The earliest human remains found in the Philippines are the fossilized fragments of a skull and jawbone, discovered in the 1960s by Dr. Robert B. Fox, a North American anthropologist of the National Museum. Anthropologists who have examined these remains agreed that they belonged to modern human beings. These include the homo sapiens, as distinguished from the mid-Pleistocene homo erectus species. Researchers say this indicates that the human remains were Pre-Mongoloid, from about 40,000 years ago. Mongoloid is the term which anthropologists applied to the ethnic group which migrated to Southeast Asia during the Holocene period and evolved into the Austronesian people, a group of Malay or Malayo-Polynesian- speaking people, a dialect part of the Austronesian language,[20] and Formosan language[21] that is found in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Malagasy, and parts of Vietnam and Taiwan.[22]
About 30,000 years ago, the Negritos settled in the islands. They were the ancestors of such tribes of the Philippines as the Aeta, Agta, Ayta, Ati, Dumagat and other tribes of the Philippines, today making up about .003% of the total Philippine population.[23] Approximately 2,000 years ago Taiwanese aborigines settled in what is now the Philippines by sailing by sea or traveling across then-existing land bridges. The indigenous peoples of the Philippines were also in contact with other Asian people, such as Malaysian, Indonesian and Chinese. Various ethnic groups established several communities formed by the assimilation of various indigenous Philippine kingdoms.[23]
By the 13th century, Muslim traders from present-day Malaysia and Indonesia brought Islam to the Philippines, where it both replaced and was practice together with indigenous religions. Most indigenous tribes of the Philippines practised a mixture of Animism and Islam. Native villages, called barangays, were ruled by Rajahs, Datus and Sultans.[23]
During the period of Spanish colonialism beginning in the 16th century, the Philippines was governed by Mexico City on behalf of the Spanish Empire. Early Spanish settlers were mostly explorers, soldiers, government official and religious missionaries born in Spain and Mexico. The Peninsulares (Spanish governors born in Spain) settled in the islands to govern the territory. Intermarriage between Spaniards and the indigenous people sometimes occurred, but was not as common as it was in the Americas because there were fewer Spanish men who were stationed in the Philippines. Only a minority of intermarriage and inter-breeding took place between the two ethnic groups in the Philippines. Some settlers married the daughters of rajahs and datus (chieftains) to reinforce the colonization of the islands, while some married only other Spaniards. The Spanish recruited thousands of Chinese male migrant workers called sangleys to build the colonial infrastructure in the islands. As the Chinese men married indigenous women, this gave rise to the largest mixed-ethnic group, called mestizo de sangley.
By the opening of the Suez Canal in 1867, Spain opened the Philippines for International trade. Europeans such as British, German and French were among those who settled in the islands as business increased.
The name Filipino was derived from king Philip II of Spain, the Spanish name given to the Philippines in the 16th century, by Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos.[24]
After the defeat of Spain during the Spanish-American War in 1898, General Wesley Merritt became the first American governors of the Philippines. On December 10, 1898, the Treaty of Paris formally ended the war, with Spain ceding the Philippines and other colonies to the United States in exchange for $20 million dollars.[25][26] United States civil governance was established in 1901, with William Howard Taft as the first American Governor-General.[27] A number of Americans settled in the islands. During World War II, the United States built up military bases on the Philippines, increasing the American population there. In addition, numerous Filipino men enlisted in the US Navy and made careers in it, often settling with their families in the United States. The country gained independence from the United States in 1946.
