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Political History
The Voyage of
Exploration by the Portuguese explorer, Fernando de
Magallanes (Ferdinand Magellan) under the flag of Spain
sailed out of Seville, Spain on August 10, 1519. With a
total of 237 men and 5 ships: Trinidad, its flag ship, San
Antonio, Santiago, Conception and Victoria the Magellan
Expedition almost took two years to complete its voyage
bound to the Spice Islands. On March 6, 1521, they
first sighted land, the Ladron Island in the Marianas
Islands
On March 28, 1521 the Expedition reached Mazzawa or Massana
(Limasawa) in Leyte. Here the Spaniards
celebrated the First Mass in the Philippines.
Magellan's devoted Sumatran slave, Enrique de Molucca, was
able to understand the Malay dialect of the natives, and for
the first time, Magellan knew that he had reached his
goal-and circumnavigated the world and discovered the
Philippines.
On April 7, 1521
Magellan and his three remaining galleons: the Trinidad, the
Victoria, and the Concepcion entered Zugbu (Cebu). The
Spanish Era in the Philippines began on that day, Zugbu's
Rajah Humabon was baptized as Christians along with his wife
and 400 of their followers. 40 years later, on April 28,
1565, the expedition of Don Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and Fray
Andres de Urdaneta arrived in Zubu and marked the
Christianization and colonialization of the Philippines by
the Spaniards.
It was not until 1593 when the Spaniards made their first
appearance in Jambangan with a small Catholic mission
established at La Caldera, now known as Recodo. After
that there were several missions sent by the Spanish
Governor General but it was easily wiped out by the Sultan
of Sulu army.
One of the
mission was headed by Padre Juan Batista Vilancio and was
abducted by the Sultan's Army and taken to Jolo. After years
of capitivity he was able to escape to Manila. Don
Juan Cerezo de Salamanca, Governor-General of the
Philippines, received reports relative to the Sultan's Army
power concentrated about the site of the present city of
Zamboanga.
After intensive
preparation on April 6, 1635 an expeditionary force under
the command of Captain Juan de Chaves landed at Zamboanga .
There de Chaves founded the town of Bagumbayan, which was
the first name by the Spaniards for Zamboanga, and from this
station he soon reduced the towns of Caldera and Balvagan.
After Captain de Chaves' force of 300
well armed Spaniards and 1000 Visayans had cleared the
peninsula temporarily of hostile Muslims, the construction
of one of the finest forts in the East was put into
execution. On June 23, 1635, the foundations of the grand
fortress of
“Real Fuerza de San Jose,”
was laid by Father
Melchor de Vera, a Jesuit priest-engineer
of the Spanish army.
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Fort Pilar |
The erection of this fortress was
accompanied by serious interruptions in the way of Sultan's
Army attacks. With only a portion of the massive walls in
place, the Spaniards awoke one morning to meet the attack of
5,000 men army of the Sultanate of Sulu, who entered Rio
Hondo and hurled themselves upon the fortification.
Upon the completion of the
fortress ,
Zamboanga was
fortified and protected. The fortress was attacked, besides
the Sultan of Sulu but also by the Portuguese, the French
and the Dutch, The fort was demolished in 1663 and rebuilt
in 1719 by the military engineer Juan de Ciscara.
it was renamed “Real Fuerza de Nuestra Señora del Pilar de
Zaragosa.”
In order to strengthen the Spanish position in Zamboanga and
the neighboring regions, three companies of Zamboanga
volunteers were organized in 1832. These natives together
with the Spanish troopers defended the town and the province
from the sporadic attack by the Moros. (The Spaniards
call the Sultan of Sulu army as Moros, a spanish of Moors.
The word Moor was derived from the word Morocco a
country of darker skinned people thus the word Moro - a
darker skinned people. A lighter skin variety the Spaniards
called as Indio or Indian and the very dark as negro))
Half of
the peninsula was made into a
corregimiento
(district)
de
Zamboanga with its boundary reaches as far as Sindangan
while half of the peninsula belong to the District of
Misamis. In 1837, the government was changed to a gobierno militar.
And Zamboanga was the
capital of Mindanao throughout the Spanish regime, except
the period between 1872 and 1875, when the government was at
Cottabato. (now Cotabato)
When
the American forces came in
December 1899, they established a civil government in
Zamboanga and also on the island of Basilan
and on July 1, 1901, together with Basilan inaugurated
the Municipality of Zamboanga under Public Act No. 135.
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Inauguration of Municipality of Zamboanga July 1,
1901 |
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Sultan
Maguindanao and Zamboanga Governor Finley at the
inauguration |
In 1903, during the Philippine Revolution, General Vicente
Alvarez led the revolutionary forces in Zamboanga . And
created part of Zamboanga peninsula as one of the seven
districts into which Mindanao and Sulu were divided,. The
district was called Provincia Mora and the Municipality of
Zamboanga as the capital of Department of M indanao and Sulu,
On September
15,1911, the governing body of the Provincia Mora, the
legislative council passed Act. No.272 converting the
Municipality of Zamboanga into a city with a commissioned
form of government.
The ceremony was held on January 1, 1912 with
the appointment of American Christopher F. Bader as
the first City Mayor. With the island of Basilan as part of
Zamboanga thus made the City of Zamboanga the biggest city
in the world in area. Two years later he was succeeded
by Victoriano Tarrosas the first Filipino Zamboangueño Mayor
of the city when Bader resigned.
The Department of
Mindanao and Sulu replaced the Provincia Mora in 1914, to
Zamboanga Province , the city stature was abolished
and it was reverted to its original status of municipality
administered by a municipal president and several
councilors. It remained as the capital of the Department of
Mindanao and Sulu, with a civil government under an American
civil governor, from 1913 up to 1920.
After the
Department of Mindanao and Sulu was abolished in 1920, the
region was placed under the jurisdiction of the Department
of Interior, through the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes, and
made the capital of the Zamboanga Province
On September
23, 1936, Commonwealth Act No. 39 converted the municipality
of Zamboanga into a chartered city. It was inaugurated on
February 26, 1937 with Nicasio Valderroza as the first city
mayor.
In 1948 the island of Basilan was taken out of the City of
Zamboanga to become a chartered city
( Basilan was later made into a province in 1973)
by virtue of Republic Act
No. 288 , and City of Zamboanga lost the status of being the
biggest city in area in the world.
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Zamboanga City scene in the 1900 |
Zamboanga City remained the capital of the the province of
Zamboanga. In 1942 during the Second World
War, Acting Governor Felipe B. Azcuna transferred the seat
of the provincial government from Zamboanga to Dipolog. Thus
making Dipolog the capital-in-fact of the Zamboanga
Province and later to the Municipality of Molave.
On June 5, 1952, a bill
fathered by Roseller Lim became the
republic act 711. It created the Province of Zamboanga
del Sur with Pagadian as its capital and Province of
Zamboanga del Norte and with Dipolog as the capital
town. Thus relieving the City of Zamboanga as the
capital of the province and allowed to govern on its own
just like its a separate province,
The City of Zamboanga does not belong to either Zamboanga
del Sur or Zamboanga del Norte.
A long way from a settlement to a metropolis and a
barter center to a major trading hub of southern
Philippines and southeast asia.
In November 22, 1983, the City of
Zamboanga was declared a highly urbanized city in the
Philippines in accordance with the provision of the
Local Government Code of 1983.
Zamboanga has an international airport and a port that can
handle container ships. Total land area of 1,421 square
kilometers (548.6 sq. miles) and a population of 511,139 (c.
1995) |
