Precolonial era The area of what is now Davao City was once a lush forest inhabited by
Lumadic peoples such as the
Bagobos and
Matigsalugs, alongside other ethnic groups such as the
Aeta,
Maguindanaon and the
Kagan.
Davao River was then called Tagloc River by the Bagobos, Maguindanaons and Tausugs who then inhabited a settlement near the mouth of the river to the sea around what is now Bolton Riverside due immediately southwest of the city plaza. In 1543, Spanish explorers led by
Ruy Lopez de Villalobos sailing around Mindanao deliberately avoided the area around
Davao Gulf, then called Gulf of Tagloc, due to the danger posed by fleets of Moro warships operating in the area while surveying the southeastern coast of Mindanao for possible colonization, and as a result the Davao Gulf area remained virtually untouched by European explorers for the next three centuries.
Maguindanao era A
Maguindanaon Datu under the name
Datu Bago was rewarded the territory of the surroundings of Davao Gulf by the
Sultan of
Maguindanao Sultanate for joining the
campaign against the Spanish in the late 1700s. From his ancestral home in
Maguindanao, he moved to the area in 1800 and, having convinced Bagobos and other native groups in the area to his side, conquered the entire Davao Gulf area. Having consolidated his position, he founded the fortress of
Pinagurasan in what is now the site of Bangkerohan Public Market in 1830 which served as his capital. From being a fortification and base of operations from which Datu Bago could gather and rally his forces, the settlement of Pinagurasan eventually grew into a small city extending from present-day Generoso Bridge in Bangkerohan to Quezon Boulevard more than a kilometer down south, Being the strongest chieftain in the region, Datu Bago imposed heavy tribute on the
Mandaya tribes nearby, therefore also making him the most loathed chieftain in the region. Cruz de Uyanguren had orders from the higher authorities in
Manila to colonize the Davao Gulf region, which included the Bagobo settlement on the northern riverbank; in return, he asked for the position of the governor of the conquered area and the monopoly of its commerce for ten years. At this juncture, a Mandaya chieftain named Datu Daupan, who then ruled
Samal Island, came to him, seeking for an alliance against Datu Bago. The two chieftains were archrivals, and Cruz de Uyanguren took advantage of it, initiating an alliance between Spain and the Mandayas of Samal Island. Intent on taking the settlement for Spain, he and his men accordingly assaulted it, but the Bagobo natives fiercely resisted the attacks, which resulted in his Samal Mandaya allies to desert. Thus, a three-month long inconclusive battle for the possession of the settlement ensued which was only decided when an infantry company which sailed its way by warships from
Zamboanga came in as reinforcements, thus ensuring the takeover of the settlement and its surroundings by the Spaniards while the defeated Bagobos fled further inland while Datu Bago and his followers fled north to
Hijo where he would die two years later. in honor of his home in Spain and became its first
governor. Pinagurasan was then incorporated into the new town. Almost two years later on February 29, 1850, the province of
Nueva Guipúzcoa was established via a royal decree, with the newly founded town as the capital, once again to honor his homeland in Spain. When he was the governor of the province, however, his plans of fostering a positive economic sway on the region backfired, which resulted in his eventual replacement under orders of the colonial government. The province of Nueva Guipuzcoa was dissolved on July 30, 1860, as it became the Politico-Military Commandery of Davao. By the clamor of its natives, a petition was given to the Spanish government to rename Nueva Vergara into Davao, the latter being the name used by the natives since its founding. It was eventually accepted in 1867, and Nueva Vergara was given its present name Davao. The Spanish control of the town was unstable at best, as its
Lumad and
Moro natives routinely resisted the attempts of the Spanish authorities to forcibly resettle them and convert them into Christianity. Despite all these, such were all done with the goal of making the governance of the area easier, dividing the Christians—both settlers and native converts—and the Muslim Moros into several religion-based communities within the town.
