The recorded pre-colonial history of the Philippines,
sometimes also referred to as its "protohistoric period"
begins with the creation of the
Laguna Copperplate Inscription in 900 CE and ends with
the beginning of Spanish colonization in 1565. The inscription on the Laguna Copperplate Inscription itself dates its creation to 822
Saka
The Saka, Old Chinese, old , Pinyin, mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit (Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples, Eastern Iranian peoples who lived in the Eurasian ...
(900 CE). The creation of this document marks the end of the
prehistory of the Philippines at 900 AD, and the formal beginning of its
recorded history
Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world h ...
.
During this historical time period, the Philippine archipelago was home to numerous kingdoms and sultanates and was a part of the
Indosphere and
Sinosphere.
Sources of precolonial history include
archeological findings; records from contact with the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...
, the
Brunei Sultanate,
Korea
Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...
,
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, and Muslim traders; the
genealogical records of Muslim rulers; accounts written by Spanish chroniclers in the 16th and 17th centuries; and cultural patterns that at the time had not yet been replaced through European influence.
[Scott, William Henry. (1984). Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History (Revised Edition). New Day Publishers, Quezon City. ISBN 9711002264.]
Societal categories
Early Philippine society was composed of such diverse subgroups as e.g., fishermen, farmers and hunter/gatherers, with some living in mountainside swiddens,
some on houseboats and some in commercially developed coastal ports. Some subgroups were economically self-sufficient, and others had symbiotic relationships with neighboring subgroups.
Society can be classified into four categories as follows:
Social classes
The fourth societal category
above can be termed the ''datu class'', and was a titled aristocracy.
The early polities were typically made up of three-tier social structure: a nobility class, a class of "freemen", and a class of dependent debtor-bondsmen:
* ''
Datu
''Datu'' is a title which denotes the rulers (variously described in historical accounts as chiefs, sovereign princes, and monarchs) of numerous Indigenous peoples throughout the Philippine archipelago. The title is still used today, though no ...
'' (ruling class) and ''
Maginoo'' (noble class, where the datu ascends from)
* ''
Maharlika''/''
Timawa
The ''timawa'' were the feudalism, feudal warrior class of the ancient Visayan people, Visayan societies of the Philippines. They were regarded as higher than the ''uripon'' (commoners, serfs, and slaves) but below the ''tumao'' (royal nobility ...
'' (freemen; warrior class)
* ''
Alipin'' (dependent class), classified into ''aliping namamahay'' (serfs) and ''aliping saguiguilid'' (slaves)
Laguna Copperplate Inscription

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (LCI) is the earliest record of a Philippine language and the presence of writing in the islands.
The document measures around 20 cm by 30 cm and is inscribed with ten lines of writing on one side.
Text
The text of the LCI was mostly written in
Old Malay with influences of
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
,
Tamil,
Old Javanese
Old Javanese or Kawi is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language and the oldest attested phase of the Javanese language. It was natively spoken in the central and eastern part of Java Island, what is now Central Java, Special Region o ...
and Old
Tagalog using the
Kawi script
The Kawi script or the Old Javanese script (, ) is a Brahmic script found primarily in Java and used across much of Maritime Southeast Asia between the 8th century and the 16th century.Aditya Bayu Perdana and Ilham Nurwansah 2020Proposal to en ...
. Dutch anthropologist
Antoon Postma deciphered the text. The date of the inscription is in the "Year of Saka 822, month of
Vaisakha", corresponding to April–May in 900 AD.
The text notes the acquittal of all descendants of a certain honorable ''Namwaran'' from a debt of 1 kati and 8 suwarna, equivalent to 926.4 grams of
gold
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
, granted by the Military Commander of
Tundun (Tondo) and witnessed by the leaders of ''Pailah'', ''Binwangan'' and ''Puliran'', which are places likely also located in
Luzon
Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...
. The reference to the contemporaneous
Medang Kingdom in modern-day Indonesia implies political connections with territories elsewhere in the
Maritime Southeast Asia
Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the Southeast Asian countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor.
The terms Island Southeast Asia and Insular Southeast Asia are sometimes given the same meaning as ...
.
Politics
Emergence of Independent polities
Early settlements, referred to as barangays, ranged from 20 to 100 families on the coast, and around 150–200 people in more interior areas. Coastal settlements were connected over water, with much less contact occurring between highland and lowland areas. By the 1300s, a number of the large coastal settlements had emerged as trading centers, and became the focal point of societal changes.
Some polities had exchanges with other states across Asia.
