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Environment and History 12 (2006): 65–88
© 2006 The White Horse Press
Winds of Colonisation: The Meteorological Contours
of Spainʼs Imperium in the Pacic 1521–18981
GREG BANKOFF
School of Asian Studies
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1001, New Zealand
Email: g.bankoff@auckland.ac.nz
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the relationship between prevailing weather systems and
colonialism in the context of Spanish possessions in the Pacic from Magellan
till the end of the nineteenth century. It argues that any historical appreciation of
Hispanic colonialism and culture would be incomplete without due considera-
tion of the role meteorological phenomena played, both at the macro-level in
terms of the form and extent of empire and at the more micro-level as manifest
in the daily experience of communities.
KEY WORDS
Pacic, Spain, weather, colonialism, galleons
The British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan made what has become an oft
quoted speech in 1960 in which he likened the awakening of political conscious-
ness in Africa to a ʻwind of changeʼ blowing through the continent. Like others
before and after him, Macmillan spoke metaphorically, equating the diffusion
and dissemination of human ideas to the strength of the breeze, the seeds of
nationalism borne as it were on the currents of the worldʼs major wind systems.
These literary allusions, however, tend to obscure consideration of the real
inuence that wind and its extreme manifestation, storm, may have played in
determining the course of history and inuencing the shape of societies. This
was especially so in the pre-industrial age when wind constituted the primary
source of energy available for long-distance transportation and was to remain
sovereign well into the nineteenth century. The slow rise of Western European
states to global dominance and world empire from the sixteenth century that
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 67
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
is usually characterised as maritime in nature could equally or perhaps more
ttingly be described as Aeolian or wind-driven to denote dependence on the
prevailing patterns of atmospheric circulation. While Chinese, Arab, Malay
and Polynesian peoples among others also achieved degrees of mastery over
this element, none perhaps did so with the pertinacity or with the same ends in
mind as the mariners of Western Europe.
In particular, the Spanish empire in the Pacic largely owed its existence to
a meteorological phenomenon that few but sailors were aware of and no one
really understood. Variations in atmospheric pressure over the Indian Ocean are
mirrored by opposite changes over the south-eastern Pacic, so that if one is
falling the other is invariably rising. These variants are responsible for determin-
ing the nature and strength of the trade winds. Under normal conditions, these
winds blow from east to west, pushing surface water with them away from the
Americas. It was this pathway that Ferdinand Magellan discovered during his
epic voyage of 1521 and along which others followed, so ensuring landfalls in
Guam and the Philippines. Ultimately, even Spainʼs claims to the Islas Carolinas
were successfully defended against Germany in 1885 through arguments based
on prior discovery and prevailing wind/trade patterns despite actual occupation.
Atmospheric circulation was responsible not only for the routes that linked these
far-ung outposts together but also for ensuring the axis of imperial governance
(Mexico, Manila, Guam/Agaña), the means of commerce (the galleon trade)
and, of course, the progressive evangelisation of its peoples.2
The Western Pacic, moreover, is also the ʻbreeding groundʼ of typhoons,
strong tropical storms with high winds, 20 or more of which pass over or near
to the Philippines each year. The loss of life and property caused by tropical
cyclones and the heavy rainfall that falls as a consequence of their passage are
greater than any other natural hazard. There are a surprising number of historical
sources on typhoons testifying to their importance irrespective of whether or
not their effect has been generally recognised in conventional histories. Tropical
storms not only sank ships and disrupted commerce but, by their very frequency
and magnitude, inuenced societies and even helped shape peoplesʼ cultures.
This paper examines the relationship between prevailing weather systems and
colonialism in the context of Spanish possessions in the Pacic from Magellan
till the end of the nineteenth century. It argues that any historical appreciation
of Hispanic colonialism and culture would be incomplete without due consid-
eration of the role meteorological phenomena played both at the macro level in
terms of the form and extent of empire and at the more micro level manifest in
the daily experience of communities.
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 67
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
DEPENDS WHICH WAY THE WINDS BLOW
The Spanish Empire in the Pacic may have been motivated by ʻgod, gold and
gloryʼ but its realisation, in particular its extent and its pulse was largely deter-
mined by the Pacic wind system. The global wind pattern or ʻgeneral circulationʼ
splits the surface winds of each hemisphere into three belts: the easterly-blowing
polar winds, the prevailing westerlies between 30–60 degrees of latitude, and
the tropical easterlies between 0–30 degrees.3 These later are known as the trade
winds whose name actually has nothing to do with commerce but was named
instead after the now obsolete word tred, to take a steady course. As a result of
the earthʼs rotational motion, winds do not blow directly northward or southward
but are deected at right angles away from the straight path of high to low pres-
sure. They are always deected to the west in the Northern Hemisphere and to
the east in the Southern. This spinning force is known as the Coriolis effect. Air
diverging from a high-pressure region spirals outward, clockwise north of the
equator and counter-clockwise in the south. The horizontal effect of this force
varies in proportion to the latitude – it is strongest at the poles and vanishes
altogether at the equator. Moreover, near the equator, the easterly trades of both
FIGURE 1. Global wind patterns (general circulation)
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 69
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
hemispheres move towards each other to form a narrow zone of low pressure,
cloud and humid conditions known as the Inter-tropical Convergence (ITC)
where winds are alternating tful or strong. While the circulation is similar in
both hemispheres, the colder mean climate of the troposphere over Antarctica
due to the deecting (albedo) effect of its perpetual ice cover has the effect of
displacing all southerly climatic zones slightly to the north. Thus the ITC mainly
lies several degrees north of the geographical equator in all oceans, a circumstance
that greatly reduces the frequency of typhoons in many places but increases the
intensity of the prevailing westerlies in the Southern Hemisphere.
This zonal pattern of winds provides only a rough approximation of the
actual atmospheric circulation. In reality the latter is considerably modied by
the unequal distribution across the globe of continents that constitute signi-
cant thermal and topographical barriers, becoming hotter in summer and colder
in winter. The seasonal variation of solar heating depending on the tilt of the
earthʼs rotation means that areas of high pressure tend to build up over cold
continental land masses in winter, while low-pressure development takes place
over the adjacent, relatively warm oceans. Exactly the opposite conditions occur
during summer, although to a lesser degree. These contrasting pressures over
land and water are the cause of the monsoon winds. Superimposed upon the
general circulation are many lesser disturbances, such as the common storms of
temperate latitudes and the typhoons or hurricanes of the tropics. These gener-
ally move along the path of the prevailing winds but maintain within them their
own circulatory pattern. While the wind system over the Pacic conforms to
the general model of circulation thus described, the region is characterised by
a distinctive phenomenon known as the Southern Oscillation in which varia-
tions in atmospheric pressure over the Indian Ocean (in the West) are mirrored
by the opposite changes over the south-eastern Pacic (in the East), so that if
one is falling the other is rising. An El Niño (Southern Oscillation or ENSO)
event – named after the Christ Child by Peruvian shermen – is a combination
of interrelated oceanic and atmospheric processes that occurs every two to
seven years when atmospheric pressures shift and the normally easterly trade
winds slacken and even temporarily reverse. Wind intensities are affected too,
especially close to the equator. One may encounter unexpected variations in
the strength of the usually predictable north-east and south-west monsoons as
well as more localised uctuations in direction and speed inuenced by the
local island topography.4
The oceanʼs currents, too, are largely dependent on the way the winds blow.
Oceans are certainly not inert bodies; they have their own complex circulatory
systems. Surface currents tend to conform closely to the prevailing wind system,
especially along the equatorial belt that girdles the globe. Two surface currents,
the North and South Equatorial Currents, ow westward blown by the trade
winds separated by an eastward owing surface Equatorial Counter-current.5
Near the western margins of all oceans, however, the cumulative ow of the
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 69
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
equatorial currents pile up warm water against the continental boundaries. A
portion of this surplus water returns eastward via the surface and subsurface
counter-currents but most of the water forms deep narrow fast-moving western
boundary currents that are guided pole-ward by the margins of the continental
shelves at speeds of between three to ve knots. In the western North Pacic, the
Kuro-shio Current (also known as the Japan Current, la corriente negra or black
current) off the north-east coast of Japan ows eastward at around 36oN, near
the latitude of Tokyo, in the direction of the prevailing westerlies as far as about
160–170oE beyond which it becomes too diffuse to be any longer identiable.
