Moro

Ethnological group who live on Mindanao and other southern Philippine islands.

Converted to Islam in the 15th century, the Moros were traditionally sea traders, fishermen, pirates, and slave traders. After the Spanish-American war, the US attempted to curb some of these practices and to assimilate the Moros into the Philippine nation. This led to a series of battles resulting in their subjugation 1913.

In the early 1970s, the Moros formed the Moro National Liberation Front, a guerrilla organization demanding a separate Moro state. Heavy fighting in the 1970s and early 1980s led to nearly 50,000 deaths. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, their tactics changed to bombings and kidnappings. In January 1995 an agreement was reached with the Philippine government to establish a Moro independent autonomous government provisional on congressional approval.