Spanish influence on Filipino culture

Hispanic Culture in the Philippines (Spanish: Cultura Hispanica en Filipinas, Tagalog: Kulturang Kastilla sa Pilipinas) are customs and Philippine traditions which originated from the Spanish East Indies.

Spanish settlement in the Philippines first took place in the 16th century, during the Spanish colonial period of the islands. The conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi founded the first Spanish settlement in Cebu in 1565, and later established Manila as the capital of the Spanish East Indies in 1571. The Philippine Islands are named after King Philip II of Spain, and they became a territory of the Viceroyalty of New Spain which was governed from Mexico City until the 19th century, when Mexico obtained independence. From 1821, the Philippine Islands were ruled directly from Madrid, Spain.

Spaniards are referred to by Filipinos as "Kastila" (Castilian) named after the former Kingdom of Castile, now a region of Spain. The majority of the Filipinos of Spanish descent are of Mexican and Andalusian origin, while a minority are Latin American, Catalan or Basque descents. Another term for them is Spanish Filipino.

Some of the societies scattered in the islands remained isolated but many evolved into states that developed substantial trade and contacts with the peoples of Eastern and Southern Asia, including those from India, China, Japan and other Austronesian islands (The Malay archipelago).

The 1st millennium saw the rise of the harbor principalities and their growth into maritime states composed of autonomous barangays independent of, or allied with larger nations which were either Malay thalassocracies, led by Datus, Chinese tributary states ruled by Huangs or Indianized kingdoms governed by Rajahs.

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