The Philippines is mainly divided into Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao three major island groups, a total of more than 7,000 large and small islands, a large number of ethnicities and cultures, the integration of many Eastern and Western customs, prehistoric Negrito people may be the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines, followed by the migration of ethnic groups successively brought Malay culture, with the development of religion and trade also brought Indian culture, Chinese culture and Islamic culture.
Because the Philippines and China's southern Region are across the sea, this place has been a major destination for Chinese Chinese immigrants since ancient times.
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He made seven voyages to the West, reaching the southeast coast of Africa at its farthest. At that time, the Ming Dynasty was as powerful as Sulu and Luzon in the Philippines maintained intermittent tributary trade with China. Until the end of the sixteenth century, the number of Chinese emigrating to the Philippines was increasing. At that time, the Ming Dynasty lifted the sea ban in some areas, but Spain, which occupied the Philippines at that time, was particularly hungry for manpower and goods.
Therefore, the increase in the number of overseas Chinese in the Philippines caused contradictions between the Ming Dynasty and Spain.
Spanish colonists invaded the Philippines in 1565 and occupied the island of Cebu. In 1571, they captured Luzon and established the city of Manila. In the early days of the Spanish colonial rule over the Philippines, they adopted a policy of enveloping overseas Chinese in the Philippines, mainly because the development of Philippine trade at that time also depended on the trade of the Chinese.
However, with the increase of the influence of immigrants in the local area, the contradiction between the colonists and the overseas Chinese in the Philippines became more and more serious, and in 1603, a massacre was launched. In 1574, Lin Feng, an armed leader who had been active in the Fujian region, almost occupied Manila. This situation made the Spanish colonists very afraid of the overseas Chinese forces. In 1593, the Governor of West Africa led an army to conquer the Moluccas.
However, because he forced overseas Chinese to be his oarsman, it caused dissatisfaction. On the way back, the overseas Chinese on the flagship tried to resist, and finally, they almost killed the colonists on the ship, and then drove the ship away. In the aftermath of this incident, the Manila authorities tried to incite a wave of exclusion of the Chinese. So, against this background, in 1594 Fujian officials led a fleet of ships to take back more than 3,000 Chinese.
However, in 1603, there were rumors on the philippine island that the Chinese emperor intended to occupy the Philippines in order to obtain gold.
The news came from a carpenter living in Luzon who said: "There is a mountain in Luzon, and the golden beans on the mountain grow on their own. ”
At that time, the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty really believed it and sent local officials from Fujian to investigate. The Spanish colonists were already very jealous of China, and there were a lot of overseas Chinese in the Philippines, so they suspected that China had ambitions to "open up its territory and expand its territory." Therefore, under the influence of this incident, not only did the local anti-Chinese sentiment become more serious, but also made the intention of the Spanish colonists to slaughter the local overseas Chinese more obvious.
In October 1603, the overseas Chinese in the Philippines took the lead in the uprising. Because they lacked the necessary weapons and combat experience, the uprising lasted only 41 days. But the uprising later turned into a terrifying massacre. Because of the incitement of the West African authorities, many Japanese and indigenous forces participated in the massacre.
According to later statistics, this infamous massacre caused at least 20,000 overseas Chinese to die, of which the most ruthless was the Japanese overseas Chinese.
The result of the massacre of overseas Chinese has not only rapidly deteriorated the Philippine economy, but also caused the financial situation of the West African authorities to be overwhelmed, and sometimes they need to survive through loans. The Spanish colonists in the Philippines were very worried that China's merchant ships would not come again and spread to the Americas thousands of miles away. Of course, the greater fear in their hearts was the retaliation of the Ming court.
Fearing this, the West African authorities began to scramble to prepare for war, but the morale of the army was low and rations were extremely scarce. In such a terrible situation, the Spanish colonists could only wait in fear, plunging the whole of Manila into an atmosphere of despair. In 1604, some of the rich had a very pessimistic attitude towards the future of Manila, so the family immigrated to Mexico.
At that time, the governor of West Africa had exhausted his methods in order to eliminate the revenge of the Ming Dynasty.
On the one hand, he committed some false acts of repentance in the Philippines, such as returning the property of overseas Chinese and instigating the survivors of the massacre to write letters to China to prove their "innocence"; on the other hand, he sent envoys to carry letters to the governors of Guangdong and Fujian, and traveled to Macau in December 1603 to spy on whether the Ming Court had any intention of attacking.
At that time, they considered that the Portuguese living in Macau knew more about the Ming Dynasty, so the Governor of West Africa wrote several letters detailing the events of the local overseas Chinese uprising and sent them to the commander of Macau, as well as the bishop and other missionaries who had greater voice in government affairs. However, because their group encountered a storm on their way to Macau, they had to return to Manila in February.
The Spanish colonists, who refused to give up, traveled to Macau again in February of the same year, hoping to deliver these letters to the Ming emperor through the Portuguese. However, the Portuguese at that time, in order to combat Spain, a trade competitor, did not send the letter to China.
