Cavite, officially the Province of Cavite (Filipino/Tagalog: ; ), is a province of the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region. Situated in the southern shores of Manila Bay, it is one of the most industrialized and fastest-growing provinces in the Philippines. The cities of Imus and Trece Martires serves as the de jure and de facto capital respectively, while the city of Dasmariñas is the largest city in the province.
The province holds major historical significance, with most of the Philippine Revolution taking place in several areas of Cavite. The revolution ultimately led to the renouncement Spanish colonial control, culminating in the Philippine Declaration of Independence on June12, 1898 in the town of Kawit. The old provincial capital, Cavite City, also hosted docks for the Manila galleon, becoming an essential part of commerce between Asia and Latin America at the time.
Etymology "Cavite" comes from cavit or cauit as u and v used to be interchangeable. The word cauit itself is the Hispanicized form of kawit (alternatively kalawit), Tagalog for "hook", in reference to the small hook-shaped peninsula jutting out to Manila Bay.Official Website of the Provincial Government of Cavite – Cavite City The name originally applied to the peninsula, Cavite La Punta (now Cavite City) and the adjacent lowland coastal area of Cavite Viejo (now Kawit, reverting to the original native spelling). The peninsula was also known in the pre-colonial era as Tangway, from Tagalog for "peninsula".
Edmund Roberts, in his 1821 memoir, stated that the "natives" called it Caveit due to the "crooked point of land extending into the sea".
History
Early history The present Cavite City was once a mooring place for Chinese junks that came to trade with the settlements around Manila Bay. The land was formerly known as "Tangway". Archeological evidence in coastal areas shows prehistorical settlements.
Spanish colonial period
Spanish colonizers who arrived in the late 16th century saw the unusual tongue of land jutting out on Manila Bay and saw its deep waters as the main staging ground where they could launch bulky galleons. It would later become the most important port linking the colony to the outside world through the Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade. In 1571, Spanish colonizers established the port and City of Cavite and fortified the settlement as a first line of defense for the city of Manila.
Of the Spanish and Mexican conquistadors who came with the Miguel Lopez de Legazpi expedition, Miguel López de Legazpi was the first one awarded with an Encomienda, with Cavite and adjacent coastal settlements being entrusted to him; although no precise figures survive. Galleons were built and fitted at the port and many Chinese merchants settled in the communities of Bacoor and Kawit, opposite the Spanish city to trade silks, porcelain and other oriental goods."A defensive curtained wall was constructed the length of Cavite's western side," beginning from the entrance, "La Estanzuela", and continuing to the end of the peninsula, "Punta de Rivera", with the eastern shore unprotected by a wall. Cavite contained government offices, churches, mission buildings, Spanish homes, Fort San Felipe and the Rivera de Cavite shipyard. Docks were in place to construct galleons and galleys, but without a dry dock, ships were repaired by careening along the beach. Fort San Felipe, La Fuerza de San Felipe, was built between 1609 and 1616. This quadrilateral structure of curtained walls, with bastions at the corners, contained 20 cannons facing the seashore. Three infantry companies, 180 men each, plus 220 Pampangan infantry, garrisoned the fort.
The galleons Espiritu Santo and San Miguel, plus six galleys were constructed between 1606 and 1616. From 1729 to 1739, "the main purpose of the Cavite shipyard was the construction and outfitting of the galleons for the Manila to Acapulco trade run."
The vibrant mix of traders, Spanish seamen from Spain and its Latin-American colonies,Galaup "Travel Accounts" page 375."Forced Migration in the Spanish Pacific World" By Eva Maria Mehl, page 235. as well as local residents, gave rise to the use of pidgin Spanish called Chabacano. A great number of Mexican men had settled at Cavite, spread throughout Luzon, and had integrated with the local Philippine population.(In Spanish) Mexico En Filipinas By Rafael Bernal(Page 117)(Quote: "Sabemos que muchos grupos mexicanos obtuvieron tierras en Lu/ón, en Masbate y otros sitios de Pampa nga, lo mismo que en Cavite. Esta gente, como era lógico, al poco tiempo se perdía entre el pueblo filipino, casaba con mujer filipina, aprendía un nuevo idioma, lina nueva vida y unas costumbres nuevas, peto enseñaba también parte de bis suyas.") Some of these Mexicans became Tulisanes (Bandits) that led peasant revolts against Spain.(Page 10) Mexicans weren't the only Latin Americans in Cavite, as there were also a fair number of other Latin Americans, one such was the Puerto Rican, Alonso Ramirez, who became a sailor in Cavite, and published the first Latin American novel called "Infortunios de Alonso Ramirez" The years: 1636, 1654, 1670, and 1672; saw the deployment of 70, 89, 225, and 211 Latin-American soldiers from Mexico at Cavite.Convicts or Conquistadores? Spanish Soldiers in the Seventeenth-Century Pacific By Stephanie J. Mawson AGI, México, leg. 25, núm. 62; AGI, Filipinas, leg. 8, ramo 3, núm. 50; leg. 10, ramo 1, núm. 6; leg. 22, ramo 1, núm. 1, fos. 408 r –428 v; núm. 21; leg. 32, núm. 30; leg. 285, núm. 1, fos. 30 r –41 v .
