Before the Conquest _— By: Teodoro A. Agoncillo and Milagros C. Guerrero The tradition of Philippine history writing, which the Spanish chroniclers originated and which American and Filipino writers followed later, had the Spaniards, more specifically Ferdinand Magellan, discover the Philippines. The obvious implication is that the Philippines, or more accurately, the archipelago later called the Philippines, was unknown to all. However, archeological records and narratives written by Chinese officials, including those written by Muslim scholars, point to the early relations of the Philippines with neighboring countries, But these records, written or floating, are not sufficiently numerous to form a continuous and meaningful narrative of Philippine history before the coming of the Spaniards. Even so, the records are in themselves clear proofs of the existence of a civilization, which had an Oriental texture Peopling of the Philippines. — Up to the early 1970's, it had been assumed that the Philippines was a part of mainland China. It was theorized that during the Pleistocene or Ice Age, the waters surrounding what is now the Philippines fell about 156 feet below the present levels. As a result a vast area of land was exposed and became a sort of land bridges to the mainland of Asia, In February, 1976, however, this theory of the “land bridges’ to Asia was disputed by Dr. Fritj of Voss, a German scientist who studied the geology of the Philippines. According to Dr. Voss, the Philippines was never a part of the mainiand of Asia but that it rose from the bottom of the sea and “continues to rise as the thin Pacific crust moves below it." As proof that the Philippines was never @ part of the Asian mainland, Dr. Voss points to the fact that when scientific studies were done in 1964-1967 on the thickness of the Earth's crust it was found out that the 35-kilometer thick crust underneath China does not extend to the Philippines Hence, the latter could not have been a part or ‘and bridge” to the mainiand of Asia. On the other hand, the Philippines lie “along the great earth faults extending to deep undersea trenches’ and so through violent earthquakes what is now the Philippinesrose to the surface of the sea. Whatever cause of the Philippines coming to the surface of the sea, it is certain that ancient man came to settle in it. The widely accepted theory that the Negritos were the aborigines of the Philippines s now severely criticized in anthropologically literate quarters. The young Filipino Anthropologist, F. Landa Jocano of the University of the Philippines. disputed Professor H. Otley Beyer's assumption that the Malays migrated to the Philippines and now constitute the largest portion of the population. It was also Beyer who theorized that the present Filipinos had a Malay culture. Jocano, on the other hand, believes that fossil evidences of ancient men show that they came not only in the Philippines but to New Guinea, Java, Borneo, and Australia. and that there is no way of telling whether or not they were Negritos. But whether they were Negritos or rot is not of great moment, what concems us is that there is positive proof that man was in the Philippines at least as early as 21,000 or 22,000 years ago. The discovery in a Tabon cave in Palawan in 1962 of a skullcap and a portion of a jaw, presumed to be those of a human being, shows conclusively that man came eatlier to the Philippines than to the Malay Peninsula where, according to the old theory, the Filipinos came from. As to the present Filipinos, Indonesians, and Malays of Malaysia, Jocano maintains that they are the “end result of both the long process of evolution movements of people. They stand co-equal as ethnic groups, without any one being the dominant group, racially or culturally. Culturally, it is likewise erroneous to state that Filipino culture is Malay in orientation. Even our historical experiences and social organization differ from those of the people identified as Malays. The differences, according to Jocano, are due to the differences in their responses to their environment. On the other hand, the similarities found among them are due to the adjustment to their environment. Summarizing his findings, Jocano maintains that 1. The peoples of prehistoric Island Southeast Asia belonged to the same population. It grew out of the combination of human evolution which occurred in Island Southeast Asia about 1.9 million years ago, as evidenced by the fossil materials recovered from different parts of the region, and of the movements of other peoples from Asia mainland during historic times. 2. This core population shared a common cultural orientation that included both fiake and core implements and their complex ceramic industries... Other shared cultural elements consisted of similar ‘omament, pendants, house types, belief systems, ritual complex, and funerary practices. 3. The configuration of these shared elements info @ common way of life is what we call the base culture. It emerged from similar responses people made to similar geographical conditions, climate, fauna, and fora, 244. None of these ancient men could be categorized under any of the historically identified ethnic groups (ie, Malays, Indonesians, and Filipinos) today. The Westem colonizers were the ones who fragmented the population into ethnic groups as they partitioned the region into their respective colonies. The British popularized in scholarship, the term Malay to charactenze the group of people they encountered in the Malay Peninsula. The Portuguese, the Germans, and the Dutch introduced the Indonesians to the Western world. The Spaniards strongly worked for the conversion of Filipinos (formerly Indios) to Christianity. Later on the Americans came and further differentiated the Filipinos from their Southeast Asian cousins 5. The explanation of the peopling of the Philippines through a series of waves of migration, as documented by folk history like the Maragtas. has to be reconsidered. The undue credit given to the Malays as the original settlers of the region and dominant cultural transmitter must be corrected. Emerging from a common population with the same base culture, the Malays, the Filipinos, and the Indonesians are co equal as ethnic groups in the region of island Southeast Asia, without any one of them being racially or culturally dominant. Introduction of Islam The spread of Islam to old Malaysia was brought about by the activities of the Arab traders, missionaries, and teachers who introduced their religious _ beliefs among the Malays The foundation of Islam was laid in Malaysia by the Arabian scholar pines: Sheik Makdu Mosque at Tubig Indangan in Simunul, Tawi-Tawi Mudum, who 2 arrived in the Malay = Peninsula about g the middle of the g ith century. He - succeeded in ai establishing in * : 23 Malacca a rather tenuous foothold for Islam. About 1380, he proceeded to Sulu and preached the doctrines of Mohammed in 1380, Raja Baginda, one of the petty rulers of Menangkabaw. Sumatra, arrived in Sulu and promptly converted some of the natives to Isiam. His religious activities were followed by Abu Bakr who, about 1450, left Palembang for 2Sulu. He married Raja Baginda's daughter, Paramisuli. After Baginda’s death, Abu Bakr exercised his powers as sultan and established @ government patterned after the Sultanate of Arabia. Islam spread rapidly to all parts of Sulu In Mindanao Serif Kabungsuan, who had meanwhile arrived from Johore with his men, immediately began laying the foundation of Islam. He converted many tribes to his religion and, having married into an influential family, made himself the first sultan of Mindanao. From then on, Islam spread rapidly to the Visayas and Luzon. The Arrival of the Spaniards in the second half of the 16" century and the subsequent conquest of Luzon led the Muslims to retreat to the south where they maintained their independence from foreign powers to the end of the Spanish regime Note: The spread of Islam in the Philippines shall be more thoroughly discussed in History 3{ history of Filipino Muslims and IP's of MINSUPALA. 23