Similarly, the prevailing westerlies are also responsible for creating continental
currents off the coast of North America around latitude 40o: one that ows north
towards the pole and another, the California Current that heads south at least as
far as Acapulco.6 Any change to the way the winds blow, such as occurs during
an El Niño event, will affect the surface ocean currents, causing sea levels in
the western Pacic to fall and warm water to slip back towards America with
corresponding effects on local climatic conditions – and on ships at sea.
Northeast Trade Winds
Southeast
Trade Winds
North Equatorial Current
South Equatorial Current
Westerlies
Westerlies
Easterlies
Easterlies
Doldrums Equatorial Countercurrent
Kuro-shio Current
California Current
FIGURE 2. Ocean currents and prevailing winds of the Pacic Ocean
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 71
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
WINDS OF COLONISATION: THE SHAPE OF SPAINʼS IMPERIUM IN
THE PACIFIC7
Superimpose a map of the Spanish imperium in the Pacic on a chart of the
atmospheric circulation over that ocean and there is a remarkable ʻtʼ between
the prevailing winds and the form and extent of Spanish colonisation. The
routes that the initial explorers took and therefore the landfalls they made were
largely dictated by the trade winds. The shape of the Manila-Acapulco galleon
trade, the economic lifeblood of the whole Spanish endeavour in this part of the
world, was likewise dependent on the westerlies for the passage out to Mexico
and on the northeast trades for the westward return route to the Philippines.
Islands that served this purpose fell within the Hispanic mantle, those that did
not were left for others despite their initial ʻdiscoveryʼ and their preliminary
attempts at colonisation by Spaniards. Even the settlements on the west coast of
North America owe their rationale partly to the dictates of this economic system.
Likewise, islands like Hawaii that one might expect to have come within the
orbit of Spanish inuence remained unknown or were ignored because of their
location in relation to such winds. On the other hand, those places that lay on
the appropriate latitudes were eventually to experience the full force of Hispanic
cultural inuence with all its attendant ʻadvantagesʼ and ʻdisadvantagesʼ. Nor
was this experience conned to just the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries but
was to remain an important factor inuencing cultural development right up
until the late nineteenth century. It is in this way that one can talk about there
being ʻwinds of colonisationʼ blowing backward and forward across the Pacic
during the days of sail.
The correlation between prevailing winds and colonisation begins with the
initial epic European crossing of the Pacic in 1520–1521. Though there is
considerable dispute over the exact route followed by Ferdinand Magellan, it is
generally considered that he rst headed north along the South American coast to
reach warmer weather as soon as possible at about 32–34°S before striking out
away from land. Here, of course, he may have been inuenced in his decision
to leave the mainland behind by encountering the prevailing south-east trade
winds that blow in a generally west-northwest direction. At all events, running
before such winds he was carried across the Pacic. Apart from sighting two
small islands, probably outliers of the Tuamotus and the Line Islands, his rst
landfall was not till he reached the Marianas on 6 March 1521. Needing to
obtain fresh supplies, he headed towards the largest of these, Guam. Naming it
Isla Ladrones – Island of Thieves – after the inhabitantsʼ proclivity to make off
with everything they could, he sailed on now driven by the northeast trades till
he reached the Philippines a week later.8 Thus from the rst, the pivotal refer-
ence points of Spainʼs imperium in the Pacic were largely set by the general
circulation over the ocean: the Philippines as a base in the East (and not Japan
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 71
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
to the north or the Indonesian islands to the south), and Guam not Hawaii as a
primary way-station.
Early Spanish enterprise in the region was dominated by the need to nd a
practical passage back to the Americas, the elusive ʻturnbackʼ – la tornavuelta
or vuelta. The Treaties of Tordesillas (1494) and Zaragoza (1529) that divided
the world between Portugal and Spain ensured that Spanish mariners returning
from Asia would do so by back-tracking across the Pacic, and not by way of
the Cape of Good Hope through Portuguese dominions. Four unsuccessful at-
tempts were made to nd a return crossing before the Spaniards even colonised
the Philippines: the Trinidad of Magellanʼs squadron in 1522, the rescue mis-
sion commanded by Alvaro de Saavedra to pick-up survivors from an ill-fated
earlier expedition that made two such attempts in 1527, and a ship of Ruy Lopez
de Villalobosʼs expedition under royal instruction in 1542. Although all these
efforts ended in failure and the loss of many lives, much useful information
was learnt and the importance of sailing north to encounter the westerly winds
around the 30th parallel realised. The successful accomplishment of this task
was left to Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. As soon as he had gained a foothold in
the Philippines in 1565, he lost no time in dispatching his nephew Felipe de
Hawaii
Fiji Samoa Marquesas Is.
Tahiti
Lima
Manila
Solomon Is.
Canton
Santa Cruz
Acapulco
Marshall Is.
Guam
San Francisco
Route of Manila Galleon
Magellanʼs Voyage acros s the Pacific
Other Spanish Voyages
Chinese Silk Routes to Manila
FIGURE 3. Spanish shipping routes of the Pacic
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 73
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
Salcedo and the veteran pilot Friar Andrés de Urdaneta to re-establish connec-
tions with New Spain. Their ship, clearing the archipelago through the Straits
of San Bernardino, rode the monsoon north and continued to climb in a general
north-easterly direction before encountering the prevailing westerlies that car-
ried them across the ocean to the American coast. There the California Current
helped them south till they dropped anchor in Acapulco on 8 September after
being at sea 129 days. This passage came to be known as ʻUrdanetaʼs routeʼ
and was approximately the one followed during the ensuing 250 years of the
Manila-Acapulco galleonʼs history.9
The contours of the Spanish empire were established with the discovery of
the eastward passage across the Pacic. The galleon trade that thus began and
was to endure until the last ship, the Magallanes, cleared from Acapulco in 1815,
served as the feeder line servicing Manila as the entrepôt of the Pacic where
the silver of New Spain was exchanged for the luxuries of the Orient, above all
Chinese silks and porcelains.10 The route taken by the galleons had the ships
heading south from Manila to clear the archipelago through the Embocadero or
the straits that lie between the southern coast of Luzon and the island of Samar in
the Visayas. It was important that the galleons cleared port before the end of July
to catch the monsoon that blows northeast at that season. A later sailing that the
exigencies of shipyards made all too common meant that the voyage northward
was extended beyond the two months it usually took, or became completely
impractical when the winds blew in the contrary direction. Debouching from
the Straits of San Bernadino, the galleons were driven north-east before the
monsoon that could be counted upon to take them to about 15o latitude before
encountering more variable winds or storms that might prolong the passage or
even drive the crafts back in distress to the Philippines. This calamitous event
was known as an arribada and happened repeatedly, especially in the early
seventeenth century, when six galleons were forced to return to Manila between
1602 and 1617. Beating to the north of the Marianas, the galleons then fell in
with the eastward-owing Kuro-shio Current and the prevailing westerlies in
the vicinity of 37–39oN that propelled them across the Pacic within a few
degrees of latitude. Making landfall around the headland of Cape Mendocino,
California, ships steered south, keeping no nearer to the inhospitable shore than
was necessary to discern landmarks, until they anchored at Acapulco. The west-
ward route from Mexico to the Philippines was more direct and much quicker.
