On March 16, 1521, Magellan sighted Samar. He made landfall the next day on the tiny island of Homonhon, in Leyte Gulf.

During the skirmish, Magellan was killed by Lapu-Lapu on April 27, 1521 during the Battle of Mactan, driving the Spanish explorers away, only six weeks after saying his first mass on Philippine soil.

In 1543 Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, another explorer gave the name Las Islas Filipinas to the islands of Samar and Leyte. It was not until 1565 that the Spaniards, under Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, gained a foothold on Cebu, and extended the name Filipinas to the whole group of islands after King Philip II of Spain.Over the next few years, the Spanish pushed northward, defeating Muslim chieftain Sulayman and taking over his fortress of Maynilad, facing what is now Manila Bay. Here, in 1571, Legazpi built the Spanish thick stone-walled city of Intramuros.

The Spaniards ruled the Philippines for 333 years.