Human's Profile

The Early Philippines November 19, 2009

Philippines Early history

The earliest archeological evidence for man in the archipelago is the 40,000-year-old Tabon man of Palawan and the  Angono Petrolyphs in Rizal, both of whom appear to suggest the presence of human settlement prior to the arrival of the Negritos and Austronesian speaking people.

 

A Pre-Classical indigenous Ifugao village.

The Negritos were early settlers but their appearance in the Philippines has not been reliably dated.^[19] and they were followed by speakers of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, a branch of the Austronesian languages, who began to arrive in successive waves beginning about 4000 B.C.E, displacing the earlier arrivals.^[20]

 

A Bontoc warrior (circa 1908). This central eastern Cordillera group formerly practiced headhunting.^[21]

During 2205 to 2106 B.C.E., the Ifugao fled their ancestral homeland in mainland Asia and migrated to the Cordilleras. Thereafter, they established a plutocratic society^[22] and built the Banaue Rice Terraces on the highland regions of central Luzon.^[23]

By 1000 B.C.E. 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 Kalingas 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.^[24]

Around 300–700 C.E. 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.^[25][26]

Classical epoch

 

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription: The oldest known legal document from the Dynasty of Tondo.

In the years leading up to 1000 C.E., 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 is size from villages to city-states) under the sovereignty of competing thalassocracies ruled by datus, rajahs or sultans^[27] or by upland agricultural societies ruled by “petty plutocrats”. States such as the Kingdom of Maynila and Namayan, the Dynasty of Tondo, the Confederation of Madyaas, the rajahnates of Butuan and Cebu and the sultanates of Maguindanao and Sulu existed alongside the highland societies of the Ifugao and Mangyan.^{[28][29][30][31]} Some of these regions were part of the Malayan empires of Srivijaya, Majapahit and Brunei.^[32][33][34]

 

A golden statuette of the Hindu-Buddhist goddess “Kinari” found in an archeological dig in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur.

In the year 900 the Dynasty of Tondo centered in Manila Bay flourished via an active trade with Chinese sea traders in the area. Later serving as a smuggling nexus after the Chinese imposed restrictions on their foreign trade.^[35] During this time, the lord-minister Jayadewa presented a document of debt forgiveness to Lady Angkatan and her brother Bukah, the children of Namwaran. This is described in the Philippine’s oldest known document the Laguna Copperplate Inscription.^[36]

 

A page from the Boxer Codex showing pre-Hispanic Philippine royalty. Left, is a general from the Rajahnate of Butuan and to the right is a princess of the Tondo dynasty.

By year 1011 Rajah Sri Bata Shaja, the monarch of the Indianized Rajahnate of Butuan, a maritime-state famous for its goldwork^[37] sent a trade envoy under ambassador Likan-shieh to the Chinese Imperial Court demanding equal diplomatic status with other states.^[38] The request being approved, it opened up direct commercial links with the Rajahnate of Butuan and the Chinese Empire thereby diminishing the monopoly on Chinese trade previously enjoyed by their rivals the Dynasty of Tondo and the Champa civilization.^[39] Evidence of the existence of this rajahnate is given by the Butuan Silver Paleograph.^[40]

During the 11th century several exiled datus of the collapsing empire of Srivijaya^[41] led by Datu Puti led a mass migration to the central islands of the Philippines, fleeing from Rajah Makatunao of the island of Borneo. Upon reaching the island of Panay and purchasing the island from Negrito chieftain Marikudo, they established a confederation of polities and named it the Confederation of Madyaas centered in Aklan and they settled the surrounding islands of the Visayas. This confederation reached its peak under Datu Padojinog. During his reign the confederations’ hegemony extended over most of the islands of Visayas. Its people consistently made piratical attacks against Chinese imperial shipping.^[42]

Around 1225, the Country of Mai, a Sinified pre-Hispanic Philippine island-state centered in Mindoro, flourished as an entrepot, this attracted traders & shipping from the Kingdom of Ryukyu to the Yamato Empire. Chao Ju-kua, a superintendent of maritime trade in Fukien province, China; wrote a book entitled Chu Fan Chih (an account of various barbarians) which described trade with this classical Philippine state.^[43]

 

The flag of the Sulu sultanate.

