Alaska's Philippines Connections
We have Much in Common to Share
[1] Bering Strait Land Bridge Migration Theory
Live Links in References
November 9, 2025 update from May 18, 2023—To understand what Alaska has in common with Philippines one must look back in history, before the 18th Century to what is now the State of Alaska (665,400 mi²). This vast area was inhabited by Natives believed to have crossed the Arctic/Polar Zone land bridge from Russia and adapted to Polar-Subpolar-Temperate climates to build distinct cultures and a unique civilization. The more than 7,000 Philippines island (115,831 mi²) archipelago was originally inhabited by other Asian Native people who were quite comfortable in their Tropical Climate Zone abundance.
First documented European contact with Philippines was made in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan in his circumnavigation expedition, during which he was killed in the Battle of Mactan.
10 Days in Cebu
LapuLapu Killed Magellan
The Datu Lapu-Lapu Shrine, also known as the Mactan Shrine, is a memorial park in Lapu-Lapu City, Philippines, dedicated to the native leader who defeated Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his Spanish soldiers in the Battle of Mactan in 1521. The shrine features a bronze statue of Lapu-Lapu and a monument commemorating the Battle.
[2] 10 Days in Cebu; Historic Fountainhead of Philippines, DONN LISTON, June 30, 2025
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Forty-four years later, a Spanish expedition led by Miguel López de Legazpi left modern Mexico and began the Spanish conquest of Philippines. Legazpi's expedition arrived in the Philippines in 1565, during the reign of Philip II of Spain, whose name has remained attached to the country.
[3] Early Mapping of Southeast Asia, Suaraz, Thomas, 1999.
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Alaska’s Spanish Heritage
Spanish claims to the Alaska region dated to the Papal Bull of 1493, but never involved colonization, forts, or settlements. Instead, Madrid sent out various naval expeditions to explore the area and to claim it for Spain. In 1775 Bruno de Hezeta led an expedition; the Sonora, under Bodega y Quadra, ultimately reached latitude 58° north, entered Sitka Sound and formally claimed the region for Spain. The 1779 expedition of Ignacio de Arteaga and Bodega y Quadra reached Port Etches on Hinchinbrook Island, and entered Prince William Sound. They reached a latitude of 61° north, the most northern point attained by Spain.
Russian expeditions of exploration reached Alaska by the early 18th century, and colonial traders (especially fur-traders) followed. On some islands and parts of the Alaskan peninsula, groups of Russian traders proved capable of relatively peaceful coexistence with the local inhabitants. Other groups could not manage the tensions and perpetrated exactions. Hostages were taken, individuals were enslaved, families were split up, and other individuals were forced to leave their villages and settle elsewhere. In addition, during the first two generations of Russian contact, eighty percent of the Aleut population died of Old World diseases, against which they had no immunity.
[4] The Aleut Corporation. Aleut History.
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Life for Indigenous Peoples Occupied by Invaders
Before the Spaniards came to Philippines, aboriginal people enjoyed the fruits of the lands. They tilled the lands and lived in abundance since the lands were fertile and every plant could grow. Food was sufficient and no native went hungry.
Sounds almost Biblical, doesn’t it?
Everything changed with coming of the Spaniards. They divided the archipelago into the encomienda, an economic system which resulted in exploitation of the Natives. Over some 333 years of occupation, the Spaniards awarded lands they usurped as royal grants to the colonial officials and Catholic religious orders in exchange for their conquest of the Natives. The encomendero extended the scope of their royal grants by usurping ownership of the lands previously developed by the people. More lands were turned into agricultural lands and feudal exploitation of the natives became worse.
[5] Understanding Philippine History; Readings and Discourse
The Alaska Experience was Similar--with Russian conquests.
In 1784 Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov arrived in Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island, operating the fur-trading Shelikhov-Golikov Company. Shelikhov and his group killed hundreds of indigenous Alaskan Koniag, then founded the first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska – on the island's Three Saints Bay. By 1788 Shelikhov and others had established a number of Russian settlements over a large region, including the mainland areas around Cook Inlet.
Numerous Russian Orthodox Churches around Alaska have unique steeples. This one is located on the Kenai Peninsula of Southcentral Alaska.
