Iloilo City

     In the late 18th century, the development of large-scale weaving industry started the movement of Iloilo's surge in trade and economy in the Visayas. Sometimes referred to as the "Textile Capital of the Philippines", the products were exported to Manila and other foreign places. Sinamay, piña and jusi are examples of the products produced by the looms of Iloilo. Because of the rise of textile industry, there was also a rise of the upper middle class. However, the introduction of cheap textile from UK and the emergence of the sugar economy, the industry waned in the mid-19th century. Museo Iloilo is the repository of Iloilo's past.

     The waning textile industry was replaced however by the opening of Iloilo's port to world market in 1855. Because of this, Iloilo's industry and agriculture was put on direct access to foreign markets. But what triggered the economic boom of Iloilo in the 19th century was the development of sugar industry in Iloilo and its neighboring island of Negros. Sugar during the 19th century was of high demand. Nicholas Loney, the British vice-consul in Iloilo developed the industry by giving loans, constructing warehouses in the port and introduced new technologies in sugar farming. The rich families of Iloilo developed large areas of Negros, which later called haciendas because of the sugar's high demand in the world market. Because of the increase in commercial activity, infrastructures, recreational facilities, educational institutions, banks, foreign consulates, commercial firms and much more sprouted in Iloilo.

     On 5 October 1889, due to the economic development that was happening in Iloilo, the Queen Regent of Spain raised the status of the town into the Royal City (Queen's City) of the South, and in 1890, the city government was established.

     In 1896, the initial reaction of Ilonggos in the outbreak of the Revolution in Manila was hesitant. However, the Capital City of Iloilo was the first to offer assistance to the Spanish Crown in quelling the insurrection, owing allegiance to no other Country than Spain before the Philippine Independence. Because of this, the Queen Regent Maria Cristina honored the City (in the name of her son King Alfonso III) with the title "La Muy Noble", in appreciation of the most noble virtue of Ilonggo chivalry. Due to the Spanish blow by blow defeat by, at first, the Katipunan, and later by the Americans, the Spaniards left Manila and established the last Spanish Capital in the Orient in Iloilo City. Sooner, however, through the leadership of General Martin Delgado, the towns of Iloilo got involved in the struggle for independence, except for Iloilo City, Molo, and Jaro.

     On December 25, 1898, the Spanish government surrendered to the Ilonggo revoltionaries in Plaza Alfonso XIII (Plaza Libertad today), and in that place the Filipinos and Spaniards parted ways as friends. In the name of the last Spanish Governor General, Don Diego de los Ríos, Brig. General and Military Provincial Governor Ricardo Monet, together with Lt. Col. Agustín Solís, formally handed over Plaza Alfonso XIII to the Republic of the Philippines through the person of the Filipino General Martin Delgado, who represented President Emilio Aguinaldo in Iloilo. Martin Delgado was named Governor of the Province afterwards.

     The newly found freedom of Ilonggos was short-lived, the American forces arrived in Iloilo in late December 1898. By February 1899, the North Americans started to mobilize for colonizing anew the City and Province. Resistance was the reaction of Ilonggos upon the invasion which lasted up to 1901.

     In 1900, the Americans reverted the city's status into a township again. Yet because of its continuous commercial activities and because it was an important port of call in the Visayas-Mindanao area, it regained the cityhood status on July 16, 1937, through Commonwealth Act 158. Incorporated as part of Iloilo City were the towns of Molo, Jaro, Mandurriao, La Paz and Villa de Arevalo.

     In the very early start of American colonial era, Protestant American Missionaries came to Iloilo as a backlash against Catholicism in the Philippines. The first Protestants to came was the Presbyterians and they established the first Protestant and American hospital in country, Iloilo Mission Hospital; and supposedly it came also that Silliman University (the first Protestant and private American university in Asia and the country) was originally a location for its foundation, but due to Catholic opposition, the founder, David S, Hibbard moved to Dumaguete City, where the university is now presently found. Along with the Presbyterians, Baptists came and established Central Philippine University (the first Baptist university in the country), Jaro Evangelical Church (the first Baptist church in the Philippines), and the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches (the oldest Baptist organizational body in the Philippines)

     Sometime after its re-establishment, the City adopted a seal with the title given to it by the Queen Regent María Cristina, together with another title: "Muy Leal". Thus, the City's title became "La Muy Leal y Noble Ciudad de Iloílo", which remains inscribed on its seal until the present. However, prosperity did not continue as the sugar's demand was declining, labor unrests were happening in the port area that scared the investors away and the opening of the sub-port of Pulupandan in Negros Occidental, has moved the sugar importation closer to the sugar farms. By 1942, the Japanese invaded Panay and the economy moved into a standstill.

     During World War II, Iloilo was controlled by several Japanese Battalions, Japan's ultimate goal was to entrench itself deeply into the Philippines so that at the close of the war they could occupy it just as the Spanish and the Americans had years before. However, when Filipino & American forces liberated Iloilo from Japanese military occupation on March 25, 1945 the remnants of these battalions were held in Jaro Plaza as a makeshift detention facility.