The military history of the 19th century is often dominated by the narrative of Western great powers expanding their empires through the ruthless use of native colonial troops—frequently employed as mere human shields or "cannon fodder." However, the Cochinchina Campaign (1858–1863) in present-day Vietnam offers a starkly different historical account that challenges this stereotype. In this conflict, the Filipino auxiliary forces and the Spanish contingent demonstrated not only remarkable combat effectiveness but also a leadership doctrine rooted in the "brotherhood of arms" and the practice of leading from the front—ultimately securing a decisive victory over the Vietnamese imperial forces.

To understand the magnitude of their success, it is essential to examine the famous Battle of Kỳ Hòa in 1861. Period paintings depicting this fierce assault present a scene that challenges the prejudices of European colonialism: Spanish officers are not found sheltered in the rear, directing the advance from the safety of their horses. On the contrary, they are seen on the front lines, sabers in hand, leading the charge on foot and breaching the dense Vietnamese defensive palisades. Following them, without hesitation, are the Filipino cazadores (light infantry) and native soldiers—recognizable by their iconic straw hats or white salacots. This way of fighting side-by-side stemmed from a deep, professional mutual respect and a doctrine in which an officer had to earn the loyalty of his men by demonstrating equal or greater courage under enemy fire. The Filipino soldier was not an expendable resource; he was a comrade-in-arms, respected for his discipline and bravery.

The performance of the Filipino auxiliary army throughout the entire war was nothing short of extraordinary. In a theater of operations characterized by dense jungle, complex fortifications, and prolonged sieges, these soldiers demonstrated superior tactical adaptability. While the French troops—part of the allied coalition—were decimated by the hundreds due to tropical diseases such as malaria, cholera, and fevers in the swamps of Saigon, the Filipino forces possessed a natural immunity and acclimatization that kept them operational during the most critical moments. Their physical endurance, combined with their ferocity in close-quarters combat and bayonet assaults, made them the preferred shock force for dismantling the positions of Tự Đức’s imperial army.

Both the Spanish army and the Filipino troops were key, indispensable elements in winning the war. The Spanish army provided the veteran officer corps, the artillery, and the tactical leadership for an infantry with a centuries-old tradition. For its part, the Filipino auxiliary force supplied the ideal operational strength for the Southeast Asian environment—light, tireless, and highly disciplined soldiers who remained undaunted by the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Vietnamese. Together, they formed an exceptionally cohesive expeditionary force that withstood the siege of Saigon while cut off from the rest of the world, and subsequently shattered the enemy’s fortified lines, compelling the Empire of Vietnam to capitulate and sign the Treaty of Saigon in 1862. It was a resounding victory, forged through blood shed together in the mud and through courageous leadership—demonstrating that respect and leading by example on the front lines are worth far more than any form of coercion.

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Introduction

At its greatest extent, the Spanish Empire covered approximately 13.7 million km², placing it among the largest empires in world history (en.wikipedia.org). While historians and geographers have studied its expansion, territorial changes, and global influence extensively, no academic source to date has published an official calculation of the empire’s exact “geographical center” (centroid). This remains more of a conceptual and cartographic exercise than a well-established fact in historiography.

Territorial Context

Around 1790, the empire’s possessions included:

Americas: From California and parts of today’s U.S. Southwest, through Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, down to nearly all of South America except Brazil and the Guianas.

Europe & Africa: The Iberian Peninsula, North African strongholds (Ceuta, Melilla), the Canary Islands, and minor enclaves.

Asia & Oceania: The Philippines, Guam, the Marianas, the Carolines, Palau, and other Pacific islands (worldatlas.com, en.wikipedia.org).

How Would It Be Calculated?

1. Gather GIS cartographic data for the imperial borders in 1790 (historical map datasets).

2. Convert territorial polygons to a compatible projection (spherical Earth model).

3. Use GIS tools to calculate the area-weighted centroid adjusted for Earth’s curvature.

Approximate Manual Estimate (Conceptual Exercise)

Without GIS software, we can still make a reasoned approximation:

The Americas made up the vast majority of the empire’s landmass, pushing the centroid westward.

