Castilian War

Spanish Expedition to Borneo / "Castilian" War Expedición española a Borneo Perang Kastila Digmaang Kastila ڤراڠ كستيلا
Date March–June 1578 Location Borneo, Mindanao and Sulu Result Status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
Bruneian Empire	Spanish Empire pro-Spanish Bruneians
Commanders and leaders
Sultan Saiful Rijal	Francisco de Sande Pengiran Seri Lela  † Pengiran Seri Ratna  †
Strength
1,000 Royal Guards	400 Spaniards 1,500 Filipinos 300 Borneans

The Spanish Expedition to Borneo, also known locally as the Castilian War (Malay: Perang Kastila; Jawi: ڤراڠ كستيلا; Spanish: Expedición española a Borneo; Filipino: Digmaang Kastila), was a military conflict between Brunei and Spain in 1578.

Since the middle of the 16th century, Europeans were eager to gain a foothold in South East Asia because of the spice trade. Spain also wanted to spread Christianity, the largest faith in Europe. Since the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the land routes from the Eastern Mediterranean to South East Asia through Central Asia and the Middle East, were controlled by the Ottomans, Persians, Arabs, Indians and Malays. As a result, the Portuguese and later the Spanish, tried to find an alternative route by sea to South East Asia, so they could trade in spices and other products with the Malays. At the time, Brunei Darussalam was a loose empire extending from Borneo Island, also claiming but not rarely controlling parts of the Philippines.

It was during the reign of Sultan Saiful Rijal when the Castilian War broke out. He faced two main problems which was that the Spanish wanted to spread Christianity and invade the Philippines.

From their ports in Mexico, the Spanish sent several expeditions to the Philippines and in 1565 under Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, settled in Cebu. For a time Cebu became the capital of the archipelago and the main trading post. It was also the first city for spreading Christianity in the islands. Because of this, Spain's aspirations came to clash with those of Brunei. Between 1485 and 1521, the Sultanate of Brunei led by Sultan Bolkiah had established the state of Kota Serudong (Otherwise known as the Kingdom of Maynila) as a Bruneian puppet state opposed to the local Kingdom of Tondo. Islam was further strengthened by the arrival to the Philippines of traders and proselytisers from present-day Malaysia and Indonesia. The multiple states that existed in the Philippines simplified Spanish colonisation. In 1571 Spanish Miguel Lopez de Legazpi attacked and Christianized Islamic Manila, which was made the capital of the Philippine Islands, also becoming a hub for trade and evangelisation. The Visayans, (people from the Kedatuan of Madja-as and Rajahnate of Cebu) which before the Spanish came, had waged war against the Sultanate of Sulu and the Kingdom of Maynila, now became allies of the Spaniards against the Sultanate of Brunei. The time the Castilian War broke out was a time of religious fervor in Europe and many parts of the world, when a single state religion was followed. In Spain, the state religion was Roman Catholicism obliging followers of other faiths such as Jews and Muslims to convert to this religion. The Spanish had recently finished a 700-year-old war to reconquer and re-Christianize Spain, which had been invaded by the Muslims under the Umayyad Caliphate since the 8th century AD. The long process of reconquest, sometimes through treaties, mostly through war, is known as the Reconquista. The hatred of Spaniards against the Muslims that once invaded Spain fuelled the Castilian War. This war also started the Spanish–Moro Wars in the Philippines against the Sultanate of Sulu and Sultanate of Maguindanao.

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