The history of the Philippines dates from the earliest hominin activity in the
archipelago at least by 709,000 years ago.[1] Homo luzonensis, a species of archaic
humans, was present on the island of Luzon[2][3] at least by 134,000 years ago.[4]
The earliest known anatomically modern human was from Tabon Caves in Palawan dating
about 47,000 years.[5] Negrito groups were the first inhabitants to settle in the
prehistoric Philippines.[6] These were followed by Austroasiatics, Papuans, and
South Asians.[7] By around 3000 BCE, seafaring Austronesians, who form the majority
of the current population, migrated southward from Taiwan.[8] By 2000 BCE the
archipelago was the crux of a trans-oceanic Philippine jade culture.[9]
Scholars generally believe that these ethnic and social groups eventually developed
into various settlements or polities with varying degrees of economic
specialization, social stratification, and political organization.[10] Some of
these settlements (mostly those located on major river deltas) achieved such a
scale of social complexity that some scholars believe they should be considered
early states.[11] This includes the predecessors of modern-day population centers
such as Manila, Tondo, Pangasinan, Cebu, Panay, Bohol, Butuan, Cotabato, Lanao,
Zamboanga and Sulu[12] as well as some polities, such as Ma-i, whose possible
location is either Mindoro or Laguna.[13]
These polities were influenced by Islamic, Indian, and Chinese cultures. Islam
arrived from Arabia, while Indian Hindu-Buddhist[14] religion, language, culture,
literature and philosophy arrived through expeditions such as the South-East Asia
campaign of Rajendra Chola I.[15] Some polities were Sinified tributary states
allied to China. These small maritime states flourished from the 1st millennium.
[16][17]
These kingdoms traded with what are now called China, India, Japan, Thailand,
Vietnam, and Indonesia. The remainder of the settlements were independent barangays
allied with one of the larger states. These small states alternated from being part
of or being influenced by larger Asian empires like the Ming dynasty, Majapahit and
Brunei or rebelling and waging war against them.[18]
The first recorded visit by Europeans is Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, which
landed in Homonhon Island, now part of Guiuan, Eastern Samar, on March 17, 1521.
They lost a battle against the army of Lapulapu, chief of Mactan, where Magellan
was killed.[19][20][21] The Spanish Philippines began with the Pacific expansion of
New Spain and the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi's expedition on February 13,
1565, from Mexico. He established the first permanent settlement in Cebu.[22]
Much of the archipelago came under Spanish rule, creating the first unified
political structure known as the Philippines. Spanish colonial rule saw the
introduction of Christianity, the code of law, and the oldest modern university in
Asia. The Philippines was ruled under the Mexico-based Viceroyalty of New Spain.
After this, the colony was directly governed by Spain, following Mexico's
independence.
Spanish rule ended in 1898 with Spain's defeat in the Spanish–American War. The
Philippines then became a territory of the United States. U.S. forces suppressed a
revolution led by Emilio Aguinaldo. The United States established the Insular
Government to rule the Philippines. In 1907, the elected Philippine Assembly was
set up with popular elections. The U.S. promised independence in the Jones Act.[23]
The Philippine Commonwealth was established in 1935, as a 10-year interim step
prior to full independence. However, in 1942 during World War II, Japan occupied
the Philippines. The U.S. military overpowered the Japanese in 1945. The Treaty of
Manila in 1946 established the independent Philippine Republic.
Timeline
Main article: Timeline of Philippine history
Prehistory
Main article: Prehistory of the Philippines
Docking station and entrance to the Tabon Cave Complex Site in Palawan, where one
of the oldest human remains was located.
