REVIEWER NOTES
compiling these eyewitness testimonies,
Lesson 1: Meaning of History
History
· Can refer 2 things
· Everything that happened in the past
· A kind of research or inquiry
· is a discipline or a field of study and
investigation that is primarily concerned
with human activities done in the past.
· concerned with human activities and not
the affairs of deities, mythological
creatures, or fictive characters.
· is an inquiry that falls within the realm of
the social sciences.
· is concerned with the past. It does not
concern itself with the present and with
the future.
Historical discipline
· changed in terms of its nature,
significance, and purpose through time.
In ancient Greek civilization,
· history became concerned with human
affairs and activities.
Herodotus,
· the Father of History,
· wrote history to describe the events of
the past for posterity.
Thucydides
· introduced a more “scientific” or
systematic approach to historical writing.
· For him, the only reliable historical
sources were testimonies of people who
were eyewitnesses to the event being
studied (cf. “History of the
Peloponnesian War”).
· Because of this consideration,
Herodotus and Thucydides were thus
limited to the study of a small
geographical space and of the past
within the living memory.
As the Greek civilization grew and expanded,
· ancient Greek historians started
recognizing that they could no longer
just rely on the testimonies of living
witnesses to history.
· Thus, they started collecting and
enabling them to study the remote past
and places.
The practice of keeping voluminous written records
gave way to the primacy given to written sources.
The primacy of written sources in historical study
privileged sectors who were in the higher level of the
social ladder.
Topics of historical study were also limited to those
that were perceived to be important enough to get
recorded.
By the 19th century,
· positivism emerged.
· Positivism
o is a vital anchor of the scientific
method that asserts that real
knowledge lies on actual
observation of facts.
o manifested with the mantra “no
document, no history.”
· Positivist history further privileged the
use of written or documentary sources,
consequently disenfranchising
marginalized sectors who are not
always represented in written records.
· Historians recognized this problem and
started using other kinds of historical
sources to include subjects and areas
that are not in written records.
· These sources include
o oral traditions,
o artifacts,
o architecture, and
o memories.
History grew as a complex discipline, and scholars
who wanted to further inquire about the nature and
character of history delved into historiography.
Historiography
· is the history of history.
· Examples of historiographical questions
are: How was a specific historical text
written? Who wrote it? What was the
context of its publication? What was the
particular historical method employed?
What were the sources used?
The use and function of history changed over time:
Ancient Greeks: History was written for posterity and
to enable humans to control
their destiny.
Middle Ages: History was written to understand and
expound on the divine plan.
Humans no longer need to control their destiny
because God has already
predetermined it for them.
Historicism
· As history developed into a scientific
discipline, historians argued that history
should not have a purpose other than
studying it for its own sake.
Historicists like;
Leopold von Ranke
· believed that assigning a purpose to
history makes its study biased.
· For von Ranke, the task of the historian
is “merely to show how things actually
were.”
Benedetto Croce
· Italian historian remarked, “All history is
contemporary history.”
· However, this view assumes that the
development of history and historians
who write it are totally unaffected by
their contexts. Such is not true.
· The emergence of new historical
subdisciplines, like women’s history,
labor history, and environmental history,
is a response to the need of the time.
However, social relevance and faithfulness to the past
are not incompatible with one another. There are
several instances where the past was distorted by
various political entities to serve their agenda. Isn’t it
the duty of the historian to rescue the past from these
distortions?
History can provide people multiple ways to view,
interpret, and respond to current problems.
History can make us learn from past mistakes, and it
can also serve as a repository of good ideas from the
past.
Finally, history helps us to acquire a sense of
self-knowledge and self-awareness.
Lesson 2: History and the Historian
Historians
· dedicate their skills and intelligence in
the production of historical knowledge.
· have tasks and responsibilities to fulfill
in order to produce credible history.
· is someone who continuously pursues
historical knowledge.
· are expected to keep up with changes
and developments in historical
knowledge in light of new evidence.
· produces historical knowledge through
the continuous and constant pursuit of
historical knowledge by answering
questions about the past through
gathering and interpreting historical
evidence.
· are not limited to the consumption of
historical knowledge in books and in
other media.
· engage in ceaseless historical research
to improve on existing historical
knowledge.
· are trained to ask relevant historical
questions, employ proper perspective,
and gather and interpret historical
sources and evidence through a
systematic historical methodology.
· are needed to examine and interpret
them through the skills they acquired in
training for historical research and
methodology.
· It is the historian’s task to convert
historical sources to historical
knowledge.
· also the historian’s task to determine
what is historical.
· As a professional field, historians are
also subject to the scrutiny of their
peers. As in other scientific disciplines,
validation from fellow historians is
necessary to establish historical
credibility.
There are several characteristics that differentiate
historians from other writers and scholars.
In dealing with historical research,
· historians may be influenced by their
respective contexts and subjectivities.

