Debunking The Battle of Cagayan: 1000 Samurai vs 60 Spanish Tercios
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- Опубліковано 13 вер 2021
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What is the battle of Cagayan? According to some articles the 1582 Cagayan battles were a series of clashes between the forces of the Spanish Philippines led by Captain Juan Pablo de Carrión, and wokou (possibly led by Japanese pirates) headed by Tay Fusa. These battles, which took place in the vicinity of the Cagayan River, finally resulted in a Spanish victory. Some of these articles mention numbers such as 1000 Japanese samurai fighting against 40 or 60 Spanish tercios. On this video we'll discuss what actually most likely happened, debunking this pop fiction idea of 40 men defeating 1000 samurai.
Link to Gunbai military history: gunbai-militaryhistory.blogspo...
Link to the Spanish article: historiasamurai.com/2019/01/2...
Link to articles I'm responding to
/ 426043995434344
ichi.pro/it/pirati-samurai-co...
www.globalist.it/culture/2016...
ilcantooscuro.wordpress.com/2...
The letters I read on the video
The First Letter - Written by Juan Baptista Roman, June 25th 1582
"Most Illustrious and Excellent Sir:
I do not know whether the letters with new information which the governor is writing today will arrive in time to go on this ship, which has been despatched to this port of Acabite; so I wish to give your Excellency notice of what is going on. Yesterday-St. John’s Day-in the afternoon, there arrived six soldiers who had gone with Captain Juan Pablo de Carrion against the Japanese, who are settled on the river Cagayan.
They say that Juan Pablo sailed with his fleet-which comprised the ship “Sant Jusepe,” the admiral’s galley, and five fragatas-from the port of Bigan, situated in Ylocos, about thirty-five days’ journey from Cagayan.
As he sailed out, he encountered a Chinese pirate, who very soon surrendered. He put seventeen soldiers aboard of her and continued his course. While rounding Cape Borgador near Cagayan one fair morning at dawn, they found themselves near a Japanese ship, which Juan Pablo engaged with the admiral’s galley in which he himself was.
With his artillery he shot away their mainmast and killed several men.
The Japanese put out grappling-irons and poured two hundred men aboard the galley, armed with pikes and breastplates. There remained sixty arquebusiers firing at our men.
Finally, the enemy conquered the galley as far as the mainmast. There our people also made a stand in their extreme necessity, and made the Japanese retreat to their ship. They dropped their grappling-irons, and set their foresail, which still remained to them. At this moment the ship “Sant Jusepe” grappled with them, and with the artillery and forces of the ship overcame the Japanese; the latter fought valiantly until only eighteen remained, who gave themselves up, exhausted. Some men on the galley were killed, and among them its captain, Pero Lucas, fighting valiantly as a good soldier.
Then the captain, Juan Pablo, ascended the Cagayan River, and found in the opening a fort and eleven Japanese ships. He passed along the upper shore because the mouth of the river is a league in width. The ship “Sant Jusepe” was entering the river, and it happened by bad fortune that some of our soldiers, who were in a small fragata, called out to the captain, saying to him: “Return, return to Manila! Set the whole fleet to return, because there are a thousand Japanese on the river with a great deal of artillery, and we are few.”
Whereupon Captain Luys de Callejo directed his course seaward; and although Juan Pablos fired a piece of artillery he did not and could not enter, and continued to tack back and forth.
In the morning he anchored in a bay, where such a tempest overtook them that it broke three cables out of four that he had, and one used for weighing anchor. He sent these six men in a small vessel to see if there was on an islet any water, of which they were in great need.
The men lost their way, without finding any water; and when they returned where they had left their ship they could not find it. They met with some of those Indians who were in the galley with Juan Pablos, from whom it was learned that Juan Pablo had ascended the river two leagues and had fortified himself in a bay; and that with him was the galley, which had begun to leak everywhere, in the engagement with the Japanese.
The Indian crew was discharged on account of not having the supplies which were lost on the galley. Most of these men went aboard the “Sant Jusepe.”
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roman vs spartan pls
Yo
or can you just tell me who would win?
Castelnuovo metatron.... castelnuovo.
@@berzgaming1039 bro, the romans... The Romans CONQUERED Sparta...
"You Wakos are without a doubt, the worst pirates I've ever heard of."
Wako: "But you have heard of us?"
I'm pretty sure some Woku Anime Fan Art has been heard of.
THAT, is a tasty reference.
ua-cam.com/video/YFtbT8_lwjc/v-deo.html
What this is from a Filipino historian
Tercios ._. Didn´t fight out of Europe. And the katanas and armor from the pirates are in the museums and they are Samurai Armor
Qi Jiguang
I just imagine those pirates showing up before a raid like "We are a multi-ethnical, multi-cultural group from diverse backgrounds, we're here to plunder your riches in a totally non-racially motivated way!" and then went on in secrecy to found Ubisoft with their ill-gotten gains.
This exactly what happened!
lol
From wako to wacko in several centuries: the Ubisoft history.
But F Christianity in particular for some reason.
t.ubisoft
Hail the politically-correct pirates!
It's like the 300 Spartans against the Persians forgets to mention the 7000 men from Greek colonies that fought with the 300 hundred Spartans. Or the 500 Spanish taking down the Aztec empire forgets to mention the 20000 telexcal natives that were enemies of the Aztec that helped the Spanish
Except people tend to Skip the 20000 native Warriors that supported Cortés because It doesnt fit their "Spain bad deliberately exterminated all natives the aztecs were so cool" narrative,here in Spain when we learn about the conquest of México we are always told about how countless tribes that were basically vassals of the aztecs supported Cortés and his men as soon as they started their expeditions into those lands
@@jav1843 colonialism still bad
Colonialism isn’t bad or good, it merely is.
@@God-mb8wi but still, those tribes were choosing the colonizer's rule instead of the aztec's
@@mohammadsadisanjaya1121 if a bunch of incredibly advanced aliens came down to earth and allied with, say, the US against its rivals, we'd undoubtedly take their assistance as well. we would feel equally shocked when they subjugate us after the fact.
