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Plan of the city of Manila 1762. In 1762 the city of Manila was surrounded by the English and the 5 of October it surrendered after a siege. This occupation lasted until the 31 of May of 1763, after the treaty of peace signed in Paris the 10 of February of that same year.
Spaniards founded the distinguished and ever-loyal city of Manila in 1571, after early settlements in the central Philippines proved economically weak. In 1565 Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (c. 1510–1572) sailed from Mexico and settled in Cebu. Manila, however, was a better location for the Spaniards because of its magnificently protected bay on the southwest coast of Luzon, closer to the wealth of China. His second in command, Martín de Goiti departed from Cebu and arrived in Manila.
Upon arrival, they destroyed a Muslim settlement under a Rajah Sulayman. The Muslim Tagalogs had welcomed the foreigners, but Goiti had other plans. The Spanish force of 300 soldiers marched through Manila and a battle was fought with the heavily armed Spaniards quickly defeating the native settlements.
The Spaniards resided within a fortress, known as Intramuros, on the banks of the Pasig River, while the Tagalog and Pampango natives lived in villages with a marketplace and a Catholic church. The Spanish governors, known as ‘‘the City and Commerce,’’ hoped that trade would flourish with riches from American silver and Chinese goods. The trade with China usually gave Manila prosperity and stability. Merchants with silks, porcelain, and manufactured items came to the entrepot to trade for American silver brought by galleons from Acapulco. An average of 128 tons of silver a year crossed the Pacific Ocean between 1565 and 1815, when the last galleon put into Manila Harbor.
The forty-two thousand people of the city embodied many different histories. There were significant numbers of Japanese Christian refugees, possibly fifteen thousand sangley (Chinese), seven thousand Spaniards, and a majority of twenty thousand indios (natives) from Tagalog, Pampango, and Visayan groups. Manila faced constant threats from Muslim raids, Chinese piracy, and Dutch attacks. The British captured the city in 1762 but returned it to Spain in the 1763 Treaty of Paris.
British occupation
There was a brief British occupation of Manila from 1762-1764 as a result of the Seven Years’ War, which was fought between France and England. Spain became a British enemy when it sided with France due to ties between their royal families. The British Occupation was confined to Manila and Cavite while Simón de Anda y Salazar, acting as a de facto Spanish governor general, kept the countryside for Spain with the help of Filipino soldiers. The Indian soldiers known as Sepoys, who came with the British, deserted in droves and settled in Cainta, Rizal, and explains the uniquely Indian features of generations of Cainta residents. French mercenaries who came with the British also settled in various locations around Manila.
