Davao City
Davao City, officially the City of Davao, is a highly urbanized city in the Davao Region, Philippines. The city has a total land area of, making it the largest city in the Philippines in terms of land area. It is the third-most populous city in the Philippines after Quezon City and Manila respectively, and the most populous city in Mindanao, in Davao Region, and outside of Metro Manila. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 1,848,947 people.
It is the largest city in the province of Davao del Sur both in population and land area wherein it is geographically situated 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 regional center of Davao Region and also the center of Metro Davao, the second most populous metropolitan area in the Philippines. The city serves as the main trade, commerce, and industry hub of Mindanao, and the regional center of Davao Region. The region of Davao is home to Mount Apo, the highest mountain in the Philippines, which is highly visible in most parts of Davao City. The city is also nicknamed the "Durian Capital of the Philippines".
Etymology
The region's name is derived from its Bagobo origins, who are indigenous to the area. The word davao came from the phonetic blending of three Bagobo subgroups' names for the Davao River, a major waterway emptying into Davao Gulf near the city. The Obos, who inhabit the hinterlands of the region, called the river Davah ; the Clatta called it Dawaw, and the Tagabawas called it Dabo. To the Obos, davah also means "a place beyond the high grounds".History
Precolonial era
The area of what is now Davao City was once a lush forest inhabited by Lumadic peoples such as the Bagobos and Matigsalugs, alongside other ethnic groups such as the Aeta, Maguindanaon and the Kagan. Davao River was then called Tagloc River by the Bagobos, Maguindanaons and Tausugs who then inhabited a settlement near the mouth of the river to the sea around what is now Bolton Riverside due immediately southwest of the city plaza. In 1543, Spanish explorers led by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos sailing around Mindanao 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.Maguindanao era
A Maguindanaon Datu under the name Datu Bago was rewarded the territory of the surroundings of Davao Gulf by the Sultan of Maguindanao Sultanate for joining the campaign against the Spanish in the late 1700s. From his ancestral home in Maguindanao, he moved to the area in 1800 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 Maguindanaons 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 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, becoming a Sultanate with sovereignty over Davao Gulf in equal standing with the Muslim 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 Clavería ordered the colonization of the Davao Gulf region, including what is now Davao City, for the Spanish Crown. This came after the loss of their colonies in the Americas from the 1820s to 1830s which gravely reduced their sources of revenue to the point that 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, seeing Datu Bago as a mere pirate and brigand, didn't take the threat seriously for years despite his numerous victories against them 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. Incensed with the incident, the Spanish secured the consent from the Sultan of Maguindanao who finally disowned the Moros of 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 Oyanguren of Vergara, Spain, landed on the estuary of the Davao River the same month, intent on conquering Pinagurasan, the capital of Datu Bago's domain, in the hopes of permanently ending the menace posed on Spanish vessels by Moro raiders in 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 had orders from the higher authorities in Manila to colonize the Davao Gulf region, which included the Bagobo settlement on the northern riverbank; in return, he asked for the position of the governor of the conquered area and the monopoly of its commerce for ten years. At this juncture, a Mandaya chieftain named Datu Daupan, who then ruled Samal Island, came to him, seeking for an alliance against Datu Bago. The two chieftains were 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 allies to desert. 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 Oyanguren 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 June 29, 1848, in honor of his home in Spain and became its first governor. Pinagurasan was then incorporated into the new town. Almost two years later on February 29, 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 replacement under orders of the colonial government.
The province of Nueva Guipuzcoa was dissolved on July 30, 1860, as it became the Politico-Military Commandery of Davao. By the clamor of its natives, a petition was given to the Spanish government to rename Nueva Vergara into Davao, the latter being the name used by the natives since its founding. It was eventually accepted in 1867, and Nueva Vergara was 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 Christianity. Despite all these, such were all done with 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, owing to the lack of revolutionary figures in the area save for a negligible pro-Filipino separatist rebel movement in the town of Santa Cruz in the south. When the war finally ended, as the Spanish authorities finally left the town, two Davaoeño locals 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.