Stone tools and fossils of butchered animal remains discovered in Rizal, Kalinga
are evidences of early hominins in the country to as early as 709,000 years.[1]
Researchers found 57 stone tools near rhinoceros bones bearing cut marks and some
bones smashed open, suggesting that the early humans were after the nutrient-rich
marrow.[24] A 2023 study dated the age of fossilized remains of Homo luzonensis of
Cagayan at about 134,000 years.[4]
This and the Angono Petroglyphs in Rizal suggest the presence of human settlement
before the arrival of the Negritos and Austronesian speaking people.[25][26] The
Callao Man remains and 12 bones of three hominin individuals found by subsequent
excavations in Callao Cave were later identified to belong in a new species named
Homo luzonensis.[3] For modern humans, the Tabon Man remains are the still oldest
known at about 47,000 years.[5]
The Negritos were early settlers,[6] but their appearance in the Philippines has
not been reliably dated.[27] They were followed by speakers of the Malayo-
Polynesian languages, a branch of the Austronesian language family. The first
Austronesians reached the Philippines at 3000–2200 BCE, settling the Batanes
Islands and northern Luzon.
From there, they rapidly spread downwards to the rest of the islands of the
Philippines and Southeast Asia, as well as voyaging further east to reach the
Northern Mariana Islands by around 1500 BCE.[8][28][29][30] They assimilated the
earlier Australo-Melanesian Negritos, resulting in the modern Filipino ethnic
groups that all display various ratios of genetic admixture between Austronesian
and Negrito groups.[31][32] Before the expansion out of Taiwan, archaeological,
linguistic and genetic evidence had linked Austronesian speakers in Insular
Southeast Asia to cultures such as the Hemudu, its successor the Liangzhu[30][33]
and Dapenkeng in Neolithic China.[34][35][36][37][38]
The most widely accepted theory of the population of the islands is the "Out-of-
Taiwan" model that follows the Austronesian expansion during the Neolithic in a
series of maritime migrations originating from Taiwan that spread to the islands of
the Indo-Pacific; ultimately reaching as far as New Zealand, Easter Island, and
Madagascar.[28][39] Austronesians themselves originated from the Neolithic rice-
cultivating pre-Austronesian civilizations of the Yangtze River delta in coastal
southeastern China pre-dating the conquest of those regions by the Han Chinese.
This includes civilizations like the Liangzhu culture, Hemudu culture, and the
Majiabang culture.[40] It connects speakers of the Austronesian languages in a
common linguistic and genetic lineage, including the Taiwanese indigenous peoples,
Islander Southeast Asians, Chams, Islander Melanesians, Micronesians, Polynesians,
and the Malagasy people. Aside from language and genetics, they also share common
cultural markers like multihull and outrigger boats, tattooing, rice cultivation,
wetland agriculture, teeth blackening, jade carving, betel nut chewing, ancestor
worship, and the same domesticated plants and animals (including dogs, pigs,
chickens, yams, bananas, sugarcane, and coconuts).[28][39][41]
A 2021 genetic study examining representatives of 115 indigenous communities found
evidence of at least five independent waves of early human migration. Negrito
groups, divided between those in Luzon and those in Mindanao, may come from a
single wave and diverged subsequently, or through two separate waves. This likely
occurred sometime after 46,000 years ago. Another Negrito migration entered
Mindanao sometime after 25,000 years ago. Two early East Asian waves were detected,
one most strongly evidenced among the Manobo people who live in inland Mindanao,
and the other in the Sama-Bajau and related people of the Sulu archipelago,
Zamboanga Peninsula, and Palawan. The admixture found in the Sama people indicates
a relationship with the Htin and Mlabri people of mainland Southeast Asia, both
peoples being speakers of an Austroasiatic language and reflects a similar genetic
signal found in western Indonesia. These happened sometime after 15,000 years ago
and 12,000 years ago respectively, around the time the last glacial period was
