Pampanga: History
=== Spanish colonial era ===
The territorial area of old Pampanga included portions of the modern provinces of Tarlac, Bataan, Zambales, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan and Aurora; i.e. covered almost the entire Central Luzon. When the Spanish arrived at Luzon, they found Pampanga to be thickly populated with several towns and that there were 3 castles or forts protecting Pampanga. Pampanga was re-organized as a province by the Spaniards on December 11, 1571. La Provincia de La Pampanga included areas mentioned above except Tondo, along with modern provinces of Aurora and parts of Quezon (including Polillo Islands) and Rizal (Pampanga also included portions of Metro Manila, which are Novaliches and Valenzuela to be exact, which was formerly known as Polo, then towns in Bulacan). For better administration and taxation purposes, the Spanish authorities subdivided Pampanga into pueblos, which were further subdivided into districts (barrios) and in some cases into royal and private estates (encomiendas).
Due to excessive abuses committed by some encomenderos, King Philip II of Spain in 1574 prohibited the further awarding of private estates, but this decree was not fully enforced until 1620. In a report of Philippine encomiendas on June 20, 1591, Governor-General Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas reported to the Crown that La Pampanga's encomiendas were Bataan, Betis y Lubao, Macabebe, Candaba, Apalit, Calumpit, Malolos, Binto, Guiguinto, Caluya, Bulacan and Mecabayan. The encomiendas of La Pampanga at that time had eighteen thousand six hundred and eighty whole tributes.
Pampanga, which is about 850 square miles (2,200 km2) in area and inhabited by more than 1.5 million people, had its present borders drawn in 1873. During the Spanish regime, it was one of the richest Philippine provinces. Manila and its surrounding region were then primarily dependent on Kapampangan agricultural, fishery and forestry products as well as on the supply of skilled workers. As other Luzon provinces were created due to increases in population, some well-established Pampanga towns were lost to new emerging provinces in Central Luzon.
During the 17th century, the Dutch recruited men from Pampanga as mercenaries who served the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army, known as Papangers part of the larger Mardijkers community. Their legacy can be found in North Jakarta; however, there are few traces of their descendants, except for a small community in Kampung Tugu.
The historic province of Bataan which was founded in 1754 under the administration of Spanish Governor-General Pedro Manuel Arandia, absorbed from the province of Pampanga the municipalities of Abucay, Balanga (now a city), Dinalupihan, Llana Hermosa, Orani, Orion, Pilar, and Samal. During the British occupation of Manila (1762–1764), Bacolor became the provisional Spanish colonial capital and military base. By the end of the 1700s, Pampanga had 16,604 native families and 2,641 Spanish Filipino families, and 870 Chinese Filipino families. In Rafael Bernal's book: Mexico En Filipinas, Pampanga was listed among other places which include Cavite and Masbate, as areas where there were large concentrations of Mexican immigrants to the Philippines.
The old Pampanga towns of Aliaga, Cabiao, Gapan, San Antonio and San Isidro were ceded to the province of Nueva Ecija in 1848 during the term of Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria y Zaldua. …