Miguel López de Legazpi, the Spanish conqueror of the Philippines, founded Manila as a fortified colony in 1571, after defeating the forces of the Muslim ruler Rajah Soliman. In 1601 a seminary for nobles, the first educational institution in the country, was established at Manila by the Jesuits. From the 16th to early 19th centuries, Manila played an important role in trade as a stopover port for the Manila galleons, huge trading ships that profited greatly from trade between China and Mexico. During this time, Chinese merchants settled in Manila and became middlemen for other trade from China. By the 1590s the Chinese had become an economically important community. Many Chinese, aware of the political and social advantages enjoyed by the Roman Catholics in the colony, converted to Catholicism and married Filipino women. Many of their mixed-blood descendants became important in Manila. The city remained under continuous Spanish colonial rule for about 350 years, except for a brief period during the Seven Years' War when Britain held the city from 1762 to 1764.
Discontent with Spanish rule among urban Filipinos and some of the Filipino clergy became especially significant in Manila during the latter half of the 19th century. Nationalist sentiment erupted in 1872 when three Filipino priests, who had been charged with leading a military mutiny at an arsenal near Manila, were executed by the Spaniards.
