| Native name: Sūg | |
|---|---|
Map of the Sulu Archipelago |
|
| Geography | |
| Location | South East Asia |
| Archipelago | Philippines |
| Major islands | Basilan, Jolo |
| Area | 4,068 km2 (1,570.7 sq mi) |
| Country | |
|
Philippines
|
|
| Provinces | Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi |
| Largest city | Jolo |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 1,300,000 (as of 2005) |
| Density | 313 /km2 (811 /sq mi) |
| Ethnic groups | Moro (Banguingui, Samal, Tausug, Yakan), Bajau and Zamboangueño Chavacano |
The Sulu Archipelago is a chain of islands in the southwestern Philippines. This archipelago is considered to be part of the Moroland by the local rebel independence movement. This island group forms the northern limit of the Celebes Sea.[1]
The archipelago is not, as is often supposed, the remains of a land bridge between Borneo and the Philippines. Rather, it is the exposed edge of small submarine ridges produced by tectonic tilting of the sea bottom [2][3] Basilan, Jolo, and other islands in the group are extinct volcanic cones rising from the southernmost ridge. Tawi-Tawi, the southernmost island of the group, has a serpentine basement-complex core with a limestone covering.[3] This island chain is an important migration route for birds.
The largest cities or towns in the area are on Maimbung and Jolo of the Sulu Archipelago, plus the larger island of Palawan to its north, the coastal regions of the westward-extending Zamboanga Peninsula of Mindanao, and the northern part of the island of Borneo were formerly parts of the thalassocratic Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo.
The archipelago is the home of the indigenous Tausug people; various group of Samal (or Sama) people including the semi-nomadic Badjaw; the land-based Sama; the related Yakan people; and the Jama Mapun people. The Tausug language is spoken widely in the Sulu Archipelago as both first and second languages throughout these islands. The Yakan language is spoken mainly in Basilan Island. Numerous dialects of Sinama are spoken throughout the archipelago, from the Tawi-Tawi Island group, to the Mapun island group (Mapun), to the coast of Mindanao and beyond.
Excavations in the area of "Bolobok Cave" on Sanga-Sanga Island, Tawi-Tawi Province, have shown the remains of humans dwelling there about 4,000 years ago.
Contents |
The grip of the Spanish Empire on Mindanao, Palawan, and the islands to their south was always tenuous. This area was generally under the control of the Muslim Sultanate of Sulu, centered in northern Borneo, which continually tried to extend the influence of Islam over the southwestern Philippines. In the 16th century, Spanish military expeditions against the sultanate were launched. From the 16th century through 1898, there were about 16 military campaigns against the sultans five of these resulting in a short occupation, except for the last one. During these three centuries, the Spaniards ruled Jolo for a grand total of about three decades and so Spanish rule over the Sulu Archipelago was generally limited to annual tributes by the sultans to the Spanish Empire, mostly in the form of pearls, a product of the region. An effective occupation of Jolo by the Spanish Empire did not take place until the year 1876.
From its first encounters with Jolo, Spain was met with stiff resistance from a highly-organized people under the Sultanate of Sulu, which had been established in 1457 by an Arab born in Johore, Shari’ful Hashem Syed Abu Bak’r. He arrived in Sulu from Melaka in 1450. The sultanate had strong ties with Borneo, which by the 15th century was under the influence of Islam.
Although Miguel Lopez de Legazpi had successfully established a colony in Cebu in May 1565, the initial push of the Spanish conquista was northwards. It was not until June 1578 that Governor General Francisco de Sande dispatched captain Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa, together with the Jesuit priest Juan del Campo and the coadjutor Gaspar Gomez to Jolo. The result was not occupation but a negotiated compromise where the Sulu sultan paid a regular tribute in pearls. The following year, Figueroa was awarded the sole right to colonize Mindanao. In 1587, during a campaign against Borneo launched by Sande, Figueroa attacked and burned down Jolo. The Spaniards left Jolo after a few days, so they probably had had no intentions of occupation, but they were moslty securing their rear areas on their way to attack northern Borneo.
Spanish hostilities had secured the Joloanos resolve to resist Spanish intrusions. In response to attacks, raids were conducted against the settlements and reducciones organized by Spain. In 1593, the first permanent Roman Catholic mission was established on the Zamboanga Peninsula, and three years later, the Spanish Army launched another attack on Jolo, but this one was repelled by the army of Rajah Bongsu.
