Editing Isabela, Basilan (section)

====Colonization and the Jesuit "reducciones"====
[[File:1578-1630 Suluzone.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Basilan island 1578–1630]]
The proselytization of Basilan started in earnest when Fr. Francisco Lado, a [[Jesuit]], established the first [[Catholic]] mission, in an area called [[Pasangen]] by the native [[Yakans]]. "Pasangen" is a Yakan term for "commune", "town" or "a place where people visit or stay". This coastal area, however, was already predominantly populated by Tausug and Samal settlers when the Spanish came, and therefore was likewise locally called a "pagpasalan" or "settlement area". The [[Jesuit]] missionaries from Zamboanga arrived on the same year that the removal of [[Sultan Kudarat]]'s base from [[Lamitan]] was effected, and established themselves in Pasangen on the island's northwestern coast. They constructed the first wooden mission and palisade wall near the mouth of the [[Aguada River]] and dedicated the Island to [[St. Ignatius of Loyola]], the founder of the [[Jesuit Order]].

[[Catholic]] missionaries together with Spanish soldiers who inter-married into the native population were able to successfully penetrate [[Basilan]] by bringing in additional Settler soldiers. So much so that by 1654 about 1,000 Catholic families were living on the island. Foremost among these pioneering families is the extended Lazaro Clan who, together with its cadet branches, the Saavedra, Generalao, Sison, Pardo, Barrios and Guevarra families, took most of the cultivated lands that were to form part of the growing Settlement.

Thus, [[Catholicism]] began to slowly spread across the island with the spirited drive of the militant Jesuits.  With no spices or gold to enrich the Spanish king's coffers, except for local taxes, the Jesuits refocused the Spanish government's agenda and made religion the object of their expansion and conquest here.

In anticipation of an invasion from the Chinese pirate-warlord [[Koxinga]], that was expected to devastate Manila, the Spanish authorities withdrew all stations in the south of the country to augment their forces holed up in [[Intramuros]], temporarily freeing [[Zamboanga Peninsula|Zamboanga]] and Isabela from direct Spanish administration in 1663.

[[File:Basilan extra.jpg|thumb|250px|Basilan Island 1630–1663]]
Governor Sabiniano Manrique de Lara signed a decree on May 6, 1662, ordering the military evacuation of the fort in Zamboanga, and of other Spanish colonies, including that of Ternate in the spice islands of the Moluccas. The Spanish garrisons, along with several priests and their chosen local people, evacuated and returned to Fort Cavite to help defend Manila Intramuros from a threatened invasion by Chinese pirate Koxinga, which never happened. The Zamboanga fort was finally abandoned sometime in 1663 by the last remaining Spanish troops.

As fate will have it, the Zamboangueño (the forced Settlers from Luzon and [[Visayas]] who populated Zamboanga) and Pasangen, Jesuits included, will amazingly endure another 56 years (1662–1718) of isolated existence and proliferation amidst the hostile threat and return of the [[Moro people|Moro]] master seafarers who overtook and destroyed the abandoned fort. The Zamboangueños who stayed behind, including many of the founding Jesuit priests who vowed to never forsake their thousands of converted subjects and their new-found religious outpost (prized as the southernmost Catholic strongholds in the entire Philippine islands), were by this time already living within the confines of Zamboanga and Pasangen and its people. The Jesuits, belonging to the aggressive religious expansionists' [[Society of Jesus]], who remained in Zamboanga were historically credited for reconstructing the damaged fort in 1666, three years after the last Spanish soldiers vacated the walled post in 1663.

In the absence of Spanish Royal authorities, the Jesuits formed a sort of Catholic city-state, called "reductions" (Spanish Reducciones, Portuguese Reduções) in and around their 3-decade-old Presidios both in Zamboanga and Basilan. These were Societies set up according to an idealized theocratic model. The same type of communities were likewise established by the Jesuits throughout South America, but especially in present-day [[Brazil]] and [[Paraguay]].

[[File:Spanish Palisade Fort.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Illustration of the Spanish palisade fortification and Jesuit mission constructed at Pasangen, on the northwestern coast of Taguima.]]
The Spanish royal authorities eventually returned in 1718. After having re-established lucrative trading agreements with the native kingdoms that dotted the area, nearby Zamboanga experienced a revival in its economy. The increasingly wealthy Spanish trading post in Zamboanga became an even more sought-after prize for the Moro seafarers of the era, so much so that the surrounding islands started to attract the attention of other foreign powers, and chief among these coveted islands was Basilan.

Hostilities with the Moro natives and Lumad allies resurfaced in the 18th century and this was triggered by the decision which broke beforehand agreements not to build any additional Forts by both parties when in 1718 Gov. Gen Juan Antonio de la Torre Bustamante went ahead 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 April 16 by Don Fernando Bustillos Bustamante Rueda, senior maestro de campo of Zamboanga.  Three years later in 1722, as the primary reason to build this Fort, the Spaniards were launching another expedition against Jolo.  Led by Andres Garcia, the expedition failed miserably.

[[File:Basilan Expanded 1663-1718.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Basilan island 1663–1718]]
By then, [[Badar ud-Din]], Sultan of Sulu, who was keenly interested in developing commercial ties with [[Manila]] and [[China]], approached the Spanish with a proposal of peace. According to the agreement they arrived at in 1726, the Spanish and Sulu were permitted to trade freely with each other and the Island of Basilan was ceded to Spain. However, in a series of raids on the islands of Visayas, where the Spanish themselves got manpower and resources for Zamboanga, angry subjects of the Sultan broke the treaty which resulted in the renewal of large-scale hostilities by 1730.<ref>{{Google books |id=S5q7qxi5LBgC |page=201 |title=Between Integration and Secession: The Muslim Communities of the Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand, and Western Burma/Myanmar }}</ref> In 1731, General Ignacio Iriberri lead a force of 1000 to Jolo and captured it after a lengthy siege.  But the Spaniards left after a few days.

To strengthen the Spanish position in Zamboanga and the neighbouring regions, three companies of native Visayan volunteers were organized in 1832. These natives together with the Spanish troops defended the town and the province from the sporadic attack by the Moros. However, these Visayan natives, mixed with released prisoners from the Luzon lived outside the Fort walls and bore the brunt of the attacks from the Moro warriors. The Spaniards call the Sultan of Sulu's army Moros, Spanish for "Moors", the word Moor was in turn derived from [[Morocco]] a North African country adjacent to Spain, and peopled by Muslims who conquered and ruled [[Al Andalus]] Spain for 800 years.

Half of the Zamboanga peninsula was made into a Corregimiento (district) de Zamboanga with its jurisdiction reaching as far as Sindangan to the north and the whole of Basilan island to the south, while the northern half of the peninsula belonged to the District of Misamis. In 1837, the government was changed to a Gobierno Militar. Zamboanga was made the capital of Mindanao throughout the Spanish regime, except for the period between 1872 and 1875, when the government was at Kutawato/ [[Cotabato]].