coming to an end. Austronesians, either from Southern China or Taiwan, were found
to have come in at least two distinct waves. The first, occurring perhaps between
10,000 and 7,000 years ago, brought the ancestors of indigenous groups that today
live around the Cordillera Central mountain range. Later migrations brought other
Austronesian groups, along with agriculture, and the languages of these recent
Austronesian migrants effectively replaced those existing populations. In all
cases, new immigrants appear to have mixed to some degree with existing
populations. The integration of Southeast Asia into Indian Ocean trading networks
around 2,000 years ago also shows some impact, with South Asian genetic signals
present within some Sama-Bajau communities. There is also some Papuan migration to
Southeast Mindanao as Papuan genetic signatures were detected in the Sangil and
Blaan ethnic groups.[7]
By 1000 BCE, the inhabitants of the Philippine archipelago had developed into four
distinct kinds of peoples: tribal groups, such as the Aetas, Hanunoo, Ilongots and
the Mangyan who depended on hunter-gathering and were concentrated in forests;
warrior societies, such as the Isneg and Kalinga who practiced social ranking and
ritualized warfare and roamed the plains; the petty plutocracy of the Ifugao
Cordillera Highlanders, who occupied the mountain ranges of Luzon; and the harbor
principalities of the estuarine civilizations that grew along rivers and seashores
while participating in trans-island maritime trade.[42] It was also during the
first millennium BCE that early metallurgy was said to have reached the
archipelagos of maritime Southeast Asia via trade with India[43][44]
Around 300–700 CE, the seafaring peoples of the islands traveling in balangays
began to trade with the Indianized kingdoms in the Malay Archipelago and the nearby
East Asian principalities, adopting influences from both Buddhism and Hinduism.[45]
Maritime Jade Road
The Maritime Jade Road was initially established by the animist indigenous peoples
between the Philippines and Taiwan, and later expanded to cover Vietnam, Malaysia,
Indonesia, Thailand, and other countries.[46] Artifacts made from white and green
nephrite have been discovered at a number of archeological excavations in the
Philippines since the 1930s. The artifacts have been both tools like adzes[47] and
chisels, and ornaments such as lingling-o earrings, bracelets and beads.[9] Tens of
thousands were found in a single site in Batangas.[48][49] The jade is said to have
originated nearby in Taiwan and is also found in many other areas in insular and
mainland Southeast Asia. These artifacts are said to be evidence of long range
communication between prehistoric Southeast Asian societies.[50] Throughout
history, the Maritime Jade Road has been known as one of the most extensive sea-
based trade networks of a single geological material in the prehistoric world,
existing for 3,000 years from 2000 BCE to 1000 CE.[51][52][53][54] The operations
of the Maritime Jade Road coincided with an era of near absolute peace which lasted
for 1,500 years, from 500 BCE to 1000 CE.[55] During this peaceful pre-colonial
period, not a single burial site studied by scholars yielded any osteological proof
for violent death. No instances of mass burials were recorded as well, signifying
the peaceful situation of the islands. Burials with violent proof were only found
from burials beginning in the 15th century, likely due to the newer cultures of
expansionism imported from India and China. When the Spanish arrived in the 16th
century, they recorded some warlike groups, whose cultures have already been
influenced by the imported Indian and Chinese expansionist cultures of the 15th
century.[56]
The Sa Huỳnh culture
See also: Kalanay Cave
Asia in 200 BCE, showing the Sa Huỳnh culture in Mainland Southeast Asia and the
Philippines in transition.
The Sa Huỳnh culture centered on present-day Vietnam, showed evidence of an
extensive trade network. Sa Huỳnh beads were made from glass, carnelian, agate,
olivine, zircon, gold and garnet; most of these materials were not local to the
region, and were most likely imported. Han dynasty-style bronze mirrors were also
found in Sa Huỳnh sites.