In November 1593, the Spanish Empire sent Juan Ronquillo to Tampakan to thwart the slave raiders. However by the following year, the Spanish Army troops had relocated to Caldera Bay (Recodo), Mindanao. In 1598, another expedition was launched against Jolo, but this one was repelled by the Joloanos.
In late 1600, Captain Juan Gallinato with a group of about 200 Spanish soldiers attacked Jolo, but this force was decimated. By 1601, after three months of heavy fighting, the Spanish troops retreated since they had been unable to capture Jolo. In 1628, a larger raiding force of about 200 Spanish army officers and 1,600 soldiers was organized to attack Jolo again - in order to break the backs of the Moslem slave raiders and traders. However, this rather-large expedition failed to take Jolo. Again on March 17, 1630, a large Spanish force of 2,500 soldiers attacked Jolo but to no avail. When its commander Lorenzo de Olazo was wounded, the Spanish troops retreated.
On January 4, 1638, de Corcuera led a naval and military expedition of about 80 ships and 2,000 troops to attack Jolo, but the Sultan Wasit carried out a stern defense. However, a serious epidemic of tropical disease developed within Sultan Wasit’s kuta army, hence he and his chieftains sought refuge in the Dungun area of Tawi-Tawi. The Spanish Army easily occupied Jolo, and a small garrison was left there to control the area.
This Spanish garrison was withered away by frequent raids launched by Sultan Wasit. By 1645, this garrison had been wasted away. This was the first time that Jolo had been occupied by the Spaniards for an appreciable length of time.
From 1663 to 1718, an interregnum of peace reigned because the Spanish troops were ordered to abandon the Zamboanga Peninsula, and all of the forts south of that - and then regroup in Manila to prepare for the impending attack of Koxinga - and attack that was never carried out.
Hostilities resumed in the 18th century and this was triggered by the decision in 1718 by Gov. Gen Juan Antonio dela Torre Bustamante to reconstruct Real Fuerza de San José in Bagumbayan, Zamboanga. The fort completed in 1719 was renamed Real Fuerza del Pilar de Zaragosa (Fort Pilar is its popular name today). The rebuilt fort was inaugurated on 16 April by Don Fernando Bustillos Bustamante Rueda, senior maestro de campo of Zamboanga. Three years later in 1722, the Spaniards were launching another expedition against Jolo. Led by Andres Garcia, this expedition failed miserably. In 1731, General Ignacio Iriberri lead a force of 1000 solfiers to Jolo and captured it after a lengthy siege, but the Spaniards again left after a few days.
In 1755, a force of 1,900 Spanish soldiers led by the captains Simeon Valdez and Pedro Gastambide was sent to Jolo to extract revenge for the raids by Sultan Muiz ud-Din, but those Spaniards were soundly defeated. In 1775, after a Moro raid on Zamboanga, Capitan Vargas led a punitive expedition against Jolo, but his force was repulsed.
The second half of the 18th century saw a new player in the Sulu Zone. After occupying Manila from 1762 – 64, during the Thirty years war between Spain and Great Britain, the British Army withdrew to the south. There they established trading alliances between the Sulu Sultanate and the British East India Company. Spanish attacks on Jolo were now directed at weakening British trading interests in the south. In 1784, Aguilar conducted a series of unsuccessful assaults against Jolo and in 1796, Spanish Admiral Jose Alava was sent from Madrid with a powerful naval fleet to stop the slave-raiding attacks that had been coming from the area of the Sulu Sea. The British presence was signaled when in 1798, Fort Pilar in Zamboanga was bombarded by the British Royal Navy, which had established a base in Sulu. In 1803, Lord Arthur Wellesley, the Governor-General of India, ordered Robert J. Fraquhar to transfer trading and military operations to Balambangan island near Borneo. By 1895, the Great Britain had withdrawn its army and navy from the area of the Sulu Sea.
In 1815, there was the end of the galleon trade across the Pacific Ocean between the Philippines and Mexico, since Mexico had declared its indepencence of the Spanish Empire in 1810, and an extended war of independence had begun that lasted through 1821. Most of the rest of the Spanish-ruled areas of the Americas had also rebelled against the Spanish Empire. In 1821, the administration of the Philippine Islands was shifted directly to the Kingdom of Spain in Madrid, rather than the Philippines being ruled via the Viceroy of Mexico, since Mexico and its southern neighbors (in Central America) had won their independence from Spain. Hence the office of Viceroy of Mexico had been abolished.
The Spanish Empire sought to end the "Moro threat". In 1824, the Marina Sutil, a light and maneuverable naval force under Capitan Alonso Morgado was sent to confront the slave raiders in the Sulu Sea.
