The Fuerza de Santa Isabel. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
IN 1720 the Spanish colonialists, through an initiative of the Jesuits, decided to reopen the Zamboanga fort in order to protect the missions they had in Mindanao. The immediate consequence was that the small sultanates of Mindanao and Sulu, whose economy largely depended on the capture and sale of slaves, were forced to sail to more distant islands in search of prey: Caraga, Leyte, Camiguin, Mindoro and, very frequently, northern Palawan and the Calamianes.