claiming that the Archbishop has been made to sign them by force, and therefore, according to the statutes of the Council of the Indies, they were invalid. He also refused to negotiate with the invaders until he was addressed as the legal Governor-General of the Philippines
Governor-General of the Philippines
The Governor-General of the Philippines was the title of the government executive during the colonial period of the Philippines, governed mainly by Spain and the United States, and briefly by Great Britain, from 1565 to 1935....
, returning to the British the letters that were not addressed to that effect. All of these initiatives were later approved by the King of Spain, who rewarded him and other members of the Audiencia, such as José Basco y Vargas
José Basco y Vargas
José Basco y Vargas, 1st Count of the Conquest of Batanes Islands was a naval officer who served as the 53rd governor of the Philippines under Spanish colonial rule, from 1778 to 1787...
, who had fought against the invaders.
The isolated British force, which had been sent on the assumption that the seizure of Manila would undermine Spanish control, was insufficient. Severe disagreements then broke out between Dawsonne Drake and the military commanders who replaced Draper and Cornish, preventing either fruitful negotiations with Anda or effective military action.
End of the occupation
The Seven Years War was ended by the Treaty of Paris (1763)Treaty of Paris (1763)
The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
signed on 10 February 1763. At the time of signing the treaty, the signatories were not aware that Manila had been taken by the British and consequently it fell under the general provision that all other lands not otherwise provided for be returned to the Spanish Crown. After Archbishop Rojo died on January 1764, the British military finally recognized Simón de Anda y Salazar as the legitimate Governor of the Philippines, sending him a letter addressed to the “Real Audiencia Gobernadora y Capitanía General”, after which Anda agreed to an armistice on the condition that the British forces were withdrawn from Manila by March.
The British ended the occupation by embarking from Manila and Cavite in the first week of April 1764, and sailing out of Manila Bay for Batavia, India, and England.
Aftermath
Diego SilangDiego Silang
Diego Silang y Andaya was a revolutionary leader who conspired with British forces to overthrow Spanish rule in the northern Philippines and establish an independent Ilocano nation...
, who was emboldened by Spanish vulnerability, was promised all kinds of military help if he started a revolt against the Spanish government in the Ilocos Region
Ilocos Region
The Ilocos region or Region I is a Region of the Philippines and is located in the northwest of Luzon. It borders to the east the regions of the Cordillera Administrative Region and Cagayan Valley and to the south the region of Central Luzon...
, but such aid never materialized. Silang was later assassinated by his own friends, and the revolt aborted after his wife
Gabriela Silang
María Josefa Gabriela Cariño Silang was the wife of the Ilocano insurgent leader, Diego Silang. Following Diego's assassination in 1763, she led the group for four months before she was captured and executed....
, who had taken over the leadership, was captured and executed together with the rest of the remaining rebel forces.
Sultan Alimuddin I, who had signed a treaty of alliance with the British forces after they had freed him from the fortress of Santiago in Manila, where he had been imprisoned accused of treason, was also taken with the evacuating forces, in the hope that he could be of help to the aspirations of the East India Company in the Sultanate of Sulu.
A number of Indian soldiers known as Sepoy
Sepoy
A sepoy was formerly the designation given to an Indian soldier in the service of a European power. In the modern Indian Army, Pakistan Army and Bangladesh Army it remains in use for the rank of private soldier.-Etymology and Historical usage:...
s, deserted the British forces and settled down in Cainta, Rizal
Cainta, Rizal
The Municipality of Cainta is a first-class urban municipality in the province of Rizal, Philippines. It is one of the oldest , and is the town with the second smallest land area of 26.81 km² next to Angono with 26.22 km².Cainta serves as the secondary gateway to the rest of Rizal...
, which explains the uniquely Indian features of generations of Cainta residents.
Many valuable oil paintings by Spanish artists from the Palacio del Gobernador in Intramuros, rare maps, charts, historical manuscripts and official documents, precious books, letters and papers of religious orders, together with bundles of primary source materials about the Philippines during the 17th century, were taken away by Dawsonne Drake and his successor, Alexander Dalrymple, and eventually ended up at the British Museum in London or auctioned by Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
.
The conflict over payment by Spain of the outstanding part of the ransom promised by Rojo in the terms of surrender, and compensation by Britain for excesses committed by Governor Drake against residents of Manila, continued in Europe for years afterward.
Controversies
Some writers refer to the occupation of Manila as the "British occupation of the Philippines", but the facts were that the British were only able to control Manila and nearby Cavite and were unsuccessful in extending their control beyond these settlements. Although the British accepted the written surrender of the Spanish Governor in the Philippines from Archbishop Rojo on 30 October 1762, the Royal Audience of ManilaRoyal Audience of Manila
The Royal Audience of Manila was the highest tribunal of the Spanish Empire with jurisdiction over all territories administered by the Captaincy General of the Philippines, an administrative unit that had been established in 1574 as a dependency of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.The Governor-General...
had already appointed Simón de Anda y Salazar as the new Governor-General, a decision that was provided by the Council of the Indies and later ratified by the King of Spain, who later appointed both Anda and Basco as Governors-General of the Philippines. It was not the first time that the Audiencia had assumed responsibility for the defense of the Philippines in the absence of a higher authority; in 1646, during the Battles of La Naval de Manila
Battles of La Naval de Manila
The Battles of La Naval de Manila were a series of five naval battles fought in the waters of the Philippines in 1646, between the forces of Spain and the Dutch Republic, during the Eighty Years’ War...
, it temporarily assumed the government and maintained the defense of the Philippines against the Dutch.
Captain Thomas Backhouse admitted the failure of the expedition when he reported to the Secretary of War in London that "the enemy was in full possession of the country."
As Francisco Leandro Viana, who was in Manila during the 20 month occupation, explained to the Spanish King in 1765, "the English conquest of the Philippines was just an imagined one, as the English did never own any land beyond the range of the cannons in Manila".