Spanish colonizers first came to the Manila Bay area and its settlements in June 1570, while Governor-General Legazpi was searching for a suitable place to establish a capital for the new territory. Having heard of a prosperous Muslim settlement on the island of Luzon, Legaspi had sent Martin de Goiti to investigate. When Maynilad's ruler, Rajah Soliman, refused to submit to Spanish sovereignty, De Goiti attacked. De Goiti eventually defeated Soliman, claimed Maynilad in the name of the King of Spain, then returned to report his success to Legazpi, who was then based on the island of Panay.
Legazpi himself returned to take the settlement on June 19, 1591. When the Spanish forces approached the natives burned Maynilad down and fled to Tondo and other neighboring towns.
Legaspi began constructing a fort on the ashes of Maynilad and made overtures of friendship to Rajah Lakandula of Tondo, who accepted. The defeated Soliman refused to submit to the Spaniards, but failed to get the support of Lakandula or of the Pampangan and Pangasinan settlements to the north. When Soliman and a force of Tagalog warriors attacked the Spaniards in the battle of Bangcusay, he was finally defeated and killed.
This defeat marked the end of rebellion against the Spanish amongst the Pasig river settlements, and Lakandula's Tondo surrendered its sovereignty, submitting to the authority of the new Spanish capital, Manila.