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Mindanao History

Submitted by:
Sean Paulo Bautista
Aironne Dizon
Ariell Allyson Olegario
Rafael Marlou Ramos
Dennis Ruiz

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Mindanaos Geography

Mindanao is the second largest island in the Philippines at 104,630 square

kilometers, and is the eighth most populous island in the world. The island of
Mindanao is larger than 125 countries worldwide, including the Netherlands, South
Korea, Austria, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Ireland. The island is
mountainous, and is home to Mount Apo, the highest mountain in the country.
Mindanao is surrounded by 4 seas: the Sulu Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea
to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the south, and the Mindanao Sea to the north.
Of all the islands of the Philippines, Mindanao shows the greatest variety of
physiographic development. High, rugged, faulted mountains; almost isolated
volcanic peaks; high rolling plateaus; and broad, level, swampy plains are found
there.
The Mindanao island group is an arbitrary grouping of islands in southern
Philippines which comprises the Mindanao mainland, the Sulu Archipelago
(consisting of the islands of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-tawi), and the outlying islands
of Camiguin, Dinagat, Siargao, and Samal.

Religion
Roman Catholic is the dominant religious affiliation in Mindanao with 60.9
percent of the household population, Islam comprised 20.44 percent, and other
religions were Evangelical (5.34%), Aglipayan (2.16), Iglesia ni Cristo (1.66%), and
Seventh Day Adventist (1.65%).

SpanishMoro conflict
Among the Spanish missions was the 1578 military expedition in Mindanao,
which aimed to: 1) have the Moro acknowledge Spanish dominion; 2) establish
trade with the Moro, and explore and exploit the natural resources of the land; 3)
end Moro piracy and raids against Spanish ships and Christianized settlements;
and 4) convert the Moro like the other Philippine groups. The head of the expedition
was instructed to quash the [preaching] of the doctrine of Mahoma, since it is evil
and false, and that of the Christians alone is good. These guiding principles are
said to have held fast and defined Spains relation to the Moro for the next three
centuries.
The SpanishMoro Conflict was a series of wars lasting over several
centuries from the beginning of Spanish colonization of the Philippines, to the
SpanishAmerican War when Spain finally began to subjugate Moro land after
centuries of failing to do so.
The Moros had a history of resistance against Spanish, American, and
Japanese rule for over 400 years. The violent armed struggle against the
Japanese, Filipinos, Spanish, and Americans is considered by current Moro
Muslim leaders as part of the four-century-long "national liberation movement" of
the Bangsamoro (Moro Nation). The 400-year-long resistance against the

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Japanese, Americans, and Spanish by the Moro Muslims persisted and morphed
into their current war for independence against the Philippine state.
The Spanish conquered the Muslim Kingdom of Maynila a vassal of the
Sultanate of Brunei, the islamized rajah, Rajah Sulayman resisted the Spanish.
Manila then became the capital of the Spanish Philippines after the conquest, with
the Spanish forcibly converting people to Catholicism. The SpanishMoro Wars
started with the Castille War, a war between Spaniards and the Sultanate of Brunei
(the term Moro included Muslim Tagalogs who were ruled by the Sultanate of
Brunei). Spain was under Inquisition which ordered Jews and Muslims to convert
to Roman Catholicism or leave or face death penalty, thus Spaniards tried to ban
and suppress Islam in areas they conquered, this was so because Spain had
undergone the reconquista, a period when they tried to rehispanize and
rechristianize the areas of Spain invaded by the Umayyad Caliphate.
The Moros were a Muslim people with a tradition of fighting called
juramentados by the Spanish, battling Spanish invaders to the death.

Rajah Sulayman
He was the kingdom's penultimate indigenous ruler, as the state (along with
Luzon and most of the archipelago), was gradually absorbed into the Spanish
Empire beginning in the late 16th century. His eldest son, Bunao Dula, was
crowned Lakan (paramount ruler) when Sulayman I was too sick to function as
monarch. Sulayman I is the grandson of Abdul Bolkiah of the Sultanate of Brunei
and the son of Sulayman Bolkiah. Sulayman l did not use the surname Bolkiah but
instead used the official title of Rajah Soliman Dula l, to mark the new era of a
united Manila aristocracy.