I'm Spanish, and when I studied that battle in high school, (so many years ago...) I was told that the Spanish army fought against chinese and japanese pirates, not against samurais... And I dont remember the numbers, but... my History teacher never told us about so few Spanish soldiers there as that article says...
It is true, never in Spain we had said that were samurais… we say that where ronins and pirates. So, no much for a “Debunk” but even if an anglosaxon is “hispanic” they always are a little jealous about our history and want to debunk, “view with other perspective” or just lie like they do mantaining the black legend made by Holand
Si eres español y has oído de esta historia deberías de saber lo que se guarda en los registros del museo militar de Madrid. Conocerías por tanto que 40 eran los que combatieron y el restante manejaban la nave y cañones.
Por otro lado, los piratas no eran samuráis, sino ronins, mercenarios sin señor que combatían bajo el amparo de los piratas de la zona, que a su vez estaban bajo pagamento de Portugal y China.
@@21segarra Conozco lo poco que me enseñaron en el instituto, no es uno de los momentos históricos, ni de los lugares que me haya dedicado a investigar por mi cuenta. Sé que fueron piratas, no samurais. Pero no recuerdo que mi profesor hablase de tan pocos soldados como menciona ese artículo. Nunca he estado en el Museo militar de Madrid. ¿Merece la pena visitarlo?
@@beledra4051 es interesante, aunque recomendaría ir con guía para conocer algunas curiosidades. Si no recuerdo mal habían días de entrada libre.
Bueno, ya te enseñaron mas que a mi 😂
Aunque claro, mi instituto no brillaba por su calidad...
So the whole event was basically just a skirmish between Spanish Tercios and some group of Asian pirates.
Basically yes
im curious to know what kind of armor those pirates are wearing, is it a mix of Japanese armor like what samurais use mixed with Mongol like armor? or is it more diverse?
Not completely true, as there was no Tercio in the Phillipines.
@@lenny_1369 in one of the letters, it is mentioned that they have breastplates and pikes. I can't remember if it was this same letter that said the equipment was provided by the Portuguese. I'm going to verify this and will let you know.
If this is the case, then it would be likely that some of them were wearing European breastplates.
@@lenny_1369 This battle happened in the late 1500s...which is long after the Mongol empire and the main Mongol successor states had collapsed. They would not be wearing armor that resembled the Mongols of the 1200s AD.
There are a fair few historical naval battles where taller sailing ships held out for several hours against larger forces purely because its physically pretty hard to board a ship that's several metres higher than your skiff/galley/longship.
yep european sailing ships had very good technology for antibording measures, also european crews were motivated to fight for their lifes when at the other sid of the world because 1. they may not even have known how to surrender to some unknown culture, 2. if they surrendered their likelyhood of being freed or bought back there were even lower than usual.
this lead to european crews fighting against all odds and pretty fiercely.
also the boarding defences of european especialy southern european ships were developed in the mediterranean where there was a high risk from piracy and ottomans and so on. european ships had dedicated killzones in the middle and the castles had low caliber guns aiming at the middle deck so they could give flanking fire, making bording extremely costly.
Not to mention the Spanish just loved to turn the Deck of a ship into miniature battlefield. Imagine climbing up a Galley and as you peek over the top you see sixty men in a Tercio all pointing pikes at you like some giant porcupine. Lol I'd jump right back down and take a swim🤣
Forecastle as in the castle in the front with aftcastle Mediveal ships were build as multi level forts. A tradition for effective fighting and still continuing into this period.
Yes, as soon as I heard that the Spanish came in a fleet of 2 Galleons and 7 Frigates I Immediately went:
"No shit they could beat 1000 with only 60 (although it's impossible to man those 7 ships with just 60 men). The 1000 only had basic Chinese/Japanese ship and the Spanish had the most powerful war machine in the world at that time"
@@MariusThePaladin No one states that only 60 man were on board. It were 60 soldiers,, so guys not belonging to the sailng crew.
And that war machine was challenged (the same years) by the dutch and English .With success.
"Highly Diverse multi ethnic group"
[Netflix rubs hands intensely]
God no
Most of them were asian so netflix don't care
@@quentinleroux6762 they'd bring on black people either way
@@kubli365 they can use melanesians tho
@@aaaaaaa9207 "mela what?" - Netflix exec
Actually I was taught by a wonderful History teacher back in the day and that´s how I learned the word "Wako". No half educated person here in Spain thinks they were "1000 Samurai".
I have never once hear anyone claim that there were a thousand samurai, just pirates with some ronin against Spanish soldiers and their local levies that managed to win a battle with a numerically superior force.
Samurais sin amo, sí, ronin. Eso no los hace menos diestros, ni menos letales. La ventaja la tuvieron los rodeleros. El escudo es el enemigo de la katana.
@@p.s.9658 la gente cree que por qué eran piratas estos no eran menos peligroso los samurais tenían códigos para pelear los piratas no
ua-cam.com/video/YFtbT8_lwjc/v-deo.html
Watch this guys from a Filipino historian
National myths exist everywhere, in every country.
Ahh you beat me to it!! Fun fact as the Metatron mentions the wako were multi ethnic, well there's actual mentions in record that a few Dutchmen were apart of the crews!
I'll look forward to see your take on It!
@@metatronyt Someday! I have to say your video is a hard act to follow
Later wokou pirates were mostly non japanese yes, early wokou was mostly desperate ronin from the Kyushu islands
@@i_love_crpg Ronin might've been amongst them but they were not the majority
Isn't it interesting that pirates, in some way, preceded humanist ideas, or at least developed humanist ideas on their own. (Idk about asian pirates, so this applies only to the ones in the new world and madagascar) A group of multiethnic people where every man was considered human and every man's word was influential? Where captains got elected and impeached? Where labour contracts and social systems were used? Hundrets of years ago? One could think, giving every man roughly the same amount of power leads to a fairer system...
