author
Antonio de Morga
1559–1636
A Spanish colonial official, lawyer, and historian, he is best remembered for writing one of the most important early accounts of the Philippines under Spanish rule. His work remains a key source for readers interested in the politics, culture, and conflicts of the late 1500s and early 1600s.
1 Audiobook
History of the Philippine Islands
by Antonio de Morga
About the author
Born in Seville in 1559, Antonio de Morga built a long career in the Spanish Empire as a lawyer, soldier, and senior colonial administrator. He served in the Philippines from the 1590s into the early 1600s, later holding high office in New Spain and Peru.
He is most often remembered today for Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, published in 1609. Drawing on official experience and eyewitness knowledge, the book became one of the most valuable early histories of the Philippines in the first decades of Spanish rule.
Morga died in 1636 near Quito. For modern readers, his writing is especially notable not just as colonial record-keeping, but as a window into the people, institutions, trade, and struggles of the early modern Pacific world.