Pearl and Tobacco - An Alternate History of the Philippines

Verse 1
The Pearl and Tobacco

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Verse 1
The coordinated efforts of the Moros in Mindanao (led by Sultan Kudarat), Northern Luzon(Saludong) pagans/hindus, Christian rebels in Luzon and the chinese in the philippines(chinese revolts are supperted by koxinga and tungning) to expel the Spanish would fail in the late 17th century and the Pagan tribes would experience famine which they were able to recover in the beginning of the 18th century.

The Irraya and the other pagan/hindu tribes in the Upper reaches of Cagayan Valley and Pampanga river valley would recover from the battles and earlier famine in the beginning of the 18th century, Peace with the Spanish would be a possibility at this point due to the hostilities starting to cease to happen.

On the early decades of 1700's The Spanish would start to make peace with the Northern nobles of Saludong which included the rump remnants of Kaboloan and Sapa in the North which are the Saludongese nobles.

The Kings of Spain, Philip V would start to rule the Philippines from Spain and made his neoplanta decrees and informally the colony would start to split and the pagan nobles in the North would start to convert along with their subjects which are the pagan tribes.

The languages of Yogad, Karaklans and Buquids and the minor tribes of Upper Cagayan Valley and Pampanga river valley would start to merge with Irraya-Gadddang into one making the language of Gaddangs dominant in Northern Luzon, the languages of Yogads, Karaklans and Bukids and other minor tribes would start to lose their linguistic individuality since 1730's as their populations are boosted and the new language would later be a linguafranca of the Northern Island Half of Luzon.


The boost of the population of the former pagan tribes would double their population and would be loyal to the Spanish crown and their nobles

The Tagalog and Ilocano settlers in Upper Cagayan River and Upper Pampanga river valley would gradually be absorbed by this new merger, mishmash and mixture of languages and these people have started to be prolific since the second decade of the 18th century.

The Spanish prosetylization to the Pagan/Hindu tribes would be complete except for the tribes of Bontoc, Kankanaey and Tinguians by 1730's.
 
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Verse 2
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Verse 2
On 1754 the mountain of Taal would erupt destroying the towns near the Taal volcano and destroying the formerly rich towns near it, the eruption of Taal will affect the geography of the area because it will mean that the Pansipit Channel will be transformed from a rich cannel to a river and the old sea water lake of Taal to a salt water lake and this would change the condition of the Batangas province turning it to a rich province to an impoverished one.

Spain allied with France during the Seven Years' War, in opposition to Great Britain which is allied with the Holy Roman Empire. The British in response sought to diminish the Spanish Empire. The seizure of Manila by British naval forces in October 1762, and the subsequent surrender of the Spanish Philippines to Britain during the British occupation of the Philippines, inspired uprisings in the farthest north of Ilocos Norte and Cagayan, where anti-Spanish sentiments festered. Though Silang initially wanted to replace Spanish functionaries in the Ilocos with native-born officials and volunteered to head Ilocano forces against the British, desperate Spanish administrators instead transferred their powers to the Catholic Bishop of Nueva Segovia (Vigan), who rejected Silang's offer. Silang's group attacked the city and imprisoned its priests. He then began an association with the British who appointed him governor of the Ilocos on their behalf and promised him military reinforcement.

The British would help the Ilocano revolt in 1762; however, the other people of Northern Luzon and their nobles would be against the Ilocanos and supported the Spanish against the minority Ilocanos, the other people of Northern Luzon would send armies supporting the Spanish against the Ilocanos, this would end in the failure of the revolt of Diego Silang despite the fact that he lives and dies in relative anomimity, his wife Gabriela Carino would have a liason and relationship with a man from the lineage of Balagtas and became the grandmother of the poet Francisco Baltazar y Dela Cruz, one of the greatest poet in the new lingua franca of Northern Luzon which is a form of Gaddang which had absorbed the languages near it, Diego Silang would be remembered as a traitor of the Saludongese nation later on.

The Sepoys that mutinied with the British in their wars in the Philippines would resettle in the Northern half of Luzon and blend and intermarry to the native population, the people from Northern Luzon would welcome the Sepoys that mutinied in Northern Luzon in open arms.

The 7 years' war would end in 1763 with the war being a stalemate between the British and the French.

The 7 years' war results would lead to the French revolution and the American revolution which would mean France and the colonial governments of America would collapse due to corruption of its rulers.
 
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Verse 3
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Verse 3


On the latter part of the 18th century Francisco Balagtas or also known as Francisco Baltazar would be known in writing in Gaddang which is starting to be the linguafranca of the Northern half of Luzon and its popular form is similar the Irraya dialect of Tuguegarao and Southern Cagayan, Francisco Baltazar or Francisco Balagtas would use the popularized form of that langauge and the tobacco monopoly would be promulgated in the late 18th century due to the efforts to maintain the colony by the Spanish.

Balagtas would write the written version of the epic or account about the marriage of Emperor Soledan and Princess Sasaban of Selurong which put the majority of Luzon or Saludong to the influence of Majapahit for a hundred of years, Sasaban's story would be the common epic of the Northern Half of Saludong which would talk about the love story of Sasaban and Emperor Soledan, Emperor Soledan is identified with Raden Wijaya and Sasaban is the wife he erased from history but scholars dispute on this.

The historians would write about the Malong-Maniago-Almazan revolt and the efforts of the people in the Philippines to expel the spanish in the later part of the 17th century until the end of the 17th century will be written by subversive writers and later written into the history books.

In this point the Tobacco Monopoly is established by Jose Basco y Vargas, the tribes that recently converted to christianity majorly contributed in the tobacco monopoly and the rice terraces in Ifugao would also be planted with Tobacco as well due to the Ifugaos converting to Christianity in the early 18th century, the Rice Terraces would be filled with Tobacco plantations on a decade after the implementation of the Tobacco Monopoly.


 
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Verse 4
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Verse 4

The Taiwanese Aborigines especially the ones in the Mountains would increase in number in the 18th century a few decades after the Qing conquered Taiwan, the Taiwanese Aborigines in the mountains would increase in population, they would have tripled their population by the end of the 18th century making them at least 30-40% of the population of Taiwan, the rest of the population identify as Han Chinese.

In 1783, the Spanish claimed Batanes as part of the Philippines under the auspices of Governor-General José Basco y Vargas. The Bashi Channel was increasingly used by English East India Company ships and the Spanish authorities brought the islands under their direct administration to prevent them falling under British control. However, the Ivatan remained on their idjangs, or mountain fortresses. In 1790, Governor Guerrero decreed that Ivatans were to leave their idjang and to live in the lowlands, thereby giving them more people to tax. The mangpus, the indigenous Ivatan leader of the islands during that time, made a revolution against the Spaniards afterwards. With much ammunition and steel armors, the Spaniards destroyed the revolution and murdered the Ivatan tribal mangpus, effectively subjugating the natives. Basco and Ivana were the first towns established under full Spanish control.

The Ivatans would remain connected to the indigenous people of Taiwan commercially even after the Spanish have conquered the Ivatans that some would still migrate to the Botel Tobago or Orchid Island after the Spanish had conquered the island due to the Spanish tributes to the Ivatans being unfair to them.

In the south the Mindanaoan Sultanates of Maguindanao and Sulu would continue to be influenced by both the Dutch and the Spanish, however the earlier defeat of the attempted plans to expel the Spanish would end the earlier strength of the Dutch in Mindanao and the Spanish would gain more military power in the area, for Maguindanao decades after the reign of Sultan Bayan Ul-Anwar, the Spanish would gain more influence compared to the Dutch.
 
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