During the Philippine Revolution As the
Philippine Revolution, having been fought for two years, neared its end in 1898, the expected departure of the Spanish authorities in Davao became apparent, although they took no part in the war at all, owing to the lack of revolutionary figures in the area save for a negligible pro-Filipino separatist rebel movement in the town of
Santa Cruz in the south. When the war finally ended, as the Spanish authorities finally left the town, two Davaoeño locals by the names of Pedro Layog and Jose M. Lerma represented the town and the region at the
Malolos Congress of 1898, therefore indicating Davao as a part of the nascent
First Philippine Republic. The period of Filipino revolutionary control of Davao did not last long, however, as the Americans landed at the town later the same year. There was no record of locals offering any sort of resistance to the Americans.
American period As the Americans began their administration of the town in 1900, economic opportunities quickly arose as huge swathes of its areas, mainly lush forests and fertile grasslands, were declared open for agricultural investment. As a result, foreign businessmen, especially Japanese entrepreneurs, started settling the region, staking their claims on the vast lands of Davao and turning them into huge coconut and banana plantations. In just a short period, Davao changed from a small and sparsely-inhabited town into a bustling economic center serving the
Davao Gulf region, heavily populated alongside natives by tens of thousands of settlers and economic migrants from
Luzon,
Visayas and Japan. The
Port of Davao was established and opened the same year to facilitate the international export of agricultural products from Davao. was established in 1926 as the Municipal Hall when it was still a town. Davao was incorporated as a part of
Moro Province from 1903 to 1914. When the province was dissolved in 1914, it led to the establishment of
Davao Province, with Davao as its provincial capital. What is now the city's Legislative Council Building served as the provincial capitol. It was built in 1926, the same year the Davao Municipal Hall, now the City Hall, was constructed. Because of the rapidly increasing progress of the town, on March 16, 1936, congressman Romualdo Quimpo from Davao filed
Bill 609 (passed as
Commonwealth Act 51), creating the City of Davao from the town of Davao and the municipal district of
Guianga. The bill called for the appointment of local officials by the president. By that time, the new city was already mostly populated with Japanese businessmen and settlers who then became its locals. the charter came into effect on March 1, 1937. It was one of the first two towns in
Mindanao to be converted into a city, the other being
Zamboanga.
Second World War On December 8, 1941, Japanese planes bombed the harbor, and from December 20 they
landed forces and began an occupation of the city which lasted until 1945. Davao was among the earliest to be occupied by Japanese forces, and the city was immediately fortified as a bastion of Japanese defense. Under the brutal Japanese regime, girls, teenagers, and young adults were kidnapped by Japanese soldiers and were forced into becoming sex slaves under the oppressive "
comfort women" system, where the victims were routinely gang-raped and killed. Korean and Taiwanese nationals were also brought by the Japanese to Davao and were forced into becoming sex slaves. The city was subjected to extensive bombing by forces led by
Douglas MacArthur before American forces landed in
Leyte in October 1944. The
Battle of Davao towards the end of
World War II was one of the longest and bloodiest battles during the Philippine Liberation, and brought tremendous destruction to the city, setting back the economic and physical strides made before the Japanese occupation.
Postwar growth version Davao regained its status as the agricultural and economic hub of Mindanao after the war ended in 1945. Wood products such as plywood and timber, and more agricultural products being produced within the city, such as copra and other varieties of banana, became available for export. Some Japanese locals—80% percent of the city's population prior to the war's end—assimilated with the Filipino population, while others were expelled from the country by the Filipino locals, due to recent enmity. Davao was peaceful and increasingly progressive in the postwar period, including the 1950s and the mid-1960s. Ethnic tensions were minimal, and there was essentially no presence of secessionists groups in Mindanao. In 1967, the
Province of Davao was divided into three provinces:
Davao del Norte,
Davao Oriental and
Davao del Sur. The city of Davao became part of Davao del Sur; no longer the provincial capital, it became a commercial center of southern Mindanao. This period also saw the first ever election of an indigenous person to the office of Mayor of Davao City, when Elias Lopez, a full-blooded Bagobo, won the mayoral elections of 1967.