(Also i don't want to glorify pirates, they still were murdering, looting, r*ping barbarians, but considering their time period they had some remarkable progressive policies.)
I like how in both letters even though the Spanish appear to have won the battles they didn't talk s*** about the pirates.. they said in both letters that they were valiant fighters.
Spaniards hired samurais as mercenaries even from the Japanese diaspora in Luzón. Maybe some of the samurais were actually fighting the pirates (who were 3 out of 10 Japanese and led by the Japanese according to the History of the Ming).
Spaniards be like: someone make note of that man’s bravery
Spaniards always respect bravery and catholic religious devotion. As long as you're brave and a good Christian, you're ok
@@jamie_d0g978 Jesus: Most people go to hell.
Catholics: Who cares what Jesus says? ENtire NATIONS go to heaven!
Jesus: "Mary.... I call you merely... woman."
Catholics: "MOTHER OF GOD MOST BLESSED WE ARE JSUT OBSESSED!"
Jesus: "Who is my mother? Those who do God's will are my mother and my brother."
Catholics: "The hell with Jesus' wods there!"
Jesus: "Call no man on earth father in teh sense of having spiritual lordship over others."
Cathoolics: "We have a pope which means father. Jesus is wrong."
Satan: "Good Catholic pawns."
@@scintillam_dei Catholic: outside Catholic Church can be save
Mary is new ark of covenant
The Philippines was quite a diverse country during this time. According to a 1591 census based on tributes, out of a total population of 667,612, there were 20,000 Chinese, 15,600 Mexicans and Peruvians, 3,000 Japanese, and 600 Spanish, with the rest being native Filipinos. Native colonial soldiers were shuffled between the Philippines, Mexico, and Peru which made it easier to control the regions. Chinese trade had been in the country centuries before the Spanish, but it intensified after colonization and led to the creation of the first “Chinatown” in history. The Philippines also became a stop for Japanese trade, and, towards the end of the Sengoku Jidai, the place of exile for many Japanese Christians including one Daimyo, Justo Takayama.
Excelentes datos, si cuenta con la bibliografía sería muy agradecida.
@@donleondevillafana7615 Si quieres recrear el Imperio español, estoy terminando un mapa del tamaño más grande posible y realístico para Age of Empires 2 HD, desde Canadá hasta Antártida, y desde China hacia el este hasta Arabia.
Este tipo "metatron" hizo vídeo de media hora intentando socovar la gloria de nuestro pueblo. Es un fraude que no mencionó que los portugueses vendieron a los japoneses y chinos piratas armas de fuego y artillería.
Honestly, doubt if there weren't any Filipinos in the Spanish crew as well.
@@barriolimbasThe Spanish also have used Filipino natives to fight for their wars. One example is that of Dagohoy's rebellion which lasted for 80 years which they quelled using the Cebuanos as their soldiers.
@@johnnymechavez429 In school it's taught to be 100, never could understand how such a potential classic in asymmetric war is not often discussed or even popularized in film, documentary etc.
Ahhh pero si hubieran sido ingleses o estadounidenses ya sería de digna admiración
Jajajaja si Rambo solo puede contra mil jajaja solo cun un cuchillo y una metralleta y no olvidemos que en sus películas cualquier ciudadano común y corriente estadounidense puede rescatar aviones y derrotar terroristas jaja
Como siempre los anglos tratando de blanquear su historia
fascinating video, thanks.
Hi
Thank you for watching Jason!
You both have amazing channels!
You make awesome content sir, you should have a TV show if there was any justice in the world 😁
Black Legend video.
Filipino Here,
Funny that the story always said by my family from Ifugao [the Headhunter Tribes and the region where Skallagrim's Favorite axe came from]. Terico and Conquistadores are just a recon party, and the "samurais" are just Wakou or Pirates...mostly Rónin or Masterless Samurai/Mercs...I mean...ITS ARMOURED SCOUT PARTY VS SOME SMELLY RAIDING PIRATES.
Pirate Raids are common here in Early Modern Asia...hell my Dad's Region of Dumaguete still has that Lighthouse made by the Spanish to repel Muslim Pirates, and my Capital of Manila goy Raided by multiple Chinese Pirates like Limahong
Samurai* Japanese words double as both plural and singular please stop adding unnecessary s'.
@@drafezard7315 oh god, I know, there is a reason there are " " in the word "Samurais"
@@exudeku Putting it in quotes does not excuse it... every time I hear or read it with the s gives me a migraine. -_-
@@drafezard7315 SaMyuRaiS
Still a cool incursion if you think about it, pirates and a few ronin fighting our colonizers
OMG! I had never heard of this battle and I just watched another video about it! I’m ready for the Metatron perspective!
Just found your channel, the way you explain how one should go about checking information and original sources is excellent and sadly often missing in the internet. Thanks for the video!
I've learned this ocurrance by a recent Kings and Generals video. You debunking makes the story even more interesting and i think the 2 videos complement each other very well.
You are not wrong, good sir.
Which video was that? Link?
@@Usammityduzntafraidofanythin ua-cam.com/video/xY0yxv1wX3o/v-deo.html
I like Kings and Generals but that was one of their worse videos. I was more confused and had more questions than when I started the video.
I've watched this subject first from there too! Really nice channel. 👍
Metatron doing Iberian history? It's quite late but it's a fine birthday present! I would love to hear of the Portuguese accounts of the Japanese.
I am so impressed you got the chinese pronunciation of wuokou right.
@@iamchengsolo Oh? I did huh?
Oh happy late birthday my bday was yesterday so your's is a day before mine
@@jesseherring4745 mine was at the tail end of last month, lol
"doing" as in "attempting to undermine the glory of"
Great video! Love these debunking vids you make! Timely too because I only knew about this battle from the Kings and Generals video that came out last week. Appreciate your work !