Polities founded in the Philippines from the 10th–16th centuries include
Maynila,
Tondo,
Namayan,
Kumintang,
Pangasinan,
Caboloan,
Cebu,
Butuan,
Maguindanao,
Buayan,
Lanao,
Sulu
Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Wilaya' sin Lupa' Sūg''; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago.
It was part of the Bangsamoro, Bangsamoro Autonomous R ...
, and
Ma-i. Among the nobility were leaders called
datu
''Datu'' is a title which denotes the rulers (variously described in historical accounts as chiefs, sovereign princes, and monarchs) of numerous Indigenous peoples throughout the Philippine archipelago. The title is still used today, though no ...
s, responsible for ruling autonomous groups called
''barangay'' or ''dulohan''.
When these barangays banded together, either to form a larger settlement
or a geographically looser alliance group,
the more esteemed among them would be recognized as a "paramount datu",
rajah, or
sultan
Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...
which headed the community state. There is little evidence of large-scale violence in the archipelago prior to the 2nd millennium AD, and throughout these periods population density is thought to have been low.
Other political systems by ethnic group
In Luzon
In the
Cagayan Valley, the head of the Ilongot city-states was called a ''benganganat'', while for the Gaddang it was called a ''mingal''.
The
Ilocano people
The Ilocano people (), also referred to as Ilokáno, Iloko, Iloco, Iluku, or Samtoy, are an Austronesian peoples, Austronesian ethnolinguistic group native to the Philippines. Originally from the Ilocos Region, located on the northwestern coa ...
in northwestern Luzon were originally located in modern-day
Ilocos Sur
Ilocos Sur (), officially the Province of Ilocos Sur (; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in Luzon. Located on the mouth of the Mestizo River is the capital of Vigan, while Candon is ...
and were led by a ''babacnang''. Their polity was called ''samtoy'' which did not have a royal family but, rather, was a collection of certain barangays (chiefdoms).
In Mindanao
The
Lumad people from inland Mindanao are known to have been headed by a ''datu''.
The
Subanon people in the
Zamboanga Peninsula were ruled by a ''timuay'' until they were overcome by the
Sultanate of Sulu
The Sultanate of Sulu (; ; ) is a Sunni Muslim subnational monarchy in the Philippines, Republic of the Philippines that includes the Sulu Archipelago, coastal areas of Zamboanga City and certain portions of Palawan in today's Philippines. H ...
in the 13th century.
The
Sama-Bajau people in
Sulu
Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Wilaya' sin Lupa' Sūg''; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago.
It was part of the Bangsamoro, Bangsamoro Autonomous R ...
who were not Muslims nor affiliated with the Sultanate of Sulu were ruled by a ''nakurah'' before the arrival of Islam.
Trade
Trade with China is believed to have begun during the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
, but grew more extensive during the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...
. By the 2nd millennium CE, some Philippine polities were known to have sent trade delegations which participated in the Tributary system enforced by the Chinese imperial court, trading but without direct political or military control.
The items much prized in the islands included jars, which were a symbol of wealth throughout South Asia, and later metal,
salt
In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...
and
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
. In exchange were traded feathers,
rhino horns,
hornbill beaks,
beeswax, bird's-nests,
resin
A resin is a solid or highly viscous liquid that can be converted into a polymer. Resins may be biological or synthetic in origin, but are typically harvested from plants. Resins are mixtures of organic compounds, predominantly terpenes. Commo ...
, and
rattan
Rattan, also spelled ratan (from Malay language, Malay: ''rotan''), is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the clos ...
.
Indian influence
Indian cultural traits, such as linguistic terms and religious practices, began to spread within the Philippines during the 10th century, likely via the Hindu
Majapahit empire.
Writing systems
Brahmic scripts reached the Philippines in the form of the
Kawi script
The Kawi script or the Old Javanese script (, ) is a Brahmic script found primarily in Java and used across much of Maritime Southeast Asia between the 8th century and the 16th century.Aditya Bayu Perdana and Ilham Nurwansah 2020Proposal to en ...
, and later the
Baybayin writing system.
[Baybayin, the Ancient Philippine script](_blank)
. Accessed September 4, 2008. The
Laguna Copperplate Inscription was written using the Kawi script.
Baybayin

By the 13th or 14th century, the
baybayin script was used for the
Tagalog language
Tagalog ( ,According to the ''OED'' anMerriam-Webster Online Dictionary ; ''Baybayin'': ) is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as ...
. It spread to
Luzon
Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...
,
Mindoro,
Palawan
Palawan (, ), officially the Province of Palawan (; ), is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of . The capital and largest c ...
,
Panay and
Leyte, but there is no proof it was used in Mindanao.
