Philippine Missions Expand

1592

Spanish Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians, based in Manila, extended their missions into Luzon's mountain interior and the central Visayas. Native settlements were reorganized into reduccion villages around mission churches. Catholic Christianity was sinking deep roots into the archipelago that would define the Philippines' cultural identity. The reduccion system reorganized settlement patterns and created the barrio-based structure characterizing the Philippines today.