Galleons dropped from Acapulco to between the 10th and 14th parallels where
they picked up the northeast trade winds that carried them across the ocean to
the Marianas where it became customary for ships to stop from the latter half
of the seventeenth century before riding the continuingly favourable winds on
to the Philippines. Often the westward route was almost a straight line with the
galleons dropping southwest from Acapulco (16o51'N 99o55'W) to the vicinity
of 12oN where they then headed due west to the Straits of San Bernardino at
12o32'N 124oE.11
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 73
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
Spanish contact with the Marianas remained eeting for the rst century
except for the occasional visit of the Manila-bound galleons, an abortive evan-
gelisation mission in 1595 and the wreck of two ships on Saipan in 1600 and
1638. Though delayed, the physical occupation of the islands could not be
ignored indenitely and it fell to the Jesuit, Diego Luis de Sanvítores to effect
its realisation in 1668. This he accomplished with much consequent loss of life
due partly to intermittent warfare and mainly to the introduction of virulent
diseases like smallpox that decimated the native Chamorro population to the
point of virtual extinction. A royal decree of the same year ordered the galleons
to call in at the island on their passage from Acapulco and watch-res were kept
lit on the highest points of Guam and Rota during the month of June to guide
the ships thither. The signicance of wind in relation to the Spanish perception
of the islands is suggested by the alternate name often given to them before
colonisation; they were known as the Islas de las Velas Latinas or the Islands
of Lateen Sails.12
On the eastern side of the Pacic, the same ʻgalleonʼ rationale was a sig-
nicant factor inuencing the settlement of Alta California. The long duration
of the eastward passage meant scurvy was a persistent menace and crews were
in dire need of fresh water and provisions by the time they neared the coast.
This manifested itself as early as 1602. One of the tasks assigned Sebastian
Vizcaíno in his voyage of coastal exploration was to seek Californian ports in
which galleons could re-supply, and, in 1606, Philip III ordered a way-station
established there for ships originating from the Philippines. Though nothing was
to materialise for the succeeding one hundred and sixty years, and the even-
tual establishment of San Diego (1769), Monterey (1770) and San Francisco
(1774) had as much to do with the seventeenth century missionary endeavours
of Eusebio Francisco Kino and fear of British and Russian encroachment along
the northern coasts, the Council of the Indies eventually decreed that galleons
should put into port at Monterey in 1773 and imposed a ne of 4,000 pesos on
captains who ignored such directives. Francisco Santiago Cruz concludes that
ʻthe passage of the galleons contributed without doubt to the knowledge and
occupation of Californiaʼ. Much of the impulse for the occupation of California
came from governors-general of the Philippines who in 1732 and 1734 gave
direct orders to the captains of the galleons to put in to existing missions and
reconnoitre the coast for other suitable ports and in 1748 advocated the settle-
ment of Monterey.13 Even the nal act of Spainʼs imperium in the Pacic – the
very last entrada so to speak, her claims to the Carolinas and Palau islands, on
the grounds that she had exercised sovereignty ʻsince ancient timesʼ despite the
absence of any settlement – were adjudicated in her favour by papal arbitration in
1885. The fact that these islands lay along traditional trading routes, themselves
largely determined by prevailing winds and currents, was assessed to be more
telling than the arrival of a German warship on Yap and led to their eventual
occupation by Spain in 1886.14
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 75
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
Just as those islands and peoples that were eventually incorporated within
Spainʼs Pacic dominion depended to some extent on the way the winds blew,
so those that were not were equally determined by the pattern of the general
atmospheric circulation. Spanish marinersʼ apparent inability to locate the Hawai-
ian Islands, when their situation mid-way between the Philippines and America
made them a potentially ideal place to replenish stocks of food and water, fails
to take into consideration their actual position in relation to the prevailing wind
patterns. While the islands are reputedly one of the most isolated population
centres on earth, their geographic coordinates – about 21o North Latitude and
158o West Longitude – mean that they lie outside the prevailing westerlies in
the North Pacic. Likewise they are situated near the furthest extreme of the
north-east trade winds, which are weaker anyway than their southern hemisphere
counterparts and blow freshest at about 15oN, well south of the islandsʼ loca-
tion. This is why the galleons dropped to between 10–14o latitude after leaving
Acapulco on their westward passage, thus effectively leaving the islands in
the middle of the two sailing paths and well out of the anticipated compass of
passing ships. There is, in fact, speculation that Spanish seamen may have actu-
ally sighted the archipelago, as indeterminably situated islands bearing names
such as La Mesa, Los Monjes, and La Desgraciada (The Table, The Hermits,
and The Unfortunate One) occasionally appear on maps of the period. Cruz
certainly holds that they had been there as early as 1542 based on Baron de
Humboldtʼs study of the galleonsʼ route.15 Similarly even the fate of Spanish
endeavours to the South-west Pacic, the remarkable voyages in Melanesia of
Alvaro de Mendaña y Neyra in 1567–1568, of Mendaña again and Fernandez
de Quiros in 1595, and of Quiros alone in 1605–1606, who sailed among the
Solomons and the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) and even established a temporary
settlement on Santa Cruz, were dependent on the prevailing winds. In this case,
of course, their location south of the path of the north-east trades and the North
Pacic westerlies meant that the supply, maintenance or even very existence of a
Spanish presence there proved non-essential and far too costly for the stretched
resources of an empire whose primary focus the winds had already determined
was to be elsewhere.16
Not only did the prevailing winds set the routes and therefore the form and
extent of the imperium, but they also established the beat or pulse at which
it operated. The date of departure from Manila was dependent on favourable
winds for timing. The capriciousness of the atmospheric circulation around the
archipelago and its seasonal variations made it advantageous that the galleon
commence its outward passage before late June. This month was certainly the
best one to navigate the Straits of San Bernardino and to better avoid the storms
and typhoons that become more frequent as the year advanced. Evidence points
to captains and pilots trying to be underway at least before the end of July.
Failure to do so could lengthen the crossing considerably from the four months
taken by the San Jerónimo and Santa Margarita in 1598 to the more than eight
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 75
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
months needed by the San José in 1662. Such a delay, moreover, could have
serious medical consequences leading to disease, famine and death on board.
This presumably accounts for the appearance of a ʻghostʼ galleon off the coast
of Guerrero in 1657 with not a single member of its crew or passengers left alive
after a year at sea. Mortality rates were always high even at the best of times and
could range to as much as fty percent. Greater variation than is customary in
the wind system of the Western Pacic, such as occurred during the seventeenth
century, exacerbated matters, and considerably lengthened the voyages under-
taken between 1640 and 1670. Even the great trade fair that was held annually
at Acapulco in February was determined by the rhythm of the winds.17
Since the north-east trades that returning galleons made use of on the westward
passage vary seasonally, blowing more strongly during the months of March
through May, the date of departure from Acapulco was also a matter of critical
importance. The galleon had to be underway by March, and most endeavoured
to do so by the end of that month. In the Western Pacic, the South-east Asian
monsoon begins to dominate the circulation in May, reaching its maximum
intensity in July and August. A ship approaching the Philippines before the end
of June would generally enjoy an easier westward sailing with the trade winds
extending all the way across the ocean than one arriving during the following
months. The monsoon trough that is located midway between Guam and the
Philippines shifts eastward in July so that ships making a later passage had to
contend with south-west winds for the latter part of the crossing. In addition to
unfavourable winds, galleons had also to face the heavier weather associated
with tropical convective systems. Weather conditions in the Western Pacic
seem to have been the main factor in determining the length of the passage
from Acapulco. Moreover, ships arriving at the Embocadero after the monsoon
was well established might be unable to proceed any further and have to unload
their cargo and passengers, who would then be forced to make their own way
overland to Manila.18
ITʼS AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NO ONE SOME GOOD
Thus it was on the macro level that the winds of the North Pacic largely dictated
the form and extent of the Hispanic imperium and were a signicant factor in
determining which lands and peoples were colonised by Spain and which were
not. But weather was also a signicant factor in shaping the everyday life of
Spainʼs colonial subjects. In particular, the Pacic is one of the main ʻspawningʼ
grounds of tropical cyclones, typhoons or hurricanes, rotary wind systems with
speeds in excess of 64 knots. Such phenomena occur most frequently in the
warm, western sections of all oceans during summer and autumn, often adjacent
to the Inter Tropical Convergence zone. As typhoons require stored-up rotational
energy in the air to ʻfeed onʼ, they are unknown in the South Atlantic or in the
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 77
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
South Pacic east of longitude 130oW where the more northerly position of the
ITC leaves insufcient accumulated momentum to generate and sustain strong
cyclones. A typhoon consists of a slightly asymmetrical array of intense line
squalls spiralling inward to a central ʻeyeʼ of between 24 to 48 kilometres in
diameter. Surface winds blow inward along these squall lines with ever-increasing
velocity reaching speeds of up to 200 knots with accompanying gales extending
as far as 500 kilometres from the eye. Each year about 20 typhoons, equivalent
to over 25 per cent of the total number of such events in the world, occur in what
is delimited as the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR). About 95 per cent
of these originate in the Pacic Ocean and so particularly affect the Marianas,
Carolinas and the eastern half of the Philippine archipelago.19
Known respectively by Filipino and Spaniard alike in the Philippines as
baguios, by the Portuguese in India and China as tifones, and as huracanes in
