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History of Ilocos SurThis section provides you with significant highlights of the rich and colorful history of Ilocos Sur. Even before the Spanish regime, the extensive region of Ilocos was already a flourishing and 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 settlements then consisted of villages near the small bays on coves called "looc," which stretched from Bangui (Ilocos Norte) to Namacpacan in the south (Luna, La Union). The inhabitants were referred to as "Ylocos," which literally meant "from the lowlands." On June 13, 1572, Don Juan de Salcedo, a Spanish Explorer, discovered Ylocos. 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." Soon Augustinian missionaries moved to the settlement, joining the military forces in conquering the region. They evangelized to the natives, established parishes, and built churches. Three centuries later the settlement became the seat of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia and was called "Ciudad Fernandina" in honor of King Ferdinand of Spain. The Spanish colonization of the Ilocos region was never fully successful. The history of Ilocos was marked by several uprisings staged by the Ilocanos, protesting the abusive practices of the Spanish colonizers (it was not uncommon then to find garrison under the church bells in the plaza). Among these are the Dingras uprising (1589), Pedro Almasan revolt (1660), the series of 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. On February 2, 1818, Spain issued a royal decree to gain better political control of the region. The royal decree divided Ilocos into two provinces: Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte. At that time, Ilocos Sur covered what are now the northern towns of La Union up to Luna and Abra, as well as Lepanto and Amburayan in Mt. Province. Ilocos Sur was administered as part of the Filipino Republic in 1898. Tirad Pass, in Ilocos Sur, was the site of the heroic rear guard defense by Filipino Revolutionary soldiers to protect the retreat of General Emilio Aguinaldo from the advancing American troops during the Filipino-American War. A national shrine stands in the site of the battle, in what is now town of Gregorio del Pilar, so named to memorialize the commanding general of the Filipino troops. The Americans re-established civil rule in 1901. On March 1917, the Philippine Legislature passed Act 2683 that defined the present geographical boundaries of Ilocos Sur. Vigan remains to be the capital of Ilocos Sur.
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