History: An

Introduction
What is history?
 Yesterday of mankind
• Memory of Filipinos both living and dead
• Without the knowledge of the past, there is no guide
for the future

 Record of the past

 Understanding history’s relevance to the lives of
Filipinos and the importance of human civilization

*In history, conditions change

• Changes can become progress and without direction,
change can be meaningless and aimless

 The story of all Filipinos

* It tells us what happened and why it happened
 From the Greek word Historia which
means “knowledge acquired through
inquiry and investigation”.

 As a discipline, it has existed 2,400 years

ago (as old as Math and Philo)

 Adopted into classical Latin which later

meant “account of the past of a person or
of a group of people through written
documents and historical evidences”.
 Early parts of the 20th century, it became
an important economic discipline.

 Historian’s duty was to write about

 Important people (nobles, heroes and
saints)
 Wars
 Revolutions
 breakthroughs
 What counts as history?

“No document, no history”. (according to

the belief of early historians)

 But it progressed and opened up to the

possibility of considering other valid
historical sources

Example: writings on caves, inscription in

jars, songs, dances, epics, architecture,
artifacts, memories etc
 Restricting historical evidence as exclusively
written is also discrimination of other social
classes who are not recorded in paper.

 History thus became more inclusive and

started collaborating with:

 Archaeologists ( use of artifacts to study

ancient civilization)
 Linguists (trace historical evolutions, past
connections among diff. groups and flow of
cultural influence by the study of language)
 Scientists (analyze genetic and DNA patterns
of human societies).
What is Historiography?

 The history of history(What is history? Why

study history? History for whom?)

 It is history itself (How was a historical text

written? Who wrote it? What was the context
of its publication? What particular historical
method was used? What were the sources
used?)

 Learning historical facts with an

understanding of it and the historian’s
context.
Roles History played in the Past:

 States used it to unite a nation

 Used as a tool to legitimize regimes and
forge a sense of collective identity
 Lessons of the past can be used to make
sense of the present
 Learning past mistakes can help people to
avoid it.
 A great past can inspire people to keep
their good practices to move forward.
As a narrative, any history taught and written
is always intended for a certain group of
audience.

Examples:

 Rizal’s writing was for the Spaniards to make

them realize that we have intellect and
culture
 American historians depicting us as
uncivilized justifies their colonization of our
country
 Marcos and his declaration of Martial law
 Nazi Germans killing jews
History is always written by victors. This
connotes that the narrative of the past is
always written from the bias of the
powerful and more dominant player.

Example:
 The history of the WW2 in the Philippines
will always depict the US as hero and the
Imperial Japanese army as oppressors

But with a more thorough investigation, it

will reveal a clearer account of history.
Historian’s job:
 Seek historical evidences and facts
 Interprets the facts (Facts cannot speak for
themselves)

This makes history subjective because a

historian is influenced by his own context,
environment, ideology, education and
influences.

Despite this, the study of history remains

scientific because of the rigor of research and
methodology that historians employ.
 Historical sources are the tools of a
historian.

Historical sources can be :

1. Primary – sources that are produced at
the same time as the event, period, or
subject being studied
2. Secondary – sources which are produced
by an author who used primary sources
which studied a certain historical subject
Examples of primary sources for studying
the Commonwealth Constitution Convention
of 1935:
 Minutes of the convention
 Newspaper clippings
 Phil. Commission reports of the US
commissioners
 Records of the convention
 Draft of the Constitution
 Photographs of the event
 Eyewitness accounts of the convention
 Delegates and their memoirs
Other Primary sources:
 Archival documents
 Artifacts
 memorabilia
 Letters
 Census
 Government records
Example of secondary sources on the subject
Philippine revolution of 1896:
 Teodoro Agoncillo’s book “ Revolt of the
Masses – The Story of Bonifacio and the
Katipunan”

 The revolution happened in 1896 but the

book of Agoncillo was printed in 1956.

 Agoncillo used primary sources with his

research like the:
 Documents of the Katipunan
 Interview with the veterans of the revolution
 Correspondence between and among
katipuneros
 Both primary and secondary sources are
useful in writing and learning history.

 But, we should be careful in using them to

be able to come up with the historical
truth.

 A historian should conduct internal and

external criticism especially with primary
sources.
External criticism

 Practiceof verifying the authenticity of

evidence by examining its physical
characteristics; consistency with the
historical characteristics of the time when
it was produced and the materials used
for the evidence.

Ex. Quality of paper, type of ink, language

and words used in the material
Internal Criticism

 Examination of the truthfulness of the

evidence
 It looks at the content of the source and
examines the circumstance of its
production.
 Consider the author of the source, its
context, the agenda behind its creation,
the knowledge which informed it and its
intended purpose.
 Without thorough criticism of historical
evidences, historical deceptions and lies
will be highly probable.

Examples: the Hoax of the Code of

Kalantiaw (it was debunked in 1968 by
William henry scott) and the claim of Pres.
Marcos that he was a WW2 soldier who led
a guerilla unit called “Ang maharlika”
Sources of Data on Philippine History

 Religious orders who recorded the history of

the Philippines ( Jesuits, Dominicans,
Augustinians, Franciscans and the Recollects)
 Fr. Pedro Chirino (1604) and Fr. Juan
Plasencia (1589) who recorded observations
of Philippine Society and Culture
 Filipino Muslims who preserved written
materials like the tarsila and kitab
 Philippine Revolutionary Records (1899-
1903)
 Important Filipiniana Materials in the
National Library and the National Museum
 Provincial Histories collected by teachers
to replace government records that were
destroyed during the WW2.
 Archaeological excavations
 Archaeologist/Scientists who made
significant contributions to the
development of Philippine History ( Feodor
Jagor, Henry Otley Beyer and Wilhelm
Solheim)