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Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 1,902,590 people. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on the island of Luzon, it is classified as a highly urbanized city. With 44,935 inhabitants per square kilometer (116,380/sq mi), Manila is one of the world's most densely populated cities proper.
By 1258, a Tagalog-fortified polity called Maynila existed on the site of modern Manila. On June 24, 1571, after the defeat of the polity's last indigenous ruler, Rajah Sulayman, in the Battle of Bangkusay, Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi began constructing the walled fortification of Intramuros on the ruins of an older settlement from whose name the Spanish and English name Manila derives. Manila was used as the capital of the captaincy general of the Spanish East Indies, which included the Marianas, Guam, and other islands, and was controlled and administered for the Spanish crown by Mexico City in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Manila is considered to be part of the world's original set of global cities because its commercial networks were the first to extend across the Pacific Ocean and connect Asia with the Spanish Americas through the galleon trade. This marked the first time an uninterrupted chain of trade routes circling the planet had been established.
Under the American occupation, Manila became the first chartered city in the country, designated by Philippine Commission Act No. 183 on July 31, 1901. It became autonomous with the passage of Republic Act No. 409, "The Revised Charter of the City of Manila", on June 18, 1949.
In modern times, the name "Manila" is commonly used to refer to the entire metropolitan area, the greater metropolitan area, and the city proper. Metro Manila, the officially defined metropolitan area, is the capital region of the Philippines, and includes the much larger Quezon City and the Makati Central Business District.
The Pasig River flows through the middle of Manila, dividing it into northern and southern sections. The city comprises 16 administrative districts and is divided into six political districts for the purposes of representation in the Congress of the Philippines and the election of city council members. In 2018, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network listed Manila as an "Alpha-" global city, and ranked it seventh in economic performance globally and second regionally, while the Global Financial Centres Index ranks Manila 79th in the world. Manila is also the world's second most natural disaster-exposed capital city after Tokyo. Furthermore, land subsidence and sea-level rise driven by climate change are challenges that the city will face in the future.
The name Manila is derived from the Filipino term Maynilà, which is commonly interpreted as either "where indigo plants are abundant" (may nilà) or "where nilad plants are abundant" (may nilad).
Nilà is derived from the Sanskrit word nīla (नील), which refers to indigo dye and, by extension, to several plant species from which this natural dye can be extracted. The name Maynilà was probably bestowed because of the indigo-yielding plants that grew in the area surrounding the settlement rather than because it was known as a settlement that traded in indigo dye. Indigo dye extraction only became an important economic activity in the area in the 18th century, several hundred years after Maynila settlement was founded and named. Maynilà eventually underwent a process of Hispanicization and adopted the Spanish name Manila.
This etymology arose from the observation that, in Tagalog, nilad or nilar refers to a shrub-like tree (Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea; formerly Ixora manila Blanco) that grows in or near mangrove swamps. However, Baumgartner explained that it is unlikely that native Tagalog speakers would completely drop the final consonant /d/ in nilad to arrive at the present form Maynilà. As an example, nearby Bacoor retains the final consonant of the old Tagalog word bakoód ("elevated piece of land"), even in old Spanish renderings of the placename (e.g., Vacol, Bacor). Linguist Vic Romero contends that it is actually not impossible for final consonant /d/ to shift into a glottal stop such as in mapalad to pinagpalà and hangád to hangà.
The earliest known reference to this etymology was in the third volume of John Ray's Historia Plantarum in 1704, originally lifted from the Herbarium aliarumque Stirpium in Insula Luzone Philippinarum primaria nascentium... by Fr. Georg Josef Kamel, and he mentioned that:
Examples of later adoption of this etymology include the name of a local utility company, Maynilad Water Services, alternative name of Manila City Hall, Maharnilad, and the name of underpass close to it, Lagusnilad (meaning "Nilad Pass").
The earliest evidence of human life around present-day Manila is the nearby Angono Petroglyphs, which are dated to around 3000 BC. Negritos, the aboriginal inhabitants of the Philippines, lived across the island of Luzon, where Manila is located, before Malayo-Polynesians arrived and assimilated them.
