Ilocos Norte History

This section gives you an overview of Ilocos Norte History.

Long before the Spanish regime, the extensive region of Ilocos was already a progressive cluster of towns and settlements that attracted Chinese and Japanese traders.

The Ilocos region was renowned for its gold mines, and merchants from Japan and China traded gold with beads, ceramics and silk.

The entire Ilocos Region (consisting of the present provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Abra and La Union) is bounded by China Sea in the west and Northern Cordilleras on the east.

The settlements then consisted of villages near the small bays or coves called "looc," which stretched from Bangui (Ilocos Norte) to Namacpacan in the south (Luna, La Union).

The inhabitants were called "Ylocos," which literally meant "from the lowlands."

Don Juan de Salcedo, a Spanish Explorer, discovered Ylocos on June 13, 1572. Juan de Salcedo and the members of his expedition decided to establish their headquarters in a settlement along the "Mestizo River" then named "Kabigaan" (now Vigan) because of the "gabi"-like plants that abundantly grew by the bank of the river.

The Spaniards called the region "Ylocos" or "Ilocos" and its people "Ilocanos."

After occupying the town settlement of Vigan, Don Juan de Salcedo pressed further north to Laoag, Currimao and Badoc.

Laoag, which eventually became the capital of Ilocos Norte, was located at "Ermita Hill" at the northern bank of Pasdan river.

At that time, Laoag was a center of population as well as a flourishing center of trade with Japanese and Chinese.

The Augustinian missionaries established the Laoag parish, St. William's Cathedral, in 1580.

The Spanish colonization of the Ilocos region was never completely successful. Many Ilocanos revolted against the colonizers, protesting the abusive practices of the Spaniards (it was not uncommon then to find garrison under the church bells in the plaza).

The Ilocanos staged a series of revolutions, including the Dingras uprising (1589), Pedro Almasan revolt (1660), battles staged by Diego Silang (1762) and his wife Gabriela, and the Piding uprising (1807) where the sugar cane ("basi") brewers protested the government's monopoly of the wine industry.

To gain political control of the region, particularly with a growing population, Spain issued a royal decree on February 2, 1818, dividing Ylocos into two provinces: Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte.

At that time, the province occupied the coastal plain bordering the China Sea and guarded by the Cordilleras in the northwestern corner of Luzon.

On March 1917, the Philippine Legislature passed Act 2683 that defined the present geographical boundaries of Ilocos Norte. Laoag City remains the capital of Ilocos Norte.

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