Maynila, also known commonly as Manila, was a major
Islamic
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
Tagalog ''
bayan
Bayan may refer to:
Educational institutions
* Bayan Islamic Graduate School, Chicago, IL
Places
*Bayan-Aul, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan
*Bayan Mountain, an ancient mountain name for part of Tarbagatai Mountains at Kazakhstan in Qing Dynasty period
*B ...
'' ("country" or "city-state")
situated along the modern-day district of
Intramuros
Intramuros () is the historic walled area within the city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. It is administered by the Intramuros Administration with the help of the city government of Manila.
Intramuros comprises a centuries-old hist ...
in the city of
Manila
Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...
, at the southern bank of the
Pasig River
The Pasig River (; ) is a water body in the Philippines that connects Laguna de Bay to Manila Bay. Stretching for , it bisects the Philippine capital of Manila and Metro Manila, its surrounding urban area into northern and southern halves. Its m ...
.
[Abinales, Patricio N. and Donna J. Amoroso, State and Society in the Philippines. Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.] It was considered to be one of the most cosmopolitan of the early historic settlements on the
Philippine archipelago
As an archipelago, the Philippines comprises about 7,641 islands clustered into three major island groups: Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. Only about 2,000 islands are inhabited, ,
fortified
A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Lat ...
with a
wooden palisade which was appropriate for the
predominant battle tactics of its time.
At the northern bank of the river lies the separately-led polity of
Tondo.
Maynila was led by
paramount rulers who were referred to using the Malay title of "Raja".
In popular literature and in
history texts from the first few decades after Philippine independence, precolonial Maynila is often referred to as the "Kingdom of Maynila", and its Rajas portrayed as "kings," even if they did not exercise sovereignty in the technical sense of achieving a "
monopoly on the legitimate use of force".
[Rafael, Vicente L. (2005) The Promise of the Foreign: Nationalism and the Technics of Translation in the Spanish Philippines.] Instead, limited population sizes, the ready availability of land, and seasonally migratory agricultural practices meant that their authority was based on interpersonal loyalty structures and social obligations vis a vis clearly defined territorial dominion.
Maynila is sometimes interpreted to be the Kingdom of Luzon, although some historians suggest that this might rather refer to the
Manila Bay
Manila Bay (; ) is a natural harbor that serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines. Strategically located around the Manila, capital city of the Philippines, Manila Bay facilitated commerce and trade between the Philippines and ...
region as a whole, expanding the possible dominion of the kingdom.
The earliest oral traditions suggest that Maynila was founded as a Muslim settlement as early as the 1250s, supposedly supplanting an even older pre-Islamic settlement.
However, the earliest archeological findings for organized human settlements in the area dates to around 1500s.
By the 16th century, it was already an important trading center, with extensive political ties with the Sultanate of Brunei and extensive trade relations with traders from the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...
.
With Tondo, the polity on the northern part of the Pasig River delta, it established a duopoly on the intraarchipelagic trade of Chinese goods.
For political reasons, the historical rulers of Maynila maintained close cognatic ties through intermarriage with the ruling houses of the Sultanate of Brunei, but Brunei's political influence over Maynila is not considered to have extended to military or political rule.
Intermarriage was a common strategy for large
thassalocratic states such as Brunei to extend their influence, and for local rulers such as those of Maynila to help strengthen their family claims to nobility.
Actual political and military rule over the large distances characteristic of Maritime Southeast Asia was not possible until relatively modern times.
By 1570, Maynila was under the rule of two
paramount ruler
{{Use American English, date=December 2018
The term paramount ruler, or sometimes paramount king, is a generic description, though occasionally also used as an actual title, for a number of rulers' position in relative terms, as the summit of a f ...
s (the more senior
Rajah Matanda
Ache (c. 1500s - 1572; Old Spanish orthography: ''Rája Aché'' or ''Raxa Ache'', also known as ''Rája Matandâ'' ("the Old King"), was King of Luzon who ruled from the kingdom's capital Maynila now the capital of the Republic of the Philippin ...
and the younger
Rajah Sulayman
Sulayman, sometimes referred to as Sulayman III (Arabic script: سليمان, Abecedario: ''Solimán'') (d. 1590s), was a Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Luzon in the 16th century and was a nephew of Rajah Ache of Luzon. He was the commander of ...
), who in turn had several lower-ranked rulers ("
datu
''Datu'' is a title which denotes the rulers (variously described in historical accounts as chiefs, sovereign princes, and monarchs) of numerous Indigenous peoples throughout the Philippine archipelago. The title is still used today, though no ...
") under them.
This was the political situation encountered by
Martin de Goiti Martin may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land
* Port Martin, Adelie Land
* Point Martin, South Orkney Islands
Europe
* Martin, Croatia, a village
* Martin, Slovakia, a city
* Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain
* M ...
when he attacked Maynila in May of that year.
This
"Battle of Maynila" ended with a fire that destroyed the fortified settlement of Maynila,
although it is not clear whether the fire was set by Goiti or by the inhabitants themselves as part of the scorched earth tactics typically used in the archipelago during that era.
Maynila had been partially rebuilt by the following year, 1571, when the full forces of de Goiti's superior,
Miguel López de Legazpi
Miguel López de Legazpi (12 June 1502 – 20 August 1572), also known as ''Adelantado, El Adelantado'' and ''El Viejo'' (The Elder), was a Spanish conquistador who financed and led an expedition to conquer the Philippines, Philippine islan ...
, arrived in the city to claim it as a territory of
New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...
.
After extensive negotiations with the leaders of Maynila and those of the neighbouring settlement in Tondo,
Maynila was declared as the new Spanish
city of Manila
Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on the island of Luzon, it is ...
on June 24, 1571, effectively ending Maynila's history as an independent polity.
Sources
Laura Lee Junker, in her 1998 review of primary sources regarding archaic Philippine polities, lists the primary sources of information regarding the river delta polities of Maynila and Tondo as "''Malay texts, Philippine oral traditions, Chinese tributary records and geographies, early Spanish writings, and archaeological evidence''."
Primary sources for the history of Rajah Kalamayin's
Namayan
Namayan (Baybayin: Pre-Kudlit: or (''Sapa''), Post-Kudlit: ), also called SapaLocsin, Leandro V. and Cecilia Y. Locsin. 1967. ''Oriental Ceramics Discovered in the Philippines.'' Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company. and sometimes Lamayan, ...
, further upriver, include artifacts dug up from archaeological digs (the earliest of which was
Robert Fox’s
[Locsin, Leandro V. and Cecilia Y. Locsin. 1967. ''Oriental Ceramics Discovered in the Philippines.'' Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company. ] work for the National Museum in 1977) and Spanish colonial records (most notably those compiled by the 19th century Franciscan Historian
Fray Felix Huerta).