Spain, there are a surprising number of historical sources on typhoons testifying
to their importance, whether or not their effect has been generally recognised in
conventional histories. The etymology of the words is also indicative given the
local signicance of typhoons in the region. Tifón is considered to derive from
the Chinese tai meaning strong and fung meaning wind. The origin of baguio is
more problematic having general usage throughout the languages of the Philip-
pines from the oldest of accounts. These typhoons were not so much ʻwinds of
colonisationʼ as winds that shaped the nature of colonial societies, threatening
the tentative lines of communication at sea and disrupting agriculture and settled
communities on land. Much of the colonial history of the Spanish Pacic is a
narrative of gradual adaptation to their impact on society. Nowhere was this more
so than in the Philippines, the westward ʻanchorʼ of Spainʼs imperium and the
purported ʻPearl of the Orientʼ. The prime historical source on this phenomenon
is Fr. Miguel Selgaʼs Primer Catálogo de Baguios Filipinos. The main matter of
this compilation provides an historical account of typhoons between 1565 and
1863.20 The more systematic recording of meteorological data only dates from
the establishment of the Manila Observatory and the installation of purpose-built
measuring devices in 1865 but a comprehensive list of typhoons from which
reliable observation can be made really only exists from 1948 onwards.21
Only a proportion of such storms actually make landfall somewhere in the
archipelago. A study of all tropical cyclones between 1948 and 1990 reveals that
384 or 45 per cent of the 850 documented events entered the PAR. Reference to
typhoons in the more historical sources frequently records the passage of tropical
cyclones that never cross land, usually in the context of vessels damaged or lost
at sea. In fact, Selgaʼs catalogue of historical typhoons is often nothing more
than a chronicle of maritime disaster, with 80 per cent of all entries describing
such events prior to the eighteenth century. Among the notable recorded catas-
trophes was the loss of a whole squadron of six vessels, ʻthe best that the King
had placed at seaʼ, together with over 1,000 men to a typhoon between 10 and
15 October 1617.22 William Schurzʼs narrative of the galleon trade also makes
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 77
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
frequent mention of typhoons, noting that a ship that left Manila after the middle
of July ʻwas practically certain of running into rough weather within the next
three months of her voyageʼ. He provides numerous accounts of such tempests
experienced on a passage that was described as ʻthe longest and most dreadful
of any in the Worldʼ. Many of the more than 30 galleons lost in the history of
the trade owed their demise to this end or were only saved from sharing such a
fate by miraculous intervention. Thus the crew of the galleon Santo Cristo de
Burgos, struck by a violent typhoon off the shores of Ticao on its way to clear the
archipelago en route to Mexico in 1726, attributed their lives to Don Julián de
Velascoʼs pledge to endow the local church in gratitude for their salvation.23
Even into the nineteenth century, tropical cyclones continued to pose a seri-
ous danger to shipping. The account of the captain of the brigantine Manuelita
caught at sea on a voyage between China and Peru on 1 September 1850 ex-
presses some of the immediacy of a storm:
Enormous waves dashed increasingly against the sides of the vessel and, breaking
over the bridge, carried away everything that was there. The darkness was so thick
that I could not see two yards in front of me – all was confounded – sky, sea, ship
were all one – only from time to time, a streak of white foam at a certain height,
reecting the pale gleam of the lightening ashes, threw a ghastly and sinister light on
this so sober scene.ʼ And he added the morning after: ʻOh how I longed for daylight!
It came at last – sad day – day of mourning, what a horrible sight you offered me,
when you showed me this poor Manuelita which only the evening before was so
clean, so coquettish, now so horribly mutilated! …Oh how small man feels in such
moments as these and how his thoughts draw near to God!24
The shipʼs sails were shredded, her main, fore and mizzen masts lost and she
limped along on a small triangular sail extended on the fore-stay and another
xed to the mizzen-yard till towed into Manila harbour ʻafter fty days of misery
and sufferingʼ. In fact, many particularly severe typhoons were popularly named
after the ships that had been caught at sea and lost such as Gravina, Cantabria,
Tarloc, Quantico and Euzkadi.25
On land, too, the experience of typhoons was just as immediate and equally
destructive. While tropical cyclones can occur in any month of the year, they are
much more frequent between July and November, a period synonymous with
the tag-ulan or wet season in the vernacular, and very rare between January
and March. At least ve main tracks of typhoons have been identied: one that
crosses to the north of Manila, one that traverses south of the capital, one that
passes east or north-east of the archipelago either disappearing or re-curving
in the Pacic, one that forms in the China Sea to the west of the Philippines,
and another that re-curves in the China Sea between parallels 10º and 20º. As
a result, some provinces are more frequently exposed to typhoons than others
with Northern Luzon receiving by far the highest frequency and strongest winds.
Far from being an abnormal event, as such occasions usually appear in western
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 79
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
histories, they can be termed frequent life experiences. An impression of what
the actual experience meant to people in the past is given in the local histories.
Thus the Chronicle of Nabua provides insight into how often communities in
eighteen and nineteenth century Camarines and Albay (Southern Luzon) were
subjected to ʻremarkableʼ typhoons known locally as oguis. The chronicle shows
a high degree of consistency in the number of such events: there were nine re-
corded between 1701 and 1750, nine between 1751 and 1800, 12 between 1801
and 1850, and 11 between 1851 and 1900. Consequently a person was likely
to experience a severe typhoon twice every 11 years in the eighteenth century
and twice every nine years in the nineteenth century, or between six and eight
times during an average life expectancy.26
With the typhoons, of course, came rain and with the rain came ood. For
many people in the Philippines, the primary peril posed by typhoons was not
so much the strong winds that might blow their nipa palm and bamboo house
down – rarely a fatal occurrence – but rather the danger that came from a sudden
deluge of water. ʻAlmost always during typhoonsʼ, a commentator in Pangasinan
noted in 1854, ʻthe oods are more terrible and destructive than the winds of the
stormʼ. Floods, in particular, have historically been the source of much privation
and suffering in the Philippines: ʻHardly a province of the archipelago, but at
one time or another has heard the roar of rushing waters and seen the ight of
terror-stricken menʼ. These oods were largely of two types: the sudden raging
torrent that peaks sharply and dies away in a few minutes as a result of localised
rainfall, and those of a much more widespread nature and longer duration usually
associated with persistent rainfall and typhoons. Such events were not generally
considered worth documenting unless they had relevance or consequences to
Europeans. Local histories, on the other hand, give frequent accounts of such
hazards. A list drawn up from these sources found in the Archives of the Manila
Observatory constitutes a record of major oods that occurred between 1691
and 1911. While almost certainly incomplete, it does provide an indication of
the primary causes, geographical predisposition and even the frequency of such
events in specic areas. In particular, the chronicles regularly refer to ood-
ing in connection to the passage of tropical cyclones: over 56 per cent of all
recorded incidences are directly attributed to typhoons (Figure 4). One of the
very earliest accounts of ooding in Manila, a letter to Philip II, attributes the
inundation of Fort Santiago to the passing of a typhoon on 29 June 1589. On
other occasions, oods were mainly attributed to heavy rainfall, often associ-
ated with the monsoons. Moreover, the close association between ooding and
typhoons suggests a degree of seasonality in their occurrence that corresponds
to the peak in the latterʼs annual cycle between July and November.27
Typhoon-induced downpours and the steady unremitting rains of the north-
east monsoon transformed the tiny streams and puny creeks of the Sierra Madre
Mountains into swelling rivers that could soon become avalanches of water
rushing northward into Cagayan: ʻThe tobacco plantations are washed away;
GREG BANKOFF
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 79
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
houses are shattered to bits or oat crazily on the water like derelict ships;
bridges are swept away; hundreds of people are trapped in the low lying barrios
unable to escape or are carried away by angry waters into a seething seaʼ. The
ooding of the Rio Grande de Cagayan was severe enough to be recorded as a
national calamity on a number of occasions throughout the nineteenth century:
in October 1845, November 1870, October 1871, September 1874 and August
1881. Some idea of what the incidence of ood on local communities might
mean can be gauged by a closer scrutiny at the more complete local chronicles
that suggest how often people were faced with such situations. The records for
Nabua in Camarines between 1691 and 1856 and those for Pangasinan between
1768 and 1872 depict just how frequent a life-event were oods. In Nabua, a
person experienced one such event every 9.7 years on average but once every
5.6 years between 1733 and 1800. This latter gure is more in line with that
for Pangasinan where the average was once every 5.7 years. While the later
province is located within the region where the highest incidence of oods oc-
cur, there is no reason to suppose that this degree of frequency was particularly
exceptional.29
Other local histories present a glimpse of the reality of this hazard for com-
munities in different regions of the archipelago. In northern Luzon, the Chronicle
of San Nicolas in Ilocos Norte describes a violent storm and ood that destroyed
half the town in 1798, while that of Balaoan, La Union, reports heavy rains in
1830 that demolished many houses and led to the relocation of the military
Figure 1: Total Recorded Floods 1691-1900
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
1691-1750 1751-1800 1801-1850 1851-1900
Years
All Floods Typhoon Associated Floods Other Floods
FIGURE 4. Total recorded oods, 1691–1900. Source: ʻFloods in the Philippinesʼ28
GREG BANKOFF
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 81
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
barracks to safer ground. The same was true of central Luzon. The Chronicle
of Pagsanjan in Laguna gives details of the overowing of the Balanoc and
Bumbungan rivers on a number of occasions: ooding the town with enormous
loss to both life and property on 22 October 1831, rising to over half a metre
along the Calle Real in October 1840, and again inundating the town in 1882.
