Rajahnate of Sanmalan The Zamboanga Peninsula was settled in the late 12th or early 13th century by the
Subanen people; along with the Subanen, it was also the homeland of the ancestors of the
Yakan, the
Balanguingui, and other closely related
Sama-Bajau peoples. The 11th-century Chinese
Song dynasty records also mention a polity named "
Sanmalan" (三麻蘭) from Mindanao, which has a name similar to Zamboanga and has been tentatively identified with it by some authors (Wang, 2008; Huang, 1980). Sanmalan is said to be led by a Rajah "Chülan". His ambassador, "Ali Bakti", and that of the
Butuan's "Likan-hsieh" are recorded as having visited the Chinese imperial court with gifts and trade goods in AD 1011. However, the correlation between Zamboanga and Sanmalan is based only on their similar-sounding names. Sanmalan is mentioned only in conjunction with Butuan (P'u-tuan), and it is unknown whether Sanmalan is indeed Zamboanga. The historian
William Henry Scott (1989) also posits the possibility that Sanmalan instead referred to a polity of the
Sama-Bajau ("Samal") people. During the 13th century, the
Tausūg people began migrating to the Zamboanga Peninsula and the
Sulu Archipelago from their homelands in northeastern Mindanao. They became the dominant ethnic group in the archipelago after they were
Islamized in the 14th century and established the
Sultanate of Sulu in the 15th century. A majority of the Yakan, the Balanguingui, and the Sama-Bajau were also Islamized, though most of the Subanen remained animist (except the Kolibugan subgroup in southwestern Zamboanga).
Spanish rule , detail from the
Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas, 1734 Spanish explorers, led by
Ferdinand Magellan, arrived in the Philippine archipelago in 1521. Zamboanga was chosen in 1569 as the site of the Spanish settlement and garrison on La Caldera (now part of Barangay Recodo). Spain granted the former polity in the area protectorate status against the Sulu Sultanate, its former overlord and the settlement's name was hispanized into Zamboanga and made a city. Zamboanga City was one of the main strongholds in
Mindanao, supporting colonial efforts in the southern part of the island and paving the way for
Christian settlements. It also served as a military outpost, protecting the island against foreign invaders and
Moro pirates. In 1599, the Zamboanga fort was closed and transferred to
Cebú due to great concerns about an attack by the English on that island, which did not occur. After having abandoned the city, the Spaniards, as well as some Spanish-American soldiers from
Peru and New Spain (Mexico) led by the former Governor of Panama, Don
Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, who also brought along
Genoese crusaders who had
settled in Panama, joined forces with troops from
Pampanga and
Visayan soldiers (from
Bohol,
Cebu and
Iloilo) and reached the shore of Zamboanga to bring peace to the island against
Moro Muslim pirates. In 1635, Spanish officers and soldiers, along with Visayan laborers, settled in the area, and construction began on Fort San José (now known as
Fort Pilar) to protect the inhabitants from Moro piracy. Specifically, on April 5, 1635, Cebu sent a force of 300 Spanish and 1,000 Visayan troops to settle and colonize Zamboanga City under the command of Captain Juan de Chavez. Zamboanga became the main headquarters of the Spaniards on June 23, 1635, upon approval of
King Philip IV of Spain; the Spanish officially founded the city. Thousands of Spanish troops, headed by a governor general from Spain, took the approval to build the first Zamboanga fortress (now called Fort Pilar) in Zamboanga to forestall enemies in Mindanao like Moro pirates and other foreign invaders. There were also a hundred Spanish troops sent to fortify the nearby
Presidio of
Iligan. During the years 1636 and 1654, the Presidio of Zamboanga received companies of 210 and 184 reinforcements of
Mexican soldiers. The Zamboanga fortress became the main focus of several battles between Moros and Spaniards during Spanish rule in the region from the 16th century to the 18th. Spain was forced to abandon Zamboanga temporarily and withdraw its soldiers to
Manila in 1662 after the Chinese under
Koxinga threatened to invade the Spanish Philippines. Despite the official Spanish forces leaving, the Jesuits remained in Zamboanga. They shepherded the civilian Christian population and treated Zamboanga much like their