Social unrest, martial law, and the 1980s By the late 1960s, Davao had become the regional capital of southern Mindanao; with the reorganization, it became the regional capital of the Davao Region (Region XI) and a highly urbanized city in the province of Davao del Sur. Things began to take a turn for the worse late into
Ferdinand Marcos' first presidential term, when news about the
Jabidah massacre ignited a furor in the Moro community, and ethnic tensions encouraged with the formation of secessionist movements. An economic crisis in late 1969 led to social unrest, and violent crackdowns on protests led to the radicalization of many students throughout the country. With no way to express their grievances about government abuses after the declaration of Martial law in 1972, many of them joined the
New People's Army (NPA), bringing the
Communist rebellion in the Philippines to Davao and the rest of Mindanao for the first time. The years immediately after Jopson's death saw an unmanageable increase in the Communist Party's ranks, however. The
1983 Philippine economic nosedive and the
Assassination of Ninoy Aquino a few months later saw the New People's Army grow to seven fronts (Battalion sized units), which coincided with a decision to experiment with strategies like urban insurrectionism. Agdao, the poor Barangay from which of the NPA got much of its support, began to be known as "Nicaragdao." Foreign press began labelling Davao the Philippines' "Murder Capital" and "Killing Fields," while the NPA's experiments with urban insurrectionism led all of Mindanao to be labeled "the laboratory of the revolution." In order to keep its large number of cadres supplied, the NPA depended heavily on local citizens for supplies, increasing the incidences of abusive behavior, and reducing support for their cause. In 1984, rightwing vigilantes with the support of
Philippine Constabulary Davao City Metropolitan Command commander Lt. Colonel Franco Calida, formed the armed group "Alsa Masa" (People's Rise) to counter them. Their presence, coinciding infighting within the NPA triggered by a hunt for deep penetration agents, was perceived as reducing NPA presence in Davao, but at the cost of the Alsa Masa itself committing human rights violations. Most Davao residents remained staunchly against violence from either extreme. Early examples had included the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Davao
Antonio L. Mabutas, who was among the first religious leaders to peacefully speak out against the
Human rights abuses of the Marcos dictatorship. However, these peaceful citizens lacked the political clout to influence the situation much before 1983. One stabilizing element was the designation of then-Colonel
Rodolfo Biazon as commander of the 3rd Marine Brigade assigned to Davao. In what the international press dubbed "the most sophisticated approach" to addressing the insurgency, Ordinary citizens began to have more of a voice for change after the economic crisis of 1983, the
assassination of Ninoy Aquino, to organize a protest group called the "Yellow Friday Movement", which slowly gained support until 1986, when Marcos was finally ousted and forced into exile. • Atty Laurente "Larry" Ilagan, an alumnus of the Ateneo de Davao Law School who became a prominent Human Rights Lawyer with the
Free Legal Assistance Group; • Eduardo Lanzona, an Economics Professor and Union Organizer who was arrested in Davao Del Norte and eventually killed by Marcos' forces in 1975; • Activist Maria Socorro Par who pushed for the restoration of the student council and school paper Atenews in the mid70s after they had been shut down in Martial Law, • Atenews Editor in Chief Evella Bontia; • Law School alumnus Nicolas Solana Jr., • ADDU High School alumnus Ricky Filio and Joel Jose.
After the People Power revolution Because the local leaders of the time were closely associated with Marcos, they were removed by the 1986 revolutionary government which took power after Marcos's ouster. Rodrigo Duterte later ran for Mayor of Davao City and won, taking the top city office from 1988 to 1998, from 2001 to 2010, and yet again from 2013 to 2016, after which
he became President of the Philippines. ==Geography==