Ma-i and Bruneian alliance against China By the 800s, British Historian Robert Nicholl citing Arab chronicler Al Ya'akubi, had written that on those years, the kingdoms of Muja (Then Pagan
Brunei/Vijayapura) and Mayd (
Ma-i) waged war against the Chinese Empire. and Sumatra in a rebellion against Rajah Makatunao, who was a Chola-appointed local rajah. This oral legend of ancient Hiligaynons rebelling against Rajah Makatunao have corroboration in Chinese records during the Song dynasty when Chinese scholars recorded that the ruler during a February 1082 AD diplomatic meeting, was Seri Maharaja, and his descendant was Rajah Makatunao and was together with Sang Aji (grandfather to Sultan Muhammad Shah). According to the Maragtas the dissidents against new Rajah's rule and their retinue, tried to revive Srivijaya in a new country called Madja-as in the Visayas islands (an archipelago named after Srivijaya) in the Philippines. Seeing how the actual Srivijayan Empire reached even the outer coast of Borneo, which is already neighboring the Philippines, Historian Robert Nicholl implied that the Srivijayans of Sumatra, Vijayans of Vijayapura at Brunei-Sarawak, and the Visayans in the Philippines were all related and connected to each other since they form one contiguous area.
Champa-Sulu War The
Chams who migrated to
Sulu were called Orang Dampuan. The
Champa civilization and the port-kingdom of
Sulu engaged in commerce with each other which resulted in merchant Chams settling in Sulu where they were known as Orang Dampuan from the 10th to 13th century. The Orang Dampuan were slaughtered by envious native Sulu Buranuns due to the wealth of the Orang Dampuan. The Buranun were then subjected to retaliatory slaughter by the Orang Dampuan. Harmonious commerce between Sulu and the Orang Dampuan was later restored. The Yakans were descendants of the Taguima-based Orang Dampuan who came to Sulu from Champa. Sulu received civilization in its Indic form from the Orang Dampuan.
Visayan raids against China kadatuan (royal) and his wife wearing red, the distinctive color of their class. He is wielding a golden sword. Antecedent to these raids, sometime between A.D. 1174 and 1190, a traveling Chinese government bureaucrat Chau Ju-Kua reported that a certain group of "''ferocious raiders of China's Fukien coast''" which he called the "Pi-sho-ye", believed to have lived on the southern part of
Formosa. In A.D. 1273, another work written by Ma Tuan Lin, which came to the knowledge of non-Chinese readers through a translation made by the Marquis D'Hervey de Saint-Denys, gave reference to the
Pi-sho-ye raiders, thought to have originated from the southern portion of
Formosa. However, the author observed that these raiders spoke a different language and had an entirely different appearance (presumably when compared to the inhabitants of Formosa). Some scholars have put forth the theory that the Pi-sho-ye were actually people from the
Visayas islands.
Pon-i Invasion of Philippine Kingdoms During the 12th century, then-Hindu Brunei called "Pon-i", as reported in the Chinese annals
Nanhai zhi, invaded Malilu 麻裏蘆 (present-day Manila) as it also administered
Sarawak and
Sabah, as well as the Philippine kingdoms
Butuan,
Sulu,
Ma-i (Mindoro),
Shahuchong 沙胡重 (present-day Siocon), Yachen 啞陳 (
Oton), and 文杜陵 Wenduling (present-day
Mindanao). Manila regained independence.
War between Sulu and Majapahit In the mid 14th century, the
Majapahit empire mentioned in its manuscript
Nagarakretagama Canto 14, written by
Prapanca in 1365, that the area of Solot (
Sulu) was part of the empire.
Nagarakretagama was composed as a eulogy for their emperor
Hayam Wuruk. However, Chinese sources then report that in 1369, the Sulus regained independence and in vengeance, assaulted Majapahit and its province,
Po-ni (Brunei) which Majapahit invaded, looting it of treasure and gold. A fleet from the Majapahit capital succeeded in driving away the Sulus, but
Po-ni was left weaker after the attack and the Majapahit collaborating Pon-i royalty have to deal with the theft of two sacred pearls by Sulu. The Majapahit Empire, attempted to reconquer the kingdoms of Sulu and Manila but they were permanently repulsed. Furthermore, the Sulus counter-invaded deep into Majapahit held
East Kalimantan and
North Kalimantan War between the Moros and Cebu During the early 1400s, Rajamuda Sri Lumay, a
Chola dynasty prince who rebelled against the Cholas and sided with his Malay subjects established an independent Tamil-Malay Indianized kingdom in Cebu called the
Rajahnate of Cebu, he established his country by waging scorched earth tactics against raiders from Mindanao. War between the Muslims and Cebu lasted until the Spanish era. '' in a European museum
Brunei's invasion of Tondo, incorporation of Sulu and establishment of Manila The
Battle of Manila (1500s) was fought in
Manila between citizens of the
Kingdom of Tondo led by their Lakan, Sukwu and the soldiers of the
Sultanate of Brunei led by Sultan
Bolkiah the singing captain. The aftermath of the battle was the formation of an alliance between the newly established
Kingdom of Maynila (Selurong) and the
Sultanate of Brunei, to crush the power of the
Kingdom of Tondo and the subsequent installation of the Pro-Islamic Rajah Sulaiman into power. Furthermore, Sultan Bolkiah's victory over Sulu and Seludong (modern day Manila), as well as his marriages to Laila Mecanai the daughter of Sulu Sultan Amir Ul-Ombra (an uncle of Sharifa Mahandun married to Nakhoda Angging or Maharaja Anddin of Sulu), and to the daughter of Datu Kemin, widened Brunei's influence in the Philippines.