The Chronicle of Nasugbu in Batangas recounts a great ood in 1839 which
carried away many animals and submerged the town so that people had to use
bancas (indigenous canoes) to move around even in the centre. Further south,
the Chronicle of Daet in Camarines relates how rains carried away the newly
constructed bridge in 1847 and how those of 1857 were ʻexceedingly heavyʼ. A
similar picture emerges for the Visayas with various chronicles mentioning the
great destruction wrought in Dumangas on 3 April 1841, the oods in Barnate
in 1848 and again in 1890, or the big ood in Caibiran, Leyte, that washed away
ʻmost of the houses, and even the church and bell towerʼ in 1876.30
Any impression that these were simply small scale disasters and localised
tragedies are refuted by chronicles, such as that of Tayum with its account of
the rising of the Abra River to a height of more than 25 metres above its normal
course causing over 1,800 deaths between 25 and 27 September 1867. The
ooded area around Bangued was reported as almost circular with a diameter
approximating 10 kilometres and a height of more than 20 metres. The entire
town of Caoayan disappeared beneath the waters. Or the ood that inundated
large portions of Central and Northern Luzon in October 1871, drowning 1,342
cattle, 842 horses, 761 carabaos and numberless hogs and domestic animals in
Ilocos Norte alone. Or again, the ood in Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur, that destroyed
the barrio of Sumagui, carrying away over 22 houses and causing more than
100,000 pesos worth of damages in 1911. The most obvious ood-prone areas
in the islands were the ancient channels of river systems lled with Quaternary
alluvial deposits. As these are also among the attest, most fertile and easiest
to irrigate landscapes, they have also been the richest centres of agriculture and
intensive human settlement. Currently, half of the countryʼs provincial capitals
and major cities are situated on these oodplains.31
As might be expected from their geographical location, this pattern of ty-
phoon-borne destruction was repeated on a smaller scale in Spainʼs main oceanic
possessions, the Marianas and the Carolinas, though for here the historical sources
are much scarcer. Still a somewhat similar picture emerges for Guam where it is
an uncommon year without at least one typhoon passing, where tropical cyclones
of medium intensity occur every six to ten years, and where really destructive
ones happen about every 18 to 20 years. Records of severe typhoons exist for
1568, 1604 and 1638 based on maritime accounts. The typhoon of 1670, the rst
after Spainʼs physical occupation of the Marianas, was so severe that it was said
to have destroyed the greater part of Guam and to have been regarded by the
Chamorro population as a sign of the displeasure of the Christian god for their
continuing resistance. An expedition despatched to reconnoitre Palau recounts
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 81
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
experiencing no less than four strong tropical cyclones in 1709 while another
account mentions a similar storm hitting those islands in 1750. The typhoon of
December 1792 attened the church and parsonage of Agaña, the capital of Guam.
So destructive were the winds that hit the Carolinas in 1815 that boat-loads of
people made their way to Saipan where they sought permission to establish a
community. The storm was so severe that it had deprived them of all means of
sustenance – an early recorded instance of environmental refugees.32
Everything, however, pales in comparison to the typhoon that struck Guam
on 23 September 1855. The winds between eight oʼclock in the evening and
two oʼclock the following morning were of such intensity ʻthat they picked up
rocks and ung them aboutʼ and ʻthreatened to leave nothing left afoot over
the surface of the entire islandʼ. All the native houses were destroyed without
exception; the church of Agar was de-roofed and those of Merizo, Inarajan and
Pago were demolished to their foundations. Nor did stone and tile buildings
escape damage: doors, windows and balconies were smashed or ripped off their
hinges and even many walls were damaged. But the subject of real consternation
to the inhabitants was not the structural damage, severe as it was, but the loss
to agriculture and the consequent threat of famine. Plants and crops stripped of
their foliage ʻlooked as though they had been burntʼ; trees were uprooted and
even the coconut, the most wind-resistant of all trees, were badly affected and
their fruit rendered useless. ʻAccording to public opinionʼ, reports the gover-
nor to his superiors in Manila, ʻthe typhoon experienced now has caused more
damage than all the others this centuryʼ. Nor was this the end of it and further
destructive typhoons were experienced in 1871, 1872, 1876, 1884, 1885, 1891
and 1895.33
Itʼs an ill wind, however, that blows no one some good and a distinction
should be made between these destructive typhoons and the more ordinary vari-
ety of tropical cyclones. The former have been described as ʻone of the greatest
natural calamities that may occur in any placeʼ, while the latter are responsible
for much of the rain that makes the climate so conducive to agriculture. In the
Philippines, for instance, tropical cyclones constitute an important contribution
to total rainfall, especially during the latter half of the year. A study undertaken
by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Administration
(PAGASA) attributes 38 per cent of all annual average rainfall between 1951
and 1997 to the passage of typhoons over the country. Similarly, oods were so
frequent that they actually shaped the morphology of local landscapes, lling-in
depressions and obliterating esteros (canals or streams) and covering everything
in a rich layer of silt that might explain why such areas continue to be the site of
repeated human occupation. Only when the oods were ʻexceptional and lasted
too longʼ did they cover ʻthe elds and destroy the harvests, causing losses that
were impossible to assess with any certaintyʼ. In fact, typhoons have had such
an impact on Pacic societies that they have been instrumental in shaping many
features of Hispanic culture there.34
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 83
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
The evidence of this over time can be found in local architectural styles and
land usage: the low-to-the-ground residential dwellings with stout walls and the
emphasis on root crop agriculture (yams, sweet-potatoes, taro, garlic and onions)
to resist strong winds that are characteristic of both the Batanes and Marianas
islandersʼ life. In other environments variants of the traditional nipa palm and
bamboo house constructed on stilts is also an innovative adaptation to ooding.
All across the Philippines, evidence of co-operative arrangements exist that share
certain basic characteristics to do with the mobilisation of community labour,
especially in times of misfortune or loss arising from natural hazards. In his
1914 report, Harvey E. Hostetter, Director of Education (employing municipal
schoolteachers to conduct local enquiries) recorded such associations building
special houses ʻwhich might be occupied by anyone whose residence would
be destroyed by a typhoonʼ and noted that such practice ʻwas a custom hereʼ.