Maynila, along with Tondo, were active trade partners with the Song and Yuan dynasties of China and flourished during the mid to later period of the Ming dynasty. According to a Japanese encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue, Luzon or Lusong (Maynila) was referred to as a "kingdom" south of Taiwan.
During the 12th century, then-Hindu Brunei called "Pon-i", as reported in the Chinese annals Nanhai zhi, invaded Malilu 麻裏蘆 (claimed by various scholars to be the present-day Manila) as it also administered Sarawak and Sabah, as well as the Philippine kingdoms of: Butuan, Sulu, Ma-i (Mindoro or Laguna), Shahuchong 沙胡重 (present-day Zamboanga), Yachen 啞陳 (Oton), and 文杜陵 Wenduling (present-day Mindanao, Bintulu or Mindoro). In the 13th century, Manila consisted of a fortified settlement and trading quarter on the shore of the Pasig River. Upon the conversion of Brunei from Hinduism to Islam, Manila also followed, as the Bruneian royal family also intermarried with Manila's royal family, as can be gleaned by the personage of Rajah Matanda who was simultaneously king of Manila while being a great-grandson of Sultan Bolkiah of Brunei.
On June 24, 1571, conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi arrived in Manila and declared it a territory of New Spain, establishing a city council in what is now Intramuros district. Inspired by the Reconquista, he took advantage of a territorial conflict between Hindu Tondo and Islamic Manila to justify expelling or converting Bruneian Muslim colonists who supported Manila while his Mexican grandson Juan de Salcedo had a romantic relationship with Kandarapa, a princess of Tondo. López de Legazpi had the local royalty executed or exiled after the failure of the Conspiracy of the Maharlikas, a plot in which an alliance of datus, rajahs, Japanese merchants, and the Sultanate of Brunei would band together to execute the Spaniards, along with their Latin American recruits and Visayan allies.
The victorious Spaniards made Manila the capital of the Spanish East Indies and of the Philippines, which their empire would control for the next three centuries. The city was founded by several European Spaniards and Mestizo Mexicans and even was garrisoned by 400 Native American Tlaxcalans who accompanied Salcedo from Cebu and were given pensions. In 1574, Manila was besieged by the Chinese pirate Lim Hong, who was thwarted by local inhabitants. Upon Spanish settlement, Manila was immediately made, by papal decree, a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Mexico. By royal decree of Philip II of Spain, Manila was put under the spiritual patronage of Saint Pudentiana and Our Lady of Guidance. After the conquest of Manila from its Muslim aristocracy; the Spanish-Mexican conquistadors were awarded encomiendas with Esteban Rodríguez de Figueroa holding an encomienda near Manila; tribute figures not recorded. The other one is Juan Maldonado, another Mexican an early encomendero; of whom limited data survives. In the meantime, the Muslim aristocracy of Manila converted or fled, one such was Datuk Manila who fled to the Sultanate of Malacca where he became a Wali or Islamic Saint.
Manila became famous for its role in the Manila–Acapulco galleon trade, which lasted for more than two centuries and brought goods from Europe, Africa, and Hispanic America across the Pacific Islands to Southeast Asia, and vice versa. Silver that was mined in Mexico and Peru was exchanged for Chinese silk, Indian gems, and spices from Indonesia and Malaysia. Wine and olives grown in Europe and North Africa were shipped via Mexico to Manila. Crops native to the Americas like chilli, papaya, sweet potato, chayote et cetera were also introduced to Asia at this point from the Philippines, permanently shaping Asian cuisines since. Because of the Ming ban on trade leveled against the Ashikaga shogunate in 1549, this resulted in the ban of all Japanese people from entering China and of Chinese ships from sailing to Japan. Manila became the only place where the Japanese and Chinese could openly trade.
