The history of the Philippines is believed to have begun with the arrival of the first humans[1][2]

[3]
 using rafts or boats at least 67,000 years ago as the 2007 discovery of Callao Man suggested.
[4]
 Negrito groups were the first inhabitants to settle in prehistoric Philippines. After that, groups
of Austronesians later migrated to the islands.
Scholars generally believe that these social groups eventually developed into various settlements or
polities with varying degrees of economic specialization, social stratification, and political
organization.[5] Some of these settlements (mostly those located on major river deltas) achieved such
a scale of social complexity that some scholars believe they should be considered early states.[6] This
includes the predecessors of modern-day population centers such
as Maynila, Tondo, Pangasinan, Cebu, Panay, Bohol, Butuan, Cotabato, Lanao, and Sulu[2] as well
as some polities, such as Ma-i, whose possible location are still the subject of debate among
scholars.[7]
These polities were either influenced by the Hindu-
Buddhist[8] Indian religion, language, culture, literature and philosophy from India through many
campaigns from India including the South-East Asia campaign of Rajendra Chola I,[9] Islam
from Arabia or were Sinified tributary states allied to China. These small maritime states flourished
from the 1st millennium.[10][11] These kingdoms traded with what are now called China, India, Japan,
Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia.[12] The remainder of the settlements were
independent barangays allied with one of the larger states. These small states alternated from
between being part of or being influenced by larger Asian empires like the Ming
Dynasty, Majapahit and Brunei or rebelling and waging war against them.
The first recorded visit by Europeans is the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan. He sighted Samar
Island on March 16, 1521 and landed the next day on Homonhon Island, now part of Guiuan,
Eastern Samar.[13] Spanish colonization began with the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi's
expedition on February 13, 1565 from Mexico. He established the first permanent settlement
in Cebu.[14] Much of the archipelago came under Spanish rule, creating the first unified political
structure known as the Philippines. Spanish colonial rule saw the introduction of Christianity,
the code of law and the oldest modern university in Asia. The Philippines was ruled under the
Mexico-based Viceroyalty of New Spain. After which, the colony was directly governed by Spain.
Spanish rule ended in 1898 with Spain's defeat in the Spanish–American War. The Philippines then
became a territory of the United States. U.S forces suppressed a Philippine Revolution led by Emilio
Aguinaldo. The United States established the Insular Government to rule the Philippines. In 1907,
the elected Philippine Assembly was set up with popular elections. The U.S. promised independence
in the Jones Act.[15] The Philippine Commonwealth was established in 1935, as a 10-year interim step
prior to full independence. However, in 1942 during World War II, Japan occupied the Philippines.
The U.S. military overpowered the Japanese in 1945. The Treaty of Manila in 1946 established an
independent Philippine Republic.

Prehistory[edit]
Main article: Prehistory of the Philippines
Docking station and entrance to the Tabon Cave Complex Site in Palawan, where one of the oldest human
remains was located.

Discovery in 2018 of stone tools and fossils of butchered animal remains in Rizal, Kalinga has
pushed back evidence of early hominins in the country to as early as 709,000 years.[16] Still, the
earliest archeological evidence for humans in the archipelago is the 67,000-year-old Callao
Man of Cagayan and the Angono Petroglyphs in Rizal, both of whom appear to suggest the
presence of human settlement prior to the arrival of the Negritos and Austronesian speaking people.
[17][18][19][20][21]
 Continued excavations in Callao Cave revealed 12 bones from three hominin individuals
identified as a new species named Homo luzonensis.[22]
There are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos. F. Landa
Jocano theorizes that the ancestors of the Filipinos evolved locally.[citation needed] Wilhelm Solheim's Island
Origin Theory[23] postulates that the peopling of the archipelago transpired via trade networks
originating in the Sundaland area around 48,000 to 5000 BC rather than by wide-scale migration.
The Austronesian Expansion Theory states that Malayo-Polynesians coming from Taiwan began
migrating to the Philippines around 4000 BC, displacing earlier arrivals.[24][25]
The Negritos were early settlers, but their appearance in the Philippines has not been reliably dated.
[26]
 They were followed by speakers of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, a branch of
the Austronesian language family, who began to arrive in successive waves beginning about 4000
BC, displacing the earlier arrivals.[27][28] Before the expansion out of Taiwan, archaeological, linguistic
and genetic evidence had linked Austronesian speakers in Insular Southeast Asia to cultures such
as the Hemudu, its successor the Liangzhu[29][30] and Dapenkeng in Neolithic China.[31][32][33][34][35] During
this neolithic period, a "jade culture" is said to have existed as evidenced by tens of thousands of
exquisitely crafted jade artifacts found in the Philippines dated to 2000 BC.[36][37] The jade is said to
have originated nearby in Taiwan and is also found in many other areas in insular and mainland
Southeast Asia. These artifacts are said to be evidence of long range communication between
prehistoric Southeast Asian societies.[38]

