Cotabato City: History
Prior to the arrival of Hindus and Muslims, the city was a vast swamp and rainforest landscape where numerous ethno-linguistic groups lived. Maguindanao vernacular architecture developed during this era, which included the architectural techniques of at least 10 ethno-linguistic groups. Later on, Hindu traders arrived and the people of the area embraced the practice of Hinduism. The set of moral standards and culture of present-day people of Maguindanao are seen due to this Hindu influence.
By 1515, after a successful Muslim establishment in Sulu, Muslim merchants went to Maguindanao and converted many Maguindanaoans to Islam. Those that did not accept the arrival of the Muslims went into higher ground or the interior of the island and became the Teduray, as well as other lumad groups. During the same year, the Sultanate of Maguindanao was formally established, with Tubok as its initial capital. However, the sultan's seat would eventually be transferred in 1711 at around Tamontaka, a barangay within modern-day Cotabato. In 1861, Spain would eventually establish a garrison in Maguindanao and establish Kuta Watu, which was eventually renamed as Cotabato, as its new capital.
The Spanish Empire had defeated the Sulu Sultanate in war and forced it to sign an unfavorable peace treaty in 1851. With the Moro Gulf and Illana Bay now open to Spanish traffic as a result of their victory over the Sulu Moros, this paved the way for the first steps for the conquest of the Maguindanao Sultanate several years later. To that end, Spanish Jesuit missionaries have already made their way as early as 1859 at Polloc where they earned several hundred converts, but the place was deemed unsuitable on account of its less than optimal ecology. And so the Spanish district governor of Mindanao based in Zamboanga requested Datu Amirul, the father of present Sultan of Maguindanao Muhammad Makakua, for them to establish a military base at the stone fortress at Kota Wato in what is now Barangay Tamontaka, and Datu Amirul gave the consent. The Spanish then established themselves at the said fort, raising the Spanish flag there and renamed it Cotabato, the Hispanized form of its name, on April 30, 1861. The Spanish and the Moro chiefs and locals then had a conference later the same day which stipulated the Maguindanaoan locals of Cotabato are now subjects of the Spanish Crown but their Islamic beliefs would be respected. Thus, on April 30, 1861, in the flood plains of Tamontaka, the town of Cotabato was officially born.
Under the reign of Sultan Muhammad Makakua, who while being the nominal sultan of Maguindanao was at this point under complete Spanish vassalage, roads and wharves were built in Cotabato, specifically where the Tamontaka River was situated. Forests were felled and cleared by the new Catholic Tiruray converts of Tamontaka to make way for the expansion of the newly established town. In 1871, the capital of the Spanish military district of Mindanao was moved from Zamboanga to Cotabato, only to be moved back previously the next year when a destructive earthquake ravaged the town.
Following the Spanish evacuation in Jan. 1899, Datu Piang led the Moro's in a massacre of the remaining Christian community, enslaving those they did not kill. Americans arrived in Mindanao in 1900 after the Spanish–American War ended in 1898. …