| Cotabato | |||||||||||||||
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| Province of the Philippines | |||||||||||||||
| 1914–1973 | |||||||||||||||
&sq=Google&lang=en&file=File:North_Cotabato_seal.svg) Seal
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&sq=Google&lang=en&file=File:Historical_Province_of_Cotabato_in_the_Philippines.svg) Location of the historical province of Cotabato. | |||||||||||||||
| Capital |
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| Area | |||||||||||||||
• | 24,916 km2 (9,620 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||||
• Established | July 23 1914 | ||||||||||||||
• Disestablished | November 22 1973 | ||||||||||||||
| Political subdivisions |
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| Today part of | · Cotabato · Maguindanao del Norte · Maguindanao del Sur · Sarangani · South Cotabato · Sultan Kudarat | ||||||||||||||
Cotabato, also known as the Province of Cotabato (Maguindanaon: Kutawatu, كوتوات), was a historical province of the Philippines established in 1914 that existed until its dissolution in 1973. The province's capital from 1920 to 1967 was Cotabato City (of the same name) while Pagalungan became its capital from 1967 to 1973.
Originally a district of the former Moro Province, on September 1, 1914, the defunct Department of Mindanao and Sulu provided with autonomous government through Act No. 2408 enacted on July 23, 1914, converted the district into a province along with other former Moro Province districts:[3] Davao, Lanao, Sulu, Zamboanga, and its former sub-province Bukidnon. Davao, Lanao and Zamboanga were then later split and partitioned into different current provinces while Sulu and Bukidnon remain what it is today.
The province was one of the largest provinces of the Philippines, with an area of 2,296,791 hectares (22,967.91 km2).[3] It was dissolved on 1973, comprising what are now the provinces of Cotabato (North), South Cotabato, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Sultan Kudarat, and Sarangani.
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ChanRobles-RA4849was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b "Our Province". Province of Cotabato. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
The total land area of the original Cotabato before its division was 2,296,791 hectares or about one thirteenth of the whole country which has an area of about 30 million hectares. So big was the original province that its area was about the size of the central plain of Luzon and bigger than six states in the United States, including the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The total land area of the Hawaiian Islands (now a U.S. state) is only about three-fourths that of Cotabato.