The Ifugao/Igorot people utilized terrace farming in the steep mountainous regions of northern Philippines over
2000 years ago.

By 1000 BC, the inhabitants of the Philippine archipelago had developed into four distinct kinds of
peoples: tribal groups, such as the Aetas, Hanunoo, Ilongots and the Mangyan who depended
on hunter-gathering and were concentrated in forests; warrior societies, such as
the Isneg and Kalinga who practiced social ranking and ritualized warfare and roamed the plains; the
petty plutocracy of the Ifugao Cordillera Highlanders, who occupied the mountain ranges of Luzon;
and the harbor principalities of the estuarine civilizations that grew along rivers and seashores while
participating in trans-island maritime trade.[39] It was also during the first millennium BC that early
metallurgy was said to have reached the archipelagos of maritime Southeast Asia via trade with
India[40][41]
Around 300–700 AD, the seafaring peoples of the islands traveling in balangays began to trade with
the Indianized kingdoms in the Malay Archipelago and the nearby East Asian principalities, adopting
influences from both Buddhism and Hinduism.[42]

The Jade culture[edit]

Metal lingling-o earrings from Luzon.

Existence of a "Jade culture" in the Philippines is evidenced by tens of thousands of exquisitely

crafted jade artifacts found at a site in Batangas province.[36][37]
Jade artifacts are made from white and green nephrite and dating as far back as 2000–1500 BC,
have been discovered at a number of archeological excavations in the Philippines since the 1930s.
The artifacts have been both tools like adzes[43] and chisels, and ornaments such as lingling-o
earrings, bracelets and beads.
Nephrite, otherwise known as Jade, is a mineral widely used throughout Asia as ornaments or for
decorative purposes. The oldest jade artefacts in Asia (6000 BC) were found in China where they
were used as the primary hardstone of Chinese sculpturing. In 3000 BC, jade production in the
Hongsan and Liangzhu cultures of China reached its peak. During this period, the knowledge of jade
craftsmanship spread across the sea to Taiwan and eventually to the Philippines. The artefacts
discovered in several sites in the Philippines were made from nephrite. Nephrite excavated in the
Philippines were of two types: white nephrite and green nephrite.[44]

The Sa Huỳnh culture[edit]

The factual accuracy of part of this article is disputed. The dispute
is about the existence of a Sa Huỳnh presence in the Philippines aside
from the presence of their trade products. Please help to ensure that
disputed statements are reliably sourced. See the relevant discussion
on the talk page. (October 2017)  (Learn how and when to remove this template
message)
 Asia in 200 BC, showing Sa Huỳnh cultures in Southeast Asia.
The Sa Huỳnh culture centred on present-day Vietnam, showed evidence of an extensive trade
network. Sa Huỳnh beads were made from glass, carnelian, agate, olivine, zircon, gold and garnet;
most of these materials were not local to the region, and were most likely imported. Han dynasty-
style bronze mirrors were also found in Sa Huỳnh sites.
Conversely, Sa Huỳnh produced ear ornaments have been found in archaeological sites in Central
Thailand, Taiwan (Orchid Island), and in the Philippines, in the Palawan, Tabon Caves. One of the
great examples is the Kalanay Cave in Masbate; the artefacts on the site in one of the "Sa Huỳnh-
Kalanay" pottery complex sites were dated 400BC–1500 AD. The Maitum anthropomorphic
pottery in the Sarangani Province of southern Mindanao is c. 200 AD.[45][46]