Davao City, officially the City of Davao (Cebuano: Dakbayan sa Dabaw; Tagalog: Lungsod ng

Davao), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the island of Mindanao, Philippines. The city has a
total land area of 2,443.61 km2 (943.48 sq mi), making it the largest city in the Philippines in terms of
land area. It is the third-most populous city in the Philippines after Quezon City and Manila, and the
most populous in Mindanao.  [9] As of 2020, the city has a population of 1,825,450.
It is geographically situated in the province of Davao del Sur and grouped under the province by
the Philippine Statistics Authority, but the city is governed and administered independently from it.
The city is divided into three congressional districts, which are subdivided into 11 administrative
districts with a total of 182 barangay.
Davao City is the center of Metro Davao, the third-most populous metropolitan area in the
Philippines. (As of the 2015 census this had a population of 2.5 million, compared with Metro
Manila's 12.8 million and Metro Cebu's 2.8 million.) The city serves as the main trade, commerce,
and industry hub of Mindanao, and the regional center of Davao Region. Davao is home to Mount
Apo, the highest mountain in the Philippines. The city is also nicknamed the "Durian Capital of the
Philippines".

Etymology[edit]
The region's name is derived from its Bagobo origins. The Bagobos were indigenous to the
Philippines. The word davao came from the phonetic blending of three Bagobo subgroups' names
for the Davao River, a major waterway emptying into the Davao Gulf near the city. The aboriginal
Obos, who inhabit the hinterlands of the region, called the river Davah (with a gentle vowel ending,
although later pronunciation is with a hard v or b); the Clatta (or Giangan/Diangan) called it Dawaw,
and the Tagabawas called it Dabo. To the Obos, davah also means "a place beyond the high
grounds" (alluding to settlements at the mouth of the river surrounded by high, rolling hills). [14]

History[edit]
Spanish era[edit]
Although the Spaniards began to explore the Davao Gulf area as early as the 16th century, Spanish
influence was negligible in the Davao region until 1844, when the Spanish Governor General of the
Philippines Narciso Clavería ordered the colonization of the Davao Gulf region, including what is
now Davao City, for the Spanish Crown. Despite protests by the Sultan of Maguindanao, official
colonization of the area, however, began in 1848 when an expedition of 70 men and women led by
José Cruz de Uyanguren of Vergara, Spain, landed on the estuary of the Davao River the same
year, intent on colonizing the vicinity. Nearby, a settlement was situated on the banks of the river,
ruled by a Muslim Bagobo chieftain named Datu Bago.
Being the strongest chieftain in the region, DatuBago imposed heavy tribute on the Mandaya tribes
nearby, therefore also making him the most loathed chieftain in the region. Cruz de Uyanguren has
orders from the higher authorities in Manila to colonize the Davao Gulf region, which included the
Bagobo settlement on the northern riverbank. At this juncture, a Mandaya chieftain named Datu
Daupan, who then ruled Samal Island, came to him, seeking for an alliance against Datu Bago.
[15]
 The two chieftains were archrivals, and Cruz de Uyanguren took advantage of it, initiating an
alliance between Spain and the Mandayas of Samal Island. Intent on taking the settlement for Spain,
he and his men accordingly assaulted it, but the Bagobo natives fiercely resisted the attacks, which
resulted in his Samal Mandaya allies to retreat and not fight again. Thus, a three-month long
inconclusive battle for the possession of the settlement ensued which was only decided when an
infantry company which sailed its way by warships from Zamboanga came in as reinforcements,
thus ensuring the takeover of the settlement and its surroundings by the Spaniards while the
defeated Bagobos fled further inland. [16]
After Cruz de Oyanguren defeated Bago, he founded the town of Nueva Vergara, the future Davao,
on 29 June 1848[17] in an area of mangrove swamps which is now Bolton Riverside, in honor of his
home in Spain and becoming its first governor. Almost two years later on 29 February 1850, the
province of Nueva Guipúzcoa was established via a royal decree,[18] with the newly founded town as
the capital, once again to honor his homeland in Spain. When he was the governor of the province,
however, his plans of fostering a positive economic sway on the region backfired, which resulted in
his eventual replacement under orders of the colonial government.
The province of Nueva Guipuzcoa was dissolved on 30 July 1860, as it became the Politico-Military
Commandery of Davao.[19] By the clamor of its natives, a petition was given to the Spanish
government to eventually rename Nueva Vergara into Davao, since they have called the town as the
latter long from the time of its founding. It was eventually done in year 1867, and the town Nueva
Vergara was officially given its present name Davao. [20]
The Spanish control of the town was unstable at best, as its Lumad and Moro natives routinely
resisted the attempts of the Spanish authorities to forcibly resettle them and convert them into
Christians.[21] Despite all these, however, such were all done in the goal of making the governance of
the area easier, dividing the Christians both settlers and native converts and the Muslim Moros into
several religion-based communities within the town.

During the Philippine Revolution[edit]

As the Philippine Revolution, having been fought for two years, neared its end in 1898, the expected
departure of the Spanish authorities in Davao became apparent—although they took no part in the
war at all, for there were no revolutionary figures in the vicinity save a negligible pro-Filipino
separatist rebel movement in the town of Santa Cruz in the south.[22] When the war finally ended, as
the Spanish authorities finally left the town, two Davaoeño locals by the names of Pedro Layog and
Jose M. Lerma represented the town and the region at the Malolos Congress of 1898, therefore
indicating Davao as a part of the nascent First Philippine Republic.[23]
The period of Filipino revolutionary control of Davao did not last long, however, as the Americans
landed at the town later the same year. There was no record of locals offering any sort of resistance
to the Americans.