In 1380, Karim ul’ Makdum and Shari’ful Hashem Syed Abu Bakr, an Arab trader born in Johore, arrived in Sulu from Malacca and established the Sultanate of Sulu. This sultanate eventually gained great wealth due to its manufacture of fine pearls.^[44] At the end of the 15th century, Shariff Mohammed Kabungsuwan of Johor introduced Islam in the island of Mindanao and he subsequently married Parmisuli, a princess from Mindanao, and established the Sultanate of Maguindanao.^[45] By the 16th century, Islam had spread to other parts of the Visayas and Luzon.

During the reign of Sultan Bolkiah in 1485 to 1521, the Sultanate of Brunei decided to break the Dynasty of Tondo’s monopoly in the China trade by attacking Tondo and establishing the state of Selurong (now Manila) as a Bruneian satellite-state.^[46][47] A new dynasty under the Islamized Rajah Salalila^[48] was also established to challenge the House of Lakandula in Tondo.^[49] Islam was further strengthened by the arrival to the Philippines of traders and proselytizers from Malaysia and Indonesia.^[50] The multiple states competing over the limited territory and people of the islands simplified Spanish colonization by allowing its conquistadors to effectively employ a strategy of divide and conquer for rapid conquest.

Colonial era

In 1521, Portuguese-born Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived in Samar and Leyte and claimed the islands for Spain^[51] but was killed by a militia from Mactan island ruled by the datu Lapu-Lapu. The survivors of the expedition, however, returned to Spain and served as the impetus for the further discovery and conquest of the Philippine Islands.^[51]

 

A statue of Datu Lapu-Lapu, a chieftain in Mactan island who led a group of warriors that killed Ferdinand Magellan on April 27, 1521. He is now regarded as the first Filipino hero.^[52]

Colonization began when Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi, arrived from Mexico in 1565 and formed the first European settlements in Cebu. In 1571, the Spanish occupied the kingdoms of Maynila and Tondo and established Manila as the capital of the Spanish East Indies.^[53][54] Spanish power was further consolidated after Miguel López de Legazpi’s conquest of the Confederation of Madya-as, his subjugation of Rajah Tupas the King of Cebu and Juan de Salcedo’s ransacking of the Chinese warlord Limahong’s pirate kingdom in Pangasinan. This grab for power eventually culminated with the mass murder and exile of the royal families of the Dynasty of Tondo and the Kingdom of Maynila when the Tondo Conspiracy of 1587-1588 failed^[55] in which a planned grand alliance with the Japanese admiral Gayo, Butuan’s last rajah and Brunei’s Sultan Bolkieh, would have restored the old aristocracy. Its failure resulted in the hanging of Agustín de Legazpi (great grandson of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and the initiator of the plot) and the execution of Magat Salamat (the crown-prince of Tondo).^[56]

In the following years, the colony was governed as a territory of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, centered in Mexico, from 1565 to 1821 and administered directly from Spain from 1821 to 1898. Subsequently, the Aztec and Mayan mercenaries López de Legazpi brought with him eventually settled in Mexico, Pampanga where traces of Aztec and Mayan influence can still be proven by the many chico plantations in the area (chico is a fruit indigenous only to Mexico) and also by the name of the province itself.^[57]

 

The chico (sapodilla) is a popular fruit eaten in the Philippines. Originally, indigenous only to Aztec America; it was introduced to the country by Mexican immigrants.

