Introduction

Abstract

The Philippine archipelago completely altered its historical evolution when Ferdinand Magellan landed and died on the island of Mactan April 27, 1521, five hundred years ago. The Kingdom of Spain, in a frenetic imperial expansion across Europe, North Africa and the whole of America, had placed its eyes on a suitable Asian land under the Treaty of Tordesillas (1497), and the first circumnavigation of the globe targeted a territorial conquest. Followed by other Spanish expeditions, the “Magellan archipelago” was put under the royal patronage of Prince Philip, and thus renamed as “the Philippines.”