1847
San Pedro Cathedral is the oldest church in the city, prominently located at the corner of San Pedro Street and C.M.Recto Avenue.  Named after Saint Peter, the patron saint, it was said to be built in 1847 by Don Jose Oyanguren, the Spanish conquistador who later become the first governor of Davao region.

1848
Spanish influence was negligible in the Davao region until 1848, when an expedition of 70 men and women led by José Cruz de Uyanguren (from Bergara, Spain) established a Christian settlement in an area of mangrove swamps which is now Bolton Riverside. Davao was then ruled by a chieftain, Bago, who had a settlement on the banks of the Davao River (then called the Tagloc River by the Bagobos). Bago was the most powerful datu in the area at that time. Cruz de Uyanguren met the Mandaya chieftain, Daupan, joining him to help defeat Bago (who collected tribute from the neighboring Mandayas). They failed to defeat Bago when their ships were outmaneuvered crossing the narrow channel of the Davao River bend (where the Bolton Bridge is located). Three months after the battle, Cruz de Uyanguren began building a causeway connecting the other side of the river, but Bago’s warriors raided the workers. Several weeks later, Manuel Quesada, Navy Commanding General of Zamboanga, arrived with a company of infantry and joined in an attack on Bago’s settlement.

After Cruz de Uyanguren defeated Bago, he renamed the region Nueva Guipúzcoa, founding the town of Nueva Vergara (the future Davao) in 1848 to honor of his home in Spain and becoming its first governor. He was reported to have peacefully conquered the entire Davao Gulf region by year’s end, despite a lack of support from the Spanish government in Manila and his allies. Cruz de Uyanguren attempted to make peace with the neighboring tribes (including the Bagobos, Mansakas, Manobos and Aetas), urging them to help develop the area; his efforts, however, did not succeed.

1852
Due to intrigues by those in Manila dissatisfied with Cruz de Uyanguren’s Davao venture, Marquis de Solana (by Governor General Blanco’s order) took over Cruz de Uyanguren’s command of theNueva Guipúzcoa (Davao) region. By that time, the capital, Nueva Vergara (Davao) had a population of 526. While relative peace with the natives prevailed, the population grew very slowly. In the 1855 census, the Christian inhabitants and converts numbered 817 (including 137 who were exempt from taxes).

1868
In response to the Davaowenos’ clamor, Nueva Vergara was renamed “Davao”. The name is derived from its Bagobo origins: the Tagabawa who called the river “Dabo”, the Giangan or Diangan who called it “Dawaw”, and the Obo who called it “Davah”, with a gentle vowel ending, although later usage pronounce it with a hard “v” as in “b”. The pioneer Christian inhabitants of the settlement understandably were the proponents behind the official adoption of the name “Davao” in 1868.

The arrival of three Jesuit missionaries in Davao in 1868 to take over the mission from the sole Recollect priest in the Davao Gulf area marked a concerted effort to convert the natives to Christianity. Through their zeal and field work, the Jesuits gradually succeeded in winning souls to live in reducciones (settlements), which easily allowed instruction in Christian precepts and practices.

1898
After the Spanish-American War in 1898, the Spanish rule in the region ended. Americans then landed in the region and they subsequently developed the regions communications and transportation systems. During this period, private farm ownership grew in the region. Japanese migration in the region began as two Japanese entrepreneurs, Kyosaburo Otta and Yoshizo Furokawa, were finding better agricultural lands for building abaca and  coconut plantations in the region.

Several years after American forces landed in 1900, private farm ownership grew; transportation and communication facilities were improved, paving the way for the region’s economic growth. During the early years of American rule (which began in late December 1898) the town began its role as a growth center in the Philippines. American settlers (primarily retired soldiers and investors from Zamboanga, Cebu, Manila and the U.S.) recognized the potential of the region for agricultural investment. Forest land was available everywhere. Investors generally staked claims in the hundreds of hectares, planting rubber, abaca, coconuts and tropical plants imported from Ceylon, India, Hawaii, Java and Malaysia. The development of large-scale plantations faced a labor shortage, and workers were contracted from Luzon and the Visayas (including Japanese laborers from the Baguio, Benguet road construction). Many Japanese became landowners, acquiring lands by government lease or buying American plantations. The first two decades of the 20th century found Davao a producer of exports (abacá, copra and lumber). It became a port of call for inter-island shipping, and began commercial links to the U.S., Japan, Australia and elsewhere. About 40 American and 80 Japanese plantations proliferated in the province, along with stores and businesses. Davao experienced a rapid rise in population, and its economic progress improved the country’s economy and foreign trade.

1902
Davao Evangelical Church was established. The local church can  trace  its  beginnings  to  Rev. Robert Franklin Black who was appointed by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to serve as a missionary  in the Philippines in 1902. It was then known as the Davao Evangelical Church. The small group of converts steadily grew. As a response to the prevalent cholera and malaria epidemic, Rev. Black requested for medical missionaries. Dr. and Mrs. Charles Sibley  arrived in 1908 and established the Davao Mission Hospital which later became the Brokenshire Memorial Hospital.

1920s
Even before the Philippine independence in 1946, the entire region was already a single province called Davao Province, with Davao City serving as its capital. The province was one of the largest provinces in the Philippines during that time, spanning more than 20,000 square kilometers; it lasted from 1920 until 1967, when the province split into three provinces, namely: Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, and Davao del Sur. After the division, Davao City was officially named its regional center.

1930s
Japan-town, Davao City (circa 1930s). Japanese entrepreneur Kichisaburo Ohta exploited large territories, transforming them into abacá and coconut plantations. The first wave of Japanese plantation workers arrived in 1903, creating “Little Japan”. They had their own school, newspapers, an embassy and a Shinto shrine. They established extensive abacá plantations around Davao Gulf and developed large-scale copra, timber, fishing and import-export trade. Filipinos learned cultivation techniques from the Japanese, and agriculture became the lifeblood of the province’s economic prosperity.

Davao was inaugurated as a charter city on October 16, 1936 by President Manuel L. Quezon. The City of Davao became provincial capital of a united Davao Province. It was one of the first two towns in Mindanao to be converted into a city (the other was Zamboanga). By that time, the city’s population was 68,000.

1937-1938
Santiago Artiaga was mayor.

1938-1940
Agustin Alvarez was mayor.
1941
On December 8, 1941, Japanese planes bombed the city and the Japanese occupation began in 1942. In 1942, during World War II, as the Japanese occupation of the Philippines began, the region was one of the first among the Philippine regions to be subjected by Japanese occupation. After the war, the region eventually passed to the American hands again for at least almost one year before the formal Philippine independence in July 4, 1946; most of the Japanese living in the region were now integrated in the  Filipino population.

1945
American and Philippine Commonwealth forces liberated Davao City from the Japanese. The longest and bloodiest battle during the Philippine Liberation occurred in the city at the time of the Battle of Mindanao. World War II brought destruction to the new city, and set back the economic and physical strides made before the Japanese occupation. Davao was among the earliest to be occupied by Japanese forces, and the city was immediately fortified as a bastion of Japanese defense. It was subjected to extensive bombing by forces led by Douglas MacArthur before American liberation forces landed in Leyte in October 1944.

1946