Miguel López de Legazpi

Spanish explorer

• Born: c. 1510
• Birthplace: Zumárraga, Guipúzcoa, Spain
• Died: August 20, 1572
• Place of death: Manila (now in the Philippines)

A distinguished civil servant, Legazpi led the expedition that conquered and colonized the Philippines. His navigator, Father Andrés de Urdaneta, discovered the all-important return route to Mexico, which made Spanish control of the islands possible.

Early Life

Miguel López de Legazpi (mee-ghehl LOH-pehz day lay-GAHS-pee) was the son of Juan Martínez de Legazpi and Elvira de Gurruchátegui. Little is known of his youth. He was raised in a noble family that lived in a large house atop a hill dominating the valley of Zumárraga. The house still stands, and it contains a small museum devoted to Legazpi.

As the second son, Miguel had to seek his fortune beyond the confines of the family estate. On the recommendation of his Latin tutor, his family sent him to law school at the University of Alcalá, from which he graduated at a young age. This education prepared him to be a royal notary like his father, but like many Basques, he heard the call of the sea. In 1528, he set sail from Seville for New Spain (Mexico) with letters of introduction to Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and Franciscan father Juan de Zumárraga. Not long after arriving in Mexico, he was named a royal notary. He then married Isabel Garcés, daughter of a wealthy Mexican family; they had nine children.

It did not take long for Legazpi’s star to rise in New Spain’s civil service. The positions he held included intendente (superintendent) of the treasury, principal secretary of the Mexico City council (1534-1557), secretary for Francisco Tello de Sandoval’s visita (inspection) of Antonio de Mendoza’s government (1544-1547), and local magistrate. Legazpi was regarded as intelligent, honorable, and of devout Christian character. His home was one of the principal residences in Mexico City and was always open to gentlemen and soldiers in need.

Life’s Work

Legazpi’s expedition to the Philippines was not the first for Spain, but it was the most carefully planned. The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing at the time in the service of Spain, had discovered the Philippines in 1521, but he did not succeed in signing a treaty with a local ruler, nor did he establish a permanent settlement. Thus, in 1557, when the Spanish crown decreed that the planning for the expedition be led later by Legazpi, it called for the discovery of the “Western islands” near the Moluccas and for the recording of the physical and human geography of those lands.

The Crown also wanted an expedition that would bring back spices for testing and one that would discover a return route to Mexico. Before year’s end, Viceroy Velasco had initiated the construction of ships at Puerto de La Navidad (now Barra de Navidad) on Mexico’s west coast. Philip II wanted only two ships for the expedition and as much secrecy as possible in order not to alarm the Portuguese, who vied with Spain for control of the east. Viceroy Velasco chose Legazpi to head the expedition, and the audiencia of Mexico gave him his instructions on September 1, 1564.

Legazpi was ordered to establish a settlement in the Philippines, but only if the islands were bountiful, and Father Urdaneta was to direct a return to Mexico as soon as possible. In any event, friars were to remain behind for conversion of the indigenous peoples. Although the initial instructions permitted Legazpi to set the outbound course, which was to include New Guinea, at one hundred leagues out to sea, Legazpi had to open secret, sealed instructions from the audiencia that ordered him to follow a direct route to the Philippines.

Legazpi was probably well into his fifties when he was made captain-general of the expedition to the Philippines. As captain-general, he was the representative of the king and in charge of military, judicial, and political operations. He could sign treaties with indigenous rulers and take possession of land in the king’s name. He also was responsible for making sure that the men on the expedition were paid and properly clothed, fed, and armed; to meet this obligation, he sold most of his estate, impoverishing his own family.

The expedition finally set sail with 380 men on November 21, 1564, with two large galleons (San Pedro and San Pablo) and two small tenders (San Juan and San Lucas); the flagship San Pedro also carried a four-man brigantine for shallow water exploration. In January, 1565, on the way west, Legazpi took possession of the Ladrones (now the Marianas) and resupplied on Guam. The convoy arrived at what is thought to be the east coast of Samar on February 13, 1565. Finding little of value there, the expedition sailed on to Leyte, where the men took food by force from the islands’ inhabitants. They hoped to continue to the north coast of Mindanao, but weather steered them to Bohol. In April, the expeditionaries held a conference in which they decided, at the urging of Legazpi, to establish a settlement on Cebu. This island seemed appealing because it was densely settled, had adequate food supplies, had many Christians (who converted after contact with Magellan), and had a local ruler recognizing the suzerainty of the king of Spain.