The fragmented nature of the islands made it easy for Spanish colonization. The Spanish then attempted to bring political unification to the Philippine archipelago via the conquest of the various states but they were unable to subjugate the sultanates of Mindanao and the tribes and highland plutocracy of the Ifugao of Northern Luzon. The Spanish introduced elements of western civilization such as the code of law, western printing and the Gregorian calendar alongside new food resources such as maize, pineapple and chocolate from Latin America.^[58] From 1565 to 1821, the Philippines was governed from Mexico City via the Royal Audiencia of Manila, before it was administered directly from Madrid after the Mexican revolution.^[59] The Manila Galleons which linked Manila to Acapulco traveled once or twice a year between the 16th and 19th centuries. The Spanish military fought off various indigenous revolts and several external colonial challenges, especially from the British, Chinese pirates, Dutch, and Portuguese. Roman Catholic missionaries converted most of the lowland inhabitants to Christianity and founded schools, universities, and hospitals. In 1863 a Spanish decree introduced education, establishing public schooling in Spanish.^[60]

During the British occupation of 1762–1764 brought about by the Seven Years’ War, General William Draper lead an army of British soldiers and Indian sepoy mercenaries against the combined Malay reserve and Chinese auxiliary forces of the Mexican-born acting Governor-General, Archbishop Manuel Rojo del Rio y Vieyra. In the process, the British liberated Sultan Azim ud-Din I of Sulu from imprisonment in Manila and supported the Vigan rebellion of the female revolutionary leader, Gabriela Silang. The warfare caused the destruction of Manila and the theft of important historical and legal documents.^[61] Nevertheless, Spanish sovereignty in the islands was returned to the new Governor designate, Brigadier Don Francisco de la Torre who arrived with dispatches from both the Spanish king and the British king following the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1763).^[62]

The Spanish eventually opened Philippine ports to world trade. Wealth increased and many filipinos, criollos and mestizos became rich. The numbers of Spanish and Latino settlers swelled, this secularized churches and government positions traditionally held by the peninsulares. The ideals of the French Revolution also began to spread through the islands; fanned by disgust over the enslavery of the local Malays, the abusive taxation levied against the principalia and sangley class and the desire of Criollos (Philippine-born Spaniards and Latinos) for democracy. Criollo insurgency resulted in the Novales mutiny, and the revolt in Cavite El Viejo in 1872 that would lead to the Philippine Revolution.^[63]

 

A map found on board the Na SA de Covadonga, after it was taken by Commodore Anson in 1743, showing the route of the Manila-Acapulco galleon sailing through the Philippine Islands.

An ideology of a revolution grew after colonial authorities executed three progressive secular priests, Mariano Gómez, José Burgos and Jacinto Zamora (known as Gomburza), who were accused of rebellion, in 1872.^[64] This would inspire a propaganda movement in Spain, organized by José Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar and Mariano Ponce, lobbying for political reforms in the Philippines. The movement produced a newspaper, La Solidaridad. Rizal, who wrote the novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, returned to the Philippines and established the organization La Liga Filipina which also called for reforms. He was exiled to Dapitan, where he met Josephine Bracken.^[65] He was executed on December 30, 1896, on charges of rebellion.^[65]

Andrés Bonifacio, meanwhile, established the secret society called the Katipunan, a society affiliated with the order of the freemasons, in 1892, which sought independence from Spain through armed revolt.^[66] Bonifacio and the Katipunan started the Philippine Revolution in 1896. A faction of the Katipunan, the Magdalo of Cavite province, eventually came to challenge Bonifacio’s position as the leader of the revolution. Emilio Aguinaldo took over from Bonifacio (who was executed afterwards in one of the most infamous, tragic, and contentious incidents in Philippine history) and formed the Republic of Biak-na-Bato in 1897.^[67] A ceasefire was agreed at the Treaty of Biak-na-Bato, which led to the revolutionary leaders to depart for Hong Kong, in exile, officially ending the revolution on May 17, 1897, though rebel activities continued regardless of the treaty.^[68]

The Spanish-American War began in Cuba in 1898 and reached the Philippines after the United States invaded the islands and fought Spain in the Battle of Manila Bay. Aguinaldo collaborated with the United States, returned from exile and declared Philippine independence from Spain in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898, and established the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic in Malolos, Bulacan the following year after Spain’s defeat. Meanwhile, Spain ceded the islands together with Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guam, to the United States for $20 million during the Treaty of Paris. This led to the Philippine-American War, during which, Aguinaldo was captured on March 23, 1901. The war (along with the Moro Rebellion), continued until 1913. At least 34,000 Filipinos lost their lives as a direct result of the war and at least 200,000 may have died as a result of the cholera epidemic at the war’s end.^[69][70][71] After two interim governing commissions, the Philippine Insular Government was established in the July, 1902 by the Philippine Organic Act, restoring civilian government after the Philippine-American War.^[72]

 

Former politician, Manuel L. Quezon in his inauguration as President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines during the American period.

