TOPIC: UNIT I – INTRODUCTION TO PHILIPPINE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY

History is also sometimes regarded as a branch of social science, although many

historians often consider the subject to share closer links to the humanities.

On the other hand, geographically, the Philippines is a country in Southeast Asia in the
western Pacific Ocean. It is an archipelago made up of 7,106 islands located in relation
to many of Southeast Asia's main water bodies: the South China Sea, Philippine Sea,
Sulu Sea, Celebes Sea, and Luzon Strait.

In this subject, we are going to study Philippine history. Studying Philippine History is
important because you have to understand and know the things that happened in the past
for you to appreciate the future and present situation of the country. Further, helps in
understanding the origin of the society thus knowing our origin.

As far as I am concern, the culture of the Philippines is a combination of cultures of the

East and West. Filipino identity was created primarily as a result of pre-hispanic cultures,
colonial influences and foreign traders intermixing and gradually evolving together. Then
came the Americans, the Japanese and even the British but only to a short span of time.

According to Wikipedia, the history of the Philippines is known to have begun at least
709,000 years ago as suggested by the discovery of Pleistocene stone tools and
butchered animal remains associated with hominin activity. Homo luzonensis, a species
of archaic humans, was present on the island of Luzon at least 67,000 years ago.

Accordingly, the Philippines was named after King Philip II (1527-1598) of Spain. The
country was discovered by the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 (while
in Spanish service). Later tension arose between Portugal and Spain and in 1542 Spain
re-claimed the islands for themselves, naming them after its then king.