Davao City, officially the City of Davao (Cebuano: Dakbayan sa Dabaw; Tagalog: Lungsod ng Dabaw), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Davao Region, Philippines. The city has a total land area of 2,443.61 km2 (943.48 sq mi), making it the largest city in the Philippines in terms of land area. It is the Philippines after Quezon City and Manila, and the most populous in Mindanao. As of 2020, the city has a total population of 1,776,949 people.
It is geographically situated in the province of Davao del Sur and grouped under the province by the Philippine Statistics Authority, but the city is governed and administered independently from it. The city is divided into three congressional districts, which are subdivided into 11 administrative districts with a total of 182 barangays.
Davao City is the center of Metro Davao, the third-most populous metropolitan area in the Philippines. The city sevres as the main trade, commerce and industry hub in Mindanao, and the regional center of Davao Region. Davao is home to Mount Apo, the highest mountain in the Philippines. The city is also nicknamed the "Durian Capital of the Philippines" and the "Chocolate Capital of the Philippines".
Etymology[]
The region's name is derived from its Bagobo origins. The Bagobos were indigenous to the Philippines. the word davao came from the phonetic blending of three Bagobo subgroups' names for the Davao River, a major gateway emptying into the Davao Gulf near the city. The aboriginal Obos, who inhabit the hinterlands of the region, called the river, Davah (with a gentle vowel ending, although later pronounciation is with a hard v or b); the Clatta (or Giangan/Diangan) called it Dabo. To the Obos, davah also means "a place beyond the high grounds" (alluding to settlements at the mouth of the river surrounded by high, rolling hills).
History[]
Preconial era[]
The area of is now Davao City was once a lush forest inhabited by Lumadic peoples such as Bagobos and Matigsalugs, alongside other ethnic groups such as the Aeta and the Moro Tausug. Davao River was then called Tagloc River by the Bagobos and Moros who then inhabited a settlement near the mouth of the river to the sea around what is now Bolton Riverside due immadiately southwest of the city plaza. In 1543, Spanish explorers on sailing ships led by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos deliberately avoided the area around Davao Gulf, then called Gulf of Tagloc, due to the danger posed by fleets of Moro warships operating in the area while surveying the southeastern coast of Mindanao for possible colonization, and as a result the Davao Gulf area remained virtually untouched by European explorers for the next three centuries.
A Maguindanaonon fief under the name Datu Bago was rewarded the territory of the surroundings of Davao Gulf by the Sultan of Maguindanao for joining the campaign against the Spanish in the late 1700s. From his ancestral home in Maguindanao, he moved to the area and, having convinced Bagobos and other native groups in the area to his side, conquered the entire Davao Gulf area. Having consolidated his position, he founded the fortress of Pinagurasan in what is now the site of Bangkerohan Public Market in 1830 which served as his capital. From being a fortification and base of operations from which Datu Bago could gather and rally his forces, the settlement of Pinagurasan eventually grew into a small city extending from present-day Generoso Bridge in Bangkerohan to Quezon Boulevard more than a kilometer down south, as Moros and Bagobos alike among other nearby tribes in the area flocked into the settlement, eventually becoming the main trade entrepot in the Davao Gulf area. With his immense overlordship of the Davao Gulf, Datu Bago was eventually crowned Sultan by his subjects at his capital Pinagurasan in 1843, effectively making his realm virtually independent from the Sultanate of Maguindanao and is now itself a Sultanate that lords over the Davao Gulf, now in equal standing with the Mindanaoan kingdoms of Maguindanao and Sulu.
Spanish era[]
Although the Spaniards began to explore the Davao Gulf area as early as the 16th century, Spanish influence was negligible in the Davao region until 1842, when the Spanish Governor General of the Philippines Narciso Clavaería ordered the colonization of the Davao Gulf region, what is now Davao City, for the Spanish Crown. This came after the loss of their colinies in the Americas from 1820s to 1830s which gravely reduced their sources of revenue to the point than the royal government in Madrid could no longer continue to properly provide financial support to what remained of its worldwide colonies. Thus, it became more urgent for local officials in the colonies, including the Philippines, to find ways and means of expanding the revenues in running the colonies, primarily in terms of tribute extracted from the natives. it meant that for the first time, the Spanish colonial government in the Philippines was compelled to embark on a full-scale conquest of Mindanao in the hopes of increasing its coffers.
