History of the Philippines

Early History: The Philippine archipelago was settled at least 30,000 years
ago, when migrations from the Indonesian archipelago and elsewhere are
believed to have occurred. Additional migrations took place over the next
millennia. Over time, social and political organization developed and
evolved in the widely scattered islands. The basic unit of settlement was
the barangay (a Malay word for boat that came to be used to denote a
communal settlement). Kinship groups were led by a datu (chief), and
within the barangay there were broad social divisions consisting of nobles,
freemen, and dependent and landless agricultural workers and slaves.
Over the centuries, Indo-Malay migrants were joined by Chinese traders. A
major development in the early period was the introduction of Islam to the
Philippines by traders and proselytizers from the Indonesian islands. By
A.D. 1500, Islam had been established in the Sulu Archipelago and spread
from there to Mindanao; it reached the Manila area by 1565. In the midst of
the introduction of Islam came the introduction of Christianity, with the
arrival of the Spanish.