In 1614, the politico-military jurisdiction of Cavite was established. As with many other provinces organized during the Spanish colonial era, Cavite City, the name of the capital, was applied to the whole province, Cavite. The province covered all the present territory except for the town of Maragondon, which used to belong to the Corregimiento of Mariveles. Maragondon was ceded to Cavite in 1754 when Bataan province was created from Pampanga province. Within Maragondon is a settlement established in 1660 by Christian Papuan exiles brought in by the Jesuits from Ternate in the Maluku Islands, and named this land Ternate after their former homeland."Brief History of Cavite" . Official Website of the Provincial Government of Cavite. Retrieved on June 25, 2013.
Owing to its military importance, Cavite had been attacked by foreigners in their quest to conquer Manila and the Philippines. The Dutch made a surprise attack on the city in 1647, pounding the port incessantly, but were repulsed. In 1762, the British occupied the port during their two-year control in the Philippines.
In the 17th century, encomiendas (Spanish Royal land grants) were given in Cavite and Maragondon to Spanish conquistadores and their families. By the end of the 1700s, Cavite was the main port of Manila and was a province of 5,724 native families and 859 Spanish Filipino families.ESTADISMO DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS TOMO PRIMERO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish)ESTADISMO DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS TOMO SEGUNDO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish) The 1818 Spanish census showed that Cavite had a large number of Spanish-Filipino families.(564) Of which, these are the number of Spanish-Filipino families and their places of residency: 125 at Imus, 6 at Silang, 36 at Indan, 3 at Pueblo y Hacienda de Naic, 3 at Santa Cruz de Malabon, 69 at San Francisco de Malabon, 19 at Bacoor, 55 at Cavite Viejo, 443 at San Roque, and finally, 153 families at Plaza o Puerto de Cavite.
The religious orders began acquiring these lands, with some donated, enlarging vast haciendas (estates) in Cavite during the 18th and 19th centuries, enriching themselves. These haciendas became the source of bitter conflicts between the friar orders and Filipino farmers and pushed a number of Caviteños to live as outlaws. This opposition to the friar orders was an important factor that drove many Cavite residents to support reform, and later, independence.
In 1872, Filipinos launched their revolt against Spain. Three Filipino priests—Jose Burgos, Mariano Gomez and Jacinto Zamora—were implicated in the Cavite mutiny when 200 Filipinos staged a rebellion within Spanish garrisons. On August 28, 1896, when the revolution against Spain broke out, Cavite became a bloody theater of war. Led by Emilio Aguinaldo, Caviteños made lightning raids on Spanish headquarters, and soon liberated the entire province through the Battle of Alapan. Aguinaldo commanded the Revolution to its successful end – the proclamation of the First Republic of the Philippines on June 12, 1898, in Kawit.
During the Spanish–American War, American forces attacked the Spanish squadron in Cavite. The Spanish defeat marked the end of Spanish rule in the country. A captured Spanish cannon from the Cavite arsenal now sits in Village Green Park in Winnetka, Illinois, United States of America.
Japanese occupation
In May 1942, after the fall of Bataan and Corregidor Island, the Japanese Imperial forces occupied Cavite and made their presence felt in each town of the province and Cavite City itself, as well as in the young city of Tagaytay established in the 1930s.
After surviving the Bataan Death March and released from Capas, Tarlac concentration camp United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) Col. Mariano Castañeda, returned to Cavite and secretly organized the guerilla forces in the province.
The Japanese authorities pressured him to accept the position as Provincial Governor of Cavite, he refused many times over until his excuses did not work, much against his will he was forced to accept the position by the Japanese, and by thinking that it would be beneficial to further organize the resistance movement as Governor by day and a guerilla commander by night. Eventually, the Japanese discovered his guerilla connection and raided his house in the attempt to capture him, but he escaped along with Col. Lamberto Javalera by swimming the Imus river up to Salinas, Bacoor and finally joined his comrades in the field in Neneng, the General Headquarters of the Fil American Cavite Guerilla Forces (FACGF) located in Dasmariñas.
At this time due to his organizational skills the FACGF raised a regiment in each of the administrative units and also created attached special battalions. Overall, three special battalions, one medical battalion, one signal company, one hospital unit, and Division GHQ and Staff were raised to provide administrative and combat support. Later on, the FACGF, with a peak of 14,371 Enlisted Men and 1,245 officers, grew into a formidable force to take on the omnipresent rule of the Japanese in the province. At its peak the force contained 14 infantry regiments:
1st Infantry Regiment, Imus (Col. Lorenzo Saulog) 2nd Infantry Regiment, Bacoor (Col. Francisco Guererro) 3rd Infantry Regiment, Silang (Col. Dominador Kiamson) 4th Infantry Regiment, Dasmariñas (Col. Estanislao Mangubat Carungcong) 5th Infantry Regiment, Barangay Anabu, Imus (Col. Raymundo Paredes) 6th Infantry Regiment, Cavite City (Col. Amado Soriano) 7th Infantry Regiment, Alfonso (Col. Angeles Hernais) 8th Infantry Regiment, Naic (Col. Emilio Arenas) 9th Infantry Regiment, Mendez (Col. Maximo Rodrigo) 10th Infantry Regiment Kawit (Col. Hugo Vidal) 11th Infantry Regiment Imus (Col. Maximo Reyes) 12th Infantry Regiment, Amadeo (Col. Daniel Mediran) 13th Infantry Regiment, Rosario (Col. Ambrosio Salud) 14th Infantry Regiment, Brgy. Paliparan, Dasmariñas (Col. Emiliano De La Cruz)