There were at least three varieties of baybayin in the late 16th century. These are comparable to different variations of Latin which use slightly different sets of letters and spelling systems.
In 1521, the chronicler
Antonio Pigafetta from the expedition of
Ferdinand Magellan noted that the people that they met in
Visayas were not literate. However, in the next few decades the Baybayin script seemed to have been introduced to them. In 1567
Miguel López de Legaspi reported that "they
he Visayanshave their letters and characters like those of the
Malays, from whom they learned them; they write them on bamboo bark and palm leaves with a pointed tool, but never is any ancient writing found among them nor word of their origin and arrival in these islands, their customs and rites being preserved by traditions handed down from father to son without any other record."
Earliest documented Chinese contact
The earliest date suggested for direct Chinese contact with the Philippines was 982. At the time, merchants from "
Ma-i" (now thought to be either
Bay, Laguna on the shores of
Laguna de Bay,
or a site called "Mait" in
Mindoro) brought their wares to
Guangzhou
Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
and
Quanzhou
Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China, People's Republic of China. It is Fujian's largest most populous metropolitan region, wi ...
. This was mentioned in the
History of Song and
Wenxian Tongkao by
Ma Duanlin which were authored during the Yuan Dynasty.
Arrival of Islam
Beginnings
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
traders introduced
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
to the then-
Indianized Malayan empires around the time that wars over succession had ended in the
Majapahit Empire in 1405. However, by 1380
Makhdum Karim had already brought Islam to the Philippine archipelago, establishing the
Sheik Karimal Makdum Mosque in
Simunul, Tawi-Tawi, the oldest mosque in the country. By the 15th century, Islam was established in the
Sulu Archipelago
The Sulu Archipelago ( Tausug: Kapū'-pūan sin Sūg Sulat Sūg: , ) is a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean, in the southwestern Philippines. The archipelago forms the northern limit of the Celebes Sea and southern limit of the Sulu Se ...
and spread from there.
Subsequent visits by
Arab
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
,
Malay and
Javanese missionaries helped spread Islam further in the islands.
The
Sultanate of Sulu
The Sultanate of Sulu (; ; ) is a Sunni Muslim subnational monarchy in the Philippines, Republic of the Philippines that includes the Sulu Archipelago, coastal areas of Zamboanga City and certain portions of Palawan in today's Philippines. H ...
once encompassed parts of modern-day Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Its royal house claims descent from
Muhammad
Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...
.
Spanish expeditions
The following table summarizes expeditions made by the Spanish to the Philippine archipelago.
First expedition

Although the archipelago may have been visited before by the Portuguese (who conquered
Malacca City in 1511 and reached
Maluku Islands
The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonics, Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West ...
in 1512), the earliest European expedition to the Philippine archipelago was led by the Portuguese navigator
Ferdinand Magellan in the service of King
Charles I of Spain in 1521.
The Magellan expedition sighted the mountains of
Samar at dawn on March 17, 1521, making landfall the following day at the small, uninhabited island of
Homonhon at the mouth of
Leyte Gulf. On
Easter Sunday, March 31, 1521, in the island of ''
Mazaua'', Magellan planted a cross on the top of a hill overlooking the sea and claimed the islands he had encountered for the King of Spain, naming them ''Archipelago of Saint Lazarus'' as stated in "First Voyage Around The World" by his companion, the chronicler
Antonio Pigafetta.
Magellan sought alliances among the people in the islands beginning with Datu Zula of
Sugbu (
Cebu) and took special pride in converting them to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
. Magellan got involved in the political conflicts in the islands and took part in a battle against
Lapulapu, chief of
Mactan and an enemy of Datu Zula.
At dawn on April 27, 1521, Magellan with 60 armed men and 1,000 Visayan warriors had great difficulty landing on the rocky shore of Mactan where Lapulapu had an army of 1,500 waiting on land. Magellan waded ashore with his soldiers and
attacked Lapulapu's forces, telling Datu Zula and his warriors to remain on the ships and watch. Magellan underestimated the army of Lapulapu, and, grossly outnumbered, Magellan and 14 of his soldiers were killed. The rest managed to reboard the ships.
The battle left the expedition with too few crewmen to man three ships, so they abandoned the "
Concepción". The remaining ships – "
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...
" and "
Victoria" – sailed to the
Spice Islands in present-day Indonesia. From there, the expedition split into two groups. The ''Trinidad'', commanded by
Gonzalo Gómez de Espinoza tried to sail eastward across the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
to the
Isthmus of Panama
The Isthmus of Panama, historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North America, North and South America. The country of Panama is located on the i ...