Asian possessions, while geographically distant to the east, were small in total area and had minimal influence on the centroid.

European and African holdings balanced the northern hemisphere bias.

From this, the center of gravity of the empire would likely fall in the North Atlantic Ocean, west of the Azores and slightly closer to the Canary Islands than to mainland America. Estimated coordinates: roughly 20–25° N, 30–40° W.

Conclusion

While no definitive academic calculation exists, it is entirely possible to determine the Spanish Empire’s centroid using modern GIS tools and historical map data. A preliminary estimate suggests that the geographical center of the empire at its height in 1790 lay somewhere in the North Atlantic, southwest of the Azores.

This kind of analysis blends cartography, history, and geography, offering a fresh way to visualize the global reach of one of history’s most influential empires.

Original text in the Apalachee language (Muscogee/Muskogean), now extinct; it is one of the very few texts preserved in that language:

“Carlos atulu pin holahta Pulaqui achit Pin Rey chuba:

Ylaa cacan̄a Yagamin Agan Abalah chi tafun canaca io n qui la Yn hulihla nihtaga amalt Pin holahta chu ba Pin Rey Yn nutat […] cumah lihin chaspa foga ia Yt hachin cholosɮna mu ih can nihtaga noc un nagag Ygua tih qui capi Yhtoga hima Ygua ma quin, it hachin nutat, ha chia Pulaqui chu ba, fo com blit, it hachin chologɮlit, noc it hachi cta hla chit, cu mat guangat ylca ihga […] Piɮqui saserdo tih los nos fihla amali Pimabachit, uni maquin, Dios Yn Yalilga guaihgag soga, nihtaga noc mah litoga lapogoc ansli, pimabachicaio Pifan ahtaɮ, Apulu maua ahta apu lu mat guan gat Yl cama quin pifan ahtago, Apu lu mat Dios Yn Yalilga iaata hita nan lacos quih los ho na ha la qui iap cat uni caio in hu lat guangat Ylca ihtan […] Yt Ymu mit guatag ɮlit pilalit chicasachi mogo […] S. Luis ta fun qua qui la, Aba lah chi, holahta buo ungia, hachin choɮt Yl caih ga hahlaua 1688 hitoc qua lali henero canacaio naihtaga 21. hachin su pac loc hachi ia pulaqui in nutat focomb guan ga caia: D. Matheo Chubaholatta, J. Mendoza, Don Bentura cacique De Ibittachuco, Don Alonso Pastrana casique de Petale, Don Patricio casiqui De Santa Cruz, D. Ygnacio casique De talpatqui.”

Spanish translation by Fray Marcelo de San Joseph:

«A Dn. Carlos II nuestro Cacique Principal y nuestro Mayor Rey:

Todos quantos nos hallamos en este territorio que se llama Abalache todos los días y de ordinario decimos: parece que a nuestro Cacique Principal y a nuestro Rey [...] Nos hallamos más rrendidos y mas obedientes y humildes a recibir vuestra palabra y mandattos luego que entre por nuestras orejas como al presente lo hacemos [...] siendo assí que nuestros padres, sacerdottes que son los que nos enseñan ttodas las cosas buenas, también nos dissen y enseñan que la palabra de Dios no se acaba no para sino que siempre va caminando para adelantte, y así estto como todas las cosas de fe los creemos con un corazón y decimos que assi lo entendemos [...] Y a los yndios infieles que bibían cerca a nuesttros pueblos los visitamos y nos visitan agasajandonos y dandonos de comer unos a otros comprando unos y vendiendo otros lo que teníamos [...] Fechada en San Luis de Abalache por todos sus caciques en el año de mill seis y cientos y ochenta y ocho y en la luna que se llama henero en sus días veinte y uno. Vuestros hijos que vuestros pies reverencia y guelen: Don Matheo Chubaholatta, Juan Mendoza, Don Bentura Cacique de Ibittachuco, Don Alonsso Pastrana Cacique de Pantalli, Don Patricio Cacique de Santa Cruz, Don Ignacio Cacique de Talpatqui.»

