The Spanish–Chamorro Wars, also known as the Chamorro Wars and the Spanish–Chamorro War, refer to the late seventeenth century unrest among the Chamorros of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean against the colonial effort of Habsburg Spain. The series of fighting erupted due to Spanish colonization, force-conversion of the Chamorro to Christianity by Spanish colonizers, and a brutal genocide conducted by the Spanish and their allies against the indigenous Chamorro people. Anger at proselytizing by the first permanent mission to Guam, which was led by Diego Luis de San Vitores and his team, including Pedro Calungsod, and a series of cultural misunderstandings led to increasing unrest on Guam and a Chamorro siege of the Hagåtña presidio incited by maga'låhi (Chief) Hurao in 1670. Maga'låhi Matå'pang killed San Vitores in 1672, resulting in a campaign of Spanish reprisal burnings of villages through 1676. Local anger at the attacks against villages resulted in another open rebellion led by Agualin and a second siege of Hagåtña. Governor Juan Antonio de Salas conducted a counter-insurgency campaign that successfully created a system of collaboration in which Guamanians turned in rebels and murderers and transferred most of the people from about 180 villages to seven towns, a policy known as reducción. By the early 1680s, Guam was largely "reduced," or pacified.
With Guam in hand, the Spaniards looked to extend control to the Northern Mariana Islands. First was Rota, where the Spanish forces led by José de Quiroga y Losada conducted a quick military campaign in 1680, followed by the villagization of the Rota population into two towns in 1682. The Spaniards were welcomed on Tinian but were forced to conduct a campaign on Saipan against armed resistance. After successfully crushing rebellious villages on Saipan, the force under Quiroga began constructing a fort to solidify control of the area. However, with most of the Spanish soldiers in the north, Guam had erupted into rebellion. Yula led a sneak attack upon the Hagåtña presido on July 13, 1683, killing the Jesuit mission superior, severely wounding Governor Damián de Esplana, and killing four soldiers before they were repelled. A larger force of hostile Chamorros then returned to begin the third siege of Hagåtña. Meanwhile, the warriors from Tinian and Saipan had combined forces to attack the force commanded by Quiroga on Saipan, who was forced to shelter in his partially constructed fort. Quiroga was sieged until November when he was able to escape and sail to Guam, where he lifted the siege of Hagåtña. The Spanish then conducted a series of campaigns against resisting villages on Guam and executing insurrectionists until a new peace was secured.
The Spaniards did not attempt to control the northern islands again until 1694, when Quiroga captured Saipan but faced an entrenched defense by the population of Tinian, who had taken shelter on Aguiguan. Upon winning the battle, Quiroga ordered that the population of Tinian be relocated to Guam. While some disobeyed and fled to the islands of the far north, Tinian was soon emptied. The final stage was a 1698 military expedition against the eight small islands at northern end of the Marianas. The population there was resettled on Guam in 1699, completing the villagization of rebellious populations and Spanish consolidation of the Marianas.
Background
The ancient Chamorros were organized into matrilineal extended family groups, stratified into three hierarchical classes. Chamorro seamanship and the sakman, also known as the "flying proa," impressed the first Spanish sailors to the Marianas. A 1668 description reported that there were approximately 180 autonomous villages on Guam with a total island population between 35,000 and 50,000. There is very little archaeological evidence for warfare among the ancient Chamorros. While some inland latte stone structures were located along ridge tops that allowed easy spotting of approaching warriors, it is not clear they were placed there for defense or simply because they were along footpaths. For weapons, ancient Chamorros favored the sling and, for melee, spears tipped with fire-hardened or barbed tips made from human shinbone that often caused infections in those wounded. Armor consisted of palm leaf mats placed on the head and chest on the otherwise naked body. Boys and young men competed in challenges with the sling and spear. Early European reports describe Chamorro warfare as highly disorganized, small scale, and triggered by minor disputes such as cut food trees. Battles typically lasted until the first death, whereupon the killer's family would offer a turtle shell or other items of value to the family of the warrior that died to reestablish peace.
The Marianas were the first islands in the Pacific reached by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521, though it was not until 1565 that Miguel López de Legazpi formally declared Spanish sovereignty over the Mariana Islands. Following Legazpi's visit, Guam became a provisioning stop for the lucrative Manila galleons trade between Acapulco and Manila, which carried silver from New Spain to trade for silk and porcelain from China. However, Guam was a minor piece of the vast Spanish Empire and few galleons even made port, as they were content to furl their sails offshore long enough to trade for water and food with Chamorros who came out on their sakman.