reductions in Paraguay, until the Spanish returned. The Spanish returned to Zamboanga in 1718, and rebuilding of the fort began the following year. The fort would serve as a defense for the Christian settlement against Moro pirates and foreign invaders for the coming years. There was the deportation of mostly Spanish-American and Spanish vagrants from Manila to Zamboanga, which helped advance a colonizing program against the Muslim south, further illustrating how the resistance to Spanish sovereignty in Mindanao and Borneo determined imperial policies on the islands. While the region was already dominated by
Catholicism,
Muslims kept up a protracted struggle into the 18th century against the ruling Spaniards. A British naval squadron conducted a
raid on Zamboanga in January 1798, but was driven off by the city's defensive fortifications. As a result of the census of 1818, there was a surveyed number of 8,640 souls in the province of Zamboanga. There was a detachment of 100 Spanish soldiers from Manila. Before his assignment in Zamboanga he trained the native
Guarani in the
Jesuit Reductions of Paraguay, in wars against the Portuguese Empire's
Bandeirantes slavers, supporting them in their independence wars against enslavement, before the
Suppression of the Jesuits (Accused of supporting Native Americans against colonial interests) left the
Paraguayans alone and without royal support. Without the Jesuits present to protect native interests, revolutions and wars of independence against the injustices committed by the Imperial powers towards the natives they ruled transpired. At 1823, inspired by the Spanish-American Wars of Independence, the Spanish-Americans who had been sent to Zamboanga and the Philippines as soldiers, joined in the revolt of
Andres Novales; he fought for sovereignty and became the short-lived Emperor of the Philippines. Due to the era of the
Latin American Wars of Independence, Spain feared that the large Mexican and South American population in the Philippines would incite the Filipinos to rebel, thus the Spaniards direct from Spain were imported (Peninsulares) and the Latin American class in the Philippines were displaced and were forced into a lower rank of the caste system, which they reacted negatively to. In 1831, the custom house in Zamboanga was established as a port, and it became the main port for direct communication, trading some goods and other services to most of Europe,
Southeast Asia and
Latin America. The American invaders arrived in the Philippines during the time of Spanish Governor
General Valeriano Weyler, with thousands of troops to defeat the Spaniards who ruled for over three centuries. The Spanish government sent more than 80,000 Spanish troops to the Philippines. The Spanish government completely surrendered the islands to the United States in the 1890s.
Establishing its own Republic The
Republic of Zamboanga was established directly on May 28, 1899, after the Zamboangueño revolutionary forces defeated the last Spanish government in Zamboanga. Fort Pilar was turned over to General
Vicente Álvarez, who, between May and November 1899, was the first president of the República de Zamboanga. He assembled a revolutionary army which was diverse and filled with Christians, Muslims, and Lumads. This republic continued to exist until 1903, with Isidoro Midel as its second president under a puppet government of the United States; he was succeeded by Mariano Arquiza.
American occupation Upon the firm establishment of
American colonization and dissolution of the Republic in 1903, Zamboanga, as a municipality, was designated as the capital of the
Moro Province, a semi-military government consisting of five districts: Zamboanga,
Cotabato,
Davao,
Lanao and
Sulu. It established itself the center of commerce, trade, and government of Mindanao Island. During this period, Zamboanga hosted some American regional governors, including General
John J. Pershing, who was military commander/governor of the Moro Province from 1909 to 1914. In 1920, Zamboanga City ceased to be capital of the Moro Province when the department was divided into provinces in which the city became under the large
province of Zamboanga. This encompasses the present-day
Zamboanga Peninsula, including the entire province of
Basilan.
