Miguel Lopez de Legazpi

Forty-four years later, a Spanish expedition led by Miguel López de Legazpi left modern Mexico and began the Spanish conquest of the Philippines. Legazpi's expedition arrived in the Philippines in 1565, during the reign of Philip II of Spain, whose name has remained attached to the country.

Miguel López de LegazpI
(12 June 1502 – 20 August 1572)

also known as El Adelantado and El Viejo (The Elder), was a Spaniard who, from the age of 26, lived and built a career in Mexico (then the Viceroyalty of New Spain) and, in his 60s, financed and led a colonizing expedition from Mexico to the Philippine islands.[2] He was joined by his Mexican grandsons, Juan de Salcedo and his brother Felipe, on the expedition.When Legaszpi's expedition crossed the Pacific Ocean from New Spain, arriving in Cebu in the current Philippine Islands in 1565, he established


the first Spanish settlement in the East Indies. He was the first Governor-General of the Spanish East Indies, which were administered for the Spanish crown from Mexico City. It also included other Pacific islands, including Guam and the Marianas.