An account written in Ilocos Norte recounted how after ʻa furious typhoonʼ the
previous May in which nearly all the dwellings were levelled ʻthe destroyed
houses…were rebuilt quickly as soon as the storm was over because the owners
could help each other by turn in spite of their lack of fundsʼ. The communal
construction of dams to protect barrios (neighbourhoods) from oods was appar-
ently common practice in Antique as well. Hispanic colonial societies exhibited
an intricate and complex web of social, economic and cultural relationships to
the weather that oscillated between disasters on the one hand and the timely
need for rainfall on the other.35
CONCLUSION
Winds, then, are not just so much hot (or cold) air but were a signicant factor
in determining the form and shaping the experience of Spainʼs imperium in the
Pacic. Of course, they do not explain why Spaniards went there in the rst place:
origins and motives may still have to be accounted for in terms of god, gold and
glory. It was the general circulation in the Northern Pacic, the direction and
ow of the north-east trades and westerlies that primarily decided which islands
and peoples were to be included within the empire and those which were not.
If this is only logical, and it is only logical, it nonetheless should not diminish
consideration of the inuence that weather patterns had in an age before steam
when locomotion depended primarily on sail. To a large extent, the Philippines,
the Marianas, the Carolinas and Palau were affected by Hispanic culture and not
by some other European one because that was the way the winds blew. If the
imperiumʼs shape was attributable to the winds, then its continuing maintenance
that way was due to the innate conservatism of an empire extended beyond its
resources and one where unnecessary risk-taking had come to be looked upon
with disfavour and even aversion. Once set, Spainʼs empire in the Pacic did
not expand if one discounts the de facto as opposed to the de jure occupation
GREG BANKOFF
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 83
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
of the Carolinas and Palau in the late nineteenth century. Hawaiian islanders,
therefore, were able to enjoy another two centuries of undisturbed development
before being ʻdiscoveredʼ in their turn by Captain Cook in 1778.
If the wind was an important factor in determining the larger picture, it was
also a signicant one in shaping societies at the more micro level. Typhoons are
simply a part of life in the Western Pacic, one that with their strong winds and
heavy rains frequently destroys ships at sea and buildings on land, putting lives
at risk in both realms, and that can even, as in the case of the Carolinas in 1815
and as suggested on Guam in 1855, threaten whole societies with famine and
social collapse. That such events were common is indisputable; that people so
affected became accustomed to them and adapted their lives accordingly raises
some intriguing avenues of inquiry. Perhaps a societyʼs past accommodation
and constant exposure to threat is important to the generation of its historical
development and present culture especially in the case of communities that are
geographically located in hazard-prone landmasses. In fact, the history of such
societies may be largely shaped by the inter-relationship of the natural to the
human, of the physical to the social. To what extent were Hispanic colonial
societies inuenced by such phenomena in terms of agriculture (crops sown and
land usage), architecture (design and construction materials), settlement sites
(location and migration) and even the writ of imperial government (damage to
infrastructure and problems of communication)? Giving due consideration to the
inuence of weather – the direction of winds and the impact of typhoons – on
the formation and operation of Spainʼs empire in the Pacic is not an argument
in favour of environmental determinism but one that properly recognises the his-
torical importance of natural processes in the formation of human cultures.36
NOTES
1 This article was begun in the hospital delivery room while my daughter, Jenna An-
nemarijn was being born in Hoorn, the Netherlands on 20 August 2004. The following
text is dedicated to her.
2 On the nature of imperial governance, see Charles Cunningham, The Audiencia in
the Spanish Colonies as Illustrated by the Audiencia of Manila, 1583–1800 (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1919); Eliodoro Robles, The Philippines in the Nineteenth
Century (Quezon City: Malaya Books, 1969); Nicholas Cushner, Spain in the Philip-
pines: From Conquest to Revolution (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press,
1971); and Greg Bankoff Crime, Society and the State in the Nineteenth Century Philip-
pines (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1996). On evangelisation, see
John Leddy Phelan, The Hispanicization of the Philippines: Spanish Aims and Filipino
Responses 1565–1700 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1959); Horacio de la
Costa, The Jesuits in the Philippines, 1581–1768 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard
University Press, 1961); Gerald Anderson, Studies in Philippine Church History (Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1969); and Vicente Rafael, Contracting Colonialism Transla-
GREG BANKOFF
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 85
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
tion and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society under Early Spanish Rule (Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1988).
3 Winds are named according to the point of the compass from which they blow, that is
winds blowing from the West are west winds or westerlies, conversely those blowing
from the East are east winds or easterlies.
4 The above discussion of atmospheric circulation is based mainly upon William van
Dorn, Oceanography and Seamanship (Centreville, Maryland: Cornell Maritime Press,
1993), 59–67. Primer on El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (Quezon City: Climatol-
ogy and Agrometeorology Branch, PAGASA, Department of Science and Technology,
1997), 2; Maxx Dilley and B. N. Heyman, ʻENSO and Disaster: Droughts, Floods and
El Niño/Southern Oscillation Warm Eventsʼ, Disasters 19, 30 (1995): 181–2; and The
El Niño Phenomenon (Nairobi: UNEP/GEM Environment Library No. 8, 1992), 14–15.
While the dynamics of ENSO are now reasonably well understood, meteorologists are
still unable to explain what upsets the normally balanced cycle of wind and water. It is
considered possible that the amount of snowfall in the Himalayas may provide the trigger
that initiates a warm or cold event or that they are linked to the number of sunspots. The
El Niño Phenomenon, 9; G. Diokno, ʻCoping With the El Niño of the Centuryʼ, Canopy
International 23, 5 (1997), 6; David Eneld, ʻHistorical and Prehistorical Overview of
El Niño/Southern Oscillationʼ, in El Niño: Historical and Paleoclimatic Aspects of the
Southern Oscillation, ed. H. Diaz and V. Markgraf (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1992), 95–118.
5 There are also subsurface Equatorial Counter-currents that ow eastward beneath the
surface currents.
6 Dorn, Oceanography and Seamanship, 101–4, 107–9; Francisco Santiago Cruz, La
Nao de China (Mexico: Editorial Jus, 1962), 98.
7 Parts of this section have previously appeared in Greg Bankoff, ʻDepends Which Way the
Winds Blowʼ, Mainsʼl Haul: A Journal of Pacic Maritime History, 41, 2/3 (2005).
8 Oskar Spate, The Spanish Lake: The Pacic since Magellan, Volume 1 (London: Croom
Helm, 1979), 47–9.
9 Spate, The Spanish Lake, 104–6; and William Schurz, The Manila Galleon (Manila:
Historical Conservation Society, 1985 originally published E. P. Dutton & Co., 1939),
178–82. On the early history of Spain in the Philippines, see Phelan, The Hispaniciza-
tion of the Philippines.
10 Oskar Spate, Monopolists and Freebooters: The Pacic since Magellan, Volume 2
(Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1983), 279–89. In 1813 the Cortes de
Cadiz issued a decree ending the trade. The last galleon ʻraised its rusty anchors, set its
yellowed sails and slowly sailed out of Acapulco bay toward the setting sun, never to
returnʼ in March 1815. M. Almazán, ʻEl Galeon de Manilaʼ, Artes de Mexico 18 (1971):
19. On the galleon trade, see also Jose Maria Frances Mexico y Manila (Historia de Dos
Ciudades) (México D. F.: Secretaria de Educación Publica Departamento de Bibiote-
cas, 1964), 31–6; Rafael Bernal, México en Filipinas Estudio de una Transculturación
(México, D. F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1965), 75–86; John Hoyt
Williams, ʻTapping the Orient: Voyages of the Manila Galleonsʼ, Oceans 15 (1982): 44–9;
and Ostwald Sales Colín, El Moviemiento Portuario de Acapulco El Protagonismo de
Nueva España en la Relación con Filipinas, 1587–1648 (Mexico D.F.: Plaza y Valdes
Editas, 2000), 81–110. For a complete list of all Pacic sailings through Micronesia, see
GREG BANKOFF
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 85
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
Rodrigue Lévesque, ʻShips through Micronesiaʼ, in History of Micronesia (Gatineau,
Quebec: Lévesque Publications, 2002), 20: 377–646.