A permanent Spanish presence was not established until June 15, 1668, when Father Diego Luis de San Vitores landed at the village of Hagåtña, in charge of a force of 31, including five other Jesuit missionaries. Few of the Spanish force were skilled with the firearms they brought, as San Vitores had been impressed by the gentleness and peacefulness of the Chamorros in an earlier visit. He argued that bringing experienced soldiers would create more conflict: "Experience has shown that soldiers do not content themselves with defense of the preachers but commit depredations." Upon arrival, local chiefs competed for the mission to come to their villages. Chief Kepuha of Hagåtña threw a feast the following day where the Spanish gave all the local chiefs iron hoops in exchange for food. The missionaries baptized 23 islanders, mostly young children. The mission established its headquarters in Hagåtña, consisting of a grouping of structures, including the precursor to the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica. San Vitores refused to allow a palisade or other fortification, as contrary to the mission's gospel of peace. In January 1669, the first stone and lime church was dedicated in Hagåtña, followed by the opening of a boy's elementary school, the first formal institution for education to be established in the Pacific.
A few days after arriving, the first confrontation occurred when a spear-wielding Chamorro threatened a Mexican mission helper who was attempting to destroy a shrine of ancestral skulls, under the orders of the priests. While the Spaniards did not bother themselves with recording the religious beliefs of Chamorros, scholars assume that their belief system was similar to other islanders in being largely based upon providing offerings to a protective ancestor spirit to gain its help. Chamorros would occasionally consult a , who were believed to be skilled intermediaries with guardian spirits. As well as destroying skull shrines, the Spaniards' religious aims explicitly undermined the authority of the , whom the Spaniards called "sorcerers".
"Poison waters"
The first violence against the mission was an August 1668 violent attack against missionary Fr. Morales on Tinian, who was ambushed and speared in the leg as he went to baptize a dying man. Five days later, two of the men accompanying Fr. Morales were killed when Chamorros transporting them on suddenly attacked them with machetes. On Guam, Fr. Luis de Medina was badly beaten when visiting one of the remote villages on Guam. The missionaries found that distant villages on Guam that had previous welcomed them were concealing paths with brush, refusing to give them the traditional welcoming food of breadfruit, and even meeting them armed.
The Spaniards blamed the hostility on rumors spread by a Chinese castaway named Choco on Saipan that the waters that the missionaries were using for baptism was poisoned. This story was plausible to those villages whose sole contact with the missionaries was the baptisms conducted on the deathly ill or newborn, who experience high mortality. Contemporary Spanish accounts state that Chamorros in areas that regularly interacted with the mission group, such as Hagåtña, did not appear to give credence to these stories.
This violence made San Vitores reconsider his opposition to armed force. He sent to letter to the Philippines asking for 200 additional men, this time equipped with weapons, as well as asking that Manila galleons stopping by be prepared "to carry out punishment and remedy whatever misfortunes might occur." In late 1669, San Vitores led a dozen armed members of his mission, as well as some Chamorro converts, to Tinian in an attempt to stop a war between two villages that threatened to destabilize the missionary efforts there. When one of the warring groups made a surprise attack on the mission party, three were killed by a small artillery piece. For the first time, the Spanish force directly killed Chamorros.
In early 1670, Fr. Medina and his catechist Hipolito de la Cruz were killed by a group of young men on Saipan as they prepared to baptize a sick child. Then, in July 1671, a Mexican mission helper in Hagatña was killed when he went outside the village to cut wood to make crosses. Spaniards arrested suspected murderers, accidentally killing a Chamorro noble. While the Spaniards intended to hold a fair trial, the concept was not understood by the Chamorros. One historian writes: "the barbarians were so greatly offended by justice, to which they were strangers, that they behaved as if they would rather be killed without trial than be arrested and examined."
First siege of Hagatña (1670) The outrage at the trial combined with the anger at the attempts to destroy ancestral shrines and undermine to move the residents of Hagatña to open resistance. Hurao, a high-caste resident of the village, began to rally villagers to open resistance. In response to the threat, the Spaniards finally erected a wooden stockade with two towers. They were soon confronted by an estimated 2,000 Chamorro men, though the Spaniards quickly captured Hurao. While the military head of the mission, Juan de Santa Cruz, favored an attack, San Vitores insisted on trying to appease the attackers with gifts of food and turtle shell. The besieging Chamorros conducted themselves largely by the norms of ritualized island warfare, characterized by ceremonial posturing, displays of physical prowess, and the avoidance of an all-out battle that might result in heavy casualties. After a month, a severe typhoon ended the siege, inflicting more casualties than the battle. During the entire course of the siege, Chamorros lost five men. This is compared to the eight Chamorro deaths from warfare recorded by the Spaniards in the previous three years, indicating that the siege was abnormally bloody by the standards of traditional Chamorro warfare.
In the five months after the lifting of the siege, San Vitores requested more troops and redoubled his missionary efforts towards the northern islands. However, San Vitores appeared to believe that the mere presence of additional soldiers would ensure peace. The Spaniards did not make any efforts to punish or detain those responsible for the attacks on missionaries or siege of Hagatña. Released from prison, Hurao began traveling between villages to encourage opposition to the colonists.
Death of San Vitores (1672)