Cavite City, officially the City of Cavite (; ) is a component city in the Philippines. According to the , it has a population of people.
The city was the capital of Cavite Province from its establishment in 1614 until the title was transferred to the newly created, more accessible city of Trece Martires in 1954. Cavite City was originally a small port town, Cavite Puerto, that prospered during the early Spanish colonial period, when it served as the main seaport of Manila. Cavite Puerto hosted the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, along with other large sea-bound ships. Thereafter, San Roque and La Caridad, two formerly independent towns in Cavite province,Bureau of Insular Affairs (1902). "", pg. 450. Government Printing Office, Washington. were annexed by the city. Today, Cavite City includes the communities of San Antonio (Cañacao and Sangley Point),De la Rosa, Joy (2007–09). "About Cavite City" . Cavite City Library and Museum. Retrieved on October 19, 2014. the southern districts of Santa Cruz and Dalahican, and the outlying islands of the province, such as the historic Corregidor Island.
Etymology The city has been known by at least two Tagalog names. The first, Tangway, was the name given to the area by Tagalog settlers. Tangwáy means "peninsula." The second is Kawit or "hook," referring to the hook-shaped landform along the coast of Bacoor Bay, and from which the Chinese Keit and Spanish Cavite are derived.
History Early history The early inhabitants of Cavite City were the Tagalogs ruled by the Kampilan and the bullhorn of a datu, the tribal form of government. According to folklore, the earliest settlers came from Borneo, led by Gat Hinigiw and his wife Dayang Kaliwanag, who bore seven children. Archaeological evidence in the coastal areas shows prehistoric settlements.
Spanish colonial era
On May 16, 1571, the Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi declared the region a royal encomienda, or royal land grant. Spanish colonizers settled in the most populated area (present-day Kawit) and called it Cavite. The old Tangway at the tip of the Cavite Peninsula, across Bacoor Bay, was referred to as Cavite la Punta, meaning "Point of Cavite" or Cavite Point. Upon discovering that, because of its deep waters, Cavite la Punta was a suitable place for the repair and construction of Spanish galleons, the Spanish moved their settlement there and called it Cavite Nuevo (New Cavite) or just Cavite. The first settlement was renamed "Cavite Viejo" (and in the early 20th century, regained its former name, Kawit). In 1582, the Spanish founded Cavite City with 65 Spanish households."Jesuits In The Philippines (1581-1768)" Page 59 "These settlements were much smaller than Manila. In 1582 Manila had an adult male population of 300 Spaniards; Vigan, 60; Nueva Caceres, 30; Cebu, 70; Arevalo, 20. In 1586 Manila had 329 Spanish men and youths capable of bearing arms; the most recently established settlement, Nueva Segovia in Cagayan, had 97; Nueva Caceres, 69; Arevalo, 65; Cavite, 64; Cebu, 63; Villa Fernandina, 19."
In 1590, the Spaniards fortified Cavite Nuevo/Cavite City with murallas (high thick curtain walls) on its western, northern, and eastern sides, while Bacoor Bay remained open to the south. Fort Guadalupe was built at the same time on the eastern tip, and the town became the Puerto de Cavite (Port of Cavite) or Cavite Puerto. The Fort of San Felipe Neri and the Porta Vaga Gate began construction in 1595 and were completed in 1602. Puerta Vaga (corrupted to Porta Vaga) was the port city's barbican, the only principal entrance from San Roque in the west. It was flanked by the western wall, protected by two bastions at its northern and southern ends. The wall and gate were also separated from the mainland by a moat, which made the town like an island.
Cavite was legally founded in 1614 with Tomás Salazar as the earliest known gobernadorcillo recorded. At the same time, the town became the capital of the new politico-military province of Cavite, established also in 1614.Census Office of the Philippine Islands (1920). "Census of the Philippine Islands 1918, Vol I", pg. 132. Bureau of Printing, Manila. Like some other provinces during the Spanish era, the province adopted the name of its capital town – e.g., Bulacan, Bulacan province; Tayabas, Tayabas (now Quezon province); Tarlac, Tarlac province; and Manila, Manila province.
San Roque was founded as a separate town in 1614. In 1663, during the Spanish evacuation of Ternate, Indonesia, the 200 families of mixed Mexican-Filipino-Spanish and Papuan-Indonesian-Portuguese descent who had ruled over the Christianized Sultanate of Ternate, including their Christian-convert Sultan, were relocated to the cities of Ternate (Cavite province), Ermita, Manila, and San Roque (Cavite province).Zamboangueño Chavacano: Philippine Spanish Creole or Filipinized Spanish Creole? By Tyron Judes D. Casumpang (Page 3)
In subsequent years, Latin-American soldiers from Mexico were deployed at Cavite: 70 soldiers in 1636; 89 in 1654; 225 in 1670; and 211 in 1672.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 .
San Roque was later placed under the civil administration of Cavite until it was granted the right to be a separate and independent municipality in 1720. La Caridad, formerly known as La Estanzuela de San Roque, separated and was legally founded as a town in 1868. Governor-General José de la Gardana granted the petition of the people led by Don Justo Miranda to make Barrio La Estanzuela an independent town.
