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North Borneo Borneo Utara
Colony of the United Kingdom (Protectorate until 1946)
←   ← 1882–1963 →   →
Flag Badge
Motto Pergo et Perago (Latin: "I undertake and I achieve”)
Capital	Sandakan (pre war); Jesselton (post war)
Language(s)	English, Malay
Government	Protectorate, Crown Colony
Governor
- 1896–1901	Robert Scott (North Borneo)
Historical era	New Imperialism
- North Borneo Company	May 1882
- British protectorate	1888
- Japanese invasion	1 January 1942
- Australian liberation	June 1946
- Restored as colony	15 July 1946
- Independence	31 August 1963
- Formation of Malaysia	16 September 1963
Area
- 1936	76,115 km2 (29,388 sq mi)
Population
- 1936 est.	285,000
Density	3.7 /km2  (9.7 /sq mi)
Currency	North Borneo dollar, until 1953 Malaya and Borneo dollar, after 1953

North Borneo was a British protectorate under the sovereign North Borneo Chartered Company from 1882 to 1946. After the war it became a crown colony of Great Britain from 1946 to 1963, known in this time as British North Borneo. It is located on the northeastern end of the island of Borneo. It is now the state of Sabah, East Malaysia. The last Governor of North Borneo was William Allmond Codrington Goode who held office from 1959 to 1963.

History[link]

State of North Borneo[link]

In 1865, the United States Consul to Brunei, Charles Lee Moses, obtained a 10-year lease for the territory of North Borneo from the Sultan of Brunei. However, the post-Civil War United States wanted nothing to do with Asian colonies, so Moses sold his rights to the Hong Kong-based American Trading Company of Borneo owned by Joseph William Torrey, Thomas Bradley Harris, Tat Cheong and possibly other Chinese merchants. Torrey began a settlement at the Kimanis River mouth, which he named Ellena. Attempts to find financial backing for the settlement were futile, and disease, death and desertion by the immigrant labourers led to the abandonment of the settlement towards the end of 1866. Harris died in 1866 and Torrey returned to America in 1877, he died in Boston, Massachusetts, in March 1884.

With the imminent termination of the lease at hand in January 1875, Torrey managed to sell his rights to the Consul of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Hong Kong, Baron Von Overbeck. Von Overbeck managed to get a 10-year renewal of the lease from the Temenggong of Brunei, and a similar treaty from the Sultan of Sulu on 22 January 1878. To finance his plans for North Borneo, Overbeck found financial backing from the Dent brothers (Alfred and Edward). However, he was unable to interest his government in the territory. After efforts to sell the territory to Italy for use as a penal colony, Von Overbeck withdrew in 1880, leaving Alfred Dent in control. Dent was supported by Sir Rutherford Alcock, and Admiral Sir Harry Keppel.

In July 1881, Alfred Dent and his brother formed the British North Borneo Provisional Association Ltd and obtained an official Royal Charter 1 November the same year. In May 1882, the North Borneo Chartered Company replaced the Provisional Association. Sir Rutherford Alcock became the first President, and Alfred Dent became Managing Director. In spite of some diplomatic protests by the Dutch, Spanish and Sarawak governments, the North Borneo Chartered Company proceeded to organize settlement and administration of the territory. The company subsequently acquired further sovereign and territorial rights from the sultan of Brunei, expanding the territory under control to the Putatan river (May 1884), the Padas district (November 1884), the Kawang river (February 1885), the Mantanani Islands (April 1885), and additional minor Padas territories (March 1898).

The Company established a foundation for economic growth in North Borneo by restoring peace to a land where piracy and tribal feuds had grown rampant. It abolished slavery and set up transport, health and education services for the people. Chinese immigrants were wooed to boost the small population of less than 100,000. Through the combined effort of the locals and immigrants, towns, farms, a timber industry, tobacco and rubber plantations began to thrive.

Protectorate of Britain[link]

History of Malaysia
This article is part of a series
Prehistoric Malaysia
Early kingdoms
Chi Tu (100 BC–7th)
Gangga Negara (2nd–11th)
Langkasuka (2nd–14th)
Pan Pan (3rd–5th)
Srivijaya (7th–13th)
Majapahit (13th–15th)
Kedah Kingdom (630–1136)
The rise of Muslim states
Kedah Sultanate (1136–present)
Malacca Sultanate (1402–1511)
Sulu Sultanate (1450–1899)
Johor Sultanate (1528–present)
Colonial era
Portuguese Malacca (1511–1641)
Dutch Malacca (1641–1824)
Straits Settlements (1826–1946)
British Malaya (1874–1946)
Federated Malay States (1895–1946)
Unfederated Malay States (1909–46)
Kingdom of Sarawak (1841–1946)
North Borneo (1882–1963)
Japanese occupation (1941–1945)
Malaysia in transition
Malayan Union (1946–1948)
Federation of Malaya (1948–1963)
Independence (1957)
Federation of Malaysia (1963–present)
See also
Communications history
Military history
Timeline of history
Malaysia Portal v t e

In 1888, North Borneo became a protectorate of Great Britain, but its administration remained entirely in the hands of the North Borneo Chartered Company, with the crown reserving only control of foreign relations.