Junker noted the inherent biases of each of the written sources, emphasizing the need to counter-check their narratives with one another, and with empirical archeological evidence.
Etymology
''Maynilà'' comes from the
Tagalog phrase ''may-nilà'', which translates to "where indigo is found."
''Nilà'' is derived from the
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
word ''nīla'' (
नील) which refers to
indigo
InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...
, and, by extension, to
several plant species from which this natural
dye
Juan de Guillebon, better known by his stage name DyE, is a French musician. He is known for the music video of the single "Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical ele ...
can be extracted.
The ''Maynilà'' name is more likely in reference to the presence of indigo-yielding plants growing in the area surrounding the settlement, rather than ''Maynilà'' being known as a settlement that trades in indigo dye,[ since the settlement was founded several hundred years before indigo dye extraction became an important economic activity in the area in the 18th century.][ The native Tagalog name for the indigo plant, ''tayum'' (or variations thereof)] actually finds use in another toponym within the Manila area: Tayuman, "where the indigo (plant) is."
An inaccurate but nevertheless persistent etymology asserts the origin of the placename as ''may-nilad'' ("where ''nilad'' is found").[ Here, ''nilad'' refers to either: (incorrectly) the ]water hyacinth
''Pontederia crassipes'' (formerly ''Eichhornia crassipes''), commonly known as common water hyacinth, is an aquatic plant native to South America, naturalized throughout the world, and often invasive species, invasive outside its native rang ...
(''Eichhornia crassipes''), which is a colonial introduction to the Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
from South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
and therefore could not have been the plant species referred to in the toponym; or (correctly) a shrub-like tree ('' Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea'', formerly ''Ixora manila'' Blanco) found in or near mangrove
A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...
swamps,[ and known as ''nilád'' or ''nilár'' in Tagalog.]
From a linguistic perspective, it is unlikely for native Tagalog speakers to completely drop the final consonant in ''nilad'' to achieve the present form ''Maynilà''.[ Historian ]Ambeth Ocampo
Ambeth Raymundo Ocampo is a Filipino public historian, academic, cultural administrator, journalist, author, and independent curator. He is best known for his definitive writings about Philippines' national hero José Rizal and on topics in Ph ...
also states that in all early documents the place had always been called "''Maynilà''" (eventually adopted into Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas
**Spanish cuisine
**Spanish history
**Spanish culture
...
as ''Manila'') — and never referred to with the final . Despite the ''may-nilad'' etymology being erroneous, it continues to be perpetuated through uncritical repetition in both literature[An example is: ] and popular imagination.
Maynila as the Kingdom of Luzon
Portuguese and Spanish records in the 1500s state that Maynila was the same as the kingdom that was referred to as the Kingdom of Luzon ( Portuguese: ''Luçon'', possibly from the name "''Lusong''"), and whose citizens had been called "'' Luções''".
Magellan expedition member Rodrigo de Aganduru Moriz's account of the events of 1521 specifically describes how the Magellan expedition, then under the command of Sebastian Elcano after the death of Magellan, captured of one of the ''Luções'': Prince Ache, who would later be known as Rajah Matanda
Ache (c. 1500s - 1572; Old Spanish orthography: ''Rája Aché'' or ''Raxa Ache'', also known as ''Rája Matandâ'' ("the Old King"), was King of Luzon who ruled from the kingdom's capital Maynila now the capital of the Republic of the Philippin ...
, who was then serving as a commander of the Naval forces of Brunei. Aganduru Moriz described the "young prince" as being "''the Prince of Luzon - or Manila, which is the same.''” corroborated by fellow expedition member Gines de Mafra and the account of expedition scribe Antonio Pigaffetta.
This description of Ache as "King of Luzon" was further confirmed by the Visayan allies of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, who, learning that he wanted to "befriend" the ruler of Luzon, led him to write a letter to Ache, whom he addressed as the "King of Luzon".
Kapampangan researcher Ian Christopher Alfonso, however, notes that the demonym Luções was probably expansive enough to include even Kapampangan sailors, such as the sailors from Hagonoy and Macabebe who would later be involved in the 1571 Battle of Bangkusay Channel
The Battle of Bangkusay (; ), on June 3, 1571, was a naval engagement that marked the last resistance by locals to the Spanish Empire's occupation and colonization of the Pasig River delta, which had been the site of the indigenous polities of t ...
.
The name ''Luzon'', which French linguist Jean-Paul Potet explains was the name given to the Pasig River delta area, is thought to derive from the Tagalog word ''lusong'', which is a large wooden mortar used in dehusking rice. A 2008 PIDS research paper by Eulito Bautista and Evelyn Javier provides an image of a Lusong, and explains that, "''Traditional milling was accomplished in the 1900s by pounding the palay with a wooden pestle in a stone or wooden mortar called lusong. The first pounding takes off the hull and further pounding removes the bran but also breaks most grains. Further winnowing with a bamboo tray (bilao) separates the hull from the rice grains. This traditional hand-pounding chore, although very laborious and resulted in a lot of broken rice, required two to three skilled men and women to work harmoniously and was actually a form of socializing among young folks in the villages.''"
Maynila as a ''bayan''
According to the earliest Tagalog dictionaries, large coastal settlements like Tondo and Maynila, which were ultimately led by a lakan or rajah, were called ''bayan'' in the Tagalog language. This term (which is translated today as "town") was common among the various languages of the Philippine archipelago, and eventually came to refer to the entire Philippines, alongside the word ''bansa'' (or ''bangsa'', meaning "nation").
Prehistory
Prehistoric migrations
Austronesian expansion ( 3,500 years ago)
There is some debate about whether the Austronesian culture first came to the island of Luzon from continental Asia as proposed by Peter Bellwood
Peter Stafford Bellwood (born Leicester, England, 1943) is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. He is well known for his Early Farming Dispersal H ...
and Robert Blust
Robert A. Blust (; zh, c=白樂思, p=Bái Lèsī; May 9, 1940 – January 5, 2022) was an American linguist who worked in several areas, including historical linguistics, lexicography and ethnology. He was Professor of Linguistics at the Uni ...
, or from Maritime Southeast Asia as proposed by Wilhelm Solheim and William Meacham. But whichever route these Austronesians first used to get to the Philippine archipelago, the general consensus among scholars is that they settled on what is now the island of Luzon during the earliest stages of their migratory dispersal no later than about 3,500 years ago, and later waves of migration spread from the Philippine archipelago to reach as far east as Easter Island, and as far west as Madagascar.
