Miguel López de Legazpi in the context of Diego de los Rios

The history of the Philippines from 1565 to 1898 is known as the Spanish colonial period, during which the Philippine Islands were ruled as the Captaincy General of the Philippines within the Spanish East Indies, initially under the Viceroyalty of New Spain, based in Mexico City, until the independence of the Mexican Empire from Spain in 1821. This resulted in direct Spanish control during a period of governmental instability there.

The first documented European contact with the Philippines was made in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan in his circumnavigation expedition, during which he was killed in the Battle of Mactan. 44 years later, a Spanish expedition led by Miguel López de Legazpi left modern Mexico and began the Spanish conquest of the Philippines in the late 16th century. Legazpi's expedition arrived in the Philippines in 1565, a year after an earnest intent to colonize the country, which was during the reign of Philip II of Spain, whose name has remained attached to the country.

Lapulapu (b.1491 - d.1542) or Lapu-Lapu, whose name was first recorded as Çilapulapu, was a Raja (Datu) of Mactan, an island now part of the Philippines.

Lapulapu is known for the 1521 Battle of Mactan, where he and his men defeated Spanish forces led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his native allies Rajah Humabon and Datu Zula. Magellan's death in battle ended his voyage of circumnavigation and delayed the Spanish occupation of the islands by over forty years until the expedition of Miguel López de Legazpi which reached the archipelago in 1565.

The Spanish friars were the crucial elements in the Westernization of the Philippines, and in spreading the Christian faith in that part of the world. Though missionary endeavors played a key role in their project, the Spanish Friars were merely one arm of a broader Spanish colonial endeavor. Journeying with the first European explorers to these islands in East Asia, then the Far East, they came with the intention of establishing Catholicism under the Patronato real of the kings of Spain.

After the conquistadores brought the Filipinos under the rule of the Spanish crown, either by peaceful means of treaties and pacts or, alternatively, by war, Spain did send large standing armies to maintain its empire in the East. The apostolic zeal of the missionaries followed the efforts of men such as Miguel López de Legazpi, and aided to consolidate the enterprise of Hispanicizing the Philippines. The Spanish missionaries acted as de facto conquerors; they gained the goodwill of the islanders, presented Spanish culture positively, and in so doing won approximately 2 million converts.