In 1844, Gov. Gen. Narciso Claveria led yet another expedition against Jolo and in 1848 Claveria with powerful gunboats Magallanes, El Cano, and Reina de Castilla brought from Europe supervised the attack on Balangingi stronghold in Tungkil. The raid resulted in the capture of many Sama Balangingi and the exile of many to the tobacco fields of Cagayan Valley. However, the leader of the Sama, Paglima Taupan, was not captured. With the fall of the Balangingi, a powerful ally of the Sulu Sultanate was decimated, this started the downturn of the sultanate’s maritime sea power. In 1850, Gov.Gen. Juan Urbiztondo continued with Claveria’s campaign and successfully annihilated of the remaining Balangingi strongholds at Tungkil. However, a raid on Jolo that same year was a failure. On 28 February 1851, Urbiztondo launched another campaign against Jolo, destroying the whole town by fire and confiscating 112 pieces of artillery. The Spanish troops later withdrew after their successful assault.
In 1876, the Spanish launched a massive campaign to occupy Jolo. Spurred by the need to curb slave raiding once and for all, and worried about the presence of other Western powers in the south (the British had established trading centers in Jolo by the 19th century and the French were offering to purchase Basilan Island from the cash strapped government in Madrid), the Spanish made a final bid to consolidate their rule in this southern frontier. On 21 February of that year, the Spaniards assembled the largest contingent against Jolo, consisting of 9,000 soldiers, in 11 transports, 11 gunboats, and 11 steamboats. Headed by Admiral Jose Malcampo, they captured Jolo and established a Spanish settlement with Capt. Pascual Cervera appointed to set up a garrison and serve as military governor; He served from March 1876 to December 1876 followed by Brig. Gen. Jose Paulin (December 1876 - April 1877), Col Carlos Martinez (Sept 1877-Feb 1880), Col. Rafael de Rivera (1880 – 81), Col. Isidro G. Soto (1881 – 82), Col. Eduardo Bremon, (1882), Col. Julian Parrrado (1882 – 84), Col. Francisco Castilla (1884 – 86), Col. Juan Arolas (1886–93), Col. Caesar Mattos (1893), Gen. Venancio Hernandez (1893 – 96), and Col. Luis Huerta (1896 – 99).
The Spaniards were never secure in Jolo, so by 1878, they had fortified Jolo with a perimeter wall and tower gates; built inner forts called Puerta Blockaus, Puerta España, and Puerta Alfonso XII; and two outer fortifications named Princesa de Asturias and Torre de la Reina. Troops, including a cavalry unit with its own lieutenant commander, were garrisoned within the protective walls. In 1880 Col. Rafael Gonzales de Rivera, who was appointed by the Governor dispatched the 6th Regiment to Siasi and Bongao islands. The Spaniards were not secure in their stronghold because it was sporadically attacked. On July 22, 1883, it was reported that three unnamed juramentado succeeded in penetrating the Jolo town plaza and killed three Spaniards. The word “Ajuramentado” was coined by the Spanish colonel Juan Arolas after witnessing several such raids while serving with the Jolo garrison.
In 1898, the Spanish-American War broke out. Commodore George Dewey of the U.S. Navy defeated the Spanish fleet in the Battle of Manila Bay, following which the American army occupied Manila. The United States took possession under international law of the Philippines after the Treaty of Paris of 1898 ended the war. The Philippine-American War followed during which the American military fought and defeated the Philippine forces under Emilio Aguinaldo for control of the Philippines.
In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines. The United States declared war on Japan and entered World War II. Japan conquered and occupied the Philippines during the Philippines Campaign (1941–42). In 1944 the Liberation of the Philippines began with the Battle of Leyte Gulf and succeeded in driving the Japanese from the islands.
On July 4, 1946, the Philippines became an independent country.
The fortifications of Jolo remained in good state during the American occupation when its walls, gates, and the buildings within it were photographed. These early pictures of 20th century Jolo show a well-ordered town, neatly laid out in a grid of streets and blocks — characteristics of Spanish urbanism applied with the rigidity characteristic of the military.
It is in the postwar years that the walls degraded. Jolo suffered major destruction due to bombardment and fire during the military operations in Jolo in 1973. There are no records of how many of the existing walls were destroyed during this time. Presently, short stretches of degraded perimeter wall still exist, but take some time to find because they are covered by houses or buildings, or partially-demolished to less than a meter in height.