Philippine E-Journals

The Rise and Fall of Samar Pueblos (1768-1911)

Rolando O. Borrinaga

 

Abstract:

This paper attempts to identify and analyze the social, economic, and political factors that contributed to the gradual rise in the number of pueblo-parishes in Samar from 1768 toward the end of the Spanish colonial era in 1898, the abrupt fall in their number during the early American period, and their rise afterwards. The paper adapts the framework used for an earlier study titled “The Rise and Fall of Leyte Pueblos (1768-1914)” and avails of essentially the same set of census data, references and sources for that study. The developments in Samar will be compared and contrasted with parallel developments in Leyte in the effort to extract historical insights about events that occurred in the two main islands of Eastern Visayas during the period under review.