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 SEGUNDO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish) The 1818 Spanish census showed that the port of Cavite alone had 221 native families and 153 Spanish-Filipino families.(564)
City of Churches As the town grew, it developed a cosmopolitan reputation, and attracted various religious orders to set up churches, convents, and hospitals within the confines of the fortified city center. The Franciscan Hospital de San José (Saint Joseph’s Hospital) was built for sailors and soldiers in 1591. The San Diego de Alcalá Convent was built in 1608, followed by the Convents of Porta Vaga (La Ermita), Our Lady of Loreto (Jesuit), San Juan de Dios (Saint John of God), Santo Domingo (Dominicans), Santa Mónica (Recollects), and San Pedro, the port's parish church. The fortified town enclosed eight churches, the Jesuit college of San Ildefonso, public buildings and residences, all meant to serve the needs of its population of natives, soldiers and workers at the port, transients, and passengers aboard galleons.Muog (January 28, 2008). "el puerto de cavite/ ribera de cavite • cavite city" . Muog. Retrieved on 2014-10-29.
During this period, the city was called Tierra de Maria Santísima (“Land of Mary, Most Holy”) because of local Marian devotion. Squares and parks abounded: Plaza de Armas (across from Fort San Felipe), Plaza de San Pedro (across the church), Plaza Soledad (across Porta Vaga), and Plaza del Reparo (bayside).
Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade
The Port of Cavite (Puerto de Cavite) was linked to the history of world trade. Spanish galleons passed back and forth every July between Acapulco and Cavite. Galleons and other heavy ocean-going ships were not able to enter the Port of Manila along the Pasig River because of a sand bar that only allows light vessels to reach the river-port. For this reason, the Port of Cavite was regarded as the Port of Manila,Brewster, Sir David (1832). "The Edinburgh Encyclopædia, Vol. 15 – Philippine Islands". Joseph and Edward Parker, Philadelphia – Google Books. as the main seaport of the colonial capital.
At the height of the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade, the Port of Cavite was the arrival and departure port of the Spanish galleons that brought many foreign travelers (mostly Spaniards and Latinos) to its shores.Galaup "Travel Accounts" page 375."Forced Migration in the Spanish Pacific World" By Eva Maria Mehl, page 235. The Port of Cavite was fondly called Ciudad de Oro Macizo ("City of Solid Gold"). The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty once sent an expedition to the place they called Keit (Cavite) to search for gold, received by Governor-General Pedro Bravo de Acuña.Blair and Robertson (1904). "Philippine Islands 1493–1803, Vol. 12, 1601–1604". pg. 104. Arthu H. Clark Co., Cleveland, OH. Marilola Pérez, in her 2015 thesis "Cavite Chabacano Philippine Creole Spanish: Description and Typology", describes a large number of Mexicans settling in Cavite and spreading to Luzon, integrating into the local population and leading peasant revolts.(Page 10) Mexicans were not the only Latin Americans in Cavite, as there were also a fair number of other Latin Americans. One of these was the Puerto Rican Alonso Ramírez, who became a sailor in Cavite, and published an influential early Latin American novel entitled "Infortunios de Alonso Ramírez"The Philippines Glimpsed in the First Latin-American "Novel" By James S. Cummins
Between 1609 and 1616 the galleons Espíritu Santo and San Miguel were constructed in the shipyard of the port, called the Astillero de Rivera (Rivera Shipyard of Cavite), sometimes spelled as Ribera.Fish, Shirley (2011). "The Manila-Acapulco Galleons: The Treasure Ships of the Pacific". pp. 129–130. AuthorHouse UK, Ltd – Google Books.
San Roque Isthmus
The narrow San Roque isthmus or causeway (now M. Valentino Street) connected Cavite Puerto to San Roque, its only border town. Maps from the 17th century show that this narrow isthmus was once as wide as the town itself."Philippines is Not Only Manila". Discovering Philippines. Retrieved on October 30, 2014. Problems with rising water and the encroaching waves that plagued Cavite Puerto likely eroded the land into a narrow isthmus."" . Muog. Retrieved on October 30, 2014.
American Occupation
Spain turned the port over to the Americans after the Treaty of Paris of 1898. At the start of the American era, Cavite Puerto became the seat of the U.S. Naval Forces in the Philippines. It was redesigned to make way for modern ships and armaments. The historical structures, like Fort Guadalupe, were demolished, along with most of Fort San Felipe.
Local government administration was reorganized under the Presidentes municipales with the direct supervision of American army officers (the first being Colonel Meade). The first Filipino Presidentes municipales were appointed: Don Zacaria Fortich for Cavite Puerto, Don Francisco Basa for San Roque, and Don Pedro Raqueño Bautista for Caridad.
In 1900, the Caviteños held their first election under the American regime. Each pueblo or town elected local officials: Presidente municipal, Vice-Presidente municipal and a Consejo (council) composed of Consejales (councilors). Don Gregorio Basa was elected as the Presidente Municipal of present-day Cavite City.