History of Mindanao

Historians claim that Muslims from Malaysia came to Mindanao in the 14th century through the southern islands, Jolo, Tawi-tawi and Basilan. This migration resulted to welding its small tribal units into several sultanates. Jolo, located in the southeastern tip of Mindano, became the center of an extensive training network from Java in the west to China in the north, and the Mindanao sultanates were linked politically to Muslims states in Borneo to the Moluccas. For many years the sultanate of Sulu ruled much of the Philippines and Borneo. These political and economic relations were believed to have continued even long after the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century. During this time, the Spaniards attempted but didn’t achieve its goal to fully convert the Mindanao Muslims to Christianity. It started a Muslim region and stayed unchanged since then.

Due to Mindanao’s lesser number of inhabitants, inevitable migration of settlers from Luzon and the Visayas regions created conflict between Muslim and Christian inhabitants. Despite the strong resistance of original residents who claimed to have owned the lands by rights of inheritance, Christian settlers registered the lands they found as their own. Tribal inhabitants particularly Muslims feel unjustifiably bitter about the loss of their lands while Christian settlers feel they and their descendants can claim legitimate to the property. This unsolvable conflict resulted to many bitter wars and never-ending hostility between Muslims and Christians. Some Muslim groups feel that law will not work for them; they created organizations to defend their people or claim power for themselves. This explains why some parts of Mindanao are considered dangerous for travelers.