Maynila

Maynila, commonly called Manila and sometimes the Kingdom of Maynila, was a major Tagalog bayan on the southern bank of the Pasig River, occupying the area of the modern Intramuros district. It was one of the most cosmopolitan settlements of the early historic Philippines, fortified with a wooden palisade suited to the warfare of the period, and it faced the separately ruled polity of Tondo on the opposite bank. Its paramount rulers used the Malay title Raja and maintained close marriage ties with the ruling house of the Sultanate of Brunei, although Brunei's influence is not thought to have amounted to direct political or military rule. By the sixteenth century Maynila was an important trading centre with extensive connections to Ming China; together with Tondo it held a duopoly on the intra-archipelagic trade in Chinese goods. Around 1570 the city was governed by two paramount rulers, the elder Rajah Matanda and the younger Rajah Sulayman, each with subordinate datus. In May 1570 the Spanish expedition of Martin de Goiti attacked and burned the fortified settlement. It was partly rebuilt before Miguel Lopez de Legazpi arrived in 1571 and, after negotiations with the rulers of Maynila and Tondo, declared the new Spanish city of Manila on 24 June 1571, ending Maynila's existence as an independent polity.