Pangasinan, per Spain’s journal
Eduardo Pontaoe
20 Nov 2007
When was Pangasinan founded?
This question is as archaic as the province itself. The only recorded history of the province’s founding can only be found from the Spanish perspective.
Before the coming of the Spaniards, there’s no written chronicles pertaining to, but just glimpses of what the province looked like in the mythical kingdom of Urduja and the roguish flamboyance of that Muslim trader Ibn Battuta.
In prehistoric times, the country was just a splattering of islands crisscrossed by Indonesian seafarers. They knew a place existed north of Borneo and inhabited by few which named islands of their domain. Until the Spanish who changed the bucolic scheme of things.
In 1521 Magellan landed in Mactan. After that, it took the Spanish 44 years to launch an expedition of conquest under Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, who arrived in Cebu on April 27, 1565, with 500 bloodthirsty cazadores to plant the Spanish flag and thereby started the conquest of the islands.
On May 24, 1570, the Spanish forces defeated Sulaiman, the rajah of Tondo and a ragtag army of locals.
On June 24 1571, after the last gasp of resistance was obliterated Manila was declared the capital of the new colony. That part of Manila secured, the Spanish conquistadors moved north.
In 1571, Martin de Goiti, a swashbuckler, started the conquest of Pangasinan coming thru Pampanga.
In 1572, another expedition was sent under Juan de Salcedo, who sailed to the Gulf of Lingayen and landed at the mouth of the Agno River.
In a short period of time, 8 years to the day, in 1580 Pangasinan was subjugated under the fire and sword. Pangasinan was made a mayoral (Alcadia) town by the Spanish Governor General.
The Pangasinan countryside pacified, the influx of the Cross came cascading with the Franciscans – Dominicans – Augustinians – missionaries arriving with a fury converting every “pagan” person they could lay their hands on.
In 1611, Pangasinan became a Spanish colonial province with Zambales and parts of Tarlac and La Union. Lingayen was made the capital.
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