Brief History

Zamboanga City was founded in the late 12th or early 13th century as a settlement by the Subanen People. Zamboanga peninsula was also the homelands of the ancestors of the Yakan, the Balanguingui and other closely related Sama-badjao people

The name for the city (and later the peninsula), "Zamboanga", is the HIspanized spelling of the  Sinama term for "mooring place" - samboangan (also spelled sambuangan; and in Subanen, sembwangan), from the root word samboang ("mooring pole"). The name "Samboangan" is well-attested in Spanish, British, French,German, and American historical records from as far back as the 17th century.