Abstract
Through the Treaty of Paris in 1898, Spain ceded to the United States all its colonial authority over the Philippines, including its other colonies. The Treaty also placed in American possession the Spanish records kept in the various agencies of the former colonial administration of the islands. Upon assumption of its role as the new de facto colonial regime, the American insular government initiated the process of collecting the Spanish colonial records to be housed in a central repository that became the nucleus of the National Archives of the Philippines. An important aspect of understanding the context of archives in post-colonial Philippines is to trace its early beginnings and to examine the archives’ association with former colonial powers. Established against the backdrop of the shift in the continuum of colonial regimes, the archive is undeniably a colonial creation and a manifestation of colonial domination. For the contemporary imagination, however, its very presence represents a common and collective past that consequently contributes to the formation of a “national consciousness” and ironically reinforces the idea of nationhood of the formerly colonized territory.
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Notes
Originally written in Tagalog, its full title is Casaysayan ng Pasiong Mahal ni Jesucristong Panginoon Natin (or Account of the Sacred Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ). This version, first appeared in 1814, is only an edited copy of an older original by an unknown author (see Ileto 1981, p. 16).
According to Plehn (1962), the collection of the cédula started to be enforced in 1884. This repealed a much older taxation system based on the Recopilacion de Leyes de Los Reynos de las Indias, originally promulgated in 1523 or 50 years before the colonization of the Islands. The old law required the collection of “tribute” among the subjects and vassals of the Spanish Crown.
See Plehn (1962, pp. 149–150). “The cédula had to be exhibited on the following occasions: (1) Upon taking up any commission or entering upon any public employment under the royal or insular authority; (2) upon entering any provincial or municipal office; (3) upon making any contract, public or private; (4) upon presenting any claim, soliciting business or appearing for any purpose before the petty governors or ministers of justice in the pueblos; (5) upon bringing any action before any court of any authority or before any officer; (6) upon matriculation in any institution of learning; (7) upon entering any employment in industry or commerce, any profession, art or trade; (8) upon payment of direct taxes; (9) upon presenting any claim or exercising any civil right not previously mentioned, and upon acquiring any rights or contracting any obligations; (10) upon establishing identity; (11) upon realizing any kind of credit, making bills of exchange, depositing money in savings banks, confirming pledges with montes de piedad, or pawn shops, and upon bidding at public auction; (12) upon becoming a director, administrator, member, voter, shareholder or employee of any class of association or industrial undertaking; (13) upon traveling beyond the boundaries of the pueblo residence; and (14) upon entering into domestic service. The officers of the government were authorized to call for and examine the cédulas upon any and all occasions, and any person found without a cédula (indocumentado) was subject to very severe penalties.”
A Treaty of Peace Between the United States and Spain, signed at the City of Paris, France on December 10, 1898.
Even in the final years of Spanish colonial rule, these documents were known as the Spanish records, not as the Philippine archives. Also present in the collection are the records pertaining to the administration of the Mariana Islands and the Caroline Islands.
Ironically, the Spanish practice of keeping records in the colony was a direct reaction to the hostilities inflicted on the Philippines by another dominant colonial power. During the British Invasion of Manila from 1762 to 1764, it was reported that the looting of records was so prevalent that upon the end of the two-year incursion, the Spanish government began to order the survey and compilation of important records and to establish a policy of keeping duplicate copies of them. In fact, a significant number of Spanish records that have survived to the present were the product of such efforts. See Bureau of Records (1976a).
U.S. Philippine Commission, An Act Creating a Bureau of Archives (Act No. 273), 21 October 1904.
The Bureau of Archives later became the repository of the country’s other colonial and archival records. At present, the National Archives also has under its custody American and Japanese occupation records, and inactive records of national and local government institutions, including those that have been abolished, transferred or merged.
According to nationalist historians, Insurgency was the term used by the U.S. colonial government to downplay the intense warfare between Filipino revolutionary forces and the American military campaigns in the Islands. See Shaw and Francia (2002).
When the Spanish records were first being consolidated in 1902, they were organized into 11 groups: Government-General, Civil Administration, Ayuntamientos, Public Works, Civil Government of Manila, Department of Finance, Secretariat, Direct and Indirect Imposts, General State Intervention, Bureau of Orders for Payment, and Central Treasury. Based on these headings, bundles of documents were tagged and numbered, which proved to be quite difficult and confusing given the complexity of over 300 years of Spanish colonial government in the Islands. See Wickberg (1995).
According to Evelyn Wareham, the “archives of the Spanish administration of the Mariana Islands in Guam were captured by the United States’ armed forces in the Spanish-American War, and relocated to the Library of Congress.” See Wareham (2002).
At closer analysis, even the so-called neutral scientific laboratories and medical facilities that were established in support of American health and sanitation campaigns and research on tropical medicine had a more crucial role in justifying the annexation of the Islands. See Anderson (1995a, b) and Ileto (1995).
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904, also known as the St. Louis World’s Fair became the perfect venue “to show to the American people—and to the world—its newly acquired colony...to make Americans realize what its colony holds in promise in the way of potential wealth, opportunity for service, and exotic wonders.” See Fermin (2004, p. 37). “Standard World’s Fair formulae positioned St. Louis to function as a source of expedient information about the new possession...” for the American population who were largely unfamiliar with the new insular possession. See Grindstaff (2004, p. 302). For a discussion on the Spanish archives of Louisiana, see Lemmon (1992).
In order to justify America’s annexation of the Philippines, U.S. President William McKinley proclaimed on 21 December 1898, 11 days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the occupation of the Islands as “Benevolent Assimilation.” America took upon itself the task of “civilizing” and “educating” the Philippines to make the Filipinos become fit for self-governance.
On the role of translation and the Castilian language in the emergence of Filipino nationalism, see Rafael (2005).
A term borrowed from Stoler, A.L. (2002, P.87). One example of the power of the record as a “technology of rule” can relate to the fact that for most part of the Spanish rule, the Philippines was governed through Acapulco in New Spain, or today’s Mexico, the port of harbor of the galleon trade after crossing the Pacific before proceeding to its ultimate destination, Europe. Because of the distance, colonial governance was made possible through royal orders and other official communications that were handed down from Spain. The implementation of the written rules relied on bureaucratic channels and Spanish colonial representatives. For details of the Galleon Trade, see Lyon (1990).
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The title is borrowed from: White, T., Our New Possessions: A Graphic Account, Descriptive and Historical, of the Tropic Islands of the Sea which Have Fallen Under Our Sway, Their Cities, Peoples and Commerce, Natural Resources and the Opportunities They Offer to Americans (Philadelphia: Manufacturer’s Book, 1898). This paper was presented at “Adapting and Adopting Archival Cultures”, Second International Conference on the History of Records and Archives (I-CHORA 2), 31 August–2 September 2005, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I wish to thank my colleagues from the University of the Philippines who provided their valuable insights, reviews and suggestions towards improving this paper, mainly Dr. Ana P. Labrador, Dr. J. Neil Garcia, Dr. Matthew Santamaria, Prof. Paolo Manalo, Ms. Sandra Roldan and Mrs. Roshan Jose.
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Punzalan, R.L. Archives of the new possession: Spanish colonial records and the American creation of a ‘national’ archives for the Philippines. Arch Sci 6, 381–392 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-007-9040-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-007-9040-z