[6] A History of the Russian-American Company
Live Links in References.
Russian fur-traders informally introduced the Russian Orthodox Church (with its rituals and sacred texts translated into Aleut at a very early stage) in the 1740s–1780s. During his settlement of Three Saints Bay in 1784, Shelikov introduced the first resident missionaries and clergymen.
The United States of America was founded in 1776 by mostly Anglos from Europe. Manifest Destiny would ultimately conquer Native "Indian" frontier inhabitants to conclude its Westward Expansion in Alaska and Hawaii. Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867.
“Manifest Destiny” was used to justify the U.S. acquisition of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War, framed as a “civilizing mission” to bring democracy and Christianity to the islands, though strategic and economic interests were also key drivers. This ideology was an extension of the earlier concept of American westward expansion and was used to support overseas imperialism, with President William McKinley declaring it America’s duty to “uplift” the Filipino people
[7] Manifest Destiny, Encyclopedia Britannica
Today the largest city in Alaska, Anchorage is located on Cook Inlet, which was founded by English Explorer Captain James Cook. He was killed in Hawaii by Hawaiian Natives February 14, 1779 at age 50.
Death of Captain James Cook.
By Johann Zoffany - nmm.ac.uk, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11348403
In 1788 Esteban José Martínez and Gonzalo López de Haro visited Russian settlements at Unalaska Island in the Aleutian Chain.
As the Russians forced Native Alaskans to hunt primarily fur seals and sea otter, by contrast, the Spaniards in Philippines instituted feudalism on a wide scale through the encomienda system and compulsory cultivation of certain crops for export during the latter part of the 18th century.
Feudalism as a mode of production required control of the peasants and the land. This relationship was one of oppression by landlords and exploitation of the peasantry, in which vast areas of cultivable land were owned by a few landlords who themselves did not till the land but compelled a large number of tenants to do the tilling.
[8] ibid, Understanding Philippine History; Readings and Discourse
Thus, 1565 to 1898 is called the Spanish Era. During the period the Philippine Islands were ruled as the Captaincy General of the Philippines within the Spanish East Indies, initially under the Kingdom of the Vice-royalty of New Spain, based in Mexico City. Independence of the Mexican Empire from Spain in 1821 resulted in Spanish control during a period of governmental instability there. The Philippines was under direct royal governance 77 years, from 1821 to 1898.
In the later years of the 18th century, Governor-General José Basco introduced economic reforms that gave the colony its first significant internal source income from the production of tobacco and other agricultural exports.
[9] Spanish Rule of Philippines
Philippine People Struggled under Spanish Imperialism
While Alaskans suffered benign neglect as a western strategic enclave of the USA, Native Filipinos were subjected to servitude from Spain through its cruel encomenderos system enriching friars in the Catholic Church. Feudalism meant most wealth gravitated to Spain.
This situation was similar for Alaska dependence upon the USA but we were poor and development expensive in this climate zone. With a very small population and a dozen or more tribes of indigenous people over this vast area, the only economic hope for Alaska was development of vast natural resources including furs, fish, gold, timber and other minerals including oil. First the Fur Rush, then the Gold Rush, and most recently the Oil Rush have fueled Alaska’s boom-and-bust economy with a mostly transient population beyond the indigenous people of Asian descent.
[10] *Why Alaskans Wanted Statehood
An ongoing debate in Philippines, and at times open conflict, during the Spanish colonial period, was between the religious orders and the civil administration. Underlying the debate was the question of who was truly soverign in the archipelago, the Vatican or Madrid? It as clear from the Patronato Real* that the Spanish monarch held soverign sway over all matters pertaining to the conditions in the colony, be these in the secular or the spiritual realm, including oversight of the appointment of religious personnel to the distant colony. On the ground, however, it was a far different story as to who held actual power, at least as far as the local populace was concerned.
Instructional note: The Spaniards came to the Philippines for conquest and the propagation of the Catholic Church. The basic concept of the propagation of the Catholic Church was the Patronato Real or Royal Patronage. It was an agreement between the King of Spain and the Pope of Rome.
[11] A History of the Philippines.