Tagalog migrations
Not much is known about when the Tagalog and Kapampangan peoples came to occupy the lands surrounding Manila Bay, but linguists
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds and equivalent gestures ...
such as Dr. David Zorc and Dr. Robert Blust
Robert A. Blust (; zh, c=白樂思, p=Bái Lèsī; May 9, 1940 – January 5, 2022) was an American linguist who worked in several areas, including historical linguistics, lexicography and ethnology. He was Professor of Linguistics at the Uni ...
speculate that the Tagalogs and other Central Philippine ethno-linguistic groups originated in Northeastern Mindanao
Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...
or the Eastern Visayas
The Visayas ( ), or the Visayan Islands (Bisayan languages, Visayan: ''Kabisay-an'', ; Filipino language, Filipino: ''Kabisayaan'' ), are one of the three Island groups of the Philippines, principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, a ...
. The Tagalog language is believed to have branched out from a hypothesized "proto-language" which linguists have dubbed "Proto-Philippine language," another branch of which was the Visayan languages
The Bisayan languages or Visayan languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages spoken in the Philippines. They are most closely related to Tagalog and the Bikol languages, all of which are part of the Central Philippine languages. Mo ...
.[Zorc, David. 1977. "The Bisayan Dialects of the Philippines: Subgrouping and Reconstruction". ''Pacific Linguistics'' C.44. Canberra: The Australian National University]
Some Filipino historians such as Jaime Tiongson have asserted that some of the words used in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription
The Laguna Copperplate Inscription is an official acquittance ( debt relief) certificate inscribed onto a copper plate in the Shaka year 822 ( Gregorian A.D. 900). It is the earliest-known, extant, calendar-dated document found within the Phil ...
came from Old Tagalog
Old Tagalog (; Baybayin: pre-virama: , post-virama rus kudlit ; post-virama amudpod ᜎᜓᜋᜅ᜕ ᜆᜄᜎᜓᜄ᜕), also known as Old Filipino, is the earliest form of the Tagalog language during the Classical period. It is the primary l ...
, although the text itself used the Javanese Kawi script
The Kawi script or the Old Javanese script (, ) is a Brahmic script found primarily in Java and used across much of Maritime Southeast Asia between the 8th century and the 16th century.Aditya Bayu Perdana and Ilham Nurwansah 2020Proposal to en ...
.
Like the majority of peoples of Maritime Southeast Asia
Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the Southeast Asian countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor.
The terms Island Southeast Asia and Insular Southeast Asia are sometimes given the same meaning as ...
, the Tagalog people who established the fortified polity of Maynila were Austronesians
The Austronesian people, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples who have settled in Taiwan, maritime Southeast Asia, parts of mainland Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesi ...
. They had a rich, complex culture, with its own expressions of language and writing, religion, art, and music. This Austronesian culture was already in place before the cultural influences of China, the southern thassalocracatic mandalas of Srivijaya and Majapahit, and Brunei, and eventually, the western colonial powers. The core elements of this Austronesian culture also persisted despite the introductions of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and, later, Christianity. Elements of these belief systems were syncretized by the Tagalogs to enrich their already-existing worldviews, elements of which still persist today in the syncretic forms of folk Catholicism and folk Islam.
These Austronesian cultures are defined by their languages, and by a number of key technologies including the cultural prominence of boats, the construction of thatched houses on piles, the cultivation of tubers and rice, and a characteristic social organization typically led by a “big man” or “man of power”.
History
Theories and legends regarding the establishment of Maynila ( mid-13th century – early 16th century)
Establishment through defeat of Rajah Avirjirkaya by Rajah Ahmad of Brunei ( 1258)
According to Mariano A. Henson's genealogical research (later brought up by Majul in 1973, and by Santiago in 1990) a settlement in the Maynila area already existed by the year 1258. This settlement was ruled by "Rajah Avirjirkaya" whom Henson described as a "Majapahit Suzerain".
According to Henson, this settlement was attacked by a Bruneian commander named Rajah Ahmad, who defeated Avirjirkaya and established Maynila as a "Muslim principality".
Nanhai Zhi annals (1304)
The Chinese History Annals, the Nanhai Zhi (South Seas Chronicles) made mentions of polities such as Malilu (麻裏蘆), Mayi (麻逸), Meikun (美昆), Puduan (蒲端), Sulou (苏录), Shahuchong (沙胡重), Yachen (哑陈), Manaluonu (麻拿囉奴) and Wenduling (文杜陵), which was ruled by Foni (佛坭). According to Chinese historian Wang Zhenping, the locations mentioned in the chronicle can be attributed to the following modern equivalent places:
* Foni (佛坭) - Brunei
Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...
* Malilu (麻裏蘆) - Manila or Polillo
* Mayi (麻逸) - Mindoro
Mindoro is the seventh largest and eighth-most populous island in the Philippines. With a total land area of 10,571 km2 ( 4,082 sq.mi ), it has a population of 1,408,454, as of the 2020 census. It is located off the southwestern coast of ...
* Meikun (美昆) - Manukan or Camiguin
Camiguin, officially the Province of Camiguin (; ; Kamigin: ''Probinsya ta Kamigin''), is an island province in the Philippines located in the Bohol Sea, about off the northern coast of mainland Mindanao. It is geographically part of Region ...
* Puduan (蒲端) - Butuan
Butuan (pronounced ), officially the City of Butuan (; Butuanon: ''Dakbayan hong Butuan''; ), is a highly urbanized city and the regional center of Caraga, Philippines. It is the '' de facto'' capital of the province of Agusan del Norte ...
* Sulou (苏录) - Sulu
Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Wilaya' sin Lupa' Sūg''; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago.
It was part of the Bangsamoro, Bangsamoro Autonomous R ...
* Shahuchong (沙胡重) - Siocon or Siaton
* Yachen (哑陈) - Oton
Oton, officially the Municipality of Oton (; , , ), is a municipality in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 98,509 people making it as the most populous town in the province and the entire ...
* Manaluonu (麻拿囉奴) - Maranao
The Maranao people ( Maranao: ''Bangsa'' ''Mëranaw''; Filipino: ''mga'' ''Maranaw''), also spelled Meranaw, Maranaw, and Mëranaw, is a predominantly Muslim Filipino ethnic group native to the region around Lanao Lake in the island of Mi ...
or the Malanu tribe in Sarawak
Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...
* Wenduling (文杜陵) - Mindanao
Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...
or Bintulu
Bintulu is a coastal town on the island of Borneo in the central region of Sarawak, Malaysia. Bintulu is located northeast of Kuching, northeast of Sibu, and southwest of Miri, Malaysia, Miri. With a population of 114,058 as of 2010, Bintulu ...
