1587 to 1844: The Sulu Sultanate vs. SpainFrom its first encounters with Jolo, Spain was met with stiff resistance from a highly-organized people under the Sultanate of Sulu, which had been established in 1457 by an Arab born in Johore, Shari’ful Hashem Syed Abu Bak’r. He arrived in Sulu from Melaka in 1450. The sultanate had strong ties with Borneo, which by the 15th century was under the influence of Islam.
Although Miguel Lopez de Legazpi had successfully established a colony in Cebu in May 1565, the initial push of the Spanish conquista was northwards. It was not until June 1578 that Governor General Francisco de Sande dispatched captain Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa, together with the Jesuit priest Juan del Campo and the coadjutor Gaspar Gomez to Jolo. The result was not occupation but a negotiated compromise where the Sulu sultan paid a regular tribute in pearls. The following year, Figueroa was awarded the sole right to colonize Mindanao. In 1587, during a campaign against Borneo launched by Sande, Figueroa attacked and burned down Jolo. The Spaniards left Jolo after a few days, so they probably had had no intentions of occupation, but they were moslty securing their rear areas on their way to attack northern Borneo.
Spanish hostilities had secured the Joloanos resolve to resist Spanish intrusions. In response to attacks, raids were conducted against the settlements and reducciones organized by Spain. In 1593, the first permanent Roman Catholic mission was established on the Zamboanga Peninsula, and three years later, the Spanish Army launched another attack on Jolo, but this one was repelled by the army of Rajah Bongsu.
In November 1593, the Spanish Empire sent Juan Ronquillo to Tampakan to thwart the slave raiders. However by the following year, the Spanish Army troops had relocated to Caldera Bay (Recodo), Mindanao. In 1598, another expedition was launched against Jolo, but this one was repelled by the Joloanos.
In late 1600, Captain Juan Gallinato with a group of about 200 Spanish soldiers attacked Jolo, but this force was decimated. By 1601, after three months of heavy fighting, the Spanish troops retreated since they had been unable to capture Jolo. In 1628, a larger raiding force of about 200 Spanish army officers and 1,600 soldiers was organized to attack Jolo again - in order to break the backs of the Moslem slave raiders and traders. However, this rather-large expedition failed to take Jolo. Again on March 17, 1630, a large Spanish force of 2,500 soldiers attacked Jolo but to no avail. When its commander Lorenzo de Olazo was wounded, the Spanish troops retreated.
On January 4, 1638, de Corcuera led a naval and military expedition of about 80 ships and 2,000 troops to attack Jolo, but the Sultan Wasit carried out a stern defense. However, a serious epidemic of tropical disease developed within Sultan Wasit’s kuta army, hence he and his chieftains sought refuge in the Dungun area of Tawi-Tawi. The Spanish Army easily occupied Jolo, and a small garrison was left there to control the area.
This Spanish garrison was withered away by frequent raids launched by Sultan Wasit. By 1645, this garrison had been wasted away. This was the first time that Jolo had been occupied by the Spaniards for an appreciable length of time.
From 1663 to 1718, an interregnum of peace reigned because the Spanish troops were ordered to abandon the Zamboanga Peninsula, and all of the forts south of that - and then regroup in Manila to prepare for the impending attack of Koxinga - and attack that was never carried out.
Hostilities resumed in the 18th century and this was triggered by the decision in 1718 by Gov. Gen Juan Antonio dela Torre Bustamante to reconstruct Real Fuerza de San José in Bagumbayan, Zamboanga. The fort completed in 1719 was renamed Real Fuerza del Pilar de Zaragosa (Fort Pilar is its popular name today). The rebuilt fort was inaugurated on 16 April by Don Fernando Bustillos Bustamante Rueda, senior maestro de campo of Zamboanga. Three years later in 1722, the Spaniards were launching another expedition against Jolo. Lead by Andres Garcia, this expedition failed miserably. In 1731, General Ignacio Iriberri lead a force of 1000 solfiers to Jolo and captured it after a lengthy siege, but the Spaniards again left after a few days.
In 1755, a force of 1,900 Spanish soldiers led by the captains Simeon Valdez and Pedro Gastambide was sent to Jolo to extract revenge for the raids by Sultan Muiz ud-Din, but those Spaniards were soundly defeated. In 1775, after a Moro raid on Zamboanga, Capitan Vargas led a punitive expedition against Jolo, but his force was repulsed.
The second half of the 18th century saw a new player in the Sulu Zone. After occupying Manila from 1762 – 64, during the Thirty years war between Spain and Great Britain, the British Army withdrew to the south. There they established trading alliances between the Sulu Sultanate and the British East India Company. Spanish attacks on Jolo were now directed at weakening British trading interests in the south. In 1784, Aguilar conducted a series of unsuccessful assaults against Jolo and in 1796, Spanish Admiral Jose Alava was sent from Madrid with a powerful naval fleet to stop the slave-raiding attacks that had been coming from the area of the Sulu Sea. The British presence was signaled when in 1798, Fort Pilar in Zamboanga was bombarded by the British Royal Navy, which had established a base in Sulu. In 1803, Lord Arthur Wellesley, the Governor-General of India, ordered Robert J. Fraquhar to transfer trading and military operations to Balambangan island near Borneo. By 1895, the Great Britain had withdrawn its army and navy from the area of the Sulu Sea.
In 1815, there was the end of the galleon trade across the Pacific Ocean between the Philippines and Mexico, since Mexico had declared its indepencence of the Spanish Empire in 1810, and an extended war of independence had begun that lasted through 1821. Most of the rest of the Spanish-ruled areas of the Americas had also rebelled against the Spanish Empire. In 1821, the administration of the Philippine Islands was shifted directly to the Kingdom of Spain in Madrid, rather than the Philippines being ruled via the Viceroy of Mexico, since Mexico and its southern neighbors (in Central America) had won their independence from Spain. Hence the office of Viceroy of Mexico had been abolished.
The Spanish Empire sought to end the "Moro threat". In 1824, the Marina Sutil, a light and maneuverable naval force under Capitan Alonso Morgado was sent to confront the slave raiders in the Sulu Sea.
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