Davao Gulf seemed to be a tempting target among Spanish military circles based in Manila for its thriving maritime trade taking place there. Their initial forays began with their incursion on the village of Sigaboy in 1842, from which the local Spanish officials who recently landed there immediately demanded heavy tribute on the natives who then asked for Datu Bago's help in expelling the Spaniards, which he responded swiftly by sending a combined naval and land force in the area to defeat and drive out the Spanish force there. The Spanish, whom they saw Datu Bago as a mere pirate and brigand, didn't take the threat seriously for years despite the numerous defeats they have suffered under his hands until the burning of the Spanish trading vessel San Rufo, which carried a letter of friendship from Sultan Iskandar Qudaratullah Muhammad Zamal al-Azam of Maguindanao to Governor General Claveria, and its massacre of all its crew by seaborne corsairs under orders from Datu Bago himself in 1846. Increased with the incident, the Spanish secured the consent from the Sultan of Maguindanao who finally disowned the Moros of the Davao Gulf by using the incident as pretext for justification to conquer the area, thus the official Spanish colonization of Davao Gulf finally began in earnest in April 1848 when an expedition of 70 men and women led by José Cruz de Uyanguren of Vergara, Spain, landed on the estuary of the Davao River the same month, in the hopes of permanently ending the menace posed on Spanish vessels by Moro raiders in the Davao Gulf.
Being the strongest chieftain in the region, Datu Bago imposed heavy tribute on the Mandaya tribes nearby, therefore also making him the most loathed chieftain in the region. Cruz de Uyanguren has orders from the higher authorities in Manila to colonize the Davao Gulf region, which included the Bagobo settlement on the northern riverbank; in returned, he asked for the position of the governor of the conquered area and granted the monopoly of its commerce for ten years. At this juncture, a Mandaya cheiftain named Datu Daupan, who then ruled Samal Island, came to him, seeking for an alliance against Datu Bago. The two chieftains who archrivals, and Cruz de Uyanguren took advantage of it, initiating an alliance between Spain and the Mandayas of Samal Island. Intent on taking the settlement for Spain, he and his men accordingly assaulted it, but the Bagobo natives fiercely resisted the attacks, which resulted in his Samal Mandaya allaies to retreat and not fight again. Thus, a three-month long inconclusive battle for the possession of the settlement ensued which was only decided when an infantry company which sailed its way by warships from Zamboanga came in as reinforcements, thus ensuring the takeover of the settlement and its surroundings by the Spaniards while the defeated Bagobos fled further inland while Datu Bago and his followers fled north to Hijo where he would die two years later.
After Cruz de Uyanguren defeated Bago and conquered Pinagurasan, he founded the town of Nueva Vergara, the future Davao, in the mangrove swamps of what is now Bolton Riverside on 29 June 1848, in honor of his home in Spain and becoming its first governor. Pinagurasan was then incorporated into the new town. Almost two years later on 29 February 1850, the province of Nueva Guipúzcoa was established via a royal decree, with the newly founded town as the capital, once again to honor his homeland in Spain. When he was the governor of the province, however, his plans of fostering a positive economic sway on the region backfired, which resulted in his eventual under orders of the colonial government.
The province of Nueva Guipuzcoa was dissolved on 30 July 1860, as it became the Politico-Military Commandery of Davao. By the clamor of its natives, a peititon was given to the Spanish government to eventually rename Nueva Vergary into Davao, since they have called the town as the latter long from the time of its founding. It was eventually done in year 1867, and the town Nueva Vergara was officially given its present name Davao.
The Spanish Control of the town was unstable at best, as its Lumad and Moro natives routinely resisted the attempts of the Spanish authorities to forcibly resettle them and convert them into Christians. Despite all these, however, such were all done in the goal of making the governance of the area easier, dividing the Christians both settlers and native converts and the Muslim Moros into several religion-based communities within the town.
During the Philippine Revolution[]
As the Philippine Revolution, having been fought for two years, neared its end in 1898, the expected departure of the Spanish authorities in Davao became apparent—although they took no part in the war at all, for there were no revolutionary figures in the vicinity save a negligible pro-Filipino seperatist rebel movement in the town of Santa Cruz in the south. When the finally ended, as the Spanish authorities finally left the town, two Davaoeño local by the names of Pedro Layog and Jose M. Lerma represented the town and the region at the Malolos Congress of 1898, therefore indicating Davao as a part of the nascent First Philippine Republic.
The period of Filipino revolutionary control of Davao did not last long, however, as the Americans landed at the town later the same year. There was no record of locals offering any sort of resistance to the Americans.
American period[]
Second World War[]
- Main article: Battle of Mindanao and Battle of Davao
Postwar growth[]
See also: [[History of the Philippines (1946-1965]]
Social unrest, martial law, and the 1980s[]
See also: [[Martial law under Ferdinand Marcos, Soledad Duterte and Antonio L. Mabutas]]