Influence of Brunei (early 16th century)
Maynila, along with Tondo, was a prosperous trading settlement by the 16th century, ruled by Bruneian aristocrats intermarried with the Tagalog elite. The ruling class were fluent in both Malay and Tagalog, and many of the people in Maynila were literate, compared to those of the Visayas. It was because of this relationship that the Tagalog language used in Maynila began absorbing Malay words into their own vocabulary. Somewhere in the early 16th century, the ruler of Maynila, Rajah Salalila or Panguiran Salalila, was married to a daughter of Sultan Bolkiah and princess Puteri Laila Menchanai of Sulu. Apart from ruling over Maynila, Panguiran Salalila was also acknowledged by the chiefs of Mindoro to be their overlord.
Maynila as Saludang/Selurong
In the 14th century, according to the epic eulogy poem Nagarakretagama
The ''Nagarakretagama'' or ''Nagarakṛtāgama'', also known in Bali as ''Desawarnana'' or ''Deśavarṇana'', is an Old Javanese eulogy to Hayam Wuruk, a Javanese king of the Majapahit Empire. It was written on lontar as a ''kakawin'' by ...
, which was dedicated to Maharaja
Maharaja (also spelled Maharajah or Maharaj; ; feminine: Maharani) is a royal title in Indian subcontinent, Indian subcontinent of Sanskrit origin. In modern India and Medieval India, medieval northern India, the title was equivalent to a pri ...
Hayam Wuruk
Hayam Vuruk ( Indonesian: ''Hayam Wuruk'', Sanskrit: हयम् वुरुक्, Kawi: ꦲꦪꦩ꧀ꦮꦸꦫꦸꦏ꧀) (1334–1389), also called Rajasanagara, Pa-ta-na-pa-na-wu, or Bhatara Prabhu after 1350, was a Javanese Hindu emperor fr ...
of the Madjapahit, ''Saludang'', also called ''Seludong/Selurung'' was listed in Canto 14 alongside Sulot (Sulu
Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Wilaya' sin Lupa' Sūg''; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago.
It was part of the Bangsamoro, Bangsamoro Autonomous R ...
) and Kalka as its territories.
The idea of Maynila being ''Saludang'' was first mentioned in a book by Cesar A. Majul titled 'Muslims in the Philippines' (1973), stating:''"Brunei Sultan Bulkeiah (Nakhoda Ragam), who "was the Rajah who conquered the kingdom of Soolook and made a dependency of the country of Selurong, the Rajah of which was called DATOH GAMBAN", according to the Brunei Selesilah. Now, according to Brunei tradition, Selurong is said to be "in the island of Luzon and the site of the present town of Manila".''
Many other scholars, such as William Henry Scott (1994) and Mohammed Jamil Al-Sufri (2000), acknowledged the theory of Maynila as Selurong/Saludang. Scott noted that ''"according to Bruneian folk history"'', ''"Manila was probably founded as a Bornean trading colony about 1500, with a royal prince marrying into the local ruling family.''"
In the original Selesilah however,Datu Imam Aminuddin mentions:
''"... and the Sultan begot Sultan Bolkiah, who fought a war with the people of Sulu and defeated the kingdoms of Sulu and Seludang whose ruler was Datu Gamban. Sultan Bolkiah was also named by the elders as 'Nakhoda Ragam'. He married Princess Lela Manjani (Menchanai)."''
French linguist Jean-Paul Potet notes that "''According to some, Luzon and Manila would have been called Seludong or Selurong by the Malays of Brunei before the Spanish conquest (Cebu 1565, Manila 1571).''" However, Potet also points out that ''"there is no text to support this claim. Conversely, Borneo has a mountain site called Seludong."'' Saunders (1994) meanwhile suggests that Saludang or Seludang is located on the Serudong River in eastern Sabah
Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...
.
Portuguese presence (1511 – 1540s)
During the early 16th century, Portuguese sailors in Malaysia referred to the Tagalog people who lived in Manila Bay ("''Lusong''", Portuguese: ''Luçon'') using the demonym
A demonym (; ) or 'gentilic' () is a word that identifies a group of people ( inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place ( hamlet, village, town, city, region, ...
Luções (, Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas
**Spanish cuisine
**Spanish history
**Spanish culture
...
: ''Luzones'').
Surviving primary documents referring to these Luções include the accounts of Fernão Mendes Pinto
Fernão Mendes Pinto (; 1509 – 8 July 1583) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese explorer and writer. His voyages are recorded in ''Pilgrimage'' (), his autobiographical memoir, which was published posthumously in 1614. The historical accura ...
(1614); Tomé Pires
Tomé Pires (c. 1468 — c. 1524/1540) was a Portuguese apothecary, colonial administrator, and diplomat. In 1510 he was commissioned by the Portuguese court to serve as a " factor of drugs" in India, arriving at Cannanore in 1511. In 1512 he was ...
(whose written documents were published in 1944); and the survivors of Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan ( – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer best known for having planned and led the 1519–22 Spanish expedition to the East Indies. During this expedition, he also discovered the Strait of Magellan, allowing his fl ...
's expedition, including expedition members Gines de Mafra and Rodrigo de Aganduru Moriz and the Italian scholar Antonio Pigafetta
Antonio Pigafetta (; – c. 1531) was a Venetian scholar and explorer. In 1519, he joined the Spanish expedition to the Spice Islands led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, the world's first Magellan's circumnavigation, circumnavigation, ...
who served as the expedition's primary scribe, and published his account in 1524.
The Portuguese first established a presence in Maritime Southeast Asia
Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the Southeast Asian countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor.
The terms Island Southeast Asia and Insular Southeast Asia are sometimes given the same meaning as ...
with their capture of Malacca in 1511,[Newton, Arthur Percival (1929) ''The Cambridge History of the British Empire'' p. 1]
and their contacts with the seafarers they described as ''Luções'' (lit. people from "''lusong''", the area now known as Manila Bay) became the first European accounts of the Tagalog people, as Anthony Reid recounts:''The first European reports on the Tagalogs classify them as "Luzons", a nominally Muslim commercial people trading out of Manila, and "almost one people" with the Malays of Brunei.''
The Portuguese chronicler Tomé Pires, Tome Pires noted that in their own country, the Luções had "foodstuffs, wax
Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to give lo ...
, honey, inferior grade gold", had no king, and were governed instead by a group of elders. They traded with tribes from Borneo and Indonesia, and Filipino historians note that the language of the Luções was one of the 80 different languages spoken in Malacca
Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...
.
As skilled sailors, the Lucoes were actively involved in the political and military/naval affairs of those who sought to take control of the economically strategic highway of the Strait of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, long and from wide, between the Malay Peninsula to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connecting the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and the South China Sea (Pa ...
