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 quarter near the mouth of the Pasig River, which bisects the city into the north and south.
Manila became the seat of the Spanish colonial government when Spain gained sovereignty over the Philippine Islands in 1565. The Spanish government was situated within the fortified walls of Old Manila. The walls were constructed to keep out invading Chinese pirates and protect the city from native uprisings. Several communities eventually grew outside the walls of Manila. The city became the center of trade between Manila and Acapulco, which lasted for three centuries and brought goods from the Americas to Southeast Asia and vice versa.
In 1762, the city was captured and occupied by Great Britain for two years as part of the Seven Years' War. The city remained the capital of the Spanish East Indies under the government of the provisional British governor, acting through the Archbishop of Manila and the Real Audiencia. The Spanish military regrouped in Pampanga and continued to harass the British.
In 1898, Spain ceded control of the Philippines after over three hundred years of colonial rule to the United States in the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War. During the American Period, city planning using the architectural designs and master plans by Daniel Burnham was done on portions of the city south of the Pasig River.
During World War II, much of the city was destroyed during the Battle of Manila, the last of the many battles fought in Manila's history, but the city was rebuilt after the war. It was the second-most destroyed city in the world during World War II, after Warsaw, Poland. The Metropolitan Manila region was enacted as an independent entity in 1975.

Etymology

One theory is that Manila is the evolved Spanish form of the native place name Maynilà, which comes from the Tagalog phrase may-nilà. Nilà is derived from the Sanskrit word nīla which refers to indigo, and, by extension, to several plant species from which this natural dye 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 it was founded several hundred years before indigo extraction became an important economic activity in the area in the 18th century.
Another theory is that it came from Maynilad which refers to a shrub-like tree found in or near mangrove swamps, and known as nilád or nilár in Tagalog. Linguist Vic Romans explains that it's not impossible for native Tagalog speakers to shift the final consonant /d/ in nilad into a glottal stop in nilà. Earliest known evidence of reference to this etymology can be found in the third volume of volume of John Ray's Historia Plantarum in 1704 where Fr. Georg Josef Kamel described:

History

Prehistory

AustronlinguistiVic Romano explains that it not impossible migrations

Like viin nilad andureplace it with a ally all the lowland peoples of Maritime Southeast Asia, the Tagalog people who would eventually establish the fortified polity of Maynilà were Austronesians. 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, Japan, the Indonesian thalassocracies of Srivijaya and Majapahit, and Brunei, and eventually, the western colonial powers. The core elements of this Austronesian culture also persisted despite the introduction of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and, later, Christianity. Elements of these belief systems were syncretistically adapted by the Tagalogs to enrich their already-existing worldviews, elements of which still persist today in the syncretistic forms known as 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”.

The Tagalog people and language

Not much is known about when the Tagalog and Kapampangan peoples came to occupy the lands surrounding Manila Bay, but Linguists such as Dr. David Zorc and Dr. Robert Blust speculate that the Tagalogs and other Central Philippine ethno-linguistic groups originated in Northeastern Mindanao or the Eastern Visayas. 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 language.
Some Philippine historians such as Jaime Tiongson have asserted that some of the words used in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the Philippines' oldest extant written document, came from Old Tagalog, although the text itself used the Javanese Kawi script.

Early history

As the Philippines' oldest extant written document, the LCI provides evidence that a socially complex Tagalog polity, known as Tondo, existed on the Pasig River delta as early as 900 AD - a date that also marks the beginning of written Philippine history. Tondo is generally believed by scholars to have been located on the same location as it did in the sixteenth century: north of the Pasig River, occupying the northern part of the delta.
There are no references that state whether a settlement south of the river, on the southern part of the delta where Maynila was eventually located, also existed at the time the LCI was written. Ample archeological evidence exists, however, that the settlement of Namayan flourished further up the Pasig River some time in the tenth or eleventh century.

Legends regarding the foundation of early Maynila

The many myths and traditions surrounding early Maynila's founding all point to a Tagalog settlement south of the Pasig River, which gained prominence as a result of an alliance with or annexation by an outside force. These tales cover a time period ranging from the mid-1200s to the early 1600s."

Establishment through defeat of Rajah Avirjirkaya by Rajah Ahmad of Brunei ( 1258)

According to Mariano A. Henson's genealogical research 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".

Maynila as Saludang/Selurong

In the 14th century, according to the epic eulogy poem Nagarakretagama, which was dedicated to Maharaja Hayam Wuruk of the Madjapahit, Seludong/Selurung was listed in Canto 14 alongside Sulot 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', stating:

"Brunei Sultan Bulkeiah, 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 and Mohammed Jamil Al-Sufri, 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."

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." However, Potet also points out that "there is no text to support this claim. Conversely, Borneo has a mountain site called Seludong." Saunders meanwhile suggests that Saludang or Seludang is located on the Serudong River in eastern Sabah.

Islamization of Manila (1500s)

In the early 16th century, a new dynasty under the Islamized Rajah Salalila of Maynila was established to challenge the House of Lakandula in Tondo. Islam was further strengthened by the arrival to the Philippines of traders and proselytizers from Borneo.
In the mid-16th century, the areas of present-day Manila were part of larger thalassocracies governed by Muslim Rajahs. Rajah Sulayman and Rajah Matanda ruled the Muslim communities south of the Pasig River, and the Lakandula ruled Tondo, the community north of the river. The two Muslim communities of Sulayman and Matanda were unified into Maynila. Both city-states were officially Malay-speaking and held diplomatic ties with the Bolkiah dynasty of Brunei and the sultanates of Sulu and Ternate.

Spanish period

Spanish conquest of Luzon 1570-1571

Governor-General Miguel López de Legazpi, searching for a suitable place to establish his capital after being compelled to move from Cebu to Panay by Portuguese pirates, heard of prosperous kingdoms in Luzon. Legazpi sent an expedition under Marshal Martin de Goiti and Captain Juan de Salcedo to discover its location and examine its potential. De Goiti anchored at Cavite and attempted to establish his authority through peacefully methods, sending a message of friendship to Maynila. Rajah Sulayman, its ruler at the time, was willing to accept the friendship that the Spaniards were offering, but did not want to submit to its sovereignty to them and waged war against them. As a result, de Goiti and his army attacked Maynila in June 1570. The fight was fierce but short, and de Goiti captured the city before returning to Panay. And so began the Christianization of Manila.
In 1571, the unity of the Luzon Empire was already threatened by the uneasy alliance of the Rajah Matanda of Sapa, Lakandula of Tondo, and Rajah Sulayman, the rajah muda or "crown prince" of Maynila and laxamana or "grand admiral" of the Macabebe Armada. Powerful states like Lubao, Betis, and Macabebe grew bold enough to challenge the traditional leadership of Tondo and Maynila. The same year, the Spaniards returned, this time led by López de Legazpi himself along with his entire force. Seeing them approach, the natives set the city on fire and fled to ancient Tondo and neighboring towns.