“This land is not for underdogs”: the Jesuits’ involvement in the conquest and colonization of Mindanao and Sulu (17th century)”

Abstract

In this essay I aim to analyze the contribution of the Jesuits from Manila tothe conquest and colonization of Mindanao throughout the 17th century. It was notexclusively a diplomatic and evangelizing contribution, but a political and military one.First, I will examine the Jesuits’ stand about the “just war” against the Muslim “pirates”– best known as “moros” – of the southern Philippines, where the Muslims had set upa spearhead that allowed them to besiege the Spanish domains in the archipelagos ofthe Visayas. Secondly, I will rethink the islands of Mindanao and Sulu as the southernborderline of the Philippines after the definitive loss of the options of conquest of theMoluccas. As a postscript, I will sustain that the outlying missions of the Society of Jesusin the East Indies (the Moluccas, Philippines, Mariana Islands, Carolines) cannot beunderstood independently from each other, but rather in a global context.