According to my Elementary knowledge, Filipinos of today were originally descendants from different ancestors that settled in the archipelago. The Philippines is an archipelago. The old ancient Philippines was once joined with other huge islands through the land bridges. The migration was freely been so smooth because there is no land divide, no border whatsoever because of the land bridges that connect one island from another.
Originally the first inhabitants that migrated to the archipelago was the tribes of Pygmies. According to the book, the Pygmies are small, short, dark people with curly hairs and they traveled through the land bridges. They live to survive by hunting wild animals and they lived on top of the trees and sometimes inside the caves. They were the very first human beings who inhabited the Philippines.
The second group of people or tribes who migrated to Philippines were the Indonesians. The ancient Indonesians were boat people. Why theydidn't travel the land bridges? Too far? These ancient Indonesians knew how to hunt for food and catch fish for their food. They were hunters and fishermen. How they looked like? They were little dark but not darker than Pygmies, and taller than the Pygmies. They brought in their knowledge in weaving sarong and batik printed clothing. They are also known for wooden puppets for theater entertainment.
The third group of people who arrived in the Philippines were taller than the Indonesians and they have fair skins. Their way of life were far better than the Pygmies, better than the Indonesians. They are called the ancient Malaysians or Malays. They have better way of doing their "day to day business because they knew the law & order." Imagine the Malay pride? They already have a form of government that time. The richest, strongest, the eldest Sultan or Rajah became the leader of the balangay or barangay which is the town or location of such form of government. They were best known for agricultural and forestry know-how.
Inter-racial marriages between the Indonesians & Malaysians had established a social life (socio-economic and political benefit) that lead to other neighboring countries to do their trades. Yup, they were trading already during ancient times. What is trade and commerce anyway? It's the buying and selling of goods and services. Let's be simple and make some sense that simple words need not be too much of the crooks and witch-hunting glorifying evil. It becomes evil when the terminology is enormously been subjected to "overuse or over usage of different combination of terms and words" just to show how educated they are? NO. That's to manipulate the use of words to the extent that secrecy or to codify words that no one can understand but those who are "only in the trade." You know what I mean?
Traders came and gone. Who were those TRADERS? First traders were the Chinese. They arrived by bigger boats (galleons or junks). They brought with them the finest silk, ceramic jars, teapots, cups saucers, plates and clay pots and cooking stuff and utensils. They also brought in spices and gold. They brought in their wealth in order to settle down for good. This was the period of the Limahong, Lao Tzu, the famous Genghis Khan and the Mongolian Turks. Yup, traders arrived and stayed too. How? Inter-racial marriages with the Indonesians, the Malays with the Chinese became the "blood compact" and the migration evidently been affected and flourished through all those dealings. The wealth of the country increased ten folds. Blood compact in the form of "marriages" not war.
Group of East Indians probably heard of the Philippines and of their wealth that they also came to join the migration process and trade enriched through the years. They brought in their skills and knowledge. The first cuneiform of writing, the syllabic words, the sanskrit was first used. The Arabic numbers (not Roman numbers) came into effect. East Indians knew Arabic? Uhm, strange right?
Actually each group of ancient people or tribes brought in their customs and traditions, their skills and way of life and combined them with the Indonesians, Malays, Chinese, East Indians. So, they already flourished and accepted each other despite of their differences in religion, faith and customary beliefs. They shared their knowledge in languages (mix), their culinary expertise, and what else could they be mixing and cooking?
The Year 1400 - Explorers and expedition in the island of Luzon was then happening at the rate of "speed of light?" I don't know but the commercialism flourished already. There was a form of government and who knows, could be the Madjapahit Empire was then established or the King of Siam was already alive since then.
Then in 1521, suddenly Ferdinand Magellan (he was not a Portuguese, not a pirate!), the famous navigator was summoned by the King of Spain (King Philip) travelled (double ll? All well)by his galleon and arrived in the Land Ahoy. He arrived in Mactan (Visayan region). Why called LAND AHOY? They ate too much camote or cassava (root crops) or the puppeteers were playing with their wooden puppets to welcome the visitors of the island.
The Philippines was not really known as Philippines but it was named after the King of Spain. La Isla Filipinas. It was a very long story. It was HISTORY. What happened then was the Spaniards were actually fully clothed human beings and they were tall, "White" or very fair complexion humans, brought with them their CROSS and propagated a brand new different kind of religion that amazed the early inhabitants of the archipelago. The Spaniards were the "heaven on earth aliens" that arrived on earth and causing so many worldly, incredible amazement, magic, swords and spicy foods, wines, and all those miracles and spectacles that create wonders they never seen before. They showed beautiful images of what God look like. What the Virgin Mary looks like (perfect without sin, without blemish, no acne, no pimples, godly, saintly from head to toes) and all the adoration of gods and goddesses that they have to worship and pay homage to and pay tributes for the splendor and majesty and of course the taxes they have to pay. But because they reign like gods in another island they built churches, schools and universities. They propagated Christianity beyond compare which the inhabitants were willing to obey and go with the flow. Inter-racial marriages happened again and again however, the Spaniards were not able to conquer Mindanao. Lapu-lapu reigned in that Muslim region of the archipelago. The Spaniards failed in their conquest and Magellan was killed. However, within that 500 year period of Spain's legacy, still you can see of how much effort, grand effort of the lavish infrastructure Spain has contributed in Philippines through the help of the Spaniards, the Spanish friars and of course because the people, the Filipinos (Indonesians, Malays, Chinese, East Indians descendants) have contributed in the five hundred year period.
Note: Spaniards are different from Portuguese. Portuguese are "jellyfish." They are very scary beings as portrayed in history. Pirates. You don't want toxic jellyfish on your bodies of water. Keep your ocean, river and lakes cold.
Then the 500 years period was over. Enough of those high falutin taxes. Filipinos owned their own lands. Paying taxes and tributes to Spain? The hell with it right? REVOLUTION, bloody as hell came into effect. The arrival of the Americans to the Philippines during the Spanish-Filipino-American war. How can you kick those Spaniards when most of the Filipinos were named and given "Spanish names." How can you be cruel to your own kind? MY FAMILY (maiden) NAME IS SPANISH.
VERDAD is a Spanish name.
The AMERICANS arrival to Philippines brought on much needed transformation, one of a kind but similar to Spain's. Ha ha! It was just the same. It's like they changed their suits. They were like lambs who changed their wool. So, okay, they left but the Philippines already acquired the life changing pattern of government since most of the Filipinos were established and educated. The AMERICANS built cavalries, schools, government, and hospitals. Then the Japanese came for their occupation and dominion in Philippines. The Japs were different kind of humans. The Filipinos were already the "elite" kind of beings they wont bow down, they are already "Americanized." The Filipinos that time were nothing like the Filipinos of today. If they fought to death during the revolution instigated by their National Hero Dr. JOSE P. RIZAL, during the Spanish regime, you bet that they wont back down nor bow down and World War II happened with the help of the Americans. But you know, MONEY plays the biggest part in History. You must have the biggest, largest vaults of treasure to rule the government. The government runs smoothly when there is a budget. You cannot rule the world without money. Money is a tangible, visible force in trade. Barter seems to play a part in old history when one country is poor and cannot provide cash but they can exchange resources whatever is that is of equal value (measurement and weights) of such commodity.
The rest of course is WORLD HISTORY. You can read the Encyclopedia Britannica, The Book of Knowledge, textbooks approved by US Congress, and many old manuscripts to further know all the detailed information. Watch movies and documentary films about what happened during the WARS and continued war on infrastructures.
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