From 1890 to 1905 the British government placed the colony of Labuan under the administration of North Borneo.

The Company's rule in North Borneo had great impact on the development of the region. Although was generally peaceful, the local population occasionally resented the imposition of taxes and the loss of land to European plantations. The most serious resistance was the Mat Salleh (Mahomet Saleh) War from 1894 to 1900, and the Rundum Uprising by the Murut in 1915.

The Chartered Company's system of administration was based on standard British colonial administration structures, with the land divided into Residencies, and sub-divided into Districts. Initially, there were only two Residencies: East Coast and West Coast, with Residents based at Sandakan and Jesselton respectively. Each Residency was divided into Provinces, later known as Districts, which were run by District Officers. By 1922, there were five Residencies to accommodate new areas that were opened up for development. These were the West Coast, Kudat, Tawau, Interior and East Coast Residencies. These Residencies were in turn divided into 17 Districts.

Under this system, British held top posts, while native chiefs managed the people at grassroots level. This was not a conscious attempt by the British to instil indirect rule but a convenient arrangement for the District Officers who were unfamiliar with local customs and politics.

The North Borneo Chartered Company effectively ruled until 1 January 1942. Japanese forces occupied North Borneo from 1942 to 1945. The North Borneo Armed Constabulary with only 650 men hardly provided any resistance to slow down the Japanese invasion. During Japanese military occupation, the Europeans were interned, public services ceased to exist, and there were widespread poverty, disease and malnutrition.

In June 1945 the Australian 9th Division landed in Brunei and liberated much of North Borneo before the end of the war. North Borneo was placed under British Military Administration until restoration of civil government on 15 July 1946.

Crown Colony of British North Borneo[link]

The North Borneo Chartered Company did not have the financial resources to reconstruct North Borneo after the destruction of World War II. The major towns had been razed to the ground by allied bombing, and the infrastructure of North Borneo was in total devastation. The North Borneo Chartered Company decided to sell its interests to the British government. The territory was placed under control of the colonial office, and became a British crown colony on 15 July 1946 together with islands of Labuan. The destruction of the former capital Sandakan was so complete that Jesselton was chosen as the new post-war capital. The colonial system of administration was in most ways similar to rule during the Company era, retaining the same Residency and District structure; however, as a result of this change in status, North Borneo had access to British government funds for reconstruction.

A Governor and Commander-in-Chief was appointed to administer the colony of North Borneo with the assistance of an Advisory Council consisting of three ex-officio members: a Chief Secretary, the Attorney-General, and the Financial Secretary, together with other members both official and unofficial whom the Governor chose to appoint. In 1950, the Advisory Council was replaced by the Executive and Legislative Councils.

The Executive Council functioned as a Cabinet and was headed by the Chief Secretary. In addition to the Attorney General and the Financial Secretary, it consisted of two officials and four nominated members. The Governor presided at the Executive Council meetings and he alone was entitled to submit questions to the Council.

The Legislative Council consisted of the Governor as President, the usual three ex-officio members, nine official members and ten nominated members.

The high-ranking administrative posts continued to be held by the British, and in fact, it was only in 1957 that the first non-European filled an administrative officer's post.

The British North Borneo was granted self-government on 31 August 1963 in Keningau. A little over two weeks later, on 16 September 1963, the state united with Malaya, Sarawak and Singapore, forming the Federation of Malaysia.

The First Natives Paramount Leader was Pehin Orang Kaya-Kaya Koroh bin Santulan of Keningau "The father of former Sabah State Minister Tan Sri Stephen (Suffian) Koroh, and Sabah's fifth State Governor Tun Thomas (Ahmad) Koroh (the elder brother of Suffian)". Santulan which also a Pengeran, the father to Pehin Orang Kaya-Kaya Koroh was a Murut descendant of Hashim Jalilul Alam Aqamaddin, the 25th Sultan of Brunei.

Evolution of Malaysia

Postage stamps[link]

Initially, mail from North Borneo was sent via Labuan or Singapore, using postage stamps of the Straits Settlements. The company issued its own stamps in March 1883, using a design incorporating the coat of arms (a dhow and a lion), inscribed "NORTH BORNEO", and with the value written in English, Jawi, and Chinese. Initial values included 2c, 4c, and 8c, followed by large 50c and $1 stamps of a more elaborate design with the arms flanked by two natives.

In 1886 ½c, 1c, and 10c values were added, and there was a demand for 3c and 5c stamps, resolved by overprinting existing types. At the same time, the printers (Blades, East, and Blades of London) produced a new design, largely the same but inscribed "BRITISH NORTH BORNEO", and joined by 25c and $2 values, also with elaborate frames. The stamps were redesigned again in 1888, to say "POSTAGE & REVENUE" instead of just "POSTAGE", at which time the 25c to $2 values also received minor changes. These were followed up in 1889 by even larger and more elaborate $5 and $10 stamps.

Shortages in 1890, 1891, and 1892 necessitated more surcharges.

