Real Fuerte de Nuestra Señora La Virgen del Pilar de Zaragoza
...also fortunately known as...
Fort Pilar
Zamboanga City, Philippines

Surprisingly, there were segments of the many cultures of the Philippines that did not accept Spanish domination. The Sultans of Mindanao and Jolo were particularly uncooperative, preferring their own rule (and religion, which was Islam) to that of the Spanish. The Spanish Governor directed that a stone fort be built at the southern extremity of the Philippines to protect Spanish interests from the frequent raids they were experiencing from the recalictrant Sultans, and the Real Fuerte de San José was established there in 1635. The settlement that sprung up around the fort became Zamboanga City: The area had previously been known as Samboangan, which meant either "place of flowers," "mooring place," "pot" or "bowl." Whatever it meant, it was hispanicized to Zamboanga.

The Spanish had returned by 1718, clutching plans for a new fort, as well as a new name...and here's where it's revealed why I began this page by yakking about the Virgin Mary! The upgraded fort would be called the Real Fuerte de Nuestra Señora La Virgen del Pilar de Zaragoza, the Royal Fortress of Our Sacred Lady Virgin of the Pillar of Zaragossa, which of course harkened back to that fabbo semi-imaginary event of 40AD. The lovely new starfort proved itself by repelling an attack by 3,000 screaming Moro pirates in 1720.

The Pillar Lady finally got around to visiting this fort that had been so graciously named after her in 1734. On December 6 of that year, the Virgin Mary reportedly approached the city's main gate, where the soldier assigned thereto ordered her to stop. Upon recognizing his local starfort's namesake, however, he fell to his knees...which is the end of the story. What happened then?! History is silent as to the conversation that Virgin Mary and Soldier On His Knees might have had. Recognizing that the Real Fuerte had been legitimately blessed by none other, a relief of the aforementioned Lady, on a pillar, was set above the fort's eastern wall.

Cooke's ships anchored in the harbor and raised the French flag, an acceptable ruse de guerre, which lured several boatloads of official (and gullible) Spaniards out to be captured and interrogated. Satisfied that the Spanish fleet based at Manila was in no shape to do much of anything of an offensive nature, he sailed south to Zamboanga, planning to do harm to Fort Pilar.

The British attempted to continue the ruse and approached Zamboanga's harbor under the Spanish flag on January 22, 1798...but through a series of unfortunate fumblings, managed to alert the garrison to their intentions. Cooke's fleet bombarded Fort Pilar, doing little damage, although at least 450 British roundshot of varied calibers were later recovered in and around the fort. An amphibious landing was attempted, to attack the fort's landward side, but those few British marines who made it ashore were chased back into the sea by 250 lance-armed Zamboangans. Thanks for that timely repopulation scheme, Spanish authorities!

Upon the fall of Manila to the United States in December of 1898, Governor Diego de los Ríos (1850-1911) arrived at Fort Pilar, ready to muster his forces to fight the local Filipino revolutionaries, who were led by General Vicente Álvarez (1862-1942). Fierce fighting raged in and around Zamboanga, with Álvarez's force finally besieging Fort Pilar in April of 1899. The US Army sailed two shiploads of soldiers to Zamboanga in early May to take control of Fort Pilar, but neither of those combatants that were already fighting for control of the fort & city wanted the fricking Americans involved, and the invasion ships were driven away by artillery fire from the fort.

Governor Ríos was finally forced to surrender Fort Pilar, and by extension the city, to the Revolutionary Government of Zamboanga on May 18, 1899. The Spanish finally got around to leaving five days later, after burning down as much as the city as possible in a last "eff you" gesture. Based at Fort Pilar, the new Republic of Zamboanga's president was General Álvarez. One of his convictions was that the governent should be inclusive, and his army included Christians, Muslims and Lumads (indigenous locals)...which sounded nice, but while Álvarez was away recruiting troops to fight the oncoming Americans, some of his people opened Fort Pilar's doors to a force of those very Americans. Threachery! Álvarez took to the hills and continued fighting, but was captured and imprisoned by the US Army in 1902.

"Monkeys" in this case refers to the prostitutes of Zamboanga, with whom the 27th Infantry Regiment were obviously intimately familiar...and while it's pretty disrespectful to refer to any humans as monkeys, these were prostitutes, and they were probably already well accustomed to disrespect in general, and racial slurs in particular.

The Second World War (1939-1945) brought the Japanese to the Philippines, and Zamboanga was captured in March of 1942. One of Imperial Japan's claims at the outset of the war was that it intended for Asia to be for Asians; that every figment of European colonialism should be expunged. This sounded swell in the abstract to a lot of Asians, but any Zamboangans who had high hopes for an immediate post-colonial utopia got a shock when Zamboanga was made a branch hub of Unit 731.