ABSTRACT
The Spanish settlement of the Philippines had begun in the central island of Cebu in 1565 but the focus soon shifted, in 1571, to Manila. The archipelago, with its 7,000 islands, only became a country under the Spaniards, and this was essentially by drawing a circuit on a map round them. There was no sense of nationhood at all. Indeed surrounding rulers, with the clear exception of China, commanded only small regions around their headquarters. When the Spanish took it over Manila itself was ruled by relatives of the Sultan of Brunei, who ruled over a small surrounding area there.