11 William Schurz, ʻThe Manila Galleon and Californiaʼ, Southwest Historical Quarterly
21, 2 (1917): 107–126; Cruz, La Nao de China, 101; and Rolando Garcia, Henry Díaz,
Ricatrdo García Herrera, Jon Eischeid, Maria del Rosario Prieto, Emiliano Hernández,
Luis Gimeno, Francisco Rubio Durán and Ana María Bascary, ʻAtmospheric Circulation
Changes in the Tropical Pacic Inferred from the Voyages of the Manila Galleons in the
Sixteenth–Eighteenth Centuriesʼ, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 82, 11
(2001): 2346. There was much discussion and even gubernatorial directions on occasion
to have the galleons take the much more direct route up the west coast of Luzon and
around Cape Bojeador with claims that ships could reach the 20oN parallel in two to three
days and so reduce the voyage to Mexico from ve or six to three months. Schurz, The
Manila Galleon, 183–184. Galleons are known to have returned to Manila in 1593, 1602,
1616–1617, 1663, 1672, 1682, 1687, 1795 and 1806. Cruz, La Nao de China, 136.
12 Spate, Monopolists and Freebooters, 114–8; Cruz, La Nao de China, 101; Schurz,
The Manila Galleon, 201. The Chamorro population of Guam, Saipan and Tinian (the
inhabited islands) declined from an estimated 80–100,000 in 1668 to 3,197 by the Census
of 1710 and had utterly disappeared by 1887. See also Andrés de Ledesma, Mission in
the Marianas: An Account of Father Diego Luis de Sanvítores and his Companions,
1669–1670. Trans. with commentary by W. Barrett (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1975); Francisco García, Sanvítores in the Marianas (Guam: Micronesian Area
Research Center, University of Guam, 1980); and Emilie Johnston, Father Sanvítores:
His Life, Times and Martyrdom (Guam: Micronesian Area Research Center, University
of Guam, 1993).
13 Cruz, La Nao de China, 110–115, 139; W. Michael Mathes, Vizcaíno and Spanish
Expansion in the Pacic Ocean, 1580–1630 (San Francisco: California Historical So-
ciety, 1968); Schurz, The Manila Galleon, 190, 198–200; and Spate, Monopolists and
Freebooters, 296–307. On Spanish settlement of Alta California and the Northwest, see
Irving Richman, California Under Spain and Mexico 1535–1847 (New York: Cooper
Square Publisher, 1965); John Kendrick, The Men With Wooden Feet: The Spanish Explo-
ration of the Pacic Northwest (Toronto: NC Press Limited, 1985); Warren Cook, Flood
Tide of Empire: Spain and the Pacic Northwest, 1543–1819 (New Haven and London:
Yale University Press, 1973); David Thomas, (ed.) Spanish Borderlands Sourcebooks:
Native American Perspectives on the Hispanic Colonization of Alta California (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1991); and George Phillips, Indians and Intruders in Central
California 1769–1849 (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1993), 32–64.
14 Rafael Gracia y Parejo, Considerations on the Rights of Spain over the Caroline
Islands (Madrid: Establecímiento Típographico de Gregorio Juste, 1885). On Spanish
colonialism in the Carolinas, see David Hanlon, Upon a Stone Altar: A History of the
Island of Pohnpei to 1890 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988); and Francis
Hezel, Strangers in Their Own Land: A Century of Colonial Rule in the Caroline and
Marshall Islands (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995).
15 Dorn, Oceanography and Seamanship, 74; Schurz, The Manila Galleon, 186–187;
Cruz, La Nao de China, 107. See also Alexander von Humboldt, Political Essay on
the Kingdom of New Spain (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1811),
volume 4.
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WINDS OF COLONISATION 87
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Environment and History 12.1
16 Spate, The Spanish Lake, 119–143. On the voyages of Mendaña and Quirós, see Wil-
liam Amherst and Basil Thomson, The Discovery of the Solomon Islands by Alvaro de
Mendaña in 1568 (London: Hakluyt Society, London, 1901); Celsus Kelly, La Australia
del Spiritu Santo: The Journal of Fray Martin de Munilla and Other Documents Relat-
ing to the Voyage of Pedro Fernández de Quirós to the South Sea 1605–1606 and the
Franciscan Missionary Plan 1617–1627 (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society at the [Cambridge]
University Press, 1966); and Clements Markham, The Voyages of Pedro Fernández
de Quirós, 1595 to 1606 (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1967). On Spanish
inuences on other parts of the Pacic, see Robert Langdonʼs controversial studies The
Lost Caravel (Sydney: Pacic Publications, 1975) and The Lost Caravel Re-Explored
(Canberra: Brogla Press, 1988).
17 Cruz, La Nao de China, 103, 125–6, 130, 138, 140; and Garcia et al., ʻAtmospheric
Circulation Changes in the Tropical Pacicʼ, 2448–50. A royal order decreed that gal-
leons should set sail before 1 July. The prevailing winds in the Philippines blow from
the east between mid December and March, north to south from April to May, south-
easterly June through August, north-easterly from late September to October, and from
the north and north-east from the end of October to the beginning of December. Cruz
enumerates the following deaths among crew sizes that ranged between 60 and 100 in
the rst galleons to upward of 400 on the largest: 80 in 1606, 99 in 1620, 105 in 1629,
114 in 1643 and 82 in 1752.
18 Garcia et al., ʻAtmospheric Circulation Changes in the Tropical Pacicʼ, 2440, 2442,
2447–8.
19 The remaining tropical cyclones come across the South China Sea. The western and
central areas of the archipelago are generally less exposed to the full force of typhoons
whose intensity tends to dissipate as they cross the central mountain ranges. Dorn,
Oceanography and Seamanship, 80–81; and Nicholas Brown, Leoncio Amadore and
Emmanuel Torrente, ʻPhilippine Country Studyʼ in Disaster Mitigation in Asia and the
Pacic (Manila: Asian Development Bank, 1991), 196. The PAR includes a rectangular
area of ocean with the Philippine Islands at the centre, Palau at the eastern edge, Taiwan
to the north and Sabah in the south.
20 Miguel Selga, ʻPrimer Catálogo de Baguios Filipinosʼ, Revista de la Sociedad As-
tronómica de España y América 19 (1928): 15, 19, 42, 63–4, 94–5, 110–11, 142–3, 20,
(1929): 14–15, 27–31, 44–7, 60–4, 73–9, 89–96, 141–4, (1930): 7–13, 25–32, 46–7. This
astonishing chronicle of typhoons in the archipelago commences with a Chinese account
of the one that struck the ship carrying the Buddhist sage Fa-hien on his return to China
off the West coast of Palawan in July 414 and of the similar fate that overtook the Moorish
traveller Ibn Batuta on a voyage between Amoy and Sumatra in July 1348. Miguel Selga,
ʻNotas Etimológicas Sobre el Tifón y el Baguioʼ, Revista de la Sociedad Astronómica de
España y América 16 (1926): 110. A detailed discussion of the historical sources on the
nomenclature of typhoons is given in Footnote 40 of Miguel Selga, ʻRelación Inédita del
P. Francisco Ignacio Alzina S.J. sobre los Baguios, Mareas y Terremotos de Filipinasʼ,
Revista de la Sociedad Astronómica de España y América 18 (1928): 43.