, serving in the fleets of the Sultans of Ache and Brunei, and the former Sultan of Malacca, Scholars have suggested that they may have served as highly skilled naval mercenaries sought after by various fleets of the time.
Portuguese and Spanish accounts from the early to mid 1500s state that the Maynila polity was the same as the "kingdom"[Scott (1994) notes that Spanish chroniclers continued to use the terms "king" and "kingdom" to describe the polities of Tondo and Maynila until late 1571, when Martin de Goiti's first forays into Bulacan and Pampanga clarified to the Spanish that the alliances of the Tondo and Maynila polities with the Kapampangan polities did not include territorial claim or absolute command. San Buenaventura (1613, as cited by Junker, 1990 and Scott, 1994) later noted that Tagalogs only applied the term ''Hari'' (King) to foreign monarchs, rather than their own leaders.] that had been referred to as the "Kingdom of Luzon" ( Portuguese: ''Luçon'', locally called "''Lusong''"), and whose residents had been called "''Luções''".
However, Kapampangan scholars such as Ian Christopher Alfonso add that it is also possible that while the Portuguese and Spanish chroniclers specifically equated "Luçon" with Rajah Matanda's Maynila polity, the description may have been expansive enough to describe other polities in the Manila bay area, including Tondo as well as the Kapampangans of Hagonoy and Macabebe.
Territorial conflicts with Tondo (before 1521)
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, Rajah Matanda's father (whose name was not mentioned in the accounts) died when he was still very young. Rajah Matanda's mother (also unnamed in the Spanish accounts) then became the paramount ruler of the Maynila polity. In the meantime, Rajah Matanda, then simply known as the "Young Prince" Ache, was raised alongside his cousin, who was ruler of Tondo, although not specifically named in the Spanish accounts.
During this time, Ache realized that his cousin, who was ruler of Tondo, 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.
Pigaffetta noted that Ache was "''much feared in these parts''", but especially the non-Muslim locals, who considered the Sultan of Brunei an enemy.
Capture of Prince Ache by the Elcano expedition (1521)
In 1521, Ache was coming fresh from a military victory at the helm of the Bruneian navy as he just razed the Buddhist city of Laoue in Southwest Borneo to the ground, under orders from his grandfather, the Bruneian Sultan, and was supposedly on his way 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[Jose Rizal, as cited by Dery, 2001] 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.
Ache was eventually released, supposedly after the payment of a large ransom. One of Ache's slaves, who was not included in the ransom payment, then became a translator for the Elcano expedition.
Spanish advent (1570s)
In the mid-16th century, the areas of present-day Manila were governed by native rajahs. Rajah Matanda
Ache (c. 1500s - 1572; Old Spanish orthography: ''Rája Aché'' or ''Raxa Ache'', also known as ''Rája Matandâ'' ("the Old King"), was King of Luzon who ruled from the kingdom's capital Maynila now the capital of the Republic of the Philippin ...
(whose real name was recorded by the Legaspi expedition as Ache) and his nephew, Rajah Sulayman
Sulayman, sometimes referred to as Sulayman III (Arabic script: سليمان, Abecedario: ''Solimán'') (d. 1590s), was a Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Luzon in the 16th century and was a nephew of Rajah Ache of Luzon. He was the commander of ...
"Rajah Mura" or "Rajah Muda" (a Sanskrit title for a Prince), ruled the Muslim communities south of the Pasig River
The Pasig River (; ) is a water body in the Philippines that connects Laguna de Bay to Manila Bay. Stretching for , it bisects the Philippine capital of Manila and Metro Manila, its surrounding urban area into northern and southern halves. Its m ...
, including Maynila while Lakandula
Lakandula (Baybayin: , Filipino orthography, Spanish orthography: ''Lacandola'') was the title of the last ''lakan'' or paramount ruler of History of the Philippines (900–1521), pre-colonial Tondo (historical polity), Tondo when the Spain, Sp ...
ruled non-Muslim Tondo north of the river. These settlements held ties with the sultanates of Brunei
Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...
, Sulu
Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Wilaya' sin Lupa' Sūg''; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago.
It was part of the Bangsamoro, Bangsamoro Autonomous R ...
, and Ternate
Ternate (), also known as the City of Ternate (; ), is the
List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city with the largest population in the province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands, Indonesia. It was the ''de facto'' provi ...
, Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
(not to be confused with Ternate
Ternate (), also known as the City of Ternate (; ), is the
List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city with the largest population in the province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands, Indonesia. It was the ''de facto'' provi ...
in present-day Cavite
Cavite, officially the Province of Cavite (; Chavacano: ''Provincia de Cavite''), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region. On the southern shores of Manila Bay and southwest of Manila, i ...
). Maynila was centered on a fortress (''kota'') along the Pasig delta. When the Spanish came and invaded Manila they described the bayan as a settlement with a fortress of rammed earth
Rammed earth is a technique for construction, constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as soil, earth, chalk, Lime (material), lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently ...
with stockade
A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall.
Etymology
''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived f ...
s lined with cannons
A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during t ...
(''lantaka'') between battlement
A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals ...
s. The cannons were locally manufactured and forged by Panday Piray. When the Spanish invaded and burned the kota to the ground, they built up the Christian walled city of Intramuros
Intramuros () is the historic walled area within the city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. It is administered by the Intramuros Administration with the help of the city government of Manila.
Intramuros comprises a centuries-old hist ...
on the ruins of Islamic Manila.
Government and politics
Class structure
The precolonial Tagalog barangays of Manila
Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...
, Pampanga
Pampanga, officially the Province of Pampanga (; ; ), is a province in Central Luzon in the Philippines. Lying on the northern shore of Manila Bay, Pampanga is bordered by Tarlac to the north, Nueva Ecija to the northeast, Bulacan to the east, ...
and Laguna had a more complex social structure than the Visayans (except for lowland Panay), directly participating in commerce elsewhere with the rest of Southeast and East Asia through their Bornean political contacts and proximity to the South China Sea tradewinds, and engaging in widespread wet rice agriculture provided by the tropical savanna
Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is dominated by grass and/or shrubs located in semi-arid to semi-humid climate regions of subtropical and t ...
landscape. The Tagalogs were thus described by the Spanish Augustinian friar Martin de Rada as more traders than warriors.
In his seminal 1994 work "''Barangay: Sixteenth Century Philippine Culture and Society''" (further simplified in the briefer by the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office in 2015), historian William Henry Scott delineates the three classes of Tagalog society during the 1500s:
:* the ''maginoo'' (ruling class), which included the Lakan or Rajah and the Datus under him;
:* A class described as "Freemen" consisting of ''timawa'' and ''maharlika''; and
:* ''Alipin'' (slaves), which could further be subcategorized as ''aliping namamahay'' or ''alipin sa gigilid''.
