Philippines During Different Periods of Colonization

Areas of contribution |Spanish Period |American Period |Japanese Period | |
|Education |The education during this |The American introduces the public |To gain the sympathy of the |
| |period is not that good. But |school system. And the American |Filipinos, the Japanese military |
| |it has, and most of the |system of education was democratic. |authorities declared that Japanese|
| |schools during this period are|And schools that the Americans |educational policy would be based |
| |exclusive for boys only. |established were free and open to |on a Filipino way. To implement |
| |Especially the elite ones. |everyone. And later, many primary |this policy, the Japanese military|
| | |schools opened, attracting many to |authorities ordered the opening of|
| | |enroll. Also normal school and school|schools, especially those giving |
| | |of arts and trade were also |courses in agriculture, fisheries,|
| | |established. And Thomasites were |medicine and engineering. |
| | |brought to the Philippines and sent | |
| | |to different provinces to teach | |
| | |Filipino children the English | |
| | |language. | |
|Political |In terms in politics, the only|In this period, America gives us a |To win the trust of the Filipinos,|
| |position a natives can attain |right to govern our own country. But |the Japanese authorities decided |
| |is in the Cabeza Barangay. And|they will be guiding us. In this |that the Philippines should be |
| |all of the remaining position |period, we have our own president and|given independence. And they |
| |is for the Spaniards only. |there’s senate and congress. |administrated the Second republic.|
| |From the highest position, the| |Its just an puppet government. |
| |governor general, up to the | | |
| |smallest position. And the | | |
| |church is part of politics in | | |
| |this period. | | |
|Economic Aspect |In this period, we can |Our economic status during American |In Japanese term, we have a very |
| |characterize it by a slow |period was good. And it’s better that|poor economic status. The prices |
| |economic development. There |our economics status during the |of commodities, especially |
| |are many several factors |Spanish period. A good proof to it is|foodstuff, increased daily until |
| |accounted for the slow |our foreign trade in this period. |it was impossible for most |
| |development. First most of the|During this period, from 346000000php|Filipinos to eat three times a |
| |Spanish official was lazy, |it rose to 520000000php. |day. Most of the Filipinos in this|
| |incompetent and inefficient. | |period lived with substitute. |
| |Instead of developing our | | |
| |country, they were busy in | | |
| |enriching themselves in | | |
| |office. Second, there were | | |
| |frequent quarrels among | | |
| |Spaniards themselves. Instead | | |
| |of developing our country, | | |
| |they spend most of their time | | |
| |fighting each other. | | |
|Socio Cultural/Religion |So in this period, they force |The Americans introduced |The Japanese introduce to us the |
| |our natives to be Christians. |Protestantism to us. And the church |Shintoism, or belief in sun god. |
| |If the natives neglect to be a|as a state were separated, unlike | |
| |Christian, they will be either|during the Spanish period. Freedom of| |
| |to be punished, or to be |religion was practiced. | |
| |killed. And in are culture, | | |
| |many of our culture was | | |
| |destroyed by the Spanish in | | |
| |this period. | | |
|Others |The mode of dressing is Spain |During this period, the Filipinos |The Japanese use tagalog s a |
| |was introduced in the |learn many sports from the American. |medium of language. |
| |Philippines. | | |

Insights

As we all know, even in pre-colonial period, nationalism was not practiced here in our country. We all know that leaders of each kingdom fight each other. And when the Spaniards came, we were easily captured by them. And if there is a leader who has revolt, their enemy is Spaniards and a group of natives. Natives fight each other. But because of maltreatment of the Spaniards, many Filipinos awaken their mind. And there are many accelerators of nationalism during Spanish period. One of if is the opening of the Suez Canal. And the level of nationalism of our country was improving during this period. But again, it’s still not complete nationalism. As we all know, Bonifacio is a great leader, but then he was killed by a Filipino, with the blessing of Aguinaldo. And we know that Aguinaldo killed many great Filipino. Back to Spanish period, the Filipinos in this time were really suffering. Suffering from everything Spaniards said. And many Filipinos were maltreated by the Spaniards in this period. Many Filipinos was killed in this period because of many revolutions and revolt. Next is in the American period. During the war against the America and Philippines, there are many issues of betrayal. Aguinaldo was captured because of a Filipino spy. And during the war, only Luzon was fighting the America. So in this time, rationalistic is practiced, not nationalism. But after the war, when the Philippines are in the hand of America already, it has good effects to us. America let us govern our own country, but they were there to guide us. And they introduce public school system to us, before the Spaniards didn’t give us the right to study; only elite boys were given the right to study before. But when the Americans came, democracy in education was practiced. Many Filipinos here, including women, study and learn. And Filipinos during this period experience to be free. And they know that if the Americans see that we can govern our on country, they will give us independence. And next in Japanese period, I think our level of nationalism here is very good. As we see, many great leaders of Guerilla were leader from different places here in the Philippines. But again, we also suffer during this period. Many Filipinos died because of bombing and cannon fire. And many Filipinos suffer from hunger. And they experience eating substitute. And Filipinos during this lost their freedom of speech and expression during this period. Also the development of arts was stopped. And even there is education during this period, only few children enter to school. As we can see, after many period, our level of nationalism were improved. And there are different lifestyles in each period.

Paulo J. Romero Dr. Dela Cruz
B03/ SS016 Aug. 25, 2012