Boons take their toll
When the Americans had decided to bring the boon of civilization to the Philippine Islands, some 18% of their population succumbed to the US's subsequent mission of 'benevolent assimilation' that, in its early days, was pursued until "there isn't anybody left to rebel." (Schirmer and Shalom. 1987: 19) Whereas the American impact on population estimates is reasonably well-documented, it has generally been taken for granted that the toll on population exacted by the Spanish mission of bringing the boon of Catholicism had been light, as it was assumed that the Philippine population had certain immunity against Old World diseases—in contrast with the natives of the Americas—and that the Spanish sword had not been wielded like the American some three centuries later. These assumptions made sense because of gross underestimation of the number of people living in the Islands at the time of first contact with Spanish espada y cruz.
Myths
Scholarly assumptions in the human sciences, some of them even highly unlikely, can be very persistent. Because of it, we had better train our students to doubt every word we say. As a researcher of demographic change in colonial Spanish America, where the consequences of contact with the Old World were particularly severe—it is estimated that within its first 150 years 90% of the original population had perished—Professor Newman set herself to challenging the hypotheses on Spanish colonialism half a world farther up that, in the course of her sterling work, are unmasked as myths.
The way she proceeded is as cautious as can be, and so the reader is presented with introductory discourses on epidemiology, immunology, and demographic variables such as disease, and chronic and acute infections. Upon this, she surveys colonial realities in Luzon and the Visayas as a second set of determinants, while noting that the imposition of Spanish dominion was a far bloodier affair than it is generally held to be, and that the Spaniards subsequently depended on tribute and exactions of labour and in kind to maintain themselves in their resource-poor acquisition. So, whereas the population of certain areas in Southeast Asia, such as the Moluccas, was penalized because of its resources, the Filipinos suffered from extreme exploitation because of the lack of them. In that way, the overall population under Spanish dominion had already declined by 36% by 1600; in the half century to follow, their plight worsened because of the impact of the Hispano-Dutch War. In conclusion, between 1565 and 1655, the tributary population declined from 307,000 to 103,669, which means a depopulation ratio of 3:1.
Like in other parts of Southeast Asia, demographic decline continued throughout the 17th century; from then on, we see a gradual resurgence of demographic health, first in the Philippines, later in other areas of the Region. Whereas intercommunity warfare rapidly declined in the early colonial period, Moro raids, which lasted well into the 19th century, took a heavy toll in the areas they affected, at the same time that the Catholicization of the Islands called for an all-pervasive style of rule, thus integrating native life into the colonial edifice. This resulted in the restructuring of communities, of customs and beliefs, and of settlement patterns and land tenure, which must, similar to acerbic exploitation, have affected demographic trends, were it only because of widespread fugitivism and labour drafts that disrupted agricultural production and family life.
These prefatory observations, in which the caveat that aggregate figures hide local variations and extremes is regularly sounded, are followed by a full chapter on the evaluation of the evidence on which analysis and conclusions are based. Because the author has the ambition to set her demographic findings in rather encompassing contexts, she sometimes had to construct local situations from scratch (ix) which, because of the paucity of data, sometimes leads to rather dubious outcomes. Altogether, though, she draws on an impressive array of material that is substantiated by the facts and figures of the Appendices, 65 pages of footnotes, and a 20-page bibliography.
Structure of the study
In between the introductory chapters and the conclusion that summarize the country's demographic history, the author presents us with two chapters on the Visayas and seven chapters on various regions of Luzon. According to her previous experience, local variations of the mix of relevant variables affecting population figures are too important to ignore, also because their analysis may yield unexpected insights in the ups and downs of population trends.
This procedure results in an avalanche of sometimes integrated but often scattered facts on early—and at times rather late—colonial history that may be interesting to note, yet that, in places, also take the view from the wood for the trees. Since the same factors affecting demographic history keep recurring, even as their mix varies, continuous reading of the report can be wearisome. In this way, the reader is assured some fourteen times that the Hispano-Dutch War imposed a heavy demand for labour and provisions, which in its turn contributed to significant population decline. Similarly, Moro raids were, comparable to epidemics, equally fecund factors in revealing local demographic weal and woe. The positive side of the method followed is that it offers a treasure trove of detail on provinces and regions.
The aims of the study were to evaluate certain persistent assumptions about the population history of the Islands and to subsequently fill the gap in the literature through writing a meticulously documented demographic history in the context of colonial and societal change. In this the author succeeded with flying colours; hers is an outstanding contribution to our understanding of early Spanish history in the Philippines. Thank you, Professor Newson!
Reference
Schirmer, D.B., Shalom, S.R. (eds.). 1987. The Philippines Reader; A History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship, and Resistance. Quezon City: Ken Inc.