Love your research andogic way of debunking exaggerations of events and putting them in a more realistic and logical contexts. Good job, my friend!🤗💚
I don’t think any serious scholar would argue that 1000 samurai were present at the supposed battle. That being said, from the roughly contemporary Boxer Codex, we know that Samurai, or at least Japanese men who presented themselves as Samurai had a presence in the Philippines. The Codex, along with the the fact that the letter rather explicitly distinguishes a Chinese Pirate ship from a Japanese one seems to indicate that the Spanish could recognize the difference between Chinese and Japanese, not to mention how foreigners of various ethnicities made frequent visits to Manila and had their own quarters, including the Japanese. The Spaniards are likely to have been somewhat familiar with differences, and I don’t think the they would have had ideological qualms over the ethnicity identity of the pirates. The battle also occurs a few decades after the Jiajing Wako raids of the Ming, meaning that there would have been a reduced Chinese participation in Wako Bands as reported by Ming sources of the era. More than likely these Wako bands were still multiethnic conglomerations, but given the reduced Chinese participation for the aforementioned reasons, and general disdain of the pirates by the local Philippines, its possible that the bands at Cagayan would have had a sizeable Japanese population, if not a slight majority, especially giving the rather explicit mentions of Japanese identity in the letters.
Before the XVIIth century, the samurai was not a class, ie not necessarily well defined who is samurai who is not. It is easy to imagine that the terms were loosely used, especially if someone wanted to prop up himself far from home.
Well I watched a similar video on kings and generals and they said that only a small number of woku were from japan. Also while the number of woku is exaggerated I dont think it is by much. I mean just look at Diu, the portugese were outnumbered almost 4 to 1 but still managed to win only taking 30 casualties while they killed 1000+ of the marmeluke mercenaries.
@@ANSELAbitsxb Wako demographics fluctuated over time, and once they lost their foothold in China(which would’ve been about 10-20 years before the Cagayan battles), the amount of Chinese participants waned, making Japanese participation higher than it was in previous decades. That being said I agree with your assessment that 1000 Wako is perhaps not too terrible of an overexaggeration. When the Ming General QiJiguang defeated a Wako army and only lost 3 men in Battle of Hua Street.
Well said 👍... Objectively, as far as well know, a small colonial Spanish force ousted a larger, Japanese led, maybe even majority Japanese, piracy operation and the rest is history. I think there must be a balance in impartial assessment when there is so little to go on and us in the modern day having maybe European-superiority or pro-Japanese sentiments...
@@the.wandering.warrior I don't think european superiority was a thing back then but ports and spanish were basically thought to be invincible by everyone, it wasn't untill the dutch wars that that idea was challenged. And doing extraordinary things with low numbers was basically their thing.
Don't forget you need a large crew in order to operate this spanish ships.
So besides the Tercios we would have the ships crew with most likely joing the fight. Either by been frontline soldiers or operating the ship cannons
There was no tercios in asia. Not even in America iir. It was just a skirmish between spaniards and ronins
"The tercio (Spanish 'third) was the *tactical formation* that took its title from the medieval practice of dividing an army into three parts - the van, main battle and the rear."
yeah i wouldn't call the Spanish marines on board the ship Tercios but whatever
@@comradekenobi6908 The tercio was also the Military unit who conform the tactical formation, like the roman legions who was called legionaries.
@@Zeldaytal there was in multiple times... Tercio is any "regular" unit of the spanish crown during the golden cents, from 60 men to 5000 men of Flandes
You dont. Smaller galleons could be operated by 40-50 men, and they could all be soldiers since operating the ship is pretty simple aside from manpower requirement. But there were 7 ships in total, plus some colonists, so easily over 100 men let alone women. I think the account mean about one engagement in a part of a battle before reinforcements arrived. One section would not have all 1000 men attack at once.
Another great summation and conclusions drawn based on facts and logic. Thanks again for bringing illumination to a fantastical story.
Thank you, that was interesting! I'd not heard of this.
Conspiracy theory: It's actually anti katana propaganda made by 2013 skallagrim
And Shad.
Actually is more like Spanish sensationalism, as this man argues here (Spanish audio though): ua-cam.com/video/L5sCVULHV7k/v-deo.html&ab_channel=DivulgadoresdelMisterio
I think flea markets are good enough anti katana propaganda.
Did he even mention that the Japanese ronin with the Chinese pirates among others had guns and artillery from the Portuguese? Major omission revealing his prejudice against the truth that SPain beat samurais even when outnumbered, and even when the samurais also had gunpowder power.
@@scintillam_dei They weren't Samurai. This has been debunked time and time again. They were a lose band of pirates made up of mostly Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino soldiers, fishermen, smugglers and merchants. Open up a freaking history book, and read the thing.
Kings and Generals just did a video on this.
Yup, that was an interesting video
@@crevetta6128 same here lol
ua-cam.com/video/YFtbT8_lwjc/v-deo.html
Watch this from a Filipino historian.
They also tried to undermine SPanish credibility at every turn which makes them hypocrites since they don't apply this same standard for British nor Japanese victories. The anti-Spanish prejudice is evident. People who want the truth don't hide their bias. They do.
Thank you for another interesting and educational video. :)
Side note. I never even heard about this battle. So now I know something new thanks to you. 👍
I've never heard of this event. So awesome. thx 4 the vid.
My first approach to the debunking of that battle was through that same blog, Gunsen History. After reading the extensive and interesting article I was wishing someone could make something like that but as a video. I guess Metatron made my wish come true.
I remember reading about this way back in the day for a college class. Basically the book said the European forces consisted of a galleon with their contingent of sailors and soldiers. So in according to the book the galleon was likely manned by about 250-300 sailors and 40 or so rodeleros, pikemen, and/or musketeers.
For the pirates, the book mentioned the bulk of the ethnic makeup was likely Chinese or Korean, with few Japanese.
The book it more or less drew the forces as 300-350 Europeans and unknown local allies vs 750-1000 pirates.
Grazie once again, for an another interesting video!
Great video! Loved the break down.
Could you please a few videos on the Conquistadors? Like 1 video on the major conquistadors leaders and expeditions?
Another on the weapons and armor choices, and maybe another on the types of recruits and their training?
