Q 01/05

Which explorer's expedition made the first documented European arrival, sighting Samar in March 1521?

A) Ferdinand Magellan

B) Vasco da Gama

C) Francis Drake

D) Juan Sebastián Elcano

Answer · why

A) Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan. He never finished the voyage: six weeks later he was killed in a fight on Mactan, and Elcano brought the last ship home to Spain.

Q 02/05

Which datu of Mactan defeated the Spanish expedition on the beach in April 1521?

A) Rajah Humabon

B) Lapulapu

C) Rajah Sulayman

D) Datu Zula

Answer · why

B) Lapulapu

Lapulapu. He refused to bow to Spain or to its new ally, Rajah Humabon of Cebu, so the expedition's captain landed on Mactan to force him and was kill...

Q 03/05

Who led the 1565 expedition that founded the first permanent Spanish settlement, in Cebu?

A) Guido de Lavezaris

B) Juan de Salcedo

C) Miguel López de Legazpi

D) Martín de Goiti

Answer · why

C) Miguel López de Legazpi

Miguel López de Legazpi. He held Cebu through a Portuguese blockade in 1568, then moved north and founded Manila as the colony's capital in 1571.

Q 04/05

Whose 1543 expedition gave Leyte and Samar the name 'Las Islas Filipinas', honoring a Spanish prince?

A) Álvaro de Saavedra

B) Hernán Cortés

C) García Jofre de Loaísa

D) Ruy López de Villalobos

Answer · why

D) Ruy López de Villalobos

Ruy López de Villalobos. Some accounts credit one of his captains with coining the name, and the voyage itself ended in disaster.

Q 05/05

When Spanish forces took Maynila in 1571, its rulers followed which religion?

A) Islam

B) Hinduism

C) Buddhism

D) Taoism

Answer · why

A) Islam

Islam. Maynila was a walled Muslim settlement whose ruler taxed trade on the Pasig River; the Spanish destroyed it and raised the fortress city of Int...