History of the Philippines (1565–1898) in the context of "Battle of Mactan"

Manila Bay (Filipino: Look ng Maynila; Spanish: Bahía de Manila) is a natural harbor that serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines. Strategically located around the capital city of the Philippines, Manila Bay facilitated commerce and trade between the Philippines and its neighboring countries, becoming the gateway for socio-economic development even prior to Spanish occupation. With an area of 1,994 km (769.9 sq mi), and a coastline of 190 km (118.1 mi), Manila Bay is situated in the western part of Luzon and is bounded by Cavite and Metro Manila on the east, Bulacan and Pampanga on the north, and Bataan on the west and northwest. Manila Bay drains approximately 17,000 km (6,563.7 sq mi) of watershed area, with the Pampanga River contributing about 49% of the freshwater influx. With an average depth of 17 m (55.8 ft), it is estimated to have a total volume of 28.9×10^ m (1,020×10^ cu ft). Entrance to the bay is 19 km (11.8 mi) wide and expands to a width of 48 km (29.8 mi). However, the width of the bay varies from 22 km (13.7 mi) at its mouth and expanding to 60 km (37.3 mi) at its widest point.

The islands of Corregidor and Caballo divide the entrance into two channels, about 2 mi (3.2 km) towards the North and 6.5 mi (10.5 km) wide on the South side. Mariveles, in the province of Bataan, is an anchorage just inside the northern entrance and Sangley Point is the former location of Cavite Naval Base. On either side of the bay are volcanic peaks topped with tropical foliage: 40 km to the north is the Bataan Peninsula and to the south is the province of Cavite.

The Philippine Revolution (Filipino: Himagsikang Pilipino or Rebolusyong Pilipino; Spanish: Revolución Filipina or Guerra Tagala) was a war of independence waged by the revolutionary organization Katipunan against the Spanish Empire from 1896 to 1898. It was the culmination of the 333-year colonial rule of Spain in the archipelago. The Philippines was one of the last major colonies of the Spanish Empire, which had already suffered a massive decline in the 1820s. Cuba rebelled in 1895, and in 1898, the United States intervened and the Spanish soon capitulated. In June, Philippine revolutionaries declared independence. However, it was not recognized by Spain, which sold the islands to the United States in the Treaty of Paris.

Led by Andrés Bonifacio, the Katipunan was formed in secrecy in 1892 in the wake of the nascent La Liga Filipina, an organization created by Filipino nationalist José Rizal and others in Spain with goals of Philippine representation to the Spanish Parliament. Katipunan soon gained influence across the islands, and sought an armed revolution. However, that revolution started prematurely in August 1896 upon its discovery by Spanish authorities in Manila. The organization soon declared war against Spain in Caloocan. Early battles and skirmishes were centered around sieging the capital city of Manila led by Bonifacio himself, which ultimately failed. However, revolutionaries in the neighboring provinces fared better, particularly in Cavite, where rebels led by Mariano Álvarez and cousins Baldomero and Emilio Aguinaldo won early major victories. This disparity in success, along with multiple factors, contributed to the eventual power struggle from within Katipunan's leadership. Two factions formed: Bonifacio's Magdiwang and Aguinaldo's Magdalo. This struggle culminated in the 1897 elections in Tejeros, which saw Emilio Aguinaldo elected as president in absentia. Bonifacio nullified the results after a Magdalo member questioned his election as the Secretary of the Interior. This resulted in a schism, with Bonifacio's supporters alleging that the elections were fraudulent, with Bonifacio himself refusing to recognize the results. In April 1897, Aguinaldo ordered the arrest of Bonifacio. A trial was set in Maragondon, where the Magdalo-led jury found Bonifacio and his brother Procopio guilty of treason, sentencing both of them to death. Despite calls for commuting the sentence for the sake of national unity, the brothers were executed in May 1897. Later that year, Aguinaldo's government and Spanish authorities signed the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, which temporarily reduced hostilities. Filipino revolutionary officers exiled themselves to Hong Kong. However, the hostilities never completely ceased.

