USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -They wanted to gain monopoly over the spice trade as this trade was very valuable to the Europeans due to high demand for various spices such as pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. This demand led to the arrival of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and later French and British marine spice traders.

Detailed explanation-2: -Spain had three objectives in its policy toward the Philippines, its only colony in Asia: to acquire a share in the spice trade, to develop contacts with China and Japan in order to further Christian missionary efforts there, and to convert the Filipinos to Christianity.

Detailed explanation-3: -The first would be to convert natives to Christianity. The second would be to pacify the areas for colonial purposes. A third objective was to acculturate the natives to Spanish cultural norms so that they could move from mission status to parish status as full members of the congregation.

Detailed explanation-4: -One of Spain’s objectives in colonizing the Philippines was the conversion of Filipinos to Catholicism. The work of conversion was facilitated by the absence of other organized religions, except for Islam, which predominated in the south.

Detailed explanation-5: -The spices produced by these islands (Moluccas, Ceylon and others), notably cloves, nutmeg, pepper and cinnamon, were highly prized in Europe. It was one of the big disappointments suffered by the Spanish conquistadors that the Philippines did not pro? duce the first three of the spices mentioned.