SUMMARY
More than three centuries before China fired water cannons on Filipino ships, historic battles between two naval forces erupted in Philippine waters.
In 1646, the Protestant Dutch sought to invade the Philippines, which had been a colony of Catholic Spain for eight decades at that time. (The Philippines would be a Spanish colony for more than 300 years.)
The Dutch launched five attacks against the Spaniards between April and October 1646, recounted Christina Lee’s Saints of Resistance, quoting a 1693 account by Baltasar de Santa Cruz. The battles took place in Bolinao, Lubang, Marinduque, Mariveles, and Mindoro – and in each battle, the Dutch dwarfed the Spaniards in terms of ships, weapons, and personnel.
Spain, however, eventually claimed a miraculous victory – which they …