Even being Spanish I knew that the numbers were exaggerated and that the "Japanese" were pirates and not samurai. I find this video very interesting, thanks for the information.
Even being Spanish? Wtf? XD
@@alvarorodriguez1592 Are you spanish too? 😂😂😂
@@iz560 Mean technically they were Ronin, lord-less Samurai. Supply was shit, but the training was still there.
Samurais who lost in Japanese wars would, if surviving, flee to southern realms like Siam where many Japanese mercenaries worked. So when Thailand had samurais working, why wouldn't Luzón?
@@ganonstonebreaker4231 According to what I've read the pirates were (of course) not made up entirely of ronin, but other rabble as well such as untrained peasants and criminals.
Just placed Kings & Generals' video on the battle in my playlist. Looking very much forward to compare the two.
This is a very well researched documentary!
I guess they tried to capture the Black Ship in Shogun II and still haven't recovered from having lost nearly their entire navy in the process.
Wasn't the Black Ship in Shogun 2 Portuguese?
The black ship actually existed.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nossa_Senhora_da_Gra%C3%A7a_incident
@@MDD77777 There wasn't one black ship. All portuguese ships that they built in their indian colonies were black because of the wood they used there. Most European ships that reached Japan were black.
There was also a less known Battle between a Portuguese Nau, called the "Nossa Senhora da Graça", the famed "Black Ship" and several dozens japanese junks with thousands of samurai from the Arima Clan.
The chase lasted for about 4 days and culminated in the boarding of the Portuguese Nau and the fierce melee that ensued.
The captain of the Nau, André Pessoa then ordered the ship´s magazine to be set alight and for his men to abandon ship and shortly thereafter the Nau exploded in 2 sucessive explosions, killing most of the Portuguese Crew still on the Ship, including the captain, attacking Samurai and resulted as well in the loss of all the cargo.
This was a result of direct Dutch interference in Japan´s trade intentions as they turned Japanese Clans against the Portuguese, resulting in this less known battle of History
I dind't know that. I remember "Black ship" from Shogun 2, but I had never known there is actual story behind.
@@VK-sz4it Black Ships would head for Japan to engage in the "nanban trade" every given time, every 1 or 2 years and they would paint their hulls black, so the Portuguese Naus or Galleons and later all western ships were called black ships.
The "Nossa Senhora da Graça" was one of said ships, unfortunate enough to have been betrayed and ambushed near the coast of Nagasaki.
ah yes kamikaze attack before the Japanese thought of it
@@Levi_o_Lusitano I don't know Portuguese but does that translate to "Our Lady of Grace"?
@@the36lessons11 Yes thats it! 😉💪
Thanks for this Metatron. I am curious about this too as I'm from the Philippines.
The Metatron really inspired me into building my own Samurai Armour, despite my economic circumstances. Thank you!
Have you made any progress? Since I've made a test piece by cutting out 22 guage steel with shears, drilling holes, and following late period lacing methods that limit the amount of laces I use. Making an armor out of lamellar would he way too labor intensive.
Just when I was finding more info about this battle...The Metatron arrived! Thankkk youuu
dont forget about the Tlaxcaltecas, who helped the Spanish to defeat the Aztecs, they were also sended to fight against samurais in the Philipines
The whole idea that Aztecs with the Spanish fought Samurai in the Philippines is insane. Would love to see a hypothetical battle between Aztec and Samurai warriors.
@@PackHunter117 Depending on the time period the Samurai have a serious equipment advantage. The Aztecs are more used to jungle warfare which could be useful.
@@PackHunter117 it wasnt the Aztecs bro, it was the Tlaxcaltecas; they fought against the Aztecs, helping the Spanish Tercios, and they also helped them against the japanese .
@@kaltaron1284 True. And they could scare the Japanese with their human screaming mimicking whistles.
@@odiaranda2756 Oh yeah. My mistake.
I just discovered your channel. You're awesome dude. More power to you! Greetings from Manila, Philippines.
Useful video, thanks. I have seen reference to this tiny number of European soldiers (sometimes even described as akin to knights) defeating 1,000 Samurai in multiple UA-cam comment sections (including probably yours), often in I think ‘knightly sword v katana’ videos. So good to get the real deal laid out!
Got lots of comments about this event in my comments. I feel reassured in my suspicion about it :)
The Black Legend teaches you to dismiss any claim of Spanish superiority. Good job. You passed the indoctrination with flying colours.
@@21segarra Why you post some insecure link from a dubious source? And why you also post a link to a Edo period armor?
@@21segarra Ey. Si te gusta Age of Empires 2 HD, estoy haciendo un mapa inmenso y realístico de América desde Canadá hasta Tierra del Fuego. Includos están: España, Portugal, Italia, Francia, Inglaterra en gran parte, Irlanda, toda África, todo el Japón, el este de China, Hawaii y el norte de Filipinas. Pronto ojalá lo terminaré.
This doesn't really dispel much to me. A much smaller force of Spanish soldiers defeated a drastically larger force of Chinese and Japanese pirates. In the 19th century, Japanese "adventurers"(aka Pirates) murdered the Korean Queen. Them not being classified as "ronin" or whatever doesn't change much.
@@jeanbethencourt1506 Its weeb cope. The fact is that Japanese led the pirates and many ronin were probably among the pirates. This was also a period of decline in Chinese piracy meaning less Chinese, more Japanese. The Japanese outnumbered the Spanish and yet the Spanish still bent them over. Its quite obvious from history that tercio > samurai, unfortunately too many westerners are weened on anime nowadays.
A huge chunk of our history classes here in the Philippines is centered around the Spanish colonization of this country for over 300 years. In that span of time, a lot's happened. Very significant events. I think the presence of over a thousand Japanese pirates in Cagayan ALONE during that time would have been notable enough to warrant at least some passing mention, even before delving into the ridiculousness of 50 or 60 soldiers beating that many. This is just absolutely hilarious lmao
Yeah. Never heard of this during history class in the Philippines. These articles are just trolling gullible people
Don’t be so sure. The Middle East and Africa has hundreds of years and in some cases millennium long periods that are completely ignored. And this is during similar timelines (1st century AD and on)
I do recall that there was a significant naval battle between a whole fleet of Chinese pirates against the Spanish garrison, with the latter heavily outnumbered. The pirate lord was Li-something.