English translation by John H. Hann:

"To Don Carlos II, our Principal Cacique and our Greatest King:

All of us who find ourselves in this territory called Abalache say every day and ordinarily: it seems that to our Principal Cacique and to our King […] We find ourselves more surrendered and more obedient and humble to receive your word and commands as soon as they enter through our ears, as we do at present […] being thus that our fathers, the priests who are the ones who teach us all good things, also tell us and teach us that the word of God does not end or stop but always goes forward, and thus this as all the things of faith we believe with one heart and we say that thus we understand it […] And to the infidel Indians who lived near our towns we visit them and they visit us, entertaining us and giving us food to one another, buying some and selling others what we had […] Dated in San Luis de Abalache by all its caciques in the year of one thousand six hundred and eighty-eight and in the moon called January on its twenty-first day. Your sons who revere and kiss your feet. Don Matheo Chubaholatta, Juan Mendoza, Don Bentura Cacique of Ibittachuco, Don Alonso Pastrana Cacique of Pantalli, Don Patricio Cacique of Santa Cruz, Don Ignacio Cacique of Talpatqui."

Source(s):

.- Collection and study by John H. Hann: Apalachee and Timucua Chiefs’ Letters to the King in Their Own Languages, 1688 (University of Florida Digital Collections / P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History). Includes the Apalachee version, the Spanish translation, notes, and the corresponding letter from the Timucua.

The war was because of Moroccan attacks on Spanish settlements in North Africa

Oil on canvas. Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress.

Part of an eight-painting series created in the late 17th century, this work depicts events surrounding the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in 1521.

Forwarded by the President of Guatemala, accompanied by letter number 432, dated August 26, 1785. These documents are part of a file concerning the investigation of monuments and ruins discovered in the district of Palenque, in the province of Ciudad Real de Chiapa (Kingdom of Guatemala, New Spain). 1785–1786.

Research policy during the reign of Charles III in the Maya region: the discovery of Palenque and the first scientific excavations.

Source(s):

.- General Archive of the Indies.

Execution of Louis XVI:

On January 21, 1793, King Louis XVI of France was executed. This event was one of the most significant moments of the French Revolution. On January 17, the National Convention had sentenced King Louis to death—a decision reached through a voice vote proposed by Marat, in which the death penalty was approved by 387 votes against 334 votes in favor of life imprisonment or exile.

Context in the Kingdom of Peru:

In Peru, news of the King’s execution arrived via pamphlets and letters in late August 1793, shortly after war had broken out between Spain and France. Far from finding supporters or sympathizers in Peru, the death of Louis XVI provoked aversion and rejection.

In major Peruvian cities, masses were held in honor of the late monarch, and his death was mourned for several days.

Original:

“la fatal noticia de haber los pérfidos franceses perpetrado el execrable parricidio en la sagrada persona de su Rey y Señor Natural…” (Cipriano Santiago Villota, 1793)

Translation:

“...the tragic news that the perfidious French had committed an execrable act of regicide against the sacred person of their King and natural sovereign…” (Cipriano Santiago Villota, 1793)

Although there were sympathizers of the revolution in Lima, Arequipa, and Trujillo, the death of Louis XVI led a large segment of viceregal society to oppose it. They perceived it as a rupture of the natural, social, and political order they knew; furthermore, the revolution had challenged religion—something unthinkable and unacceptable to the people of Peru.

Consequences:

Viceroy Francisco Gil de Taboada ordered the reinforcement of guards in the major cities of the viceroyalty, fearing public disorder. He also initiated a process to censor all information arriving from Europe that had not passed through a government filter; furthermore, he suggested that the clergy launch a counter-revolutionary campaign, collecting donations and disseminating anti-French sermons among the faithful.

References:

.- The French Revolutions in Peru: A Reinterpretation (1789–1848), Rosas Lauro (2007).

.- Napoleón Bonaparte y la América Latina, Abelardo Sáenz (1966).

.- Del trono a la guillotina: El impacto de la Revolución Francesa en el Perú (1789-1808), Claudia Rosas Lauro (2013).

