21 Facts About Mindanao

1.

Mindanao is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world.

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2.

Mindanao is divided into six administrative regions: the Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, the Caraga region, the Davao region, Soccsksargen, and the autonomous region of Bangsamoro.

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3.

Mindanao is considered the major breadbasket of the Philippines, with eight of the top 10 agri-commodities exported from the Philippines coming from the island itself.

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4.

Name "Mindanao" is a Spanish corruption of the name of the Maguindanao people, the dominant ruling ethnic group in the Sultanate of Maguindanao in southwestern Mindanao during the Spanish colonial period.

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5.

The largest of the Muslim polities in mainland Mindanao was the Sultanate of Maguindanao, which controlled the southern floodplains of the Rio Grande de Mindanao and most of the coastal area of the Illana Bay and the Moro Gulf.

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6.

Mindanao was then embroiled between a conflict with the Boholano Kedatuan of Dapitan and the Moluccan Sultanate of Ternate.

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7.

Mindanao called the island "Caesarea Caroli" after Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire .

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8.

Shortly after Spain's colonization of Cebu, it moved on to colonize the Caraga region in northeast Mindanao and discovered significant Muslim presence on the island.

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9.

Over time a number of tribes in Mindanao converted to Roman Catholicism and built settlements and forts throughout the coastal regions.

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10.

Ternate regularly sent military reinforcements to Mindanao to assist the local sultanates in their war against Spanish-controlled Manila.

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11.

Mindanao was peaceful and increasingly progressive in the postwar period, including the 1950s and the mid-1960s.

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12.

In 1989, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was established, constituted by several provinces in Western Mindanao.

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13.

In May 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law on the entire island group of Mindanao following the Marawi siege by the Maute terrorist group.

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14.

Mindanao is surrounded by four seas: the Sulu Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Celebes Sea to the south, and the Mindanao Sea to the north.

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15.

Mountains of Mindanao can be grouped into ten ranges, including both complex structural mountains and volcanoes.

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16.

Mindanao contains two large lowland areas in the valleys of the Agusan River in Agusan, and the Rio Grande de Mindanao in Cotabato City.

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17.

From Dipolog City eastward along the northern coast of Mindanao approaching Butuan City extends a rolling coastal plain of varying width.

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18.

Mindanao is already experiencing severe climate events attributed to changes in the earth's temperature.

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19.

Major tourist spots are scattered throughout Mindanao, consisting mostly of beach resorts, scuba diving resorts, surfing, museums, nature parks, mountain climbing, and river rafting.

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20.

Many areas in Mindanao suffer rotating 12-hour blackouts due to the island's woefully inadequate power supply.

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21.

Zamboanga City, an urbanized center in southwest Mindanao, is expected to begin experience daily three-hour brownouts due to the National Power Corporation's decision to reduce power supply in the city by 10 megawatts.

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