One of the leaders in the occupation of the Philippines was Miguel López de Legazpi (Miguel Lopez de Legazpi colonized the Philippines)
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi was born in 1510 in Zumarraga, Spain. But he died not in Spain but in Manila on August 20, 1572.
The Spanish or Spanish explorers who established the Spanish community in the Philippines became dominant in the conquered country and lasted until the Spanish - American War in 1898.
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi used to go to New Spain or Mexico today when he was called in 1545 and spent time as a clerk in his local government. He went on to discover that Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Philippine archipelago during his circumnavigation in 1521. New Spain viceroy Luis de Velasco sent Miguel Lopez de Legazpi to the archipelago to establish a colony in the Philippines in 1564.
(Miguel Lopez de Legazpi expedition & achievements)
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi left Acapulco with five ships and this voyage reached Cebu where he first established the Spanish community. Cebu was one of the southern islands of the archipelago and in April 1565, Spain's demand that the establishment of the first Spanish in Cebu City be followed by the establishment of a Spanish community in Manila. In 1570 Miguel Lopez de Legazpi sent an expedition to the northern island of Luzon. After destroying a local Muslim leader in 1571, he established a second Spanish community in the city of Manila. Capital became the capital of the new Spanish colony and became the main trading center of Spain's trade in East Asia.
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi could easily overthrow the ill-organized and unorganized resistance of the Filipinos. Muslims on the south of the island also fought in Spain until the 19th century but Islām was weak in Central Luzon and even in the north. So Legazpi, along with his men and one of them, Andrés de Urdaneta, laid the foundation for the Tagalog to flourish and to be baptized in its own religion, Christianity. And to this day, it is still proof of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi's legacy.
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi served and presided as the first governor of the Philippines from 1565 to 1572, the year of his death.