Feeling the pulse of strong refusal among its inhabitants to adopt Christianity, the Spaniards abandoned the project of colonizing the area.

Dansalan, physically speaking, would have satisfactorily qualified to become a town or municipality during the time of said exploration based on the Spanish Policy of "Ecclesiastical Administration" except for fanatical resistance of the natives who were mostly under Muslim rule.

A strong Spanish expedition to conquer the Maranaos was fielded in 1891 during the time of Governor General Valeriano Weyler, but this force was driven back to Iligan after failing to capture Dansalan.

The Spanish forces won a decisive victory and were able to erect a garrison in Dansalan and they already took with them Chabacanos and Chabacano-speaking Muslims from Zamboanga and Basilan and Cebuanos.

However, they had to abandon it just four years later after the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898, leaving it on the hands of the new American colonizers, who imposed their own rule on the population.