ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the living conditions and socioeconomic development in Manila over two hundred years following the Spanish conquest. Focusing on collaboration rather than ethnic segregation, it studies the different living environments of Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and indigenous groups. The hybrid structures of the built environment of both the colonial administrative center and its surrounding quarters, as well as examples of social mobilities and shifting power relations between different actors, demonstrate that the port city functioned on the basis of transcultural exchanges. The chapter moreover looks at the active participation of women and thus counters persistent narratives of colonial Manila as a port city dominated by male merchants, missionaries, and soldiers.
