Maguindanao Sultanate According to Maguindanao royal records, Islam was introduced to the Maguindanaos in the late 15th century by Sharif
Muhammad Kabungsuan, a Johorean Malay Muslim noble and missionary of Arab descent. Sharif Kabungsuan invaded
Malabang in 1475, facing armed resistance from the principality, nevertheless successfully vanquishing and subjugating it to his Islamic rule through the employment of
Samal forces. Cotabato became the capital of the Maguindanao Sultanate. The city became the seat of power of Sultan
Muhammad Kudarat in 1619.
Spanish invasion Christianity was introduced in 1596, but the Spaniards were unable to penetrate into the region until the second half of the 19th century. The district of Cotabato was formed in 1860, covering the areas of what is now Cotabato,
Maguindanao del Norte,
Maguindanao del Sur, and
Sultan Kudarat provinces with its capital at
Tamontaka.
Fort Pikit was established by the Spaniards in 1893 as they continued their conquest of the remnants of
Maguindanao Sultanate, which would soon be the site of one of the province's oldest towns,
Pikit.
American rule The coming of the Americans ushered in the creation of the
Moro Province on July 15, 1903, through
Act No. 787 of the
Philippine Commission. Cotabato, covering what are now the provinces of Cotabato,
Maguindanao del Norte,
Maguindanao del Sur,
Sultan Kudarat,
South Cotabato and
Sarangani, became a district of the huge Moro province. During the American period, large companies were established in Cotabato to exploit the vast timber resources of the region. By the 1930s, settlers from Luzon and Visayas established homesteads in Cotabato.
Japanese invasion In December 1941, Japanese planes bombed and invaded Cotabato. In 1942, Cotabato was occupied by the
Japanese Imperial forces. A military headquarters of the
Philippine Commonwealth Army existed in Cotabato from January 3, 1942, to June 30, 1946, and the
Philippine Constabulary 10th Constabulary Regiment was stationed in Cotobato from October 28, 1944, to June 30, 1946. Moro guerrilla fighters operating in the province of Cotabato helped local forces of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and the Philippine Constabulary 10th Constabulary Regiment fight against the Imperial Japanese Army until 1944. The Moro guerrillas fought the Japanese troops until liberation. In 1945, Cotabato was recaptured from the Japanese Imperial forces by the combined Filipino and American troops together with the recognized Moro guerrilla units. The guerrillas used the traditional Moro
Kampilan,
Barong and
Kris swords as their weapons.
Postwar Era The pace of settlement in the region accelerated in the 1950s and 1960s. The
former province of Cotabato was once the largest in the Philippines. In 1966,
South Cotabato was created as a separate province. Mindanao, including Cotabato, was relatively peaceful in the 1950s and the mid-1960s. While there were some ethnic tensions, there was essentially no presence of secessionist groups in Mindanao yet.
During the Marcos dictatorship The relative peace of the postwar era began to change in the last years of President
Ferdinand Marcos'
first term, when news about the
Jabidah massacre ignited a furor in the Moro community, and ethnic tensions encouraged with the formation of secessionist movements. None of these groups had enough followers to form a viable opposition until Marcos declared Martial Law, but when political parties were dissolved upon the proclamation of Martial Law in September 1972, it became easy for the armed secessionist group known as the
Moro National Liberation Front to consolidate power, and the decades-long
Moro conflict began in earnest. One major event of Martial law which took place in Cotabato was the
Manili massacre, which saw the
mass murder of 70 to 79
Moros, including women and children, committed in a
mosque in Manili,
Carmen on June 19, 1971. The Muslim residents of the town had gathered in their mosque to participate in a supposed peace talk with
Christian groups when a group of armed men suspected to be part of the
Ilaga militant group
North Cotabato was later renamed
Cotabato through
Batas Pambansa Blg. 660 approved on March 7, 1984.
Post-1986 By the aftermath of the
plebiscite to form the autonomous administrative region of
Bangsamoro in February 2019, 63 barangays from Cotabato's western municipalities, all of which inhabited mostly by Muslim natives, opted to join the newly formed region. This will result in the reduction of the number of barangays the province currently administers after the national midterm elections on May 13, 2019. Cotabato now comprises the capital city of
Kidapawan and 25 municipalities. ==Geography==