The samurai vs. tercio thing is new to me and sounds dubious.
@@voidempire2174 I'm from the middle east, and I know our history, but it's hardly ever mentioned at all, makes me think it's being done on purpose tbh.
60 soldiers can easily kill thousands of attackers. The Americans did it in Mogadishu. To see if it were possible, you'd have to first find out to what kind of air support the Conquistadors had access.
Excellent debunking, again. Love your channel.
Honestly never heard of this incident but it's very interesting to see how two rather simple description of events can lead to someone later on proclaiming with utter certainty that something like that happened exactly as described despite the letters giving contradictory information on couple of things. Thank you very much for this video, both educational as well as very entertaining.
I have read the accounts in Spanish, and I agree with your assessment, although I calculate a little higher number of Waco; perhaps 300. In any case, it is no small feat for 60 soldiers to defeat 300 pirates. It is a 1 to 5 ratio.
Exactly, it is an impressive feat regardless, so there is absolutely no reason to embellish the details of what actually happened so much.
This is like Ancient Greek historians:
"One hundred million barbarians were effortlessly slain by 50 of our incredible, godlike soldiers"
Source: I'm smart, so it's true
Awesome! As always.
Was waiting for this
Had always heard that it was a band of Wako vs the Spanish. Most of the Wako being Chinese.
But apparently the Japanese were in charge
@@sergioriggio1769 Japanese were the leaders in pirate but they were not majority it was multi ehenic
@@voltgaming2213 And so where the Spanish...only the leaders were Spaniard. Most soldiers would have been american creoles and philippine troops. It was no "Tercio" by any mean.
@@ernstschloss8794 Its so disappointing that so many events of history are misrepresented and nothing really is like we thought it was.
Love my country being featured on Metatron's channel
Excelente vídeo once again.
Good job. Thank you.
To be fair the historical account doesn't seem biased they talked of the pirates bravery (much less bias than today).
Worth noting that accounts can be biased by talking up the bravery of the opponent to make your own actions look better.
@@TheHaighus True, but I stand by us being more biased today (narrative: one side is absolutely bad and the other is really good with a few bad actors).
Well it was a request for help, making it seem like you're winning wouldn't exactly be advantageous.
@@jonathanbetenbender307 This is internal communication, not necessarily intended for public consumption. If the enemy is "brave" (ie. will stand and fight, even when confronted with experienced regulars), it is important for the sovereign to know this.
This is the kind of respect that means you will not underestimate them on the battlefield. Keep in mind, though, that if they were considered pirates, they most likely still should count themselves lucky if they escaped being executed, and were still considered despicable scum and "enemies of all mankind" (as it would be phrased a few centuries later).
@@Snagabott That is an excellent point, so I didn't chose the best example make that comment on... that aside in the modern era I think our representation of the enemy is like a caricature of propaganda.
I really love how you analyze things from history, especially starting with the original source material and then applying logic and context. It comes across very unbiased and professional. Many thanks for all that you do.
"logic" Haha! What's logical about citing a Wikipedia page only to ignore the part that says the Japanese with Chinese and others had gunpowder weapons from the Portuguese? That's not just illogical, but dishonest too. "very unbiased" .... I cannot vomit right now but would if I could. Sicilians were taken over by Iberians, and this one in particular idolized samurais so much so he wears their armour and worked in Japan and studied their language a lot. That's not jsut a weeaboo but a weeblord. The bias reeks to high heaven. I don't pretend to lack bias. No one lacks bias.
@@scintillam_dei He is a Weeaboo who idolizes Japan and roman empire and believes everything about the black legend. Even though his province Sicily was part of the Spanish Empire. He is going to criticize everithing related to Spain criticizing the minimum that does not correspond to the historical rigor instead of admitting that the Spanish soldiers of that time (Peninsulares, mestizos, mulattos or criollos) had a better fencing style, La Verdadera Destreza, than their Italian counterpart who was never able to master this style of fencing.
@SCINTILLAM DEI You’re the biased one and a half rate Claude Frollo.
pretty informative video, thank you
Interesting topic, never heard of it. Great explanation
I'm Filipino and I've heard of this battle but never actually did any research on it so I'm glad you're making video on it.
My pleasure and thanks!
As Rafa like to say "There're a few things to take into consideration": First: There was no Tercios in Cagayan, only some officers like Carrion could have been part of a Tercio in the past, but it's doubtful. The Spanish there were a private company from Nova Spain, that being said the so-called Spanish in Filipina were mostly conformed by Tlaxcalan allies, also mestizos and creoles inmates, all known as Spanish Americans. According to the author Canales, there would have been only few more than 5 European soldiers in Cagayan at that time.
Second: There also were the soldiers from the San Iusepe along with those of the Capitana galley, we could say more than 100 soldiers plus few sailors. And according to Canales, the pirates were no more than 300 in total during all the events, the rest were their relatives.
Third: there were no mentions of Japanese armament used by the wakos, most were from Portuguese industry as mentioned by the sources, or native made cannons.
And forth: The Ryukyu kingdom pirates were the only ones with ships capable to travel to Filipina, the Japanese ships could only travel short distances.
You know, just to add to your comment: Indigenous allies does not automatically imply Tlaxcallans, and the sources do not specify ethnic origin. The men serving in Cagayan could have just as easily been Mexica (aztec), Chalca, Texcocan, Tepanec, Purepecha, Tepexi, or any number of allies from the many cities and kingdoms that encompassed Mesoamerica at the time.
Not everything is Tlaxcala.
@@Rafael_Mena_Ill The "indios conquistadores" were majority Tlaxcalans as they were the only who signed a true alliance with Spain with the Tlaxcala canvas. And after numerous supportive expeditions and wars they negotiated their political position directly with the king of Spain trying to get autonomy and privileges.