Conversely, Sa Huỳnh produced ear ornaments have been found in archaeological sites
in Central Thailand, Taiwan (Orchid Island), and in the Philippines, in the
Palawan, Tabon Caves. One of the great examples is the Kalanay Cave in Masbate; the
artefacts on the site in one of the "Sa Huỳnh-Kalanay" pottery complex sites were
dated 400BCE–1500 CE. The Maitum anthropomorphic pottery in the Sarangani Province
of southern Mindanao is c. 200 CE.[57][58]
Ambiguity of what is Sa Huỳnh culture puts into question its extent of influence in
Southeast Asia. Sa Huỳnh culture is characterized by use of cylindrical or egg-
shaped burial jars associated with hat-shaped lids. Using its mortuary practice as
a new definition, Sa Huỳnh culture should be geographically restricted across
Central Vietnam between Hue City in the north and Nha Trang City in the south.
Recent archeological research reveals that the potteries in Kalanay Cave are quite
different from those of the Sa Huỳnh but strikingly similar to those in Hoa Diem
site, Central Vietnam and Samui Island, Thailand. New estimate dates the artifacts
in Kalanay cave to come much later than Sa Huỳnh culture at 200–300 CE. Bio-
anthropological analysis of human fossils found also confirmed the colonization of
Vietnam by Austronesian people from insular Southeast Asia in, e.g., the Hoa Diem
site.[59][60]
Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details
Prehistoric (or Proto-historic) Iron Age Historic Iron Age
Precolonial period (AD 900 to 1565) – Independent polities
Main article: History of the Philippines (900–1565)
History of the Philippines is located in
PhilippinesIdjangIdjangMaynilaMaynilaKedatuan of Madja-asKedatuan of Madja-
asRajahnate of ButuanRajahnate of ButuanSultanate of SuluSultanate of
SuluKumalarangKumalarangRajahnate of SanmalanRajahnate of SanmalanMa-iMa-
iSandaoSandaoKedatuan of DapitanKedatuan of DapitanSultanate of
MaguindanaoSultanate of MaguindanaoRajahnate of CebuRajahnate of
CebuNamayanNamayanTondoTondoPuliluPuliluSultanate of LanaoSultanate of
LanaoCaintaCaintaCaboloanCaboloanIbalonIbalonSamtoySamtoyChiefdom of TaytayChiefdom
of Taytay
Locations of pre-colonial principalities, polities, kingdoms and sultanates in the
Philippine archipelago
Also known to a lesser extent as the Pre-Philippines period, is a pre-unification
period characterized by many independent states known as polities each with its own
history, cultures, chieftains, and governments distinct from each other. According
to sources from Southern Liang, people from the kingdom of Langkasuka in present-
day Thailand were wearing cotton clothes made in Luzon, Philippines as early as
516–520 CE.[61] The British Historian Robert Nicholl citing Arab chronicler Al
Ya'akubi, had written that on the early years of the 800s, the kingdoms of Muja
(Then Pagan Brunei) and Mayd (Kedatuan of Madja-as or Ma-i) waged war against the
Chinese Empire.[62] Medieval Indian scholars also referred to the Philippines as
"Panyupayana" (The lands surrounded by water).[63]
By the 1300s, a number of the large coastal settlements had emerged as trading
centers, and became the focal point of societal changes.[11] The Barangic Phase of
history can be noted for its highly mobile nature, with barangays transforming from
being settlements and turning into fleets and vice versa, with the wood constantly
re-purposed according to the situation.[64] Politics during this era was
personality-driven and organization was based on shifting alliances and contested
loyalties set in a backdrop of constant inter-polity interactions, both through war
and peace.[16]
Legendary accounts often mention the interaction of early Philippine polities with
the Srivijaya empire, but there is not much archaeological evidence to definitively
support such a relationship.[11] Considerable evidence exists, on the other hand,
for extensive trade with the Majapahit empire.[65]
The exact scope and mechanisms of Indian cultural influences on early Philippine
polities are still the subject of some debate among Southeast Asian
historiographers,[11][66] but the current scholarly consensus is that there was
probably little or no direct trade between India and the Philippines,[11][66] and
Indian cultural traits, such as linguistic terms and religious practices,[65]
