CHAPTER I

Introduction
1 Definition of history
History is a branch of social science that deals with the study of past
events from literary documents or information gathered by the historian.
Etymology Greek word historian who means to inquire or investigate.
Father of history and geography - HERODOTUS
Historian - the person who narrates/writes past events based on the
different theories, interpretation, recommendation and conclusion from
fossils, artefacts, written documents and other sources.
2 Sources of history
Sources of information provide evidences from which the historian obtains
facts about the past.
a. Primary Sources: those that witnessed the event that took place or
have been part of the incident being studied such as written records,
fossils, artefacts, and testimonies from living witnesses.
b. Secondary Sources: those that have not been part of the event being
considered like magazines, newspapers, pamphlets and articles
written about the primary sources.
3 Importance of History:
a. To learn about the past
b. To understand the present
c. To appreciate your heritage
d. To broaden your perspective
e. To acquire a background for critical thinking, problems and solutions
are central to any survey of history..
CHAPTER II

I.

The Philippines
1. Origin of the Philippines
1. Legends
The story of the bird, the sky, and the sea
2. Theories
i.
Part of a lost continent

It was believed that the Philippines was a remnant of

a vast continent in the pacific which had sunk during prehistoric times like the fabled Atlantis lost somewhere in the
Atlantic Ocean.

This lost pacific continent was called Lemuria or

Mu.

Its remnants aside from Philippines were Borneo,

Celebes, Java, Sumatra, and other islands of the pacific.
ii.
Volcanic Origin
It was proposed by Dr. Bailey Willis.
According to this theory, Philippines was born due to the
eruptions of sea volcanoes.
iii. Land Bridge Theory
This theory suggests that Philippines was once a landmass
bridging China and the Asian Mainland, to Borneo, Indonesia,
New Guinea, and even Australia. The present China Sea was
an exposed dry land known as the Sunda Shelf which covered
an area of 1, 800, 000 square kilometers. During the post
glacial age, about 250, 000 years ago, the worlds ice melted,
causing the sea level to rise. Consequently, the lower land
regions including the land bridges linking Asia and the
Philippines were submerged, thus, Philippines archipelago
was formed.
2. Archipelagos Name
a) Filipinas

The name given to Philippines in

1543 by the Spanish explorer, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, in
honor of Prince Felipe of Austria who later became Philip II,
the greatest king of Spain.

This name first appeared on a

rare map published at Venice in 1554 by Giovanni Battista
Ramusio.
b) Philippine Islands
The anglicized name of Filipinas during the American colonial
regime.
c) Republic of the Philippines
The name given to Philippines after the decolonization in
1946.
d) Ma-yi/ ma-i
The name given to Philippines by the early Chinese traders
such as Chau Ju Kua and Wang Ta- Yuan.
Same names such as Mintolang for Mindanao, Makilu for
Manila, and Pishoye for Visayas were also dubbed to
Philippines by the Chinese.
Ma- i is generally accepted to refer to the island of Mindoro in
Luzon because of its gold and proximity in the Chinese
mainland.
e) Rizaline Republic

The name proposed by the Katipunan General Artemio Ricarte

in honor of Dr. Jose Rizal.

f) Maharlika
It was proposed by former President Ferdinand Marcos after
his dream of making the Philippines great again.
g) Pearl of the Orient Seas
The most romantic name of the Philippines.
It was originally given in 1751 by father Juan J. Delgado as a
name of Manila (Pearl of the Orient) and was also mentioned
by Manuel De Azcarraga y Palmero.
It was also grunted by Dr. Jose P. Rizal in his published article
in the Hong Kong Telegraph.
2. Origin of the Filipinos
Nobody really knows the origin of the first man or human settlement in the
Philippines. Theories advance and change in light of new
findings/evidences according to:
a. The Religious Sources: during the early years of Spanish colonization,
the friar-historians wrote the first histories of our people and they
conceived of several ideas regarding the origin of the Filipinos such as:
i. The ancestors of the Filipinos sprang out of the soil like wild plants,
ii. They were created by the sun,
iii. They were the descendants of Tarshish (one of Noahs great grandsons) who
settled in the Philippines after the great flood.
b. The legends: imaginative folklorists recount two legends regarding the
origin of the Filipinos.
c. The Migration Theory: the most widely known version of peopling of
the Philippines during prehistoric times is the theory of Dr. H. Otley
Beyer, the founder of the Anthropology Department of the University of
the Philipppines. According to him, ancestors of the Filipinos came to
this country in different waves of migration as follows:
1.1.
The Cave-man Dawn Man type who was similar to the
Java Man, Peking Man, and other Asian homo sapiens of 250,000
years ago. So called Dawn Man for he appeared at the dawn of
time. Thickly haired and brawny, no knowledge of agriculture, living
by means of gathering wild plants, fishing and hunting. It is claimed
to reach Philippines through the land bridges while hunting.
1.2.
The aboriginal pygmy group or the Negritos, who came
between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago, walked across land bridges
from the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, and the Australian connection.
After their arrival, the land bridges became submerged under the
seas, the Negritos lived permanently in the archipelago and
became its first settlers. They are also known as Aeta, Ati, or Ita.
They are among the smallest people on earth usually 5 feet tall,
black skinned, dark kinky hair, round black eyes and flat noses. The

Aetas are primitive people, wandering in forests, hunting, fishing

and foraging for wild plants, with a belief in charms, amulets and
animal/human sacrifices and among the worlds best archers and
herbalists.
1.3.
The sea-faring, tool-using Indonesian Group, came
about 5,000 6,000 years ago, belonging to the Mongoloid race
with Caucasian features, were the first to reach Philippines by sea.
Unlike the Negritos, they were tall and brought a more advanced
culture having permanent dwellings, wore clothing and personal
ornaments, knew agriculture, mining and copper tools.
1.4.
The sea-faring, more civilized Malays who brought the
Iron Age culture and introduced new industries like iron-metalsmithing, pottery making, cloth weaving and jewellery making. They
had organized settlements, better weapons, clothes and ornaments
than the two previous groups. It was said that there were several
waves of Malay migration:
i. First group representing the Bontoks, Ilongots and
Tinggulans of Northern Luzon
ii. Second, representing the alphabet-using Malays who
became Tagalogs, Bicolanos, Pampangueos, Visayas
iii. Third, representing the Muslim Malays who were the
descendants of the present day Muslims
d. The Core Population Theory/ Base Culture hypothesis. According
to this theory, the people of prehistoric Southeast Asia belonged to the
same racial unit. This core population shared a base culture or
common cultural traits (similar tools, pottery, designs, ornaments,
beliefs, rituals and funeral practices).