Territorial conflict between Manila and Tondo According to the account of Rajah Matanda as recalled by Magellan expedition members Gines de Mafra, Rodrigo de Aganduru Moriz, and expedition scribe Antonio Pigafetta, Maynila had a territorial conflict with Tondo in the years before 1521. At the time, Rajah Matanda's mother (whose name was not mentioned in the accounts) served as the
paramount ruler of the Maynila polity, taking over from Rajah Matanda's father (also unnamed in the accounts), who had died when Rajah Matanda was still very young. Rajah Matanda, then simply known as the "Young Prince" Ache, was raised alongside his cousin, who was ruler of Tondo – presumed by some to be a young Bunao Lakandula, although not specifically named in the accounts. During this time, Ache realized that his cousin, who was ruler of the Tondo polity, was "
slyly" taking advantage of Ache's mother by taking over territory belonging to Maynila. When Ache asked his mother for permission to address the matter, his mother refused, encouraging the young prince to keep his peace instead. Prince Ache could not accept this and thus left Maynila with some of his father's trusted men, to go to his "grandfather", the Sultan of Brunei, to ask for assistance. The Sultan responded by giving Ache a position as commander of his naval force. In 1521, Prince Ache was coming fresh from a military victory at the helm of the Bruneian navy and was supposedly on his way back to Maynila with the intent of confronting his cousin when he came upon and attacked the remnants of the Magellan expedition, then under the command of
Sebastian Elcano. Some historians suggest that Ache's decision to attack must have been influenced by a desire to expand his fleet even further as he made his way back to Lusong and Maynila, where he could use the size of his fleet as leverage against his cousin, the ruler of Tondo.
Battle of Mactan The Battle of Mactan on April 27, 1521, is celebrated as the earliest reported resistance of the natives in the Philippines against western invaders.
Lapu-Lapu, a Chieftain of
Mactan Island, defeated Christian European explorers led by the Portuguese navigator
Ferdinand Magellan. On March 16, 1521, the island of
Samar was sighted. The following morning, March 17, Magellan landed on the island of
Homonhon. He parleyed with Rajah Calambu of
Limasawa, who guided him to
Cebu Island on April 7. With the aid of Magellan's Malay interpreter, Enrique, Rajah Humabon of Cebu and his subjects converted to Christianity and became allies. Suitably impressed by Spanish firearms and artillery, Rajah Humabon suggested that Magellan project power to cow Lapu-Lapu, who was being belligerent against his authority. Magellan deployed 49 armored men, less than half his crew, with crossbows and guns, but could not anchor near land because the island is surrounded by shallow coral bottoms and thus unsuitable for the Spanish galleons to get close to shore. His crew had to wade through the surf to make a landing and the ship was too far to support them with artillery.
Antonio Pigafetta, a
supernumerary on the voyage who later returned to Seville, Spain, records that Lapu-Lapu had at least 1500 warriors in the battle. During the battle, Magellan was wounded in the leg, while still in the surf. As the crew were fleeing to the boats, Pigafetta recorded that Magellan covered their retreat, turning at them on several occasions to make sure they were getting away, and was finally surrounded by a multitude of warriors and killed. The total toll was of eight crewmen killed on Magellan's side against an unknown number of casualties from the Mactan natives.
The Kedatuan of Dapitan vs the Ternate and Lanao Sultanates By 1563, before the full Spanish colonization agenda came to Bohol, the Kedatuan of Dapitan was at war with the Sultanate of Ternate, a Papuan speaking Muslim state in the Moluccas, which was also raiding the Rajahnate of Butuan. At the time, Dapitan was ruled by two brothers named Dalisan and Pagbuaya. The Ternateans at the time were allied to the Portuguese. Dapitan was destroyed by Ternateans and Datu Dalisan was killed in battle. His brother, Datu Pagbuaya, together with his people fled to Mindanao and established a new Dapitan in the northern coast of the Zamboanga peninsula and displaced its Muslim natives. In the process, waging war against the Sultanate of Lanao and conquering territories from the Sultanate.
Lucoes Mercenary Activity Due to the conflict-ridden nature of the Philippine archipelago, warriors were forged in the many wars in the islands, thus the islands acquired a reputation for its capable mercenaries, which were soon employed all across South and Southeast Asia with some influence even manifested in East Asia at
Japan where Lucoes sailors initially guided Portuguese ships to the Shogunate and even South Asia in
Sri Lanka where Lungshanoid pottery from Luzon were found in burials there.
Lucoes (warriors from
Luzon) aided the Burmese king in his invasion of
Siam in 1547 AD. At the same time, Lusung warriors fought alongside the Siamese king and faced the same elephant army of the
Burmese king in the defense of the Siamese capital at Ayuthaya. The former
sultan of
Malacca decided to retake his city from the
Portuguese with a fleet of ships from Lusung in 1525 AD. Pinto noted that there were a number of them in the Islamic fleets that went to battle with the Portuguese in the Philippines during the 16th century. The Sultan of Aceh gave one of them (Sapetu Diraja) the task of holding Aru (northeast Sumatra) in 1540. Pinto also says one was named leader of the Malays remaining in the Moluccas Islands after the Portuguese conquest in 1511. Pigafetta notes that one of them was in command of the Brunei fleet in 1521.) or Supreme Governor and Chief General. The Lucoes were so commercially and militarily influential that the Portuguese soldier Joao de Barros considered them, "the most warlike and valiant of these parts." Yet among themselves the Lucoes were not united and the Portuguese soldier, Mendes Pinto noted that Muslim and Non-Muslim Lucoes rivaled each other. ==Spanish colonial period (1565–1898)==