Building of fort on Zamboanga

The Spanish built a fort called Real Fuerza de San Jose in Zamboanga
under Captain Juan de Chavez in 1635 who led a Christian Spanish Filipino army.
Construction started on June 23 of that year.
The Real Fuerza de Nuestra Seora del Pilar de Zaragoza (Royal Fort of
Our Lady of the Pillar of Zaragoza), also Fort Pilar, is a 17th-century military
defense fortress built by the Spanish colonial government in Zamboanga City,
Philippines. The fort, which is now a regional museum of the National Museum of
the Philippines, is a major landmark of the city and symbol of its cultural heritage.
Outside the eastern wall is a Marian shrine dedicated to Our Lady of the Pillar, the
patroness of the city.

Attacks in Fort Zamboanga

In 17181719, it was rebuilt by the Spaniard engineer Juan Sicarra upon
the orders of Spanish Governor General Fernando Manuel de Bustillo Bustamante
y Rueda and was renamed as Real Fuerza de Nuestra Seora del Pilar de
Zaragoza (Royal Fort of Our Lady of the Pillar of Zaragoza) in honor of the patron

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virgin of Spain, Our Lady of the Pillar. A year after, it was stormed by Dalasi, king
of Bulig and 3,000 Moro pirates but they were repulsed.

In 1798, the fort was bombarded by British troops, but again it proved robust
enough to repel strong military attacks. Fort Pilar was the scene of a mutiny of 70
prisoners in 1872.
During World War II in 1942, Japanese forces captured and took control of
the fort. It was recaptured by the United States and Filipino troops on March 1945
and was finally and officially turned over to the government of the Republic of the
Philippines on July 4, 1946. Fort San Jos was attacked by the Dutch in 1646 and
was later abandoned by the Spanish troops who went back to Manila in 1662 to
help fight the Chinese pirate Koxinga who had earlier defeated the Dutch. In 1669,
the fort was reconstructed by the Jesuit missionaries after pirates and raiders
continued to destroy it.

Spanish Colonization
On February 2, 1543, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos was the first Spaniard to
reach Mindanao, he called the island "Caesarea Caroli" after Charles V of the Holy
Roman Empire (and I of Spain). Shortly after Spain's colonization of Cebu, they
moved on to colonize Butuan and the surrounding Caraga region in northeast
Mindanao and discovered significant Muslim presence on the island. Overtime a
number of tribes in Mindanao converted to Roman Catholicism and built
settlements and forts throughout the coastal regions of the island. These
settlements endured despite incurring attacks from neighboring Muslim
Sultanates. The most heavily fortified of these settlements, apart from a short
period in 1662 when Spain sent soldiers from the city to Manila after receiving a
threat of invasion from the Chinese general Koxinga, was Zamboanga City.

By the late 18th century Spain had geographic dominance over the island,
having established settlements and forts in most of Mindanao; including
Zamboanga City and Misamis Occidental to the northwest, Iligan City, Misamis
Oriental, Bukidnon, and Camiguin Island to the north, Butuan and the Caraga
region to the east, and Davao in the island's gulf coast. Spain continued to engage
in battles with Muslim Sultanates until end of the 19th century.

World War II
Davao City was among the earliest to be occupied by the invading
Japanese Forces, and they immediately fortified the city as a bastion of the
Japanese defense system. It was subjected by the returning forces of Gen. Mac
Arthur to constant bombing, before the American Liberation Forces landed in Leyte
in October 1945.

On April 1942 Mindanao, along with the rest of the Philippines, officially
entered World War II after Japanese soldiers invaded key cities in the islands.