. Disease and shipwreck disrupted Espinoza's voyage and most of the crew died. Survivors of the ''Trinidad'' returned to the Spice Islands, where the Portuguese imprisoned them. The ''Victoria'' continued sailing westward, commanded by
Juan Sebastián Elcano, and managed to return to
Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain in 1522.
Subsequent expeditions
After Magellan's expedition, four more expeditions were made to the islands, led by
García Jofre de Loaísa in 1525,
Sebastian Cabot in 1526,
Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón in 1527, and
Ruy López de Villalobos in 1542.
[.]
In 1543, Villalobos named the islands of Leyte and Samar ''Las Islas Filipinas'' in honor of Philip II of Spain, at the time
Prince of Asturias.
Conquest of the islands
Philip II became
King of Spain
The monarchy of Spain or Spanish monarchy () is the constitutional form of government of Spain. It consists of a Hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarch who reigns as the head of state, being the highest office of the country.
The Spanish ...
on January 16, 1556, when his father,
Charles V, abdicated both the Spanish and
HRE thrones, the latter went to his uncle,
Ferdinand I. On his return to Spain in 1559, the king ordered an expedition to the Spice Islands, stating that its purpose was "to discover the islands of the west". In reality its task was to conquer the Philippine islands.
On November 19 or 20, 1564, a Spanish expedition of a mere 500 men led by
Miguel López de Legazpi
Miguel López de Legazpi (12 June 1502 – 20 August 1572), also known as ''Adelantado, El Adelantado'' and ''El Viejo'' (The Elder), was a Spanish conquistador who financed and led an expedition to conquer the Philippines, Philippine islan ...
departed
Barra de Navidad,
New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...
, arriving at
Cebu on February 13, 1565.
It was this expedition that established the first Spanish settlements. It also resulted in the discovery of the ''
tornaviaje'' return route to Mexico across the Pacific by
Andrés de Urdaneta,
heralding the
Manila galleon
The Manila galleon (; ) refers to the Spain, Spanish trading Sailing ship, ships that linked the Philippines in the Spanish East Indies to Mexico (New Spain), across the Pacific Ocean. The ships made one or two round-trip voyages per year betwe ...
trade, which lasted for two and a half centuries.
See also
*
Anito
*
Antonio de Morga
*
Antonio Pigafetta
*
Barangay (pre-colonial)
*
Baybayin
*
Boxer Codex
*
Butuan (historical polity)
*
Cainta (historical polity)
*
Pangasinan (historical polity)
*
Caboloan
*
Dambana
*
Datu
''Datu'' is a title which denotes the rulers (variously described in historical accounts as chiefs, sovereign princes, and monarchs) of numerous Indigenous peoples throughout the Philippine archipelago. The title is still used today, though no ...
*
Enrique of Malacca
*
Ferdinand Magellan
*
First Mass in the Philippines
*
Tondo (historical polity)
*
Lacandola Documents
*
Lakan
*
Lapulapu
*
List of sovereign state leaders in the Philippines
*
Luzones
*
Ma-i
*
Madja-as
*
Maginoo
*
Maharlika
*
Maynila (historical polity)
*
Kumintang (historical polity)
*
Philippine shamans
*
Pintados
*
Pulilu
*
Rajah
*
Rajah Humabon
*
Rajahnate of Butuan
*
Rajahnate of Cebu
*
Sandao
*
Sanmalan
*
Sultanate of Maguindanao
*
Sultanate of Sulu
The Sultanate of Sulu (; ; ) is a Sunni Muslim subnational monarchy in the Philippines, Republic of the Philippines that includes the Sulu Archipelago, coastal areas of Zamboanga City and certain portions of Palawan in today's Philippines. H ...
*
Sultanate of Buayan
*
Confederate States of Lanao
*
Suyat
*
Thimuay
*
Timawa
The ''timawa'' were the feudalism, feudal warrior class of the ancient Visayan people, Visayan societies of the Philippines. They were regarded as higher than the ''uripon'' (commoners, serfs, and slaves) but below the ''tumao'' (royal nobility ...
*
Warfare in pre-colonial Philippines
*
Tawalisi
*
Use of gold in early Philippine history
* ''
History of the Philippines''
*
Prehistory of the Philippines
*
History of the Philippines (Spanish Era 1521–1898)
*
History of the Philippines (American Era 1898–1946)
*
History of the Philippines (Third Republic 1946–65)
*
History of the Philippines (Marcos Era 1965–86)
*
History of the Philippines (Contemporary Era 1986–present)
References
Further reading
* .
* .
* .
External links
*
Pre-colonial Manila
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of The Philippines (900-1521)
History of the Philippines by period