21 Vicente Manalo, Vic Leaño and Ernesto Verceles, ʻFrequency of Tropical Cyclones,
By Intensity, Crossing the Philippinesʼ, Ang Tagamasid 23, 2 (1995): 8. The catalogue
of typhoons is continued for the late nineteenth century in a publication on climate
complied by the Manila Observatory in 1899 and published as part of El Archipiélago
Filipino printed in Washington at the expense of the US government and later repro-
GREG BANKOFF
86
WINDS OF COLONISATION 87
Environment and History 12.1
Environment and History 12.1
duced in the First Report of the Philippine Commission to the President (Washington:
Government Printing Ofce, 1901): 4, 290–344. Additional material on southern Luzon
for the mid nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is provided by the local history of
Nabua in ʻList of Typhoonsʼ, Archive of the Manila Observatory, Box 9–35. Material
on the number of typhoons experienced during the rst two decades of the US colonial
period is contained in the Census of the Philippine Islands, 1918 (Manila: Bureau of
Printing, 1920): 1, 445–67.
22 Bernardo Soriano, ʻTropical Cyclone, Statistics in the Bicol Regionʼ, Ang Tagamasid
20, 4 (1992): 12; Selga, ʻPrimer Catálogo de Baguios Filipinosʼ; Miguel Selga, ʻEl
Baguio del Santo Cristo de Burgosʼ, Revista de la Sociedad Astronómica de España y
América 20, 134 (1930): 20, 44–5.
23 The shipʼs image was placed on the main altar and became an object of local venera-
tion to the islanders. The body of water encompassed by Burias Island, Sorsogon and
Ticao Island is known as the Ticao Pass. It is an area of strong currents and relatively
shallow seabed. Schurz, The Manila Galleon, 204–6, 208; and Selga, ʻEl Baguio del
Santo Cristo de Burgosʼ, 10. See also Garcia et al., ʻAtmospheric Circulation Changes
in the Tropical Pacicʼ, 2447–8.
24 ʻEl Tifón del Bergantín Francés Manuelitaʼ, Archive of the Manila Observatory, Box
10–36/6.
25 Miguel Selga, ʻLa Cronología Popular en la Designación de Temporales y Terremotosʼ,
Urania 28, 206 (1938): 65.
26 There is little difference in either the total number or the nature of tropical cyclones
between Central and Southern Luzon and the Visayas but Mindanao presents a very dif-
ferent prole, having fewer tropical cyclones and a higher percentage of milder events
than any other region. Census of the Philippine Islands, 1903 (Washington: United
States Bureau of the Census, 1905), 1, 158–60; Census of the Philippine Islands, 1918,
1, 447–52; Greg Bankoff, Cultures of Disaster Society and Natural Hazard in the
Philippines (London: Routledge Curzon, 2003), 45–6, 158–63, 179–180; and ʻList of
Typhoonsʼ. The Chronicle of Nabua was compiled from the municipal reports sent in
reply to a questionnaire of 1911. The chronicle lists typhoons in the following years:
1701, 1703, 1709, 1713, 1721, 1723, 1726, 1733, 1748, 1758, 1762, 1766, 1774, 1776,
1781 x 3, 1790, 1801 x 4, 1803, 1811, 1816, 1824, 1839 x 3, 1857, 1867, 1870, 1875 x
2, 1881, 1885, 1891 x 2, and 1892 x 2.
27 Miguel Selga, ʻEl baguio del 4 de Octubre de 1854 en Pangasinanʼ, Archive of the
Manila Observatory, Box 10–36/10; and ʻFloods in the Philippines 1691–1911ʼ. The
later list is anonymous and does not seem to have been composed by Miguel Selga but
makes frequent reference to his works and so presumably post-dates him.
28 ʻFloods in the Philippines 1691–1911ʼ, Archive of the Manila Observatory, Box
10–37.
29 ʻFloods in the Philippines 1691–1911ʼ. Severe ooding of the Rio Grande de Cagayan
also happened in October 1908, October 1909, October 1924 and December 1937. Half
of the 18 oods in Pangasinan were recorded in the chronicle of Calasiao. Floods oc-
curred in Nabua in 1691, 1697, 1733, 1748, 1758, 1767, 1775, 1783, 1786, 1787, 1790,
1793, 1798, 1800, 1817, 1840 and 1856; and in Pangasinan in 1768, 1774, 1776, 1777,
1779, 1785, 1790, 1794, 1797, 1806, 1820, 1821, 1825, 1831, 1857, 1865, 1871 and
GREG BANKOFF
88
Environment and History 12.1
1872. Part of the following account has previously appeared in Bankoff, Cultures of
Disaster, 48–51.
30 ʻList of Typhoonsʼ; and ʻFloods in the Philippines 1691–1911ʼ.
31 G. Balce, R. Villones and D. delos Angeles, ʻAn Overview of Flood Hazards in the
Philippinesʼ, in Natural Disaster Mitigation in the Philippines. Proceedings of Na-
tional Conference on Natural Disaster Mitigation 19–21 October 1994 (Quezon City:
DOST-PHIVOLCS, 1994), 19–30; ʻList of Typhoonsʼ; and ʻFloods in the Philippines
1691–1911ʼ.
32 ʻSobre La Periodicidad de Los Baguios de Guamʼ, Archive of the Manila Observatory,
Box 10–41. For a detailed record of the frequency and magnitude of typhoons during
the nineteenth century, see an abridged version of a register known to have been kept by
several Agaña parish priests in Fathers Ancieto Ibáñez del Carmen and Francisco Resano
del Corazón de Jesús, Chronicle of the Marian Islands (Crónica de las Islas Marianas)
Translated and annotated by M. Driver (Mangilao, Guam: Micronesian Area Research
Center, University of Guam, 1998).
33 ʻSobre La Periodicidad de Los Baguios de Guamʼ and Ibáñez del Carmen, Chronicle
of the Marian Islands, 8–10.
34 José Coronas, ʻThe Climate and Weather of the Philippines, 1903–1918ʼ, in Census of
the Philippine Islands, 1918 (Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1920), 1, 446; Documentation
on the Impacts of and Responses to Extreme Climate Events Food and Agricultural Sec-
tor (Quezon City: Extreme Climate Events Technical Working Group for Agriculture,
chaired by Dr Romeo Recide, Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, 2001): 9; ʻAlcalde-mayor
de Bulacan to Governor-general, Bulacan, 6 March 1872ʼ, Philippine National Archive,
Calamidades Publicas, Baguios y Huracanes, Bundle 2; and ʻFloods in the Philippines
1691–1911ʼ, 5.
35 Raymundus Blolong, ʻThe Ivatan Cultural Adaptation to Typhoons: A Portrait of a Self-
Reliant Community from the Indigenous Development Perspectiveʼ, Aghamato 8 (1996):
18–19, 21; Ibáñez del Carmen and Francisco Resano del Corazón de Jesús, Chronicle of
the Marian Islands, 9; and Florentino Hornedo, Taming the Wind: Ethno-cultural his-
tory on the Ivatan of the Batanes Isles (Manila: University of Santo Tomas Publishing
House, 2000); and Julian Balmaceda, ʻ“Turnuhan” as Practised in Various Provincesʼ,
Philippine Agricultural Review 20, 4 (1927): 386, 387, 401. On the different types and
construction techniques of indigenous house-building, see Julian Dacanay, Ethnic Houses
and Philippine Artistic Expression (Pasig, Metro Manila: One-man Show Studio, 1988);
Norma Alarcon, Philippine Architecture during the Pre-Spanish and Spanish Periods
(Manila: Santo Tomas University Press, 1991), 23–77; and Corazon Hila, Rodrigo Perez
and Julian Dacanay, Balai Vernacular Images of the Filipinoʼs Private Space (Manila:
Sentrong Pangkultura ng Pilipinas, Manila, 1992), 13–72.
36 Bankoff, Cultures of Disaster; Greg Bankoff, ʻCultures of Disaster, Cultures of Coping:
Hazard as a Frequent Life Experience in the Philippines, 1600–2000ʼ, in Natural Hazards
Responses and Strategies in Global Perspective, ed. C. Mauch and C. Pster (USA:
Rowman & Littleeld, forthcoming 2006). Susanna Hoffman and Anthony Oliver-Smith
refer to this human-environmental interaction in terms of ʻmutualityʼ. Susanna Hoffman
and Anthony Oliver-Smith, ʻAnthropology and the Angry Earth: An Overviewʼ, in The
Angry Earth: Disaster in Anthropological Perspectives, ed. A. Smith and S. Hoffman
(New York and London: Routledge, 1999), 6.