A cabeza de barangay ("barangay head"), also known as teniente del barrio ("holder of the barrio"), was the head of a barangay or barrio political unit in the Philippines during Spanish rule. The office was inherited from the Malayan aristocratic rank of datu (i.e., lord) after barangays had become tributaries of the Kingdom of the Spains and the Indies. Philip II of Spain decreed that the nobility in the Philippine islands should retain the honours and privileges they had before their conversion to Christianity and subjugation to Spanish rule.

The recorded pre-colonial history of the Philippines, sometimes also referred to as its "protohistoric period" begins with the creation of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription in 900 AD and ends with the beginning of Spanish colonization in 1565. The inscription on the Laguna Copperplate Inscription itself dates its creation to 822 Saka (900 AD). The creation of this document marks the end of the prehistory of the Philippines at 900 AD, and the formal beginning of its recorded history. During this historical time period, the Philippine archipelago was home to numerous kingdoms and sultanates and was a part of the Indosphere and Sinosphere.

Sources of precolonial history include archeological findings; records from contact with the Song dynasty, the Brunei Sultanate, Korea, Japan, and Muslim traders; the genealogical records of Muslim rulers; accounts written by Spanish chroniclers in the 16th and 17th centuries; and cultural patterns that at the time had not yet been replaced through European influence.

The Philippine Independent Church (Filipino: Malayang Simbahan ng Pilipinas; Ilocano: Nawaya a Simbaan ti Filipinas), officially referred to by its Philippine Spanish name Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) and colloquially called the Aglipayan Church, is an independent catholic Christian denomination, in the form of a nationalist church, in the Philippines. Its revolutionary nationalist schism from the Catholic Church in the Philippines was proclaimed during the American colonial period in 1902, following the end of the Philippine–American War, by members of the country's first labor union federation, the Unión Obrera Democrática Filipina.

The foundation of the church was a response to the historical mistreatment and racial discrimination of Filipinos by Spaniard priests and partly influenced by the unjust executions of José Rizal and Filipino priests and prominent secularization movement figures Mariano Gomez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, during the former Spanish colonial rule in the country when Catholicism was still the state religion.

Corregidor (Tagalog: [ko.ɾɛ.hɪˈdoɾ], Spanish: [ko.re.xiˈðoɾ], Tagalog: Pulo ng Corregidor, Spanish: Isla del Corregidor) is an island located at the entrance of Manila Bay in the southwestern part of Luzon in the Philippines, and is considered part of Cavite City and thus the province of Cavite. It is located 48 kilometres (30 mi) west of Manila, the nation's capital city and one of its most important seaports for centuries since the Spanish colonial period. Due to its strategic location, Corregidor has historically been fortified with coastal artillery batteries to defend the entrance of Manila Bay and Manila itself from attacks by enemy warships.

Corregidor (Fort Mills) is the largest of the islands that formed the harbor defenses of Manila Bay, together with El Fraile Island (Fort Drum), Caballo Island (Fort Hughes), and Carabao Island (Fort Frank), which were all fortified during the American colonial period. The island was also the site of a small military airfield, as part of the defense.

The Philippine Declaration of Independence (Filipino: Pagpapahayag ng Kasarinlan ng Pilipinas; Spanish: Declaración de Independencia de Filipinas) was proclaimed by Filipino revolutionary forces general Emilio Aguinaldo on June 12, 1898, in Cavite el Viejo (present-day Kawit, Cavite), Philippines. It asserted the sovereignty and independence of the Philippine islands from the 300 years of colonial rule by Spain.

As part of the worldwide Catholic Church, the Catholic Church in the Philippines (Filipino: Simbahang Katolika sa Pilipinas), or the Philippine Catholic Church or Philippine Roman Catholic Church, is part of the world's largest Christian church under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. The Philippines is one of the two nations in Asia having a substantial portion of the population professing the Catholic faith, along with East Timor, and has the third largest Catholic population in the world after Brazil and Mexico. The episcopal conference responsible in governing the faith is the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Christianity, through Catholicism, was first brought to the Philippine islands by Spanish soldiers, missionaries and settlers, who arrived in waves beginning in the early 16th century in Cebu by way of colonization. Catholicism served as the country's state religion during the Spanish colonial period; since the American colonial period, the faith today is practiced in the context of a secular state. In 2023, it was estimated that 89 million Filipinos, or roughly 80% of the population profess the Catholic faith.