This all started when I watched the La Naval de Manila history videos. (I wrote a bit about it in another post. Somehow I just can't get it out of my mind. Haha.
It caused me to check more info on why the Philippines (PH) got dragged into European wars. And it brought me to one of my pet peeves: colonial mentality. 😆 But hey read on to learn the historical "secrets" most people don't want you to know about.
16th Century Europe: Netherlands is at the South of the North Sea and Spain is at the South of Bay of Biscay. Courtesy of Florida Center for Instructional Technology. source
Brief History of Spain (+ PH) vs. Netherlands & War of Religions
TL;DR Netherlands fought to free itself from Spain (and Catholicism) for 80 years until the mid-17th century. Then it went about the world being a colonizer itself. The PH being under Spanish rule (16th to 19th century) at the time was of course a nice little target for them. Actually as early as the late 16th century the Dutch were already harassing the Spanish colonizers in the country.
Spanish and Philippine history states the Netherlands (and Protestantism) failed to take over our country. This victory is attributed to Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary - La Naval de Manila (Navy of Manila). The Dutch lost all battles in the PH seas in 1646 despite having many large and small ships.
Dutch history states they were there just to block trade routes or do business and profit (cough piracy cough) from it instead of invading. Well the Netherland's navy successfully established colonies in neighboring Indonesia and Taiwan so you can decide who's telling the truth. 😂
Religion and Colonial Mentality
On the other hand, because history and religion go hand in hand, I found a mention of the PH in a Wiki article. It supposes that Christian right mentality in the US may have roots in the PH. I mean, that's just too far out imho. That thought eventually made me check who the noted source is. (My initial thoughts: America already had its own Christian denominations way before tribal Filipinos were even brought in that country {via human zoo in the early 20th century}.
I found a book by a Filipino-American (Fil-Am) author (the Wiki article source) and then voila! more on colonial mentality. Unfortunately page 42 (the source) is not available to read for free but here's a nice little definition for you according to the author and his sources.
The book that talks about Filipino / Fil-Am mindset. P. 96, source
For those who don't know, Spain colonized us (PH) for 377 years. (Side note: And then they sold us to the USA in 1898.) Definitely stamped out pagan practices or at least most of it. That's a good thing because otherwise majority would still be pagan and ignorant devil-worshippers. Although in truth, what happened was basically syncretism. (More info in Part 2 of this post!)
Then again, the American colonizers eventually brought Protestantism along with treating us as their "little brown brothers". That's glossing over the fact of maltreatment or murdering so many Filipinos who were fighting against them.
The truth about the Philippine-American War has mostly been buried by Western news and such. Like, who cares about what really happened except few curious ones or the "small number" of surviving victims?
Not everyone wants to read the truth and the dirty details. For example, instead of calling the Balangiga Massacre as the Filipinos winning against foreign invaders, it is still being called a massacre of American soldiers during the war. Also are you aware that Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie and even Leo Tolstoy were against the American occupation of the Philippines?
Well anyway, going back, I found a nice little article that talks about how the Netherlands is now dealing with it's past.
Based on the above article screenshot, we can assume The Netherlands didn't want the world to know how it lost to Spain in the Philippines. (Battle of La Naval de Manila) Meanwhile the US does not include PH-US war and their atrocities in our country in their own school history lessons.
Here in the PH the latter is still "covered up" just like what the Dutch did to Indonesia. Most of the time only the Spanish and the Japanese invaders are "demonized" while the Americans appear to be the "saviors". 😂 Go figure Filipino colonial mentality. 😉
Anyway Germany apparently has vergangenheitsbewältigung : "overcoming the past" or Colliers defines it as the "process of coming to terms with the past". I think Japan has a similar thing (+ humility).
The Japanese are eternally sorry for the wrong they did to the Philippines and other countries during World War 2. Thus they have become friendly and helpful in contributing to the progress of nations like ours. This is one of the amazing things about Japanese culture. Which other country do you know has done something similar?
Despite not being a Catholic nation, Japan seems to be one of the humblest nations out there. For sure God is happy with that trait of theirs. Anyway let me go back to my topic...
What Do You Mean Decolonization?
Do you think of such things? Do most citizens of formerly colonized countries think about what this word means? Fortunately Indonesians had a greater sense of nationalism so they didn't have a problem calling out corrections in their history. But what about the people of Spain, Portugal, Britain or even Israel, did they have any colonial mindset after Roman rule? Makes me wonder why they don't seem to have such thoughts. 🤔 Maybe one needs to be a conqueror too in order to get rid of it huh?
Here's the thing though... For me decolonizing does not mean returning to the old ways like shamanism, polytheism, etc. It does not mean embracing the occult practices of our ancestors, no no no. That's the wrong thing to think about. (I'll write about this in the Part 2 of this post.)
Decolonizing simply means getting rid of the mindset of not being good enough or not on par with our colonizers. We're all human beings and are equals. Let's not look down on ourselves anymore. For Filipinos, this means being born with brown skin is something to proud of! Being short, having curly hair or not having sharp-tipped noses is not bad at all! We're friendly and social, intelligent and can even create innovations too!
No nation is above another anymore. Remember, Jesus said we should love God above all things and love our neighbors as ourselves. This does not mean we should let wrongdoings or sinful ways go rampant. (Okay imma write more in Part 2. This is getting overly long again.)
Unfortunately, the only time people think of decolonization is when they are part of the minority within a country. When you're different than the rest you experience being alienated in your own nation. Why? You're not treated the same way as the general public, thus you see things clearer than most.
The next and easier route would be when one immigrates or works/lives abroad. Once you are an expat, you will experience culture shock. You will see the kind of mindset living in your country produced as opposed to where you live now. This can be good or bad depending on how the person takes it.
In our country there's a need to decolonize simply because we aren't growing the right way. How can a developing nation grow when it constantly self-sabotages despite it's altruistic nature? This situation is getting pathetic, really. And even now, we're still in the middle of big countries dragging us in their "wars". (cough US and China cough) Come on.
But all these things don't really matter if we look at the big picture. Let's look through heaven's eyes, as one of The Prince of Egypt's soundtrack says.
The answer will come to him who tries
To look at his life through heaven's eyes
Still these things are worth knowing. What do you think?
XOXO,