Leadership and governance
One of the most cosmopolitan of the early historic settlements on the Philippine archipelago, Maynila was led by paramount rulers who were referred to using the Malay title of "Raja," which is in turn derived from the Sanskrit language. In popular literature, Maynila is often referred to as a "kingdom", and its Rajas as "kings," even if they did not exercise sovereignty in the technical sense of achieving a "monopoly on the legitimate use of force".
Because population density throughout the archipelago was very low and agricultural practices involved regularly changing planting locations every season and year to maximize the fertility value of the soil, rulership was based on interpersonal loyalty structures and social obligations rather than clearly defined territorial dominion.
These leaders buttressed their right to rule by gaining prestige, notably by establishing trade and family relations with other regional powers. This was manifested in these leaders taking on foreign symbols of prestige such as the Sanskrit title raja and nominally claiming Islamic beliefs, although early chroniclers noted that the population at large did not seem to hold on to Islamic beliefs and practices and continued, for example, to retain pork as an important part of their diet.
Diplomacy
Culture and society
Clothing and accoutrements
Early Spanish accounts describe the Tagalogs as using local plants to dye their cotton clothing. This included ''tayum'' or ''tagum'', which produced a blue dye, and ''dilao'', which produced a yellow dye.
Unlike the Bicolanos and Visayans to the east and south and the peoples of the northern Luzon highlands, the Tagalogs did not practice tattooing. In fact, Rajah Sulayman
Sulayman, sometimes referred to as Sulayman III (Arabic script: سليمان, Abecedario: ''Solimán'') (d. 1590s), was a Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Luzon in the 16th century and was a nephew of Rajah Ache of Luzon. He was the commander of ...
used tattooedness as a pejorative description when the Spanish forces first met him; Sulayman said that Tagalogs were unlike the "painted" Visayans, and thus would not allow themselves to be taken advantage of as easily.
Religion
Historical accounts, supported by archeological and linguistic evidence and corroborated by anthropological studies, show that the Tagalog people, including those in Tondo and Maynila, practiced a set of Austronesian beliefs and practices which date back to the arrival of Austronesian peoples, although various elements were later syncretized from Hinduism, Mahayana Buddhism
Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main existing branches of Buddhism, the others being Thera ...
, and Islam.
The Tagalogs did not have a specific name for this set of religious beliefs and practices, although later scholars and popular writers refer to it as ''Anitism'',[Almocera, Ruel A., (2005) Popular Filipino Spiritual Beliefs with a proposed Theological Response. in Doing Theology in the Philippines. Suk, John., Ed. Mandaluyong: OMF Literature Inc. Pp 78-98] or, less accurately, using the general term ''animism''.
Coexistence with and syncretistic adaptation from other beliefs
One specific exception to the predominance of Anitism in early Tondo and Maynila was that the apex-level leaders of these polities identified themselves as Muslims, as did the migrant sailor Luzones who were encountered by early 15th century chroniclers in Portuguese Malacca
Portuguese control of Malaccaa city on the Malay Peninsulaspanned a 130 year period from 1511 to 1641 as a possession of the Portuguese East Indies. It was captured from the Malacca Sultanate as part of Portuguese attempts to gain control of ...
. However, the various ethnographic reports of the period indicate that this seemed to only be a nominal identification ("Muslim by name") because there was only a surface level acknowledgement of Muslim norms (avoidance of pork, non-consumption of blood, etc.) without an "understanding of Mohammedan teachings." Scholars generally believe that this nominal practice of Islam actually represented the early stages of Islamization, which would have seen a much more extensive practice of Muslim beliefs had the Spanish not arrived and introduced their brand of Iberian Catholicism.
Osborne (2004) describes a similar process of "adaptation" happening in connection with Hindu and Buddhist influences in the various cultures of Maritime Southeast Asia, and emphasizes that this "indianization" of Southeast Asia did not per-se overwrite existing indigenous patterns, cultures, and beliefs: "''Because Indian culture “came” to Southeast Asia, one must not think that Southeast Asians lacked a culture of their own. Indeed, the generally accepted view is that Indian culture made such an impact on Southeast Asia because it fitted easily with the existing cultural patterns and religious beliefs of populations that had already moved a considerable distance along the path of civilization. ..Southeast Asians, to summarize the point, borrowed but they also adapted. In some very important cases, they did not need to borrow at all.''"
Tagalog religious cosmology
The Tagalog belief system was more or less anchored on the idea that the world is inhabited by spirits and supernatural entities, both good and bad, and that respect must be accorded to them through worship.
According to the early Spanish missionary-ethnographers, the Tagalog people believed in a creator-god named ''Bathala'', whom they referred to both as ''maylicha'' (creator; lit. "actor of creation") and ''maycapal'' (lord, or almighty; lit. "actor of power"). Loarca and Chirino also report that in some places, they were "Molayri" (Molaiari) or "Diwata" (Dioata)."
However, these early missionary-ethnographers also noted that the Tagalogs did not include Bathala in their daily acts of worship (''pagaanito''). Buenaventura was informed that this was because the Tagalogs believed Bathala was too mighty and distant to be bothered with the concerns of mortal man, and so the Tagalogs focused their acts of appeasement to "lesser" deities and powers, immediate spirits which they believed had control over their day-to-day life.
Because the Tagalogs did not have a collective word to describe all these spirits together, Spanish missionaries eventually decided to call them "anito," since they were the subject of the Tagalog's act of ''pagaanito'' (worship). According to Scott, accounts and early dictionaries describe them as intermediaries ("Bathala's agents"), and the dictionaries "used the word abogado (advocate) when defining their realms." These sources also show, however, that in practice, they were addressed directly: "''in actual prayers, they were petitioned directly, not as intermediaries.''" Modern day writers divide these spirits broadly into the categories of "Ancestor spirits, nature spirits, and guardian spirits," although they also note that the dividing line between these categories is often blurred.
Demetrio, Cordero-Fernando, and Nakpil Zialcita observe that the Luzon Tagalogs and Kapampangans' use of the word ''anito'', instead of the word ''diwata'' which was more predominant in the Visayan regions, indicated that these peoples of Luzon were less influenced by the Hindu and Buddhist beliefs of the Madjapahit empire than the Visayans were. They also observed that the words were used alternately amongst the peoples in the southernmost portions of Luzon - the Bicol Region, Marinduque, Mindoro, etc. They suggested that this have represented transitional area, the front lines of an increased "Indianized" Madjapahit influence which was making its way north the same way Islam was making its way north from Mindanao.