The Manila Synod of 1582, the first Catholic Synod in the Philippines laid out the moral foundations for the incorporation of the archipelago into the Spanish Empire. Therein, the people had argued that native Filipinos already possess inherent dignity and sovereignty due to the precepts of Natural Law. And that any temporal power Spain has in incorporating the Philippines under the Spanish Empire is merely a servant to Spain's obligation or Supernatural Duty, mainly that is to save souls through faith in Christ; in which case they argued that it was just and moral to convert the Pagan (Hindu, Buddhist, and Animist) as well as Muslim; kingdoms of the Philippines into Christianity, in order to save their souls and that care should be taken to respect natives' rights and sovereignty, the best way of doing so, was to gently impose a more just and humane society under Christian Law which the Spanish did; by abolishing slavery, polygamy, polyandry, and infanticide, often practiced by the native Pagans and Muslims. Furthermore, Philippine society was materially enriched via trade with Latin-America, and if any other power were to serve as obstacles for the increased progress and cultivation of the Philippines, the Spanish are morally bound to wage Just War Theory against them. As a result of pacification campaigns, religious conversions, colonizations, and settlement by the Spanish in cooperation with the local natives, the proceedings of the Manila Synod of 1582 guaranteed native and Spanish rights and obligations amidst the Spanish-Mexican colonization of the Philippines and the later 1599 Philippines sovereignty referendums were proclaimed, and therein, assent was given by the governed Filipino peoples, in accepting Spanish sovereignty.
In 1606, upon the Spanish conquest of the Sultanate of Ternate, one of monopolizers of the growing of spice, the Spanish deported the ruler Sultan Said Din Burkat of Ternate, along with his clan and his entourage to Manila, where they were initially enslaved and eventually converted to Christianity. About 200 families of mixed Spanish-Mexican-Filipino and Moluccan-Indonesian-Portuguese descent from Ternate and Tidor followed him there at a later date.
The city attained great wealth due to its location at the confluence of the Silk Road, the Spice Route, and the Silver Way. Significant is the role of Armenians, who acted as merchant intermediaries that made trade between Europe and Asia possible in this area. France was the first nation to try financing its Asian trade with a partnership in Manila through Armenian khojas. The largest trade volume was in iron, and 1,000 iron bars were traded in 1721. In 1762, the city was captured by Great Britain as part of the Seven Years' War, in which Spain had recently become involved. The British occupied the city for twenty months from 1762 to 1764 in their attempt to capture the Spanish East Indies but they were unable to extend their occupation past Manila proper. Frustrated by their inability to take the rest of the archipelago, the British withdrew in accordance with the Treaty of Paris signed in 1763, which brought an end to the war. An unknown number of Indian soldiers known as sepoys, who came with the British, deserted and settled in nearby Cainta, Rizal.
The Chinese minority were punished for supporting the British, and the fortress city Intramuros, which was initially populated by 1,200 pure Spanish families and garrisoned by 400 Spanish troops, kept its cannons pointed at Binondo, the world's oldest Chinatown. The population of native Spaniards was concentrated in the southern part of Manila and in 1787, La Pérouse recorded one regiment of 1,300 Mexicans garrisoned at Manila, and they were also at Cavite, where ships from Spain's American colonies docked at, and at Ermita, which was thus-named because of a Mexican hermit who lived there. The Hermit-Priest's name was Juan Fernandez de Leon who was a Hermit in Mexico before relocating to Manila. Priests were not usually alone too since they often brought along Lay Brothers and Sisters. The years: 1603, 1636, 1644, 1654, 1655, 1670, and 1672; saw the deployment of 900, 446, 407, 821, 799, 708, and 667 Latin American soldiers from Mexico at Manila. The Philippines hosts the only Latin American established districts in Asia, with the Malate district hosting buildings mixing Mexican Baroque and Filipino Muslim Mudejar styles. The Spanish evacuated Ternate and settled Papuan refugees in Ternate, Cavite, which was named after their former homeland. In 1603, Manila was also home to 25,000 Chinese and housed 14,437 native (Malay-Filipino) families, as well as 3,528 mixed Spanish-Filipino families.
The rise of Spanish Manila marked the first time all hemispheres and continents were interconnected in a worldwide trade network, making Manila, alongside Mexico City and Madrid, the world's original set of global cities. A Spanish Jesuit priest commented due to the confluence of many foreign languages in Manila, the confessional in Manila was "the most difficult in the world". Juan de Cobo, another Spanish missionary of the 1600s, was so astonished by the commerce, cultural complexity, and ethnic diversity in Manila he wrote to his brethren in Mexico:
Text from the Wikipedia article “Manila”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.