Carte des Isles Philippines

Title

Carte des Isles Philippines

Description

Map shows the southern part of the Philippines.

dated 1752

Artist

Bellin (1703-1772)

Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703 Paris -1772 Versailles) was a French cartographer, engineer-geographer, marine hydrographer. As a contributor to the Encyclopédie, he wrote more than a thousand articles on maritime topics. As a cartographer, Bellin distinguished himself primarily in the field of sea cartography. From 1721 he worked for the Dépot des Cartes et Plans de la Marine, from 1741 until his death as an engineer-hydrograph of the Navy. In 1753 his atlas Neptune français, which covered all the coasts of France, was published, and in 1756 the hydrography françoise covering all seas of the earth. In 1764 the five-volume Petit Atlas maritime was published, which Bellin prepared on the orders of the Minister of the Navy, Choiseul. In addition, he wrote a number of geographical works and with Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre la geographie (1769) a geographic textbook for teaching. His maps illustrated, among other things, Bougainville's work Voyage autour du monde, published in 1771. As a co-author of the Encyclopédie edited by Diderot and d'Alembert, Bellin wrote more than a thousand articles in the field of shipping and navy.

Historical Description

From the 7th to the 13th centuries, the thalassocracies of Srivijaya and later Majapahit influenced parts of the Philippines. The smallest unit to be managed in a settlement was the Barangay, originally a related group that was headed by a Datu. However, the social structure of the Philippines varied from region to region. The box-like system of the Tagalog knew the aristocratic Maginoo, from which Datus, Rajas and Lakans were recruited. When the Spaniards claimed the Philippines as their colony in 1565 and thus incorporated it into New Spain, Islam was not yet deeply rooted, so it was not difficult for them to convert the Muslim population to Christianity. In addition, the Christianization of the Philippines was largely carried out peacefully, among other things, animistic practices were largely tolerated, some of which have survived to this day. Buddhism, which was probably the predominant religion in the Philippines alongside Islam in the 16th century, soon became practiced only by the Chinese minority. Given their defeat against the Spaniards in 1571, the Rajahs of Manila, Rajah Sulayman, Rajah Lakandula and Rajah Matanda converted to Catholicism. For this they were allowed to keep some privileges and were integrated into the colonial system of rule. Through the extensive integration of the native chiefs into the colonial system of rule, the social strata of the principalía came into being, which, as intermediaries and beneficiaries of the colonial system, consolidated it over centuries.