MANILA, Philippines - From 1565 to 1815, a period of 250 years, the Manila galleons carried out a continuous commercial enterprise between the Philippines and Mexico, a link between the two countries bordering the Pacific Ocean that became so close that it gave rise to the claim that the Philippines was really a former colony of Mexico and not of Spain.
In many ways this belief has a strong basis. It is true that Ferdinand Magellan and Loaysa sailed to the Pacific Ocean via the strait at the southernmost tip of South American from Spain.
But starting with Alvaro de Saavedra in 1527, the ships that sailed for the archipelago were constructed in and started their journey from Mexicco.
Ruy Lopez de Villalobos sailed aboard six vessels made in Jalisco in l542. His destination was vaguely described as the Western Islands, which were ultimately named Filipinas for King Philip II, the reigning monarch of Spain.
All three expeditions - that of Loaysa, Saavedra, and Villalobos - dissolved into a mélange of hardships, mutinies and Portuguese attacks in the East Indies in the Moluccas islands.
Their biggest problem - that of finding the route that would take them back across the Pacific Ocean - remained to be solved by the expedition of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi.
Spanish interest in the Western Pacific was unabated, so that Philip II, in l559, ordered the second viceroy of Mexico, Luis de Velasco, to arrange for the occupation of the Philippines.
In November, 1564, a fleet of five vessels with well over 400 men aboard sailed under the command of Legaspi, a Basque who had been living in Mexico and made a fortune there for 20 years.
To ensure the success of the expedition, the royal authorities had plucked from an Agustinian monastery, where he had taken holy orders, the aging Andres de Urdaneta to act as chief navigator for the undertaking.
Nearly a quarter century earlier, Urdaneta had sailed with Loaysa to the Moluccas, and so possessed vital navigational knowledge about the waters surrounding the East Indies.
Legaspi was confident that he had solved the problem of the tornavuelta - the return route to Mexico.
