alternatehistory.com

This would be my first TL ever since joining the group. :) This would be a Philippine-centric TL with a bit ASBish... thing hehe :p



HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES AND THE SPANISH EAST INDIES

From 1521 to 1821

The first European navigator to reach the archipelago was Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese who sailed for Spain, in 1521. The line drawn by the Treaty of Zaragoza in 1525 allocated the Philippines to Portugal, but because the Philippines had been named after Spanish crown prince Philipp (who went on to become King Philipp II. of Spain), an exception was made and the islands were allocated to Spain. From 1565 to 1571 the islands were conquered by a Spanish force, and became a dependency of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico), under the name of Spanish East Indies (with the Ladrones, Carolinas, Palau Islands and temporarily the Moluccas and the Spanish settlement on Taiwan as dependencies). The Captaincy General of the Philippines was established in 1573, the Real Audiencia of the Philippines in 1584. Communication with Spain went through Mexico, and took extremely long.

The outposts on Taiwan, in the Moluccas and on Celebes (Minahasa) were lost in the mid 17th century. A brief British occupation of Manila 1762-1764 caused the Spanish authorities to introduce changes, such as direct communication with the Philippines (since 1766). When Mexico became independent in 1821, the Philippines (with dependencies) became a Spanish colony of their own.

From 1821 and onwards

Until 1821, the Philippines were administrated as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain; in 1821 Mexico declared independence. The Philippines remained Spanish and now were administrated from Madrid.
The Philippines hitherto had been a remote sideland of Mexico, its main economic purpose having been to facilitate the Spanish-Mexican China trade; Manila was an important entrepot for Spanish ships sailing to Canton (China). Now a new administration had to be established for the Philippines, more elaborate than the previous one, and Spain was faced with the question of how to cover its costs.

The 57th and 60th Governor and Captain-General of the Philippines Mariano Fernandez de Folgueras under the direct control of Ministerio de Ultramar in 1821, gave policies that favored peninsulares from their creole and mestizo counterparts. This policies gave rise of "political discrimination" against Creoles and Mestizos alike.

In October 30, 1822 Folgueras gave the office to Juan Antonio Martinez and became the Lieutenant Governor once again. As days and months passed by several high ranking Creoles and Mestizos were stripped out of their ranks, replaced by their peninsulares counterpart and demoted to lower ranks even putting them as a soldado. Unbeknownst to the government, a force had been accumulating supports and power for the past 3 decades and as the year came to an end and embraced the first month of 1823. And so, an unknown chapter unfolds....
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