All of the historical knowledge
· that we study and utilize at present are
products of meticulous research done
by historians who dedicated their
intellect and skills in writing history.
While students of history read and learn history books
and essays, historians produce these books and
texts.
Historical sources and evidence
· cannot speak for themselves.
The historical fact
· is different from a fact from the past. Not
everything that happened in the past,
whether or not it is true, counts as a
historical fact.
Edward Hallett Carr
· states that a historical fact is something
that is determined by the historian.
Historical questions
· are brought about by issues at present
that demand historical explanation.
Historians and the historical knowledge that they
produce have significantly influenced their respective
contexts. The historian’s interests and life’s work are
inevitably influenced by various factors such as
nationality, political ideology, religion, educational
background, and overall experiences.
Historical methodology
· consists of certain techniques and rules
that historians follow to properly collect
and select sources and historical
evidence.
Since history is a professional academic
discipline,
· historians are always subjected to
scrutiny by their peers.
An absolute objective historical knowledge is not
possible in history
· because the nature of its inquiry
precludes us from conducting an
objective and empirical observation. We
always rely on sources and evidence to
be studied and interpreted.
The goal of historical research is
· credibility and not objectivity.
Historical research
· requires rigor.
The subjectivity of the historian
· is tempered by a rigorous and
systematic historical research.
Lesson 3: Historical Sources
Historical Sources
· The historian’s most important research
tools.
· could be classified into primary and
secondary sources.
·
Sources
· are, more often than not, scarce.
· They are like puzzle pieces that need to
be collected, organized, and interpreted
in order to piece together a coherent
historical narrative.
There are specific ways of criticisms used by
historians in order to effectively utilize historical
sources.
There are two major classifications of historical
sources:
· primary sources
o are those sources produced
simultaneously as the event,
period, or subject being studied
o can give fresh insights to
students
o These can also allow them to
develop their interpretation of
sources instead of depending
on the interpretation of these
primary sources done by
authors of secondary sources.
o are also useful for students
because reading and
accessing these can give them
fresh insights and allow them
to have their own interpretation
of these sources.
 secondary sources.
o Secondary sources are
sources produced by an author
who relied on primary sources
to write the material.
o are products of historical
research that other historians
use for additional information
or as background to their study.
o sources are relevant because
they enrich our historical
knowledge.
o are important for students of
history as these would give
them knowledge about
particular historical topics
based on the studies of
historians.
· Both primary and secondary sources
are useful in writing and learning history.
The historian should be able to conduct
· External criticism
o is the practice of verifying
evidence’s authenticity by
examining its physical
characteristics, consistency
with the historical character of
the time when it was
supposedly produced, and the
historical source’s materials
· internal criticisms of these sources
o is the examination of the
content of a particular
document.
o In the process of internal
criticism, the historian ought to
read the document
meticulously and understand
the meaning that the document
wanted to convey
o is done to verify the
authenticity of any given
primary source.
· Criticism is especially crucial for primary
sources that could have been subjected
to different levels of deterioration
because of old age or even to forgery.
· Both external and internal criticisms
should be performed thoroughly to avoid
forgery, deceit, and come up with
credible and valid historical arguments.
Lesson 6: The Philippines under Spain
Lesson Outline
· Juan de Plasencia’s Customs of the
Tagalog (1589)
· Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas (1609)
· Francisco de Sande’s Letter to Estevan
Rodriguez de Figueroa (1578)
After Magellan,
· several other Spanish expeditions were
sent to the Philippine islands,
· but Spain’s colonization began only in
1565 in Cebu and later in 1571 in
Manila.
The Spanish
· would describe the Filipinos whom they
would later call indios in terms of
politico-social structures, belief systems,
and practices which they deemed
backward.
· They would establish European-style
political institutions and cause major
changes in Filipino society and culture.
· They would colonize most of the
Philippine archipelago, except some
Moro areas in Mindanao, for 333 years
until 1898.
Juan de Plasencia’s Customs of the Tagalog:
Discussion Points
Franciscan missionary Plasencia
· wrote about the customs of the Tagalog
· because he was in the Manila area with
the intention of furnishing his work to the
Spanish alcaldes-mayor.
· He discusses in detail the barangay led
by the dato; the ‘castes’ of maharlica,
aliping namamahay,
· and aliping sa guiguilir; how disputes
are settled in the community;
· and even how loans or usuries were a
hindrance to the indio’s baptism.
 · He called the indios infidels as he
