Philippine Progress Prior to 1898

Philippine Progress Prior to 1898 - A Source Book of Philippine History to Supply a Fairer View of Filipino Participation and Supplement the Defective Spanish Accounts

The Spanish writers, and with them the Filipinos as well as, to a great extent, writers of Philippine treatises in other languages, have over-emphasized the political history of the Philippines. The history of this country has been regarded but as the history of the Spaniards in it, and not of its people, the Filipinos.1 Hence arises the need of studying our history from the point of view of the development of our people, especially to trace and show the part played by them in Philippine social progress as a whole.2 [2] The study of the economic history of a country is important also because economic forces play a great part in the development of any people. Indeed, some claim that all history may be explained in terms of economic motives. This is known as the economic interpretation of history.3 Without going into the controversy centering around this theory, we can readily see that what we know as civilization has a two-fold basis, the physical and the psychical. And it is only after the physical basis is secured, that further psychical advance is possible. Among all species, and in every stage of evolution, the extent of aggregation and its place or position are determined by external physical conditions. Even when men have become united by sympathies and beliefs, the possibility of perpetuating their union is a question of the character and resources of their environment. The distribution of food is the dominating fact. Animals and men dwell together where a food supply is found, or may be certainly and easily produced. Other physical circumstances of the environment, however, such as temperature and exposure, surface and altitude, which make life in some places comparatively easy, in others difficult or impossible, exert an influence not to be overlooked. (Franklin Henry Giddings, The Principles of Sociology, p. 82. New York: 1911.) We need not trace the history of early civilizations to show the influence exerted by physical factors. We need only to recall the motives, familiar to all, which led to the discovery of America, namely, the closing of the trade routes to the East through the conquest of the [3]Turks. And the history of this country itself furnishes many illustrations. Both ancient and modern writers have had a good deal to say about the strategic position of the Philippine Islands in relation to the countries bordering around the Pacific Ocean.4 It was that central geographical position which explained the marked predominance of Manila as a trade depot over all the other ports in the Orient, at one time in our history. That was, furthermore, the reason why the Spaniards kept the country; they wanted to use it as a means to [4]be nearer, and to reach more quickly, the rich country of spices, and then the continent of Asia, Japan, and the Orient in general.5 ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 41959
Author: Benitez, Conrado O.
Release Date: Jan 31, 2013
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Contributor (Author): Craig, Austin, 1872-1949