Commonwealth era and city charter signing the City Charter of Zamboanga in a ceremony held at the
Malacañang Palace in (1936) When the
Commonwealth government was established in 1935, calls to convert the municipality of Zamboanga into a city increased. On September 23, 1936, through Assemblyman Juan Alano,
the National Assembly of the Philippines passed Commonwealth Act No. 39 making Zamboanga a chartered city consisting of "the present territorial jurisdiction of the municipality of Zamboanga, the municipality of Bolong, the municipal district of Taluksangay, the whole island of
Basilan and the adjacent islands, i.e., the municipality of
Isabela, the municipal district of
Lamitan, and the municipal district of
Maluso." The city became a branch hub of
Unit 731 for human experimentation conducted by Japanese doctors. Among the experiments include amputations, dissections, and vivisections on live Filipinos. American and Filipino forces overthrew the Japanese government in the city following a fierce battle on March 10–12, 1945. On April 7, 1953, by virtue of Republic Act No. 840, the city was classified as a first-class city according to its revenue. On April 29, 1955, a special law changed the landscape of the city government when Republic Act No. 1210 amended the City Charter that made elective the position of city mayor and the creation of an elective vice mayor and eight elective city councilors. The vice mayor is the presiding officer of the City Council. In November 1955,
Liberal Party candidate
Cesar Climaco, with his running mate, Tomas Ferrer, won the first local elections. They were inducted into office on January 1, 1956, as determined by the Revised Election Code.
Martial law years On September 21, 1972, President
Ferdinand Marcos signed
Proclamation No. 1081 placing the Philippines under
martial law. Zamboanga City's local government came under presidential control for the first time since 1955. Marcos extended Mayor Joaquin Enriquez's term when his tenure was about to end in 1975. President Marcos reorganized the local government on November 14, 1975. The city council was replaced by a
Sangguniang Panlungsod with the mayor as its new presiding officer and its members included the vice mayor, the chairman of the
Katipunan ng mga Kabataang Barangay, the president of the
Association of Barangay Captains, and sectoral representatives of agriculture, business and labor. When Mayor Enriquez resigned and bid for the newly created
Interim Batasang Pambansa in 1978, Vice Mayor Jose Vicente Atilano II was appointed by President Marcos to replace him.
Climaco's return and assassination (1980–1984) In 1980,
Cesar Climaco staged his political comeback when he was elected again to the mayoral post under his new party, the Concerned Citizens' Aggrupation. He had gone into exile to the United States in protest against Marcos' declaration of martial law. In the
1984 Philippine parliamentary election, Climaco was elected a member of the
Regular Batasang Pambansa. However, he declined to assume his seat until he had completed his six-year term as mayor in his consistent protest against Marcos. Climaco's protest against the dictator earned Zamboanga City the distinction of 'the beacon of democracy in Mindanao'. On the morning of November 14, 1984, Climaco was assassinated as he was returning to his office after overseeing the response to a fire in downtown Zamboanga City. A man approached from behind the mayor and shot him in the nape at point-blank range. Marcos administration officials pinned the blame on a Muslim group led by
Rizal Alih, and he was later honored by having his name inscribed on the wall of remembrance of the Philippines'
Bantayog ng mga Bayani (Memorial of Heroes), which honors the martyrs and heroes who fought the dictatorship.
21st century On November 19, 2001, the Cabatangan Government Complex in Barangay Cabatangan, the seat of the
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, was
raided by former MNLF fighters in protest of Misuari's ouster as Governor of the autonomous region in which they took residents hostage. The complex also houses various regional government offices, such as the Commission on Audit, Population Commission, Civil Service Commission, Area Vocational Rehabilitation Center, DECS Training Center, and the Zamboanga Arturo Eustaquio College Department of Criminology. An air strike by the military began on November 27, in which the hostages were later released after the government agreed to escort the rebels to a safe zone in Panubigan, where they were allowed to go free. In 2013,
Maria Isabelle Climaco Salazar, niece of former Mayor
Cesar Climaco, was elected the second woman mayor of the city.
Zamboanga City crisis On September 9, 2013, a faction of the
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) under the leadership of
Nur Misuari seized hostages in Zamboanga City and attempted to raise the flag of the self-proclaimed
Bangsamoro Republik, a state which declared its
independence earlier in August, in
Talipao,
Sulu. This armed incursion was met by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which sought to free the hostages and expel the MNLF from Zamboanga City. The standoff degenerated into urban warfare and brought parts of the city to a standstill for days. Mayor Climaco-Salazar and her administration are relocating the internally displaced persons (IDPs) affected by the crisis to temporary sites and, later, to permanent housing in various places around Zamboanga City. Her rehabilitation plan, "Zamboanga City Roadmap to Recovery and Rehabilitation (Z3R)", envisions building back a better Zamboanga City and rehabilitating the areas affected by the crisis.
Post-Pandemic Era ==Geography==