filtered in during the 10th through the early 14th centuries, through early
Philippine polities' relations with the Hindu Majapahit empire.[11] The Philippine
archipelago is thus one of the countries, (others include Afghanistan and Southern
Vietnam) just at the outer edge of what is considered the "Greater Indian cultural
zone".[66]
The early polities of the Philippine archipelago were typically characterized by a
three-tier social structure. Although different cultures had different terms to
describe them, this three-tier structure invariably consisted of an apex nobility
class, a class of "freemen", and a class of dependent debtor-bondsmen called
"alipin" or "oripun."[11][16] Among the members of the nobility class were leaders
who held the political office of "Datu," which was responsible for leading
autonomous social groups called "barangay" or "dulohan".[11] Whenever these
barangays banded together, either to form a larger settlement[11] or a
geographically looser alliance group,[16] the more senior or respected among them
would be recognized as a "paramount datu", variedly called a Lakan, Sultan, Rajah,
or simply a more senior Datu.[64][11][42] Eventually, by the 14th to 16th century,
inter-kingdom warfare escalated[67] and population densities across the archipelago
was low.[68]
Initial recorded history
During the period of the south Indian Pallava dynasty and the north Indian Gupta
Empire, Indian culture spread to Southeast Asia and the Philippines that led to the
establishment of Indianized kingdoms.[69][70]
The date inscribed in the oldest Philippine document found so far, the Laguna
Copperplate Inscription, is 900 CE. From the details of the document, written in
Kawi script, the bearer of a debt, Namwaran, along with his children Lady Angkatan
and Bukah, are cleared of a debt by the ruler of Tondo. It is the earliest document
that shows the use of mathematics in precolonial Philippine societies. A standard
system of weights and measures is demonstrated by the use of precise measurement
for gold, and familiarity with rudimentary astronomy is shown by fixing the precise
day within the month in relation to the phases of the moon.[71] From the various
Sanskrit terms and titles seen in the document, the culture and society of Manila
Bay was that of a Hindu–Old Malay amalgamation, similar to the cultures of Java,
Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra at the time.
There are no other significant documents from this period of precolonial Philippine
society and culture until the Doctrina Christiana of the late 16th century, written
at the start of the Spanish period in both native Baybayin script and Spanish.
Other artifacts with Kawi script and baybayin were found, such as an Ivory seal
from Butuan dated to the early 10th–14th centuries[72][73] and the Calatagan pot
with baybayin inscription, dated to not later than early 16th century.[74]
A Boxer Codex image illustrating the ancient Tagalog Maginoo (noble class).
In the years leading up to 1000, there were already several maritime societies
existing in the islands but there was no unifying political state encompassing the
entire Philippine archipelago. Instead, the region was dotted by numerous semi-
autonomous barangays (settlements ranging in size from villages to city-states)
under the sovereignty of competing thalassocracies ruled by datus, wangs, rajahs,
sultans or lakans.[75] or by upland agricultural societies ruled by "petty
plutocrats". A number of states existed alongside the highland societies of the
Ifugao and Mangyan.[76][77] These included:
the Kingdom of Maynila
the Kingdom of Taytay in Palawan (mentioned by Antonio Pigafetta to be where they
resupplied when the remaining ships escaped Cebu after Magellan was slain)
the Chieftaincy of Coron Island ruled by fierce warriors called Tagbanua as
reported by Spanish missionaries mentioned by Nilo S. Ocampo,[78]
the Confederation of Namayan
the polities of Tondo and Cainta
the Sinitic wangdom of Pangasinan
the nation of Ma-i and its vassal-states of Sandao and Pulilu
the Kedatuans of Madja-as and Dapitan
the Indianized rajahnates of Sanmalan, Butuan, and Cebu
the sultanates of Buayan, Maguindanao, Lanao, and Sulu
Some of these regions were part of the Malayan empires of Srivijaya, Majapahit and
Brunei.[79][80][81]
