Kapampangan

The Kapampangan are an Austronesian people of the Pampanga River basin in central Luzon. They came from southern Luzon and moved north ahead of Tagalog expansion, displacing the Aeta foragers into the mountains.

Around 1500 Bruneian Malay power and trade made Islam prominent on the coast. The Muslim ruler Tarik Sulayman of Macabebe led Kapampangan resistance against the Spaniards at the Battle of Bangkusay Channel in 1571. Once conquered, the Kapampangan helped defend Manila against the Dutch in 1640, after which Governor Corcuera granted them the privilege of studying in Spanish academies.

The Kapampangan Revolt of 1660 was put down with the help of the Arayat datu Juan Macapagal. During the British occupation of Manila in 1762 Tagalog refugees flooded into Bulacan and Nueva Ecija, where most Kapampangan families eventually sold their lands and assimilated, leaving the Kapampangan language strongest in Pampanga.