history

The Philippines is a land of dance,
music, and many kinds of arts
which has been influenced
centuries of different cultures.

It is believed that first people who
lived in the Philippines came more
than 25,000 years ago. In the 13th
century, settlers from Borneo came
and started a community in Panay
Island.

Early Filipinos lived together in a
community called a "barangay".
The people had a very advanced
system of writing, followed by strict
laws that kept the community safe.
They also were led by a council of
elders. They worshipped nature and
their spiritual ancestors.

Ferdinand Magellan " discovered"
the Philippines in 1521. He was
killed due to wars with the local
chieftain, Lapu-Lapu.

The Philippines was claimed by
Spain in 1543 by Ruy Villalobos,
and was named after king Philip II
of Spain. Spanish priests converted
most of the Filipinos into Roman
Catholics, while the natives in the
southern island of Mindanao was
converted to Islam by Muslim
missionaries.

A many Filipinos fought for
independence from Spain in the
near end of the 19th century. Jose
Rizal, the Philippine national hero,
wrote two books which encouraged
Filipinos to fight for freedom. Then
America went to war with Spain in
1898. Emilio Aguinaldo led an army
and defeated the Spaniards, and
declared the Philippines
independent on June 12, 1898.

The United States took control over
the Philippines after paying Spain
twenty million dollars! The
Philippines was a colony of the
United States in 1901, and
became a commonwealth in 1935,
with Manuel Quezon serving as the
first Filipino president.

In World War II, the Japanese
invaded the Philippines in 1942
and surrendered to the Allied
Forces in 1945. The United States
"granted" independence on July
4th, 1946, and thus the Republic of
the Philippines was born