Philippines Becomes US Spoils of Spanish-American War
Encyclopedia Britannica:
The so-called New Manifest Destiny was a way of clothing imperial ambitions in a higher purpose ostensibly decreed by Providence. The Spanish-American War of 1898 arose from popular outrage over Madrid’s reportedly barbarous colonial policies in Cuba and, more immediately, in response to destruction of the U.S. Battleship Maine, but it ended with the United States acquiring remnants of Spain’s dwindling global empire, including Philippines.
[12] Destruction of Battleship Maine in Havana Harbor, February 15,1898
The Spanish-American War began in 1899, officially ending a mere four months later in 1902. The Filipino people were not keen on having a new master established by the Treaty of Paris, thus causing the 1899 Philippine-American War. In fact, the Philippine-American war continued for a decade and far surpassed the Spanish-American War in ferocity, cost and duration, but history is written by the victorious and the USA remains today in denial about getting whipped by the Filipino military after the minimal skirmish with Spain.
During this time Alaska was being overrun by people from all over the world seeking gold.
References:
[1] Bering Strait Land Bridge Theory
https://healthresearchfunding.org/bering-strait-land-bridge-theory-explained/
[2] 10 Days in Cebu; Historic Fountainhead of Philippines, DONN LISTON, June 30, 2025
https://donnliston907.substack.com/p/10-days-in-cebu
[3] Suaraz, Thomas (1999). Early Mapping of Southeast Asia: The Epic Story of Seafarers, Adventurers, and Cartographers Who First Mapped the Regions Between China and India. Periplus Editions (HK) Limited. p. 138. ISBN 9789625934709.
[4]The Aleut Corporation. Aleut History.
"The Aleut Corporation Aleut History". 2 November 2007. Archived from the original on 2 November 2007. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
[5]CH 4 Social, Political, Economic and Cultural issues, P 76.
Understanding Philippine History; Readings and Discourse, Amaliia C Rosales, et al., Lorimar Publishing, In. 10-B Boston St., Bgy Kaunlaran, Cubao, Quezon City, Metro Manila, 2020.
[6] Tikhmenev, P. A. A History of the Russia-American Company. ed. Richard A. Pierce and Alton S. Donnelly. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 1978, p. 12.
[7] Manifest Destiny, Encyclopedia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/event/Manifest-Destiny
Before the American Civil War (1861–65), the idea of Manifest Destiny was used to validate continental acquisitions in the Oregon Country, Texas, New Mexico, and California. The purchase of Alaska after the Civil War briefly revived the concept of Manifest Destiny, but it most evidently became a renewed force in U.S. foreign policy in the 1890s, when the country went to war with Spain, annexed Hawaii, and laid plans for an isthmian canal across Central America.
Historical Development of Feudalism in the Philippines
[8]Oxford Dictionary: Feudalism
The dominant social system in medieval Europe, in which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the peasants (villeins or serfs) were obliged to live on their lord's land and give him homage, labor, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection.
[9] Spanish Rule of Philippines
Hedman, Eva-Lotta E.; Sidel, John T. (2000). Philippine Politics and Society in the Twentieth Century: Colonial Legacies, Post-Colonial Trajectories. Routledge. pp. 6-7. ISBN 9780415147903.
[10] What Canadian Statehood COULD Mean, DONN LISTON *date
https://donnliston907.substack.com/p/what-ca-statehood-could-mean
United States Senator Ernest Gruening characterized Alaskan history before statehood as being one of neglect by the federal government. He labels the period of 1867 to 1884 as “The era of Total Neglect”; 1884 to 1898 as “The Era of Flagrant Neglect”, 1988 to 1912 “The Era of Mild but Unenlightened Interest”; and finally the period from 1912 to 1933 as “The Era of Indifference and unconcern.”2
[11] A History of the Philippines; from Indios Bravos to Filipinos, Luis H. Francia, The Overlook Press, New York, 2010. P 69 Destruction of Battleship Maine in Havana Harbor, February 15,1898
[12] Destruction of Battleship Maine in Havana Harbor, February 15,1898
https://www.britannica.com/event/destruction-of-the-Maine
