Editing Basilan (section)

==History==
[[File:Old Isabela Pueblo and Plaza Rizal.jpg|thumb|Old Plaza Rizal and Plaza Misericordia, opposite [[Isabela Cathedral|Santa Isabel Cathedral]], old City Hall (Provincial Capitol) atop the hill in the background.]]
{{Main|History of Basilan}}

===Early ===
In the order of tens of thousands of years ago, Melanesians arrived in the Philippines travelling down to Mindanao. Several thousands of years ago, Austronesians arrived in the Philippines, also travelling down to Mindanao.

===Ancient history===
The [[Yakan people]] arrived in the area of the [[Sulu Archipelago]], of which Basilan is a part, around 300 BCE to 200 BCE. Little is known of them before the era of Spanish colonization, but they still make up the largest ethnic group on the main island of Basilan. It is believed that the Yakan people of Basilan made contact with the Kingdom of [[Champa]] in present-day Vietnam, and many of them have ancestries from Champa settlers, who later integrated with the Yakan.

As the [[Tausūg people|Tausug]] [[Sultanate of Sulu]] grew in power, the Yakans withdrew inland, until most of the coastal communities along the island's southern, western and northwestern shores were primarily inhabited by Tausugs and their vassal tribes, the Samals and Bajaus (Tau-Laut). The only exception was the relatively prosperous Yakan communities of Lamitan.

===Taguima===
Documents from the royal archives of the Sulu Sultanate referred to the northernmost island of the Sulu Archipelago as Taguima, from the Yakan who were called "Tagihamas" (people of the interior or hinterlands) by the Tausug and [[Sama-Bajau|Samal]] peoples who came and settled in numerous scattered communities along Basilan's western and southwestern shores and outlying islets and island groups.

Later references mentioned "Bantilan", probably referring to Maluso, which was established as a major Tausug base by Sulu Sultan Muizz ud-Din (whose princely name was Datu Bantilan).

[[History of China|Imperial Chinese]] texts mention a "[[Kingdom of Kumalarang]]" (from the Yakan "kumalang" or "to sing", owing to the location being a place for celebrations and gatherings) during the [[Ming Dynasty]], believed to be the island which now has a ''[[barangay]]'' of the same name on its northwestern shores.

Basilan was seen and mentioned by the remnants of the [[Ferdinand Magellan]] expedition in 1521.

[[File:Spanish map of Mindanao.jpg|thumb|left|The first Spanish map of Mindanao officially naming "Basilan" island (instead of Taguima/Tagyma) by Nicolas Norton Nicols, published in 1757.]]
The earliest map of the Philippines which made reference to an island labeled "Taguima" was produced by [[Giacomo Gastaldi]],<ref>{{google books|ZG7ZMAbv_jAC|Early Mapping of Southeast Asia}}</ref> through [[Woodblock printing|woodblock prints]] in 1548. It was subsequently included in the influential travel book of [[Giovanni Battista Ramusio]], the ''Della Navigatione e Viaggi'', which was published between 1556 and 1583 in three volumes. This was followed by [[Abraham Ortelius]]'s work ''Indiae Orientalis Insularumque Adiacientium Typus'', published in 1573 in a German text edition of the atlas ''[[Theatrum Orbis Terrarum]]'' by [[Christophe Plantin]] in [[Antwerp]]. As late as 1719,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bergbook.com/htdocs/Cache316.htm |title=Antique, old, rare and historic Maps & Prints of Southeast Asia |publisher=Bergbook.com |access-date=October 5, 2008}}</ref> a map titled "Die philippinische Inseln - Isle Brneo" by [[Allain Manesson Mallet]] of [[Frankfurt]], Germany featured an island labeled "Tagyma I."

The process by which all these names became "Basilan" is almost certainly due to miscommunication between the natives and the Spanish, as well as the penchant to engage in editorial license by European map-makers of the era.{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}}

Basilan's name may also derive from its iron ore deposits. Tausug warriors and slave-traders from Sulu came to Taguima to purchase high-quality magnetic [[iron]] ores, which they used for swords, knives and other blades. This profitable trade, helped in large measure by the establishment of Maluso as a major military-naval base of the Sulu Sultanate, eventually gave the island the distinction of being the source of ''basih-balan'', the Tausug word for magnetic iron. Roughly translated and abbreviated, however, ''basih-lan'' means "the iron ([[magnet]]) trail" or "the iron way".