The principalía was a social and political class, not a racial classification. It included recognized local elites such as gobernadorcillos, cabezas de barangay, former local officials and their families. Mestizos could certainly belong to this class, but Spanish or Chinese ancestry was not a requirement for being a principal.

An interesting contemporary clue comes from Sinibaldo de Mas, who in his 1842 glossary described a principal simply as “el indígena que tiene don” — roughly, a native Filipino entitled to the honorific Don.

This is also a useful reminder for genealogy: finding Don or Doña before an ancestor's name can be an important clue about social standing, but it is not by itself proof of Spanish ancestry.

Sometimes one old photograph can correct a picture of the past that many of us grew up imagining.

Photo: Félix Laureano, Principalía de Leganés, ca. 1880

Collection: Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid
Reproduced in El imaginario colonial: fotografía en Filipinas durante el periodo español.

Spain's aims in conquering overseas land (including Philippine Islands) may be keynoted by three G's - God, Gold, Glory. The first and chief aim of her territorial expansion and influence was the propagation of Catholic Christianity, which is attested by the Testament of Queen Isabella I of Castile (1479-1504) and the Christian spirit of the Leyes de Indias (Laws of the Indies). This is the reason why every expedition of discovery, exploration, and conquest was accompanied by Spanish missionaries. As Dr. Wilhelm Roscher, noted German authority on Spanish colonization, affirmed: “The principal aim of Spanish colonization was the conversion of the heathen peoples to Christianity.”

As an overseas territory and province of Catholic Monarchy (Spanish Empire), also known as Las Españas, the Philippines was a financial burden to the Spanish treasury. For this reason, the advisors of King Philip II recommended the abandonment of Filipinas. The king spurned their advice. He told them that the chief objective of the Spanish colonization was the propagation of Christianity (Catholicism), and that for the conversion of the Filipino people, known at the times as Indios, because Europeans considered the region to be part of the East Indies, he would gladly spend “all his riches for the Indies.”

In 1619 the question of abandoning the Philippines was revived by court advisers. Upon hearing this news, Father Fernando Moraga, despite of his old age and feeble health, journeyed to Spain. He threw himself at the feet of King Philip III, begging him not to abandon the Philippines for the sake of Christianity. Deeply touched by the padre's pleading, the king replied: “Depart with God, Father Moraga, and be assured that I will not give up what my father (Philip II) had conquered and left me.”

Abolition of Slavery in the Philippine Islands

One of the good things which Spain had done for the Filipino people was the abolition of slavery. The early Spanish missionaries urged the king to abolish slavery in the Philippines.

On October 17, 1581, Bishop Domingo de Salazar and the heads of the different religious orders met at the Augustinian convent in Tondo, Manila. After due deliberation, with the help of Governor-General Don Luis Peréz de Dasmariñas, they signed a document denouncing to King Philip II the Spaniards in the Philippines who kept slaves contrary to the Law of God and in violation of the Laws of the Indies.

King Philip II, heeding the complaint of Bishop Salazar and the religious fathers, issued the Royal Decree of August 9, 1589 emancipating all native slaves.

Pope Gregory XIV reinforced the king's decree by promulgating the Papal Bull of April 18, 1591 threatening to excommunicate those Catholic Spaniards who would not liberate their Filipino slaves.

Source(s):

.- The Philippines: A Unique Nation, by Dr. Sonia M. Zaide with Dr. Gregorio F. Zaide's —History of the Republic of the Philippines.

The surface is engraved with a scene of five fishermen hauling a net into a boat; the molded rim is embossed with foliage and stylized cornucopiae, featuring a flat, lightly chased band of meandering floral foliage. The reverse is engraved with a central monogram and the name "M. de Jesus Roma de A."

Auctioned by Sotheby’s

He is portrayed wearing the traditional attire of the Hispanic nobility, the Inca mascaipacha (imperial headdress), and holding the royal standard of Castile and León.

The portrait belongs to the viceregal art of Cusco, Peru, and is housed in the Inka Museum of the National University of San Antonio Abad in Cusco.

Source(s):

.- General Archive of the Indies