Foreign cultural influences
Trade and cultural influences from China, India, and Maritime Southeast Asia
The early inhabitants of present-day Manila engaged in trade relations with its Asian neighbours as well as with the Hindu empires of Java
Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
and Sumatra
Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...
, as confirmed by archaeological findings. Trade ties with China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
became extensive by the 10th century, while contact with Arab
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
merchants reached its peak in the 12th century.[History of Manila](_blank)
Accessed September 8, 2008.
Beginnings of Islamization in Luzon (1175 – 1500s)
Archeological findings provide evidence that followers of Islam had reached the Pasig River area by 1175; among the graves found on the Sta. Ana burial site were a number of Muslim burials.
Islamization was a slow process which occurred with the steady conversion of the citizenry of Tondo and Manila created Muslim domains. The Bruneians installed the Muslim rajahs, Rajah Salalila and Rajah Matanda
Ache (c. 1500s - 1572; Old Spanish orthography: ''Rája Aché'' or ''Raxa Ache'', also known as ''Rája Matandâ'' ("the Old King"), was King of Luzon who ruled from the kingdom's capital Maynila now the capital of the Republic of the Philippin ...
in the south (now the Intramuros
Intramuros () is the historic walled area within the city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. It is administered by the Intramuros Administration with the help of the city government of Manila.
Intramuros comprises a centuries-old hist ...
district) and the Buddhist-Hindu settlement was ruled under Lakan Dula
Lakandula (Baybayin: , Spanish orthography: ''Lacandola'') was the title of the last ''lakan'' or paramount ruler of pre-colonial Tondo when the Spaniards first conquered the lands of the Pasig River delta in the Philippines in the 1570s.
Th ...
in northern Tundun (now Tondo). Islamization of Luzon
Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...
began in the sixteenth century when traders from Brunei settled in the Manila area and married locals while maintaining kinship and trade links with Brunei and thus other Muslim centres in Southeast Asia. The Muslims were called "Moros
In Greek mythology, Moros /ˈmɔːrɒs/ or Morus /ˈmɔːrəs/ (Ancient Greek: Μόρος means 'doom, fate') is the personified spirit of impending doom, who drives mortals to their deadly fate. It was also said that Moros gave people the abi ...
" by the Spanish who assumed they occupied the whole coast. Islam had become a major political or religious force in the region.
Economy
Historians widely agree that the larger coastal polities which flourished throughout the Philippine archipelago in the period immediately prior to the arrival of the Spanish colonizers (including Tondo and Maynila) were "organizationally complex", demonstrating both economic specialization and a level of social stratification which would have led to a local demand for "prestige goods".
Specialized industries in the Tagalog and Kapampangan regions, including Tondo and Maynila, included agriculture
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
, textile weaving, basketry
Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets ...
, metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys.
Metallurgy encompasses both the ...
, carpentry
Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. C ...
, hunting
Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...
, among others. The social stratification which gave birth to the ''maginoo'' class created a demand for prestige products including ceramics
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...
, silk textiles, and precious stones. This demand, in turn, served as the impetus for both internal and external trade.
Junker notes that significant work still needs to be done in analyzing the internal/local supply and demand dynamics in pre-Spanish era polities, because much of the prior research has tended to focus on their external trading activities. Scott notes that early Spanish lexicons are particularly useful for this analysis, because these early dictionaries captured many words which demonstrate the varied nuances of these local economic activities.
Trade
Junker describes coastal polities of Tondo and Maynila's size as "administrative and commercial centers functioning as important nodes in networks of external and internal trade." While the basic model for the movement of trade goods in early Philippine history saw coastal settlements at the mouth of large rivers (in this case, the Pasig river delta) controlling the flow of goods to and from settlements further upriver (in this case, the upland lakeside barangays of Laguna de Bay
Laguna de Bay ( Spanish for "Lagoon/Lake of Bay"; , ), also known as Laguna Lake and alternatively spelled "Laguna de Bae", is the largest lake in the Philippines. It is located southeast of Metro Manila, between the provinces of Laguna to t ...
), Tondo and Maynila had trade arrangements which allowed them to control trade throughout the rest of the archipelago. Scott observes that while the port of Tondo had the monopoly on arriving Chinese merchant ships, it was Maynila's fleet of trading vessels which in turn retailed them to settlements throughout the rest of the archipelago, so much so that Maynila's vessels, alongside Bornean, came to be known as "Chinese" (''sinina'').
Redistribution of Chinese and Japanese goods
The most lucrative of Tondo's economic activities involved the redistribution of Chinese goods, which would arrive in Manila bay through Tondo's port and be distributed throughout the rest of the archipelago, mostly through Maynila's extensive shipping activities.
The Chinese and Japanese migrations to Malaya and the Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
shore began in the 7th century and reached their peak after 1644 owing to the Manchu
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic peoples, Tungusic East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized Ethnic minorities in China, ethnic minority in China and the people from wh ...
conquest of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. These Chinese and Japanese immigrants settled in Manila
Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...
, Pasig
Pasig, officially the City of Pasig (), is a highly-urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 803,159 people.
It is located along the eastern border of Metro Mani ...
included, and in the other ports, which were annually visited by their trade junks
A junk () is a type of Chinese sailing ship characterized by a central rudder, an overhanging flat transom, watertight bulkheads, and a flat-bottomed design. They are also characteristically built using iron nails and clamps. The term applie ...
, they had cargoes of silk
Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...
, tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...
, ceramics
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...
, and their precious jade
Jade is an umbrella term for two different types of decorative rocks used for jewelry or Ornament (art), ornaments. Jade is often referred to by either of two different silicate mineral names: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in t ...
stones.
According to William Henry Scott (1982), when ships from China and Japan came to Manila bay, Lakandula would remove the sails and rudders of their ships until they paid him duties and anchorage fees, and then he would then buy up all their goods himself, paying half its value immediately and then paying the other half upon their return the following year. In the interim, these goods would be traded throughout the rest of the archipelago. The result was that other locals were not able to buy anything from the Chinese and Japanese directly, but from Tondo and Maynila, who made a tidy profit as a result.
Augustinian Fray Martin de Rada Legaspi says that the Tagalogs were "''more traders than warriors''", and Scott notes in a later book (1994) that Maynila's ships got their goods from Tondo and then dominated trade through the rest of the archipelago. People in other parts of the archipelago often referred to Maynila's boats as "Chinese" or "Japanese' (Sina or Sinina) because they came bearing Chinese and Japanese goods.
