Santa Cruz is the oldest municipality in the province; it was founded on October 5, 1884, thirty-six years after the foundation of
Davao, which is its mother city, by Don José Uyanguren of
Guipúzcoa,
Spain.
Spanish pioneers and missionaries attempted to settle and
Christianize the area in what is now
Barangay Poblacion as early as 1880. Due to the staunch
Islamic faith of the local people, the enraged pioneers and missionaries planted a cross under a shelter to mark the failure of the missionaries to convert these people to Christianity; the town's name now bears the name of the cross planted by those Spaniards. Over the following years, many locals submitted to Christianity and were conquered by Angel Rodriguez, the Spanish Governor-General of Davao. Like
Don Uyanguren's attempt to develop the newly established Davao, the area did not prosper for another two decades. The
Americans arrived in Davao in the early 1900s after the Spanish defeat in the
Spanish–American War. Fourteen years later, the town began to grow economically, although overshadowed by the booming economic growth of its neighbour
Davao. On March 16, 1936, its mother town,
Davao, became one of the first two cities in Mindanao, the other being
Zamboanga, due to the town's faster economic growth and agricultural boom. In 1942, it was the beginning of
Japanese invasion of the Philippines. The town suffered greatly during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, unlike its neighbor Davao, which fared well and continued its economic growth during that time. The local recognized guerrillas and the military troops of the
Philippine Commonwealth Army units continued to attack the Imperial Japanese forces. In 1945, combined Filipino and American troops including recognized guerrillas fought the Japanese and
liberated the town. The general headquarters of the
Philippine Commonwealth Army and
Philippine Constabulary was active from 1945 to 1946 and was located in the town. After the war, most of the inhabitants of Santa Cruz moved to Davao in search of economic opportunities; despite this, the town continued its population and economic growth, though at a slower rate. Almost three years after the Philippine Independence on July 4, 1946, two towns broke off from the municipality, namely:
Padada, on July 15, 1949; and
Digos on July 19 in the same year. In the 1960s, a new municipality,
Roxas, was carved out from the town, covering the present-day barangays of Inauayan, Darong, Astorga, Coronon, and Sibulan; however, the Supreme Court of the Philippines nullified the creation of the municipality since this meant the collapse of the jurisdiction of once the most Christianized town in Mindanao. One of the municipalities which broke off from the town, Digos, became the capital town of the newly created
Davao del Sur province in 1967; thirty-three years later it would become a city and will be the most populous in the entire province, excluding Davao City. == Geography ==