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Many towns and cities were burned to the ground in Mindanao, most notably
Davao City, Zamboanga City, Lanao, Cagayan de Oro, Iligan City, and Butuan. In
the months of April and May 1942, Japanese forces defeated US troops
commanded by Gen. William F. Sharp and Gen. Guy O. Fort, in a battle that started
at Malabang (a town close to Gandamatu Macadar, Lanao) and ended close to the
town of Ganassi, Lanao. Filipino soldiers and local guerrilla fighters were actively
fighting Japanese forces until liberation at the conclusion of the Battle of Mindanao.

Sultanates and Islam

The spread of Islam in the Philippines began in the 14th century, when
Muslim merchants from Malaysia, Borneo, and Indonesia began converting the
native tribes they traded with, because of this the first mosque in the Philippines
was built in the mid-14th century in the town of Simunul. In the 16th century,
Muslims from Malaysia migrated to Sulu, Lanao and Maguindanao and established
Sultinates from formerly Hindu-Buddhist Rajahnates. The Muslim Malaysians
displaced the non-Muslim natives to the northern and eastern parts of the island.

As the Muslims gained control over most of Mindanao, the natives residing
within the Sultanates converted into Islam; and as part of Mindanao, the
surrounding native tribes who were not Muslim were obligated to pay tribute to
Muslim rulers.] The largest of the Muslim settlements was the Sultanate named
after the Maguindanaoans. Maps made during the 17th and 18th centuries suggest
that the name Mindanao was used by the natives to refer to the island, by then
Islam was well established in Mindanao and had influenced groups on other
islands to the north.

Old Butuan
Butuan, during the pre-colonial times, was known as the Rajahnate of
Butuan, an Indianized kingdom known for its metallurgic industry and sophisticated
naval technology. The rajahnate flourished at the 10th and 11th centuries CE, and
had an extensive trade network with the Champa civilisation and the Srivijaya
Empire.

By 1001, the rajahnate had established contact with the Song dynasty of
China. The History of Song recorded the appearance of a Butuan mission at the
Chinese imperial court, and the rajahnate was described as a small Hindu country
with a Buddhist monarchy, which had a regular trade connection with Champa.
The mission, under a Rajah named "Kiling", asked for equal status in court protocol
with the Champa envoy, but ultimately was denied by the imperial court. However,
under the reign of Sri Bata Shaja, the diplomatic equality was eventually granted
to the kingdom, and as a result the diplomatic relations of the two nations reached
its peak in the Yuan dynasty.

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Evidence of these trading links are in the discovery of 11 balangay boats around
Ambangan in Barangay Libertad, which was described as the only concentration
of archaeological, ancient, ocean-going boats in Southeast Asia. Other evidences
of the post are the discovery of a village in Libertad that specializes in gold,
deformed skulls similar to reports in Sulawesi, and the discovery of many artifacts
by locals and treasure hunters.

Colonial Period in Butuan

During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II, more
than half of Butuan, if not all of it, was burned when local guerrilla forces attacked
the enemy garrison on 12 March 1943 in the Battle of Butuan. On January 17,
1945, guerrillas attacked Japanese troops on the road between Cabadbaran and
Butuan to prevent the Japanese garrison at Butuan from being reinforced. When
the guerrillas depleted their ammunition supply, they were forced to retreat. Later
in 1945, the Philippine Commonwealth troops in Butuan together with the
recognized guerrillas attacked the Japanese forces during the Battle of Agusan.
On October 20, 1948, still recovering from the war, the entire municipality was
ruined by a fire.

Rajahnate of Butuan
The Rajahnate of Butuan (also called and mislabeled as Kingdom of
Butuan) , was an Indic polity centered on present Mindanao island in the city of
Butuan in what is now the southern Philippines. It was known for its mining of gold,
its gold products and its extensive trade network across the Nusantara area. The
kingdom had trading relationships with the ancient civilizations of Japan, China,
India, Indonesia, Persia, Cambodia and areas now comprised in Thailand.

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