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.
History of the Philippines (900–1521)
Prior to Spanish occupation, the islands were composed of different kingdoms, rajahnates and sultanates. Some are even part of a larger Empire outside of the modern day map of what is now the Philippines, for example; Manila was once part of the Bruneian Empire. Another example is many parts of the modern day Mindanao is theorized to be part of the Majapahit empire with its capital being located in East Java in the modern day Indonesia. It was the Spaniards that named the collection of Southeast Asian islands they conquered as Las Islas Filipinas, the geographical locations of which the modern day country of the Philippines based its territories today.