At that time, when the representatives of these West African authorities arrived in Macau, the news also reached Zhangzhou and other places.
At that time, wealthy Chinese merchants, who often came to and from Zhangzhou and Manila, made a special trip to Macao to meet with them, promised to hand over the letter to Chinese officials in person, and tried to mobilize overseas Chinese merchants to continue trade. The group also learned in Macau that the Ming government had learned of the massacre, but the whole country was very calm, and there was no sign of gathering an army to attack Manila.
After receiving this information, the Spanish colonists purchased some military supplies and returned to Manila in May. These Spanish colonists who returned from Macau naturally brought back the news that there was no sign of an attack from the Chinese side, which made the West African authorities much less afraid after hearing it. However, by 1605, the overseas Chinese ships that the Spanish colonists thought would return had disappeared.
At this time, the news from Macao made him even more panicked, and there was news that "the Ming Court has gathered troops and is preparing to go to the Philippines to ask for guilt." Suddenly, the Spaniards became frightened again. However, the actual situation at that time was that although the rulers of the Ming Dynasty knew the truth, because they had always regarded the overseas Chinese group as untouchables, they only wrote a copy of the "Edict of Luzon":
"According to the luzon trade section, the reason is that the inhabitants of Zhang, Quanshui and The Sea have land to cultivate, and the navigators and fishermen are their livelihoods; often more than enough to sell more and more, in order to see the profits. It was strictly forbidden to go into infighting; in the Jiajing season, the local area was once ravaged. Wei Shi's deliberations on lu song su are not Chinese patients, and the title is qin yi xu selling east and west two oceans; Huayi Xiang'an, there are also years..."
The letter was delivered in early June 1605 to one of the owners of Chinese merchant ships, who ordered it to be given to the Governor of the Philippines, the Archbishop of Manila, and the Supreme Court.
The article did not prosecute the West African authorities for the massacres, and stated that as long as the Spanish colonists guaranteed the safety of the lives and property of these overseas Chinese in the future, they also declared that they would "not tolerate the condemnation" of the West African authorities. In addition, the text also said that the Spanish authorities should always think of the emperor's great grace and The benevolence of China, but did not condemn the content of his actions in the slightest.
At that time, the Ming Court did not send troops to fight, in fact, it had a lot to do with the actual conditions. While Spanish colonists slaughtered the Chinese at will, the Ming Dynasty experienced three large-scale wars: the Ningxia region in the northwest, the Bozhou region in the southwest, and the seven-year war with Japan in Korea from 1592. Although the Ming Dynasty won all three major battles, the country's financial and military losses were enormous.
The inaction and connivance of the Ming Dynasty made the oppression of the local overseas Chinese by the Spanish colonists even more rampant, but those overseas Chinese who were in a desperate situation did not bow down to it. In 1639, the overseas Chinese revolted again, and persisted for nearly 4 months. This time, the colonists killed the red eye, and countless overseas Chinese died under the knife of the Spanish colonists.
Knowing the miserable situation of the overseas Chinese in the Philippines, in 1657, Zheng Chenggong, a Ming general who had always insisted on resisting the Qing, wrote a letter to an overseas Chinese in Batavia, Java, and demanded that trade with the West African authorities be stopped immediately. He also showed his determination to lead an attack on the Philippines and vowed to punish the West African authorities.
In 1662, Zheng successfully recovered Taiwan, not only sending a letter to the Philippine authorities condemning his inhumane massacre of overseas Chinese, but also ordering him to reform himself. This time, however, the Spaniards were not deterred by the Threat of China, and their massacre of Chinese became even more rampant.
After hearing this news, Zheng Chenggong appeased those overseas Chinese who had fled to Taiwan while intensively preparing for the army, so the Philippines once again appeared in a situation of great noise.
At that time, the Dutch had always threatened the position of the Spaniards in the Philippines, and there were constant Filipino uprisings against Spain on the island, so the Spanish colonists at that time felt that there was no hope of continuing to rule, and they were ready to withdraw from the Philippines at any time. However, before Zheng Chenggong could send troops to the Philippines, there was civil unrest in the country, and Zheng Chenggong died of illness shortly after.
At that time, his son Zheng Jing took the place of his father in administering Taiwan and continued to negotiate with the West African authorities. It is said that Zheng Jing twice prepared to go to the Philippines for conquest, but in the end, he failed to successfully send troops for various reasons. The Spanish colonists wantonly slaughtered overseas Chinese, originally fearing that the Ming Dynasty would retaliate, but the Wanli Emperor at that time was indifferent to this. This connivance made the brutality of the Spaniards even worse.
Although Zheng Chenggong's father and son have prepared to send troops to the Philippines many times, in the end, they have not been able to achieve it for various reasons, which is a pity.
Resources:
[Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Volume 224, Liechuan XI, History of Overseas Chinese in the Philippines, Chronicle of Zhangjun County]