The Spanish influence on Filipino culture has been profound, having originated from the Spanish East Indies, which was ruled from Mexico City and Madrid. A variety of aspects of the customs and traditions in the Philippines today can be traced back to Spanish and Novohispanic (Mexican) influence. Background Spanish settlement in the Philippines first took place in the 1500s, during the Spanish colonial period of the islands, which were ruled as a territory of New Spain (Mexico), until the independence of the Mexican empire in 1821; thereafter they were ruled from Spain itself. The conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi left New Spain and founded the first Spanish settlement in Cebu in 1565 and later established Manila as the capital of the Spanish East Indies in 1571. The Philippine Islands are named after King Philip. Spaniards are referred to by Filipinos as "Kastila" (Castilian) named after the former Kingdom of Castile, now a region of Spain. The small population of Filipinos which have Spanish ancestry are descendants of people from Spain and New Spain (Mexico) who came during the colonial era. Another term for them is Spanish Filipino. History before Hispanization Some of the societies scattered in the islands remained isolated but many evolved into states that developed substantial trade and contacts with the peoples of Eastern and Southern Asia, including those from India, China, Japan and other Austronesian islands (The Malay archipelago). The 1st millennium saw the rise of the harbor principalities and their growth into maritime states composed of autonomous barangays independent of, or allied with larger nations which were either Malay thalassocracies, led by Datus or Indianized kingdoms governed by Rajahs. Language Philippine Spanish (Spanish: Español Filipino, Castellano Filipino) is a variant of standard Spanish spoken in the Philippines. It is a Spanish dialect of the Spanish language. Chavacano, a Spanish-based creole, is spoken in the Zamboanga Peninsula (where it is an official language), Davao, and Cotabato in Mindanao, and Cavite in Luzon. Filipinos today speak a variety of different languages including Cebuano, Tagalog, Ilocano, Ilonggo, and Bikolano, in addition to English—all of which are 90% Austronesian languages, and also contain up several Spanish loanwords. The Philippines still completely attained its entire languages and culture despite years of colonial rule. The most common languages spoken in the Philippines today are English and Filipino, the national language that is a standardised form of Tagalog. Spanish was an official language