THE SMOKING QUILL | APRIL 26, 2025
Case Study: Luquios = Philippines
Primary Source Evidence from the Spanish Crown's Official Cartographer
Exhibit Title:
"Luquios is the Philippines: A Cartographic Revelation from the 16th
Century"
Introduction
One of the most persistent colonial-era geographic misidentifications is
the conflation of "Luquios" (or "Lequios") with the Ryukyu
Islands of Japan. However, a newly surfaced cartographic source authored by Alonso
de Santa Cruz, the Royal Cosmographer under Charles V and Philip II,
dismantles that assumption once and for all.
Primary Source:
Map Title: General Atlas of All the
Islands in the World
Image Reference: Image 58
Cartographer: Alonso de Santa Cruz
(1505–1567)
Commissioned by: Spanish Crown
Archive: Library of Congress
Direct Link: LOC.gov
Visual Evidence:
The map clearly labels "Luquios"
over the archipelago that corresponds to the modern-day Philippines,
including Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
The island shapes and surrounding
maritime orientation unmistakably match the Philippine cluster rather
than the Ryukyu arc.
Significance:
This map was not speculative or commercial; it was part of a state-sponsored
atlas meant to define the Spanish empire's geopolitical understanding.
Therefore, its labeling of Luquios as the Philippines carries legal and
academic weight.
Impact:
This finding:
Refutes the Ryukyu-Japan
identification of Luquios
Confirms accounts like Fernão
Mendes Pinto who placed the "Lequios" in the region of
Mindanao
Supports the premise that ancient
references to Lequios or Luquios referred to the Philippines
and not Japan
Conclusion:
The 16th-century map by Alonso de Santa Cruz places Luquios exactly where
the Philippines are today. This renders the colonial scholarly claim that Luquios refers to the
Ryukyus not only incorrect but definitively disproven by the Spanish Crown's
own official documentation.
This is not just a quill stroke of history—it’s the inked signature of
truth.
Yah Bless,
The God Culture Team
