Study sheet: Philippine Political System Under Spain

📋 Course Outline

1. Colonial Social Hierarchy
2. Central Colonial Administration
3. Governor-General’s Extensive Powers
4. Checks and Government Hierarchy
5. Administrative Abuses and Laws
6. Colonial Education and Reforms

📅 Key Dates

1. 1863the Ministerio de Ultramar replaced the Consejo de Indias and extended peninsular laws to the Philippines
2. 1863the Educational Decree established primary schools for boys and girls in every town
3. 1870the Moret Decree sought to secularize higher education in the colony

📖 1. Colonial Social Hierarchy

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Feudalistic social system : Predominantly feudalistic, with an elite class exploiting the masses in a master-slave relationship.

📝 Essential Points

• 🔄 The pyramidal hierarchy proceeded from the top downward:

  1. Peninsulares and insulares
  2. Mestizos and criollos and the middle class
  3. Natives or indios

• Natives were subjected to all forms of taxation and were assigned to forced labor.

💡 Memory Hook

Peninsulares and insulares at the top, indios at the bottom

📖 2. Central Colonial Administration

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Governor-General : Appointed by the monarch and head of the central administration in Manila as the king’s representative in state and religious matters.

📝 Essential Points

• The Consejo de Indias governed the Philippines, and the monarchs managed colonial affairs through it while exercising executive, legislative, and judicial functions.

💡 Memory Hook

Consejo de Indias → Ministerio de Ultramar → Governor-General

📖 3. Governor-General’s Extensive Powers

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Cumplase : The Governor-General’s power to disregard or suspend any law or Royal Decree from Spain.

📝 Essential Points

📌 The Governor-General issued executive orders and proclamations and exercised supervision and disciplinary powers over all government officials.

• The Governor-General was Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and held supreme financial power until sharing it with the Intendant General in 1784.

💡 Memory Hook

The Governor-General could enforce Spanish authority yet disregard decrees through cumplase

📖 4. Checks and Government Hierarchy

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Royal Audiencia : The highest court, serving as the highest court of appeal for criminal and civil cases and receiving important government affairs.

★ Must-know

• The power hierarchy ran from the central government to the alcaldias, then the cabildo or ayuntamiento and towns, and finally the barrio or barangay.

Further detail

• The Residencia investigated a departing governor-general for graft and corruption through a body composed of the Audiencia and the incoming governor-general.

• The Visitadores were commissioned by the Crown to conduct secret investigations into graft and corrupt practices by government officials.

💡 Memory Hook

Central government → alcaldias → cabildos → barrios

📖 5. Administrative Abuses and Laws

★ Must-know

• The Spanish laws also used in governing the Philippines included:

  • Las Siete Partidas
  • Las Leyes de Toro
  • Codigo Penal
  • Codigo Civil
  • Codigo de Commercio

• Major administrative causes of abuse included:

  • Inferior and corrupt appointments
  • Overlapping functions
  • The union of church and state
  • Positions filled through bidding
  • Ignorant royal appointees
  • Frequent reassignment of officials

📌 The alcalde mayor combined the roles of administrator, judge, and military commander, and could never be prosecuted, making the provincial government especially corrupt.

• The indulto para comerciar, or license to trade, was abused when alcaldes monopolized trade, bought native produce cheaply, and sold it at high prices during scarcity.

Further detail

• Judges were often incompetent and corrupt, cases were not decided on their merits but on race, money, and personal privileges, and legal proceedings were costly and frequently delayed.

💡 Memory Hook

Overlapping powers and corruption → exploitation, delayed justice, and tighter colonial control

📖 6. Colonial Education and Reforms

★ Must-know

• Spanish schools overemphasized religion, used obsolete teaching methods, had limited curricula and inadequate facilities and materials, neglected primary education, and prohibited academic freedom.

• Learning at every level was largely by rote, students memorized material they could not understand, and the Spanish language was not taught to the people at the friars’ recommendation.

Further detail

• Schools instilled fear of God and obedience to the friars, taught that Filipinos had inferior intelligence and were suited only for manual labor, and required books to undergo strict censorship.

💡 Memory Hook

Rote religious education contrasted with later efforts to establish schools and secularize higher education

📊 Synthesis Tables

Colonial Government Levels

Level	Institution	Leader
Central government	Manila administration	Governor-General
Province	Alcaldia	Alcalde mayor
City	Cabildo or ayuntamiento	Two alcaldes en ordinario
Town	Town government	Gobernadorcillo or capitan
Barrio	Barrio or barangay	Cabeza de barangay