When several Tausug warriors were caught by the Spanish in one of their numerous raids on the Zamboanga settlement, Spanish officials supposedly admired the artistry and skill that went into making the warriors' elaborately decorated swords, knives and blades. They asked where these weapons could be bought. From atop the ramparts of the Spanish commandery at the Fuerza del Nuestra Senora del Pilar de Zaragoza ([[Fort Pilar]]), the warriors supposedly pointed to the island visible across today's Basilan Strait, and said, simply, "ha basih-lan".

Reports from the Jesuit ''[[Indian Reductions|reducciones]]'' in Zamboanga and Pasangen (Isabela) were relayed to [[Manila]], where Spanish cartographer [[Pedro Murillo de Velarde]] published ''Historia de la Provincia de Philipinas de la Compañia de Jesvs. Segvnda parte'' using the Jesuit printing press at Manila in 1749. It featured a map of the Philippines with the unofficial "I. Basilan". The map was re-published by [[Leipzig]] map-maker [[Nicolaus Bellinn]] for general European circulation in 1752.

Finally, to represent a clear break from the [[Habsburg]] Dynasty (which had ruled Spain for 184 years from 1516 to 1700), the first officially sanctioned Spanish maps of its colonies, including "Las Islas de Mindanao", were commissioned by the [[Bourbons]] (1700–present). This particular map of Mindanao, apparently copied from the Nicolaus Bellinn map of 1752, was published by Nicolas Norton Nicols in 1757, featuring "Basilan" and bearing the royal stamp of Spanish Bourbon King [[Ferdinand VI of Spain|Ferdinand VI]]. It has been called "Isla de Basilan" (Basilan Island) ever since.

===Spanish rule===
It was eventually colonized by the Spanish as early as 1636 and was formally ceded by the Sulu Sultanate to Spain in 1726. The withdrawal of the Yakans inland was hastened by Spanish establishment of advance bases on the island's northwestern coast, bringing in Christianized 'indios' and [[Latin American Asian|Latin Americans]] from [[Zamboanga City|Zamboanga]],<ref name="Peru">[http://www.zamboanga.com/html/history_1634_moro_attacks.htm "Second Book of the Second Part of the Conquests of the Filipinas Islands, and Chronicle of the Religious of Our Father, St. Augustine"] (Zamboanga City History)
"He (Governor Don Sebastían Hurtado de Corcuera) brought a great reënforcements of soldiers, many of them from Perú, as he made his voyage to Acapulco from that kingdom."</ref> as well as Visayans and Tagalogs, from the Visayas and [[Luzon]]. By then, even the Yakan communities of Lamitan were completely overrun. [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] missionaries brought [[Catholicism]] to the region. Fighting with the Sultanate, the [[Dutch East India Company]], [[Moro Pirates]], and the French figured in Basilan's history over the years.

===American invasion era===
With its victory in the 1898 [[Spanish–American War]], the United States gained possession of the Philippines. Americans proceeded to 'pacify' Basilan, cleared large expanses of land, and established plantations, mainly to produce rubber and [[copra]].

===Japanese occupation era===
Following the Japanese occupation of the country during World War II, in 1946, the Philippines gained its independence. Beginning around 1970, heavy fighting broke out between the Philippine government and the [[Moro National Liberation Front]], which was determined to secede and form a new country.

===Philippine independence===
In 1973, Basilan officially became a province carved out in the Province of [[Zamboanga del Sur]].

===Contemporary===
The province joined the [[Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao]] in 2001, it was last province to do so. Its former capital, Isabela City, opted out and remains a part of the [[Zamboanga Peninsula Region]] (formerly Western Mindanao, Region 9).

The capital town [[Lamitan]] became a component city by virtue of ''Republic Act No. 9393'' which sought to convert the town into a city. The law was ratified on June 18, 2007. However, the cityhood status was lost twice in the years 2008 and 2010 after the [[League of Cities of the Philippines|LCP]] questioned the validity of the cityhood law. The cityhood status was reaffirmed after the [[Supreme Court of the Philippines|court]] finalized its ruling on February 15, 2011 which declared the cityhood law constitutional.