Basilan - History

History

Several waves of Negrito and ancient Chinese migration populated the Philippines. The Yakan people arrived in the area of the Sulu Archipelago, of which Basilan is a part, around 300 BCE to 200 BCE. Little is known of them before the era of Spanish colonization, but they still make up the largest ethnic group on the main island of Basilan.

As the Tausug Sultanate of Sulu grew in power, the Yakans withdrew inland, until most of the coastal communities along the island's southern, western and northwestern shores were primarily inhabited by Tausugs and their vassal tribes, the Samals and Bajaus (Tau-Laut). The only exception was the relatively prosperous Yakan communities of Lamitan.

Basilan first came to European attention when it was documented by the remnants of the Ferdinand Magellan expedition in 1521. It was eventually colonized by the Spanish as early as 1636 and was formally ceded by the Sulu Sultanate to Spain in 1726. The withdrawal of the Yakans inland was hastened by Spanish establishment of advance bases on the island's northwestern coast, bringing in Christianized 'indios' from Zamboanga, the Visayas and Luzon. By then, even the Yakan communities of Lamitan were completely overrun. Jesuit missionaries brought Catholicism to the region. Fighting with the Sultanate, the Dutch East India Company, Moro Pirates, and the French figured in Basilan's history over the years.

With its victory in the 1898 Spanish–American War, the United States gained possession of the Philippines. Americans proceeded to 'pacify' Basilan, cleared large expanses of land and established plantations, mainly to produce rubber and copra.

Following the Japanese occupation of the country during World War II, in 1946, the Philippines gained its independence. Beginning around 1970, heavy fighting broke out between the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front, which was determined to secede and form a new country.

Then President Marcos made Basilan a province in 1973. It joined the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in 2001, the last province to do so. Its former capital, Isabela City, however, opted out and remains a part of the Zamboanga Peninsula Region (formerly Western Mindanao, Region 9).