In Francisco Goya’s painting Junta de Filipinas, sinister, shadowy figures preside over a stockholders’ meeting of the Royal Philippine Company. What was this Royal Philippine Company—and what was so important about it that Goya made a painting of one of its meetings? And more than that, what was Goya trying to say about this tumultuous period in Spanish and Philippine history?

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My voiceover partner-in-crime, Anya, is on leave this week, so I’ll be reading quotes from references and sources. When she’s able to record her lines, I’ll update the episode to include them.

Additional audio from the Ville de Castres YouTube page, and The Social Network, © 2010 Columbia Pictures.

References:

Legarda, Benito J. (1999). After the Galleons: Foreign Trade, Economic Change and Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth-Century Philippines. Ateneo de Manila Press.

Miranda-Chou, Teresita (1996). “Art as Political Subtext: A Philippine Centennial Perspective on Francisco Goya’s Junta de la Real Compañía de Filipinas.” Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society, 24, pp. 187-215.

Alford, Roberta M. (June 1960). “Francisco Goya and the Intentions of the Artist.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 18(4), pp. 482-493.

Ville de Castres (26 April 2022). “L'OEUVRE A LA LOUPE : La Junte des Philippines #1.” [Video] YouTube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdv9bs207cs

Prodger, Michael (26 September 2015). “From princes to paupers: how Goya’s portraits tell the story of Spain.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/sep/26/francisco-de-goya-portraits-national-gallery-london

Dalrymple, William (2019). The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company. Bloomsbury Publishing.

The sunken gunboats resurrected by the Americans were only a small part of the bloody war waged by the new occupiers against the Meranaw! (Listen to S6E8 before listening to this one.)

As Spain departed the Philippines, it abandoned four gunboats to a watery grave. For years, they slumbered at the bottom of Lake Lanao, their existence only a rumor back up on the surface. But when the Americans arrive in Marawi, they are determined to bring these ghost ships back to life.

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References:

Hitt, Parker (February 1938). “Amphibious Infantry—A Fleet on Lake Lanao.” US Naval Institute Proceedings, pp. 1-6.

Mastura, Datu Michael Ong (2023). The Rulers of Magindanao in Modern History, 1515–1903: Continuity and Change in a Traditional Realm in the Southern Philippines. Ateneo de Manila University Press.

Ibrahim, Noralia U. & Ali, Abubacar A. (January 2023). “A Short History of Lanao and the Origin and Arts of their Traditional Weaponry.” International Journal of Recent Advances in Multidisciplinary Topics, 4(1), pp. 73-81.

Mitiuckov, Nick (1996-2023). “Spanish 3rd Class Gunboats.” Spanish American War Centennial Website. https://www.spanamwar.com/span3rdclassgunboats.htm

Teideman, Jess. “The bends: anatomy of decompression sickness.” Australian Geographic.

Naga, Pipilawan O. (2011) “Lake Lanao: An Ancient Lake in Distress.” Shiga University Environmental Research Center Annual Research Report, 8(1), pp. 25-33.

Show highlights. Favorite episodes. Behind-the-scenes bits. Think of this as The Colonial Dept. Wrapped.

2024 has been an amazing year for the podcast. I released a book version of the podcast, I've grown to more than 2,000 subscribers, and I've heard from fans from as far away as Spain, Singapore, and France. Thanks for sharing in my love for Philippine history, and for embarking on this project with me. YOU are the ones who made this year great!

See you next year!

Even as the automobile and the tram change the face of commuting and transportation in Manila, the cocheros persist… and resist. (Listen to S6E7 before listening to this one.)

Soon after the American takeover of the Philippines, Manila witnesses the coming of its first-ever car—a three-and-a-half horsepower, single-cylinder, wire-wheel Richard-Brasier. From then on, it’s full speed ahead for the wide-scale adoption of the automobile in the capital city and beyond. Packards and Studebakers roar through newly constructed Manila streets, while Stanleys chug up the Benguet highlands to reach Baguio. But what does the coming of the automobile mean for the former kings of the colonial roads—the coachman, the carriage, and the horse?