elaborated the Tagalogs’ belief system
of worshipping idols, especially Badhala;
worshipping the sun, moon, and stars;
and believing in the idea of the afterlife
maca (village of rest) or casanaan
(place of anguish).
Why do you think Plasencia aimed to give his
work to the alcaldes-mayor?
· To help the alcaldes-mayor in organizing
the new Spanish colony
Based on his description, can we say that the
early Filipinos were ‘foolish’ with their
government, justice, inheritance, slaves, etc.?
· No. The political and social structures,
dispute resolution, belief system,
cultural practices, and even trade
relations of the early Filipinos are proof
that they were organized and were
guided by a belief system that
encouraged good.
Did barangay refer to a boat or the smallest social
structure of early Filipino society?
· It literally meant boat but since
Plasencia used it to describe the
smallest unit of Filipino society,
succeeding Spanish writers followed
suit, making barangay to mean the
smallest unit of society until today.
How should we limit using Plasencia’s work in
describing early Filipinos?
· We should always keep in mind that
Plasencia’s work was confined only to
the Tagalogs or Manila area and was
biased against indigenous practices,
even calling spiritual practitioners as
‘priests of the devil.’
Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas:
Discussion Points
Morga
· served as an assistant to the
Governor-General of the Philippines
· in 1595
· and led the Audiencia (highest tribunal
in the country) until 1603;
· he was reassigned to Mexico where he
published the Sucesos in 1609.
· The book contained his experiences and
observations
· when he was in the Philippines; he
recounted some history of the Spanish
conquest of the islands and proceeded
with lengthy explanations on native
cultures.
· He emphasized how the Spanish
brought beautiful buildings and roads to
· the Philippines and established the
alcaldia,
· as well as economic institutions such as
taxation and the galleon trade.
· It was the Filipinos who were forced to
labor on raw materials for the Spanish
colonial government.
Enumerate the political changes under the
Spanish colonial government.
· The datu became merely a cabeza de
barangay under the Spanish colonial
government headed by a Spanish
Governor-General and a hierarchy of
Spanish officials.
What were the economic institutions established
by the Spanish in the Philippines?
· The taxation, forced labor called the
polo, and the galleon trade
How did the economy of the Philippines change
under the Spaniards, especially in trade?
· The Philippines was pressured to
intensify agriculture, produce raw
materials, and provide labor and even
seafarers for the export of goods;
· the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade
supplanted the Southeast Asian trade
and only to the benefit of the Spanish
government and Chinese merchants.
In what way did the Spaniards change the Filipino
society and culture?
· The intermarriage between Filipinos and
Spaniards gave rise to creolization;
· the Filipino adopted Christianity while
maintaining old traditions which gave
rise to folk Christianity.
Francisco de Sande’s Letter to Estevan Rodriguez
de Figueroa: Discussion
Points
The Spanish
· regarded the Moros in the islands as
unfavorable and that the Spanish arrival
stopped the spread of Islam in the
Philippine islands.
· expeditions were met by fearless Moros
who consistently defended their land,
life, and religion against Spanish
colonizers
It must be noted that these Moros were
indigenous inhabitants who adopted the religion
of Islam,
· which flourished and arrived in the
Philippines by way of trade in the
fourteenth century.
Figueroa’s included,
· the many Spanish expeditions against
the Moros failed throughout the
Spaniards’ 333 years in the country.
Summary
The Spanish studied and wrote about the Filipinos to
know how best to colonize and govern them and
intercept their trade. Most of their writings reflected
the European lens in looking at indigenous concepts
and practices.
The Spanish established several economic policies
such as the tax, polo (forced labor), and galleon trade,
which became the precursor of globalization.
The Spaniards subdued most of Luzon and Visayas
into pueblos, which came under the power of the
Spanish Colonial Government in the Philippines.
Some areas resisted colonization, such as Muslim
Mindanao and the Igorots of Northern Luzon.
Through colonization and the process of creolization,
the Spanish drastically changed the political,
economic, and sociocultural landscapes of the
archipelago.

What were the reasons that the Spaniards wanted

to colonize the Moros?
· They wanted to extend their economic
clout over the rich Moro areas, eradicate
the Islamic faith from the Philippines,
and teach the Moros their ‘civilization.’

Reading de Sande’s letter to Figueroa, how did

the Spaniards look at the Moros and Islam?
· They viewed the Moros as pirates,
thieves, and ignorant of God and that
Islam was ‘evil and false.’

How did this Spanish picture of the Moro result in

a lasting ‘split’ between the Christians and
Muslims in the country?
· The Spanish embedded the picture that
the Moros were bad and recruited
Christianized Filipinos to help in
attacking the Moros.

What justification could be made for the

continued Spanish armed expeditions against the
Moros?
· None. A difference in religion, beliefs,
culture, etc. cannot be a justification for
stealing other people’s land, whether
benevolently or violently.