As a result of the 1916 Jones Law and the subsequent 1934 Tydings-McDuffie Act, the Philippines became a Commonwealth.^{[73][74][75][76]} The Commonwealth was officially inaugurated in November 15, 1935. Manuel L. Quezon was elected as president in 1935, with the task of preparing the country for sovereignty. During his term numerous tasks regarding agrarian reform were initiated, including the populating of Mindanao, an area considered as part of the hinterlands at the time. He also faced several challenges from leftist groups, such as the Sakdalista. Apart from this, his projects also included the establishments of a new capital and the formation of a unifying National Language.

Efforts to prepare the country for independence were hampered by the Japanese invasion during World War II. Despite an effort to defend the country in Bataan and Corregidor, the country was occupied. A puppet government nominally headed by José P. Laurel was formed and was presented as ostensibly running the country. Numerous war crimes were committed during the years of the occupation, such as those suffered by comfort women and the Bataan Death March. In exile, Quezon continued representing the Commonwealth in forums such as the Pacific War Council and the United Nations until his death in 1943. The islands were liberated in 1944–1945, beginning in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where General Douglas MacArthur led the Allied Forces and the United States Military (U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps) and escorted Sergio Osmeña, Quezon’s successor, back to the country. The liberation ended after the Battle of Manila, which killed around 100,000 people, bringing the death toll for the country to an estimated one million dead.^[77] On July 4, 1946, in the ruined Philippine capital, the United States granted the Philippines its independence from colonial rule but it still maintained the Clark Air Base^[78] and the Subic Naval Base and impressed the ratification of the Bell Trade Act that in exchange for war rebuilding funds granted the United States and Americans special economic privileges in the country that were unreciprocated.^[79]

Contemporary period

 

A merit medal from the Order of Lakandula. The highest honor awarded by the Philippine Republic. The order was initiated by the Macapagal Presidential Family, descendants of the Tondo Dyansty’s last ruler, Rajah Lakandula.

After the World War II, the Philippines faced a plague of political instability. Remnants of the Hukbalahap communist rebel army continued to roam the rural regions, disgruntled after the government had rejected their contribution during World War II. Attempts at reconciliation were established by former President Ramón Magsaysay.

 

A statue of the Virgin Mary was built on the EDSA Shrine, after the People Power Revolution.

The 1960s was a period of economic growth for the Philippines, which developed into one of the wealthiest in Asia. Ferdinand Marcos became president and barred from seeking a third term, he declared Martial law on September 21, 1972. Using the crises of political conflicts, the tension of the Cold war, a rising Communist rebellion and an Islamic insurgency as justifications; he governed by decree, along with his wife Imelda Marcos. After being exiled to the United States, opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. (Marcos’ chief rival) was assassinated at the Manila International Airport (also called the Ninoy Aquino International Airport) on August 21, 1983. In 1986, the People Power Revolution occurred. The people gathered and protested in EDSA, instigated by the Archbishop of Manila, Jaime Cardinal Sin, who was opposed to the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. After losing the subsequent election to Corazón Aquino (the widow of Benigno Aquino) who became the first female president of the Philippines and the first female president in Asia, Marcos and his allies departed to Hawaii in exile.^[80]

The return of democracy and government reforms after the events of 1986 were hampered by national debt, government corruption, coup attempts, a Communist insurgency and an Islamic separatist organization. The economy improved during the administration of Fidel V. Ramos, who was elected in 1992.^[81] However, the economic improvements were negated at the onset of the East Asian financial crisis in 1997. The 2001 EDSA Revolution led to the downfall of the Philippine president, Joseph Ejercito Estrada. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took leadership in 2001 following the impeachment of the Estrada government.

Reference: (Please Visit Wikipedia for more details just click the link below.)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines