INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY

DEFINITION OF HISTORY
 Derived from the Greek word "historia" which means
"knowledge acquired through inquiry or investigation"
 Also known as the study of the past
 Is the account of the past of a person or a group of people through
written documents and historical evidences.
 History also focused on writing about wars, revolutions, and
other important breakthroughs

NO DOCUMENT, NO HISTORY
 It means that unless a written document can prove a certain
historical event, then it cannot be considered as a historical fact.

SOME VALID HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS

 Government Records
 Chronicle's Accounts
 Personal Letters
 Receipts, etc.

DISCRIMINATION IN THE VALIDITY OF HISTORY

 Restricting historical evidence as exclusively written is a
discrimination against other social classes who were not recorded
in paper.
 Others got their historical documents burned or destroyed in the
events of war or colonization.

QUESTIONS AND ISSUES IN HISTORY

QUESTIONS ON HISTORY
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  What is history?
 Why study history?
 And history for whom?
HISTORIOGRAPHY
 Is the history of history
 It covers how historians have studied and developed history
including its sources, techniques, and theoretical approaches
 It should not be confused with History because history is the
study of the past, the events that happened in the past.
 It focuses on how a certain historical text was written, who wrote
it, what was the context of its publication, what historical method
was employed, what sources were used
POSITIVISM
 Is the school of thought that emerged between the 18th and 19th
century. This thought requires empirical and observable evidence
before one can claim that a particular knowledge is true.
 Historians were required to show written primary documents in
order to write a particular historical narrative.
POST-COLONIALISM
 Is the school of thought that emerged in the early 20th century
when formerly colonized nations grappled with the idea of
creating their identities and understanding their soc/ieties against
the shadows of their colonial past.

TWO THINGS IN WRITING HISTORY:

1. Tell the history of their nation that will highlight their identity
free from that colonial discourse and knowledge
2. To criticize the methods, effects, and idea of colonialism
HISTORY AND THE HISTORIAN
 Facts cannot speak for themselves. It is the historian's job not
just to seek historical evidences and facts but also to interpret

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 them. It is their job to give meaning to these facts and organize
them into timeline, establish causes and write history
HISTORICAL METHODOLOGY
 It comprises certain techniques and rules that historians follow in
order to properly utilize sources and historical evidences in
writing history.
HISTORICAL SOURCES
Two Classification:
1. Primary Sources
2. Secondary Sources

 PRIMARY SOURCES are those sources produced at the same

time as the event, period, or subject being studied
Example:
(Commonwealth 1935)
－ Minutes
－ Newspaper clippings
－ Records
－ Photographs
－ Eyewitness(es)

 SECONDARY SOURCES are those sources produced by an

author who used primary sources to produce the material
Example:
(Phil. Revolution 1935)
－ Teodoro Agoncillo's Revolt of the Masses 1956
When examining a source, the historian must conduct:
(a). External Criticism
(b). Internal Criticism
 EXTERNAL CRITICISM is the practice of verifying the
authenticity of evidence by examining the physical
characteristics; consistency with the historical characteristic of
the time when it was produced, and the materials used for the
evidence.
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  INTERNAL CRITICISM is the examination of the truthfulness
and factuality of the evidence. It looks at the content of the source
and examines the circumstance of its production. It could be done
by looking at the author, its context, agenda, the purpose creation.

DECEPTION CASES IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY

 Hoax Code of Kalantiaw
 Ferdinand Marcos as WWII Soldier

 HOAX CODE OF KALANTIAW

－ The code was a set of rules contained in an epic
Maragtas which was allegedly written by Datu
Kalantiaw. The document was sold to National
Library and was regarded as an important precolonial
document
－ In 1968, an American historian William Henry Scott
debunked the authenticity of the code due to lack of
evidence to prove that the code existed in precolonial
Philippine society.

 FERDINAND MARCOS AS WORLD WAR Il SOLDIER

－ This was widely believed by students of history and
Marcos had war medals to show. This claim was
disproven when historian counterchecked Marcos's
claims with the war records of the United States.

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