The other allies were the Tarascan, but those participate only on few expeditions inside of Mexico. And most of the Mexicas left were basically subyugated and were only given the political role of maintaining the cities.
And we could say the same when we speak of Spaniards-Castilians, knowing that some of them were from other regions, like Portugal, Italy, Germany, but the majority were from Spain.
@@yomauser This is factually incorrect. Texcoco, Huexotzingo, Quauquechollan, Tepexi, and many, many others, signed a true alliance with Spain within their own legally binding documents, and negotiated political positions under the King of Spain, to varying degree's of success, though ultimatly the plan backfired as disease crippled native bargaining power. Even those subjugated into a position of vassalage managed to negotiate means through which they could advance politically. The Mexica, Atzcapotzalca and Xochimilca for example, were instrumental in funding colonies in Guatemala, maya found themselves in the Andes, zapotecs and Mixtecs in the Yucatan, and so forth.
The natives "accompanying" (quotations to adress the implication that they were in any way a minority in these expeditions, they were very much not.) the europeans were extremely diverse, and it's likely that a great many natives and mestizos that were in Cagayan were not Tlaxcallans themselves.
@@Rafael_Mena_Ill You are right, but most probably they were a mix of mexica and otomi, and most probably tlaxcalans as well. I mean, of course they could be from any ethnic group, but that means there could be tlaxcaltecas as well, and given they did go with the Spanish in several explorations, I don't think it's a ridiculous idea to imagine they were most probably one of the main groups to be in Filipinas at the time, though quite obviously not the only one.
Metatron saludos desde el nuevo mundo haha
I love your channel, I learn english just to see and read about history, and your channel is in my top 5 favorites :D
I saw another takedown of this battle not long ago and your assessment comports well w.that.
Great stuff! As a kid I was told that Europeans came to Japan and every one swordsman was able to kill tens of samurais because of superior martial skills. Now I understand where this myth comes from. Thanks for giving me tool to debunk future claims like this :)
I was very fascinated with clash of cultures when Japan was discovered by Europe. Maybe you could explore this topic more? Perhaps maybe some analysis of James Clavell's "Shogun" and "Gai-jin"? I think it's very interesting how he is portraing relationships between drastically different nations
The Wokou pirates weren't samurai, they were just pirates.
Great video, had never heard of Cagayan
Always educational entertainment and a great video.
Great video, and historically accurate, as always. Spanish Tercios were a formidable war machine. Probably they'd had carried a couple of "culebrinas" which were thin light canions used on land or sea that could shoot shrapnel and gravel from the flanks. I know of the incident, and of course those were no samurai, and half of them would had flee after witnesing the first blast of firepower, followed by the voracity and killing efficiency of the swordsmen and pikemen advancing quickly in a mist of smoke. The guilds of asian pirates, while they could outnumber the tercios 5 to 1 in this type of squirmishes, they would have surrender fairly quickly, or be keen to negociate after losing a few men, since they were no army, and surely they'd prefered to stay alive. The spanish were pragmatic and always chose to make allies rather than enemies among the native factions. That was their conquering "style": Show your enemy how ruthless you can be for a minute, and sit on a table to drink with them the next, as if nothing happened. That's why so few "conquistadores" and a few, armed to the teeth tercio companies could grab so much land in just 40 years. In any case, the spanish respected this asian fighters, since they actually recruited soldiers in the Philippines to fight against the turks in the mediterranean.
There's no mention of any tercio, and we know Spain did not send tercio units outside Europe. I honestly have no idea why everyone, including Methatron, is assuming the 40-60 garrison soldiers were tercios. All evidence indicates the opposite, and there's not source that ever mentions it. Only once did Spain create (not sent) a tercio outside Europe, and that was in Chile to fight against the Araucanos.
@@goodaimshield1115 así fue
@@goodaimshield1115 tampoco en esa época existe un barco llamado Fragata
I remember the profesor Luis Medina talking about the aztecs meeting japanese speaking in spanish....in Acapulco
Manila Galeon. The Tlaxcala went with the Spaniards all the way to conquer the Philipines and the north of Mexico.
@astronomically anomaly lmao..just yesterday someone Tell me about that Channel.😄
Those Spanish loquillos...
Really good video.
Great video.
The Metatron could spend his whole life clapping historical and modern cheeks in an effort to get accurate information out there! No foolishness gets past the Metatron!!!!
With metatron liking your comment, him clapping cheeks is confirmed.
Metatron, Consumer of Pasta
Bearer of Wisdom
Clapper of Cheeks
What's accurate about dishonestly omitting that the ronin and Chinese pirates had guns and artillery from the Portuguese, attempting to dismiss Spanish victories as only due to having firearms?
Reminds me of the not-smart-people who say Spain could win only against loincloth-wearing arrow shooters. Spain captured the king of France in a war in Italy.
SCINTILLAM DEI Why must you hate on the Metatron fam?
@@thebigone6071 I hate people who try to erase history because they're so obsessed with samurais they can't accept that lordless and therefore treasure-seeking samurais among other Asians doing piracy, wree beaten by Spaniards. The Black Legend. Look into it. Everyone who speaks English is affected, and most don't even know they're indoctrinated to belittle Spain.
When you brought up the japanese using the pirates. I remember reading that the Spanish had a plan to use the pirates in a invasion of China.
AKA privateers, or 17th century economic terrorists.
Excellent analysis. You make a great Conquistador
Very interesting, but I'm glad you did your analysis haha
The video should be named : Debunking the Myths about The Battle of Cagayan
Note: There wasn't tercios, only spanish soldiers, and the great number were nativeamericans from Nueva España.
Un saludo desde Toledo, España!!!
En el videojuego Shogun 2 total war aparecen los Wako, supongo que conocerás el juego. La batalla sobre la que hablas es más o menos conocida aquí en España, lo malo es que la gente suele confundir los samurái con estos piratas japoneses.