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Additional audio from the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Back to the Future Part 2 © 1990 Universal Pictures.

References:

Spector, Robert M. (1966). “W. Cameron Forbes in the Philippines: A Study in Proconsular Power.” Journal of Southeast Asian History, 7(2), pp. 74-92

Carlova, John (February 1959). “The Stanleys and their Steamer.” American Heritage. https://www.americanheritage.com/stanleys-and-their-steamer

“Ex-St. Louisan Listed as Held by Japanese” (31 March 1942). St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The United States v. Otis G. Freeman. G.R. No. L-3779 (13 November 1907).

Cole-Jett, Robin (15 September 2023). “The Good Roads Movement.” Red River Historian. https://www.redriverhistorian.com/post/the-good-roads-movement

The American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands (July 1926). “Yesterday and Today in Manila’s Motor World.” The American Chamber of Commerce Journal.

Clymer, Floyd (1971). Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877-1925. Bonanza Books.

LaFontaine Automotive Classic Cars (3 May 2024). “The History of the Packard Car Company.”

Zaldarriaga, Joe (18 April 2024). “On track for positive change.” The Philippine Star.

Brigham, Albert Perry (1904). “Good Roads in the United States.” Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 36(12), pp. 721-735.

Gamble, Adrian (2017). “Manila's Long-Lost 'Tranvias' Once the Envy of Asia.” Skyrise Cities. https://skyrisecities.com/news/2017/03/manilas-long-lost-tranvias-once-envy-asia

Pante, Michael D. (2022). “The Calesa Vote: Street Politics and Local Governance in 1930s to 1940s Manila.” Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 37(2), pp. 201-229.

Pante, Michael D. (2012). “The "Cocheros" of American-occupied Manila Representations and Persistence.” Philippine Studies: Historical & Ethnographic Viewpoints, 60(4), pp. 429-462.

Pante, Michael D. (2016). “Urban Mobility and a Healthy City Intertwined Transport and Public Health Policies in American-Colonial Manila.” Philippine Studies: Historical & Ethnographic Viewpoints, 64(1), pp. 73-101.

Mohacek, Bozi (2003). Stanley Steamers and Yorkshire Steam Wagons in 1908 Philippines, Part 2. Surrey Vintage Vehicle Society. https://www.svvs.org/philippines2.shtml

Poco, Leandro Nicholas Ranoa (2019). Enclave Sub/Urbanism: A Historical and Configurational Assessment of Metro Manila’s Centres of Exclusion and Their Surrounding Spatial Fabric [masteral dissertation]. Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.

Dacudao, Patricia Irene (2023). Abaca Frontier: The Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformation of Davao, 1898-1941. Ateneo de Manila University Press.

In a time when both God and gold define the tense relations between Japan and Manila, the galleon San Felipe gets stranded in the land of the rising sun. There, the fate of its passengers now lies in the hands of the most powerful warlord in Japan: Toyotomi Hideyoshi!

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Image: Mural from Cuernavaca, Mexico, published in the Academy of Christian Art.

Additional audio from Shogun, © FX.

References:

Kamen, Henry (2004). Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492-1763. Harper Perennial.

Conover, Cornelius (2011). “Saintly Biography and the Cult of San Felipe de Jesús in Mexico City, 1597-1697.” The Americas, 67(4), pp. 441-466.

O’Hara, Luke (5 February 2022). “The Galleon, the Tyrant and the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki.” National Catholic Register.

Boscaro, Adriana (December 1973). “Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the 1587 Edicts Against Christianity.” Oriens Extremus, 20(2), pp. 219-241.

“The Edicts of Toyotomi Hideyoshi: Excerpts from ‘Limitation on the Propagation of Christianity’, 1587; Excerpts from ‘Expulsion of the Missionaries,’ 1587.” Asia for Educations, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. https://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/japan/tokugawa_edicts_christianity.pdf