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PODCAST

The Colonial Dept.

Welcome to the Colonial Department, the podcast where we take long-lost stories from Philippine colonial history and bring them to life. Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdept

history

All Episodes

00:05:56

Extra Credit: What we can still learn from the Laguna...

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/12/06

One of the Philippines’ most important archaeological finds, this thin sheet of metal still contains many mysteries. (Listen to S7E12 before listening to this one!)

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00:16:17

S7E12: Turbulent Times at Manila Bay

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/11/29

In the late 1500s, sultans, kings, and outlaws alike all wanted a little slice of Manila. And over two turbulent decades, everyone from faraway Spain to neighboring Brunei asserted their claims over the rajahs and datus that lived there. This is the turbulent origin story of the city that we know today.Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comCover photo from “Ataque de Li-ma-hong a Manila en 1574” by Juan Caro y MoraReferences:Patanne,

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00:04:22

Extra Credit: The Indian-Armenian who preserved and...

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/11/23

Born in Calcutta and in love with Philippine fashion, Rafael Daniel Baboom was a true partner in the creation of 19th-century Philippine art. (Listen to S7E11 before listening to this one!)

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00:17:23

S7E11: Paint Me By Your Name

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/11/15

The nineteenth century—steamships, family names, world trade, foreign firms, liberal ideas. Great tides of change are roiling Manila. In the middle of the chaos, a new art trend captures the imagination of local elites. How are these letras y figuras holding a mirror to Philippine society?Cover Photo from the Ayala Corporation Collection.Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comReferences:Blanco, John D. (2009). Frontier Constitutions:

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00:04:22

Extra Credit: On Tomas Claudio and other Filipinos in...

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/11/09

Tomas Claudio wasn’t the only Filipino who fought in the trenches of the Great War. Thousands of others also enlisted. (Listen to S7E10 before listening to this one!)

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00:17:40

S7E10: Abaca World War

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/11/01

It was the Great War, the War to End All the Wars… and Philippine abaca merchants were raking in sky-high profits. The world’s most powerful navies relied on this plant—which is native to the Philippines—to keep their warships in battle-ready shape. But what the First World War giveth, the First World War also taketh away.Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comReferences:Dacudao, Patricia Irene (2023). Abaca Frontier: The

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00:04:53

Extra Credit: A bullfight in Sulu

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/10/24

A story of a Philippine bullfight…in the unlikeliest place of alll! (Listen to S7E8 and S7E9 before listening to this one!)

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00:14:39

S7E9: Running of the Bulls, Part Two

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/10/11

In the second part of our look at the lost sport of Philippine bullfighting, we go deep into its heyday in the 1800s, with social clubs, provincial arenas, and matadors with nicknames like “Fatiguitas.”Then, we look at how and why bullfighting faded away in our archipelago.Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comReferences:Vibal, Gaspar (2022). Bullfighting in the Philippines, 1602-2022. Vibal Books. Cornwell, Zach (Host). (13 December

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00:15:56

S7E8: Running of the Bulls, Part One

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/10/03

In fiestas in a bygone age, the corrida—the coursing of the bulls—would always be part of the festivities and celebrations in town plazas across the Philippines. Why did this tradition disappear from our shores?In this two-part episode, we examine the history of bullfighting in the Philippines. In Part One, join Antonio Luna as he watches his first bullfight… and then travel back in time to the very start of the Spanish occupation, when the fiesta de toros became a fixture in our holidays!Follow us

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00:04:35

Extra Credit: Bits and pieces about Bagumbayan

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/09/27

We know it now as the place where Rizal was executed, but the history of Bagumbayan reaches back centuries! (Listen to S7E7 before listening to this one!)

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00:16:42

S7E7: Extramuros

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/09/20

For centuries, Spain ruled the Philippines from within the closed, claustrophobic walls of Intramuros—the walled city of Manila. But right outside these walls, Manila, too, grew and developed, following the contours of migration, enterprise, and yes, even conflict. Let’s track the evolution of the districts and arrabales outside the walls, or extramuros.Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comReferences:Camagay, Ma. Luisa (1993-1996)

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00:04:55

Extra Credit: The “Cultural Fighters” of the Japanese...

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/09/06

A brief look at the team of novelists, poets, painters, cameramen, filmmakers, and other creatives who invaded the Philippines as part of the Propaganda Corps. (Listen to S7E6 before listening to this one!)

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00:16:27

S7E6: Shisōsen—A Japanese Propagandist Confronts the...

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/08/29

Beyond the bullets, the tanks, the planes, the bombs, the Japanese also brought other weapons to bear against the Filipinos: Typewriters. Radio waves. Movie theaters.Here is one story from the frontlines of shisōsen, or "the thought war."Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comReferences:Campoamor II, Gonzalo (2017). “Re-Examining Japanese Wartime Intellectuals: Kiyoshi Miki during the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines.”

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00:04:37

Extra Credit: The socialites, spies, and convicts who...

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/08/23

From the Panlilios of Pampanga to future gangster Jack Riley, Tom’s Dixie Kitchen pops up in the biographies of some unexpected people. (Listen to S7E5 before listening to this one!

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00:15:42

S7E5: Inside Tom’s Dixie Kitchen, Prewar Manila’s...

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/08/16

Governors and gangsters, spies and socialites—it seemed that all of Manila dined out at the two-floor restaurant that rose above the bustle of Plaza Goiti. Inside, waiters handed you menus with more than three hundred dishes on offer, and, for special guests, directed you to special themed dining rooms upstairs. But there was enough entertainment on the first floor. There was a jazz band playing live music. There was a boxing promoter hamming it up at the next table. There was a steady stream of

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00:04:25

Extra Credit: “Epidemia maligna”—the devastating...

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/08/09

“Peste general.” “Pestilencial epidemia.” “Epidemia maligna.” In the Philippine archipelago, Spanish chroniclers wrote of deadly epidemics that struck their new possession. (Listen to S7E4 before this one.)

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00:15:04

S7E4: The Plague Years

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/08/02

Smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases known to man—and not even the Philippines was immune to its virulent dangers! But how did the dreaded disease arrive on our shores? And what devastating effects did it have during the long centuries of our occupation?Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comThe thumbnail image, which dates from the 16th century, depicts Aztec victims of smallpox.References:Newson, Linda A. (2011). Conquest and

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00:04:50

Extra Credit: The complicated story of the 1800s...

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/07/26

Crucial to the story of coffee in the Philippines is the industry’s boom years in Lipa during the late 1800s. What really happened then? (Listen to S7E3 before this one.)

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00:16:14

S7E3: A Short Philippine History of Beverages

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/07/18

Coffee. Tea. Cocoa. The three have a surprisingly rich, complex, and layered history in the Philippines. How did they arrive here, and what effect did they have in the archipelago’s colonial period?Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comThanks to Beach Reads Book Club (based in The Beach House cafe in Kapitolyo) for hosting the live premiere of this episode last July 5. References:Acabado, Stephen (4 May 2025). “[Time Trowel] A drunk

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00:04:23

Extra Credit: More Ottoman links to the Philippine...

The Colonial Dept. ·

2025/07/12

This faraway empire shows up in unexpected pages of our history. (Listen to S7E2 before this one.)

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