"Only the Muslims resisted. Located on the islands of Mindanao, Palawan, and on the Sulu chain, the Moros (the name for Filipino Muslims, from the Spanish word for Moors) turned away all attempts at pacification or conversion during one-third of a millennium, much after the rest of the country had settled into docile tranquility. Unlike the pagans, they fought Spain in long and vicious wars. In the sixteenth century, the Spaniards pursued a strategy of containing Islam’s expansion and in the seventeenth they tried to Christianize the south; in 1700-50 they tried but failed to tempt the Moros with a policy of lenience and attraction; Spanish attacks temporarily broke Moro power at times during 1750-1850; from 1850 to 1890 Spain tried again to subdue the Moros through force; and in 1890-98, the last years of Spain’s presence, the occupation was marked by panic and intolerance as the Philippines slipped from Spain’s grasp. When the United States took control of the country in 1898, it inherited the Moro problem (viewed as a variant on its Indian troubles at home), and two years later launched a full-scale assault on them. At last, in 1913, General John Pershing of World War I fame subjugated them, using the full array of modem technology, including steamships, the .45 caliber revolver, and dumdum bullets. After three and a half centuries, the Muslims had finally been vanquished. Even this was not permanent, however, as violence broke out anew in 1972, once again over the issue of Manila’s control over the Muslim regions in the south."