The convoy reached Cebu on April 27, 1565, and had to bombard the coast with artillery in order to force a landing. Occupying abandoned huts, the invaders laid out streets and built houses, a stockade, and a monastery, naming the place Villa San Miguel after Legazpi’s patron saint.

As instructed, the San Pedro set sail for Mexico as soon as practicable, on June 1, 1565, with Felipe Salcedo, Legazpi’s nephew, as captain and with Father Urdaneta as supervisor of the pilots. It arrived at Acapulco on October 10, 1565, which created great excitement in Mexico, leading Melchor de Legazpi, one of the captain-general’s sons and principal secretary of Mexico City’s city council, to a two-year leave of absence to sail to Spain to ask the king for favors for his family.

Legazpi had the right to take the return ship to Mexico, but he stayed, devoting the rest of his life to the conquest and colonization of the Philippines. Legazpi succeeded by acting graciously and judiciously with the islands’ peoples and with his own men and by being willing to use lethal force as a last resort. By June, 1565, he controlled Cebu. Twice he had to put down revolts among some of his men, executing the leaders by hanging but pardoning their followers. Legazpi also had to confront Portuguese gun ships, which tried to intimidate him into abandoning the Philippines, but facing his refusal, they withdrew by the fall of 1568.

Eager to complete the conquest of the Philippines, Legazpi set sail for Panay and Masbate in mid-1569. The next year, he ordered a reconnaissance of Luzon, the most important Philippine island. One of the two rajas ruling the Manila area refused to submit to the Spaniards. In April, 1571, Legazpi sent a fleet of twenty-six vessels with three hundred soldiers to assault the rajas’ forces. The rajas surrendered unconditionally, and Manila was formally founded on June 24, 1571. After establishing his residence and general quarters in Manila, Legazpi charged Martín de Goiti, the field master, and Captain Juan de Salcedo, Legazpi’s grandson, with the pacification of Luzon. On August 21, 1572, one day after Legazpi’s death, Salcedo returned to Manila, having completed the conquest of Luzon.

Significance

Legazpi was an exemplary conquistador, forgoing riches and worldly adulation to devote his life to furthering the goals of his king and church. Four Spanish expeditions to the Philippines prior to Legazpi’s had failed to reach the islands and find a return route to Mexico. Urdaneta’s return route was used by the Manila galleons for some 250 years.

The thorough Christianization of the Philippines reflected the deepest desire of Legazpi, and it almost certainly prevented the expansion of Islam throughout the islands. The Spanish conquest of the Philippines also had geopolitical ramifications, as the Portuguese were forced to recognize Spanish suzerainty of the Philippines, China and Japan were prevented from colonizing the coveted islands, and Western interest in commerce with China was whetted as Spaniards in the Philippines devoted themselves to exporting Chinese goods to Mexico.

Bibliography

Gschaedler, Andre. Mexico and the Pacific, 1540-1565: The Voyages of Villalobos and Legazpi and the Preparations They Made for Them. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Columbia University, 1954. An authoritative account of the complicated, secretive preparations for Legazpi’s voyage to the Philippines.

Licuanan, Virginia Benitez, and José Llavador Mira, eds. The Philippines Under Spain: A Compilation and Translation of Original Documents. Manila: National Trust for Historical and Cultural Preservation of the Philippines, 1990. A unique collection of primary documents on the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, including Legazpi’s 1564-1572 expedition.

Mahajani, Usha. Philippine Nationalism: External Challenge and Filipino Response, 1565-1946. St. Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland, 1971. Historical analysis of the roots of Philippine nationalism to the Spanish period. A good review of indigenous resistance to foreign subjugation.

Valdepenas, Edna-Anne. Miguel López de Legazpi: Writings and the Colonization of the Philippines. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Michigan, 1996. Explores the conquest and settlement of the Philippines from Legazpi’s arrival in 1565 to his death in 1572. Presents the introduction of Spanish authority in the Philippines as a relatively pacific endeavor.