Un saludo, ¡¡¡me encantan tus vídeos!!!
Shogun 2 is a very fun game! My favorite is modding it to play as the Europeans and do an alternate history invasion of Japan.
También la gente cree que fueron tercios. Y no lo fueron, fueron simplemente soldados españoles, y la gran mayoría nativos americanos.
@@lopcaarald5161 exacto, se desvirtúa mucho la presencia Tlaxcalteca en las filas conquistadoras en Filipinas.
Pero muchos piratas wako fueron ronin (que era lo mismo, pero sin amo)
Que va, nadie conoce esta batalla en España XD Solo 4 frikis de historia.
Thank you for making this video. Its also important to note the presence of the mentioned indians between the spaniards who, in their accounts, tends to not mention their number (it wouldn't be rare if their number was larger than the spaniards themselves) or even their concurrence at all. This is frenquently observed in the conquest of the Americas's accounts with the omission of the native allies role.
This is the first time i have heard about this battle. I am from Philippines. Thanks Metatron!
There are actually so many battles to debunk. That would be a great series.
He didn't debunk that Spaniards beat samurais. I did a video refuting this failed attempt at a debunking.
If by "debunk" you mean Megawrong rambling and babling, we can do without that.
@@scintillam_dei Aaand yours failed. I can't hear any YEC "argument" over the tune of a Tarbosaurus yodeling or a singing Microraptor.
@@jeffreygao3956 So I'm wrong because there are sci-fi videos of singing dinosaurs. Wow. You're deluded. Utterly.
@@jeffreygao3956 no need to dog pile on him he is clearly mentally unwell
Actual battle : like that time some Somali pirates attacked a French cruiser before realising they were not attacking a civilian ship.
The captain to the guy writing the report : "copy paste the report from the battle of Actium !"
lmao I've just looked it up and it is pretty funny. However here are some corrections :
La Somme (the French ship) isn't a cruiser, it's a supply & command ship. Because of its missions, it's somewhat similar to a civilian ship, which makes the mistake more understandable.
Addendum : The ship was, in fact, targeted by pirates not once, but twice. In the first attack, the navy took five pirates prisoners and in the second one, the pirates fled after a short firefight prompting La Somme to pursue them, which brought it right to the pirate's camp. 6 pirates were arrested and weapons were seized.
@@Knoloaify They managed to take five prisoners from the Somme during the first assault?? O_o
@@Briselance Sorry made a typo, I meant 5 pirates were made prisoners. There's no way a bunch of dudes on dingys would ever take prisoners on a ship filled with soldiers.
@@Knoloaify I mean the french have a strong tradition of quickly surrendering...
@@claspe1049 And Americans have a strong tradition of promptly running away while leaving their brethren behind.
Uh, I'm glad you quoted Gunsen! I read about Cagayan there first
Top, thx! Need to share 🤩😎
You'd think there wouldn't be a need to tell people that "60 soldiers defeated 1000 soldiers in direct combat with ease" is kinda sus, but here we are
It’s all in the visuals, a superficial knowledge of period military history, and a low understanding of the battle. If you imagine a bunch of katana wielding samurai vs. Tercios wielding long pikes, it sounds plausible. After all, samurai could never get close enough to hit the pikemen. And indeed, their weight of numbers and long swords would get in the way. Presumably they’d just exhaust themselves.
Again, great visuals. But it all breaks down with the clarified facts the video shows.
Plus battle reports tend to obfuscate one side’s errors, miscalculations, and failure while aggrandizing any successes. Meanwhile downplaying enemy successes.
I know the mentioned blog. I found it in a comment under a smithing video. They have a fantastic 4 part smithing article about sources of iron in japan, processing the iron and forging swords and armor. No mystic bullshit just pure reality yet still interesting.
Excellent Historical account, thanks Metraton.
Very good history sir.
Internet is all about heated debates and strong opinions. Weeaboo said knights were stinky fatsos and katana sharper than diamonds? Hemaboo will say samurai were useless and katana were made of butter.
Both are wrong... but to be honest Katana even being a decent weapon was pretty useless on a battlefield, even Samurai knew that that's why they used nagitaka/bows and firearms as soon as they could to fight.
I love the historical accuracy 15:51. I always knew that the Stormcloaks helped the Spanish with their Armada.
Hi Metatron I’m a big fan, I would like to ask you if you will ever make a video about the Spanish army ( in particular the 16th century one) and the Japanese one during the Korean invasion comparing their fighting style and the weapons used, thank you and good video as always
I think you should do a follow up video about this, the history I heard is now difrent from the starting point that you read in this video
Could you produce some content regard to the Triple Alliance War (South America, 1864-1870)?
What a terrible war.
@@freedomloverusa3030 Indeed, it was the biggest conflict in America Latina's history; counts over 440.000 deaths; 90% of the paraguayan men above 20 were killed (the country had to change their laws and accept polygamy after the war).
The Spanish sources never say they are samurai. Just pirates...and pirates do not wish to die in battle with anyone if they can avoid. So a group of determined Spaniards could defeat in detail a much greater force of pirates whose hearts are not in the fight.
Excellent video. Always fascinated by the Tercios, the most organized fighting force in Europe since the Western Roman Empire.
Thank you Metaron, you did a great job. I for one wished people would look things up before believing post on Facebook, (or ignore Facebook like I do). But I also wish academia would open its journals up to the public to at least read, as creditable sources are as rare as platinum, and when all the sources people can find are wrong, it makes the truth that much harder to teach.
and although it is true that the thirds were made up of both Spaniards and soldiers from territories at the service of Spain, the truth is that the combat tactics and formations of pikes and archbuses were Spanish and almost always instructed and commanded by Spaniards
A pirate encounter and request of more development for a far-off colony, turned into a novel-comicbook-internet meme, inflated by the media and blown off proportions, needs debunking.
History receiving the usual treatment nowadays.
You are an interesting and extremely respectable man whom, I have come to admire greatly in my passion for history.