History of the Philippines (1521–1898)
The history of the Philippines from 1521 to 1898, also known as the Spanish colonial period, was a period during which Spain controlled the Philippine islands as the Captaincy General of the Philippines, initially under New Spain until Mexican independence in 1821, which gave Madrid direct control over the area. It was also known as Spanish East Indies to the colonialists. It started with the arrival in 1521 of European explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailing for Spain, which heralded the period when the Philippines was a colony of the Spanish Empire, and ended with the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1898, which marked the beginning of the American colonial era of Philippine history.
Iloilo City
In 1566, as the Spanish conquest of the Philippines was underway and moving north toward Manila, the Spaniards launched several expeditions from Mexico and under Miguel López de Legazpi, came to Panay and established a settlement in Ogtong (Oton).
Unlike the Indianized Cebuanos who were neutral to the Spaniards or the partially islamized Tagalogs of Manila who were more hostile, the people of Madja-as welcomed the Iberians as allies since at that time period, Madya-as was locked in a war against the invading Muslims, especially with the Sultanate of Brunei and its vassal states, the Sultanate of Sulu and the Kingdom of Maynila which, according to Spanish Governor-General Franciso de Sande, are their blood-cousins. The people then fervently accepted Christianity as they supplied the bulk of the mercenaries used in the conquest of partially islamized Manila, whose rulers were related to the Sultan of Brunei.