Agriculture
The people of Maynila engaged in agriculture. A report during the time of Miguel López de Legazpi
Miguel López de Legazpi (12 June 1502 – 20 August 1572), also known as ''Adelantado, El Adelantado'' and ''El Viejo'' (The Elder), was a Spanish conquistador who financed and led an expedition to conquer the Philippines, Philippine islan ...
noted of the great abundance of rice
Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...
, fowl
Fowl are birds belonging to one of two biological orders, namely the gamefowl or landfowl ( Galliformes) and the waterfowl ( Anseriformes). Anatomical and molecular similarities suggest these two groups are close evolutionary relatives; toget ...
s, wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...
as well as great numbers of carabao
Carabaos () are a genetically distinct population of swamp-type water buffaloes ('' Bubalus bubalis kerabau'') from the Philippines.FAO 2013''Philippine Carabao/Philippines''In: Domestic Animal Diversity Information System. Food and Agriculture ...
s, deer
A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...
, wild boar
The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...
and goat
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...
husbandry in Luzon. In addition, there were also great quantities of cotton
Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...
and colored clothes, wax
Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to give lo ...
, wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...
, honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...
and date palm
''Phoenix dactylifera'', commonly known as the date palm, is a flowering-plant species in the palm family Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet #Fruits, fruit called dates. The species is widely cultivated across North Africa, northern A ...
s produced by the native peoples, rice
Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...
, cotton
Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...
, swine
Suina (also known as Suiformes) is a suborder of omnivorous, non-ruminant artiodactyl mammals that includes the domestic pig and peccaries. A member of this clade is known as a suine. Suina includes the family Suidae, termed suids, known in ...
, fowls, wax and honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...
abound.
Crop production
Rice was the staple food of the Tagalogs and Kapampangans, and its ready availability in Luzon despite variations in annual rainfall was one of the reasons Legaspi wanted to locate his colonial headquarters on Manila bay. Scott's study of early Tagalog lexicons revealed that the Tagalogs had words for at least 22 different varieties of rice.
In most other places in the archipelago, rootcrops served as an alternate staple in seasons when rice was not readily available. These were also available in Luzon, but they were desired more as vegetables, rather than as a staple. Ubi, tugi, gabi and a local root crop which the Spanish called kamoti (apparently not the same as the sweet potato, sweet potato
The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of ...
, Ipomoea batatas) were farmed in swiddens, while "laksa" and "nami" grew wild. Sweet potatoes (now called camote) were later introduced by the Spanish.
Millet was common enough that the Tagalogs had a word which meant "milletlike": "''dawa-dawa''".
Notable rulers of Maynila
Historical rulers of Maynila
A number of rulers of Maynila are specifically identified in historical documents, which include:
* the epistolary firsthand accounts of the members of the Magellan and Legaspi expeditions, referred to in Spanish as "''relaciones''"; These include the Sulu and Maguindanao tarsilas, and the Batu Tarsila of Brunei.
* various notarized genealogical records kept by the early Spanish colonial government, mostly in the form of last wills and testaments of descendants of said rulers
��/sup> Term used by original Hispanocentric text); the exact local term used by the individual was not recorded in the historical account.
Legendary rulers
A number of rulers of Maynila are known only through ''oral histories'', which in turn have been recorded by various documentary sources, ranging from historical documents describing oral histories, to contemporary descriptions of modern (post-colonial/national-era) oral accounts. These include:
* orally transmitted genealogical traditions, such as the Batu Tarsila, which have since been recorded and cited by scholarly accounts;
* legends and folk traditions documented by anthropologists, local government units, the National Historical Institute of the Philippines, and other official sources; and
* recently published genealogical accounts based on contemporary research.
Academic acceptance of the details recounted in these accounts vary from case to case, and are subject to scholarly peer review
Scholarly peer review or academic peer review (also known as refereeing) is the process of having a draft version of a researcher's methods and findings reviewed (usually anonymously) by experts (or "peers") in the same field. Peer review i ...
.
See also
* Luções
* Rajah Sulayman
Sulayman, sometimes referred to as Sulayman III (Arabic script: سليمان, Abecedario: ''Solimán'') (d. 1590s), was a Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Luzon in the 16th century and was a nephew of Rajah Ache of Luzon. He was the commander of ...
* Battle of Bangkusay Channel
The Battle of Bangkusay (; ), on June 3, 1571, was a naval engagement that marked the last resistance by locals to the Spanish Empire's occupation and colonization of the Pasig River delta, which had been the site of the indigenous polities of t ...
* History of Manila
The earliest recorded History of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, dates back to the year 900 AD, as documented in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription. By the thirteenth century, the city consisted of a fortified settlement and trading q ...
* List of Sunni Muslim dynasties
The following is a list of Sunni dynasties.
Asia
Arabian Peninsula
* Ziyadid dynasty (819–1018)
* Banu Wajih (926–965)
* Sulaymanids (1063–1174)
* Mahdids (1159–1174)
* Kathiri (Hadhramaut) (1395–1967)
* Al-Jabriyun (1417–1521)
* ...
* History of the Philippines (Before 1521)
The history of the Philippines dates from the earliest Hominini, hominin activity in the archipelago at least by 709,000 years ago. ''Homo luzonensis'', a species of archaic humans, was present on the island of Luzon at least by 134,000 years ...
* Hinduism in the Philippines
Recent archaeological and other evidence suggests Hinduism has had some cultural, economic, political and religious influence in the Philippines. Among these is the 9th century Laguna Copperplate Inscription found in 1989, deciphered in 1992 t ...
* Namayan
Namayan (Baybayin: Pre-Kudlit: or (''Sapa''), Post-Kudlit: ), also called SapaLocsin, Leandro V. and Cecilia Y. Locsin. 1967. ''Oriental Ceramics Discovered in the Philippines.'' Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company. and sometimes Lamayan, ...
* Cainta (historical polity)
In early Philippine history, the Tagalog ''bayan'' (; "country" or "polity") of Cainta was a fortified upriver polity that occupied both shores of an arm of the Pasig River. It was located not far from where the Pasig River meets the Lake of B ...
* Tondo (historical polity)
Tondo (; Baybayin: , Kapampangan language, Kapampangan: Balayan ning Tundo), sometimes referred to as the Kingdom of Tondo, was a Tagalog and Kapampangan settlement which served as a major trade hub located on the northern part of the List of i ...
Footnotes
References
Further reading
* Nick Joaquin's Almanac for Manileños
* The River Dwellers by Grace P. Odal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maynila, Kingdom of
1571 disestablishments
States and territories established in 1500
Precolonial barangays
Former countries in Bruneian history
Former countries in Philippine history
Historical regions
History of the Philippines (900–1565)
History of Manila
History of Luzon
States and territories established in the 1500s
1500 establishments in Asia
City-states
Former monarchies