In 1894, the protectorate issued a new definitive series engraved by Waterlow and Sons, comprising nine pictorials featuring natives plants, animals, and scenes, and inscribed "STATE OF NORTH BORNEO".

See also[link]

Find more about North Borneo on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Images and media from Commons
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

• Governor of North Borneo
• History of Sabah
• British North Borneo dollar
• Malaya and British Borneo dollar
• Manila Accord

v t e Sabah Divisions Interior Division Kudat Division Sandakan Division Tawau Division West Coast Division Cities Kota Kinabalu (capital) Sandakan Tawau Main Towns Beaufort Beluran Keningau Kinabatangan Kota Belud Kota Marudu Kuala Penyu Kudat Kunak Lahad Datu Nabawan Papar Pitas Penampang Ranau Semporna Sipitang Tambunan Tenom Tongod Tuaran Other Towns Bingkor Bongawan Donggongon Inanam Kalabakan Kimanis Kinarut Kundasang Membakut Menggatal Pensiangan Putatan Sapulut Sepanggar Sindumin Sook Tamparuli Telipok Telupid Weston Islands Bai Island Bait Island Bakungan Island Balambangan Island Bancawan Island Banggi Island Batik Kulambu Island Berhala Island Big Maliangin Island Bilang Bilangan Island Bodgaya Island Bohayan Island Boheydulang Island Bum Bum Island Creagh Reef Dinawan Island Gaya Island Jambongan Island Kahamkamman Island Kaniogan Island Kapalai Island Lankayan Island Larapan Island Libaran Island Ligitan Island Mabul Island Maganting Island Malawali Island Mamutik Island Mantanani Island Manukan Island Mataking Island Mata Pahi Island Menampilek Island Mengalum Island Montokud Island Musa Island Nunuyan Land Island Nunuyan Sea Island Omadal Island Pagassan Island Palak Island Pandanan Island Pasalat Reef Pom Pom Island Puru Puru Island Roach Reef Saddle Island Sakar Island Sand Island Sapi Island Sebatik Island Selingan Island Sepanggar Island Sikarindingan Island Sipadan Island Si Amil Island Silumpat Island Small Maliangin Island Sulug Island Tabawan Island Tambisan Island Tetabuan Island Tiga Island Tigabu Island Timbang Island Timbun Mata Island Spratly Islands dispute Ardasier Reef Dallas Reef Erica Reef Investigator Shoal Layang Layang Island Louisa Reef Mariveles Reef

Filipino people

Epifanio de los Santos Manuel Tinio
1st row: Corazon Aquino · Emilio Aguinaldo · Lorenzo Ruiz · Manny Pacquiao 2nd row: Julian Felipe · Andrés Bonifacio · Carlos P. Romulo · Mutya Buena 3rd row: Ramon Magsaysay · Juan Luna · Epifanio de los Santos · Imelda Marcos 4th row: Ferdinand Marcos · Charlene Gonzales · Mariano Gómez · Lea Salonga 5th row: Manuel Tinio · Melchora Aquino · Benigno Aquino III · Lakandula 6th row: Manuel L. Quezon · José Rizal · Lapu-Lapu
Total population
105,000,000[1]
Regions with significant populations
Philippines 94,000,000[2]  United States 3,416,840[3]  Saudi Arabia 1,066,401[4]  Malaysia 636,544[5]  United Arab Emirates 529,114[4]  Canada 436,190[6]  Japan 305,972[7]  United Kingdom 203,035[4]  Mexico 200,000  Qatar 195,558[4]  Kuwait 139,802[4]  Italy 134,154[8]  Hong Kong 130,810[9]  Australia 129,400[10]  Taiwan 74,483[11]  Israel 70,000[12]  South Korea 63,464[13]  Spain 40,000[14]  New Zealand 16,938[15]  Nigeria  Norway 12,262[16]  Netherlands 12,000[17]  Pakistan 3,000[18]
Languages
Philippine languages, English; Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Lan-nang
Religion
Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism), Islam, Buddhism, Traditional and folk religions, or other religions.
Related ethnic groups
other Southeast Asians and Austronesian-speaking people.

The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 94 million Filipinos in the Philippines,^[19] and about 11 million living outside the Philippines.^[20]

There are around 180 languages spoken in the Philippines, most of them belonging to the Austronesian language family, with Tagalog and Cebuano having the greatest number of native speakers.^[21] The official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and English and most Filipinos are bilingual or trilingual.^[22][23]

Most Filipinos refer to themselves colloquially as "Pinoy" (feminine: "Pinay"), which is a slang word formed by taking the last four letters of "Pilipino" and adding the diminutive suffix "-y". The lack of the letter "F" in the pre-1987 Philippine alphabet, Abakada, had caused the letter "F" to be substituted with "P". This is why, when the 28-letter modern Filipino alphabet was made official in 1987, the name Filipino was preferred over Pilipino. The name Filipino was chosen by the Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, who named the islands "las Islas Filipinas" ("the Philippine Islands") after Philip II of Spain.^[24]

In colloquial speech, English language words borrowed from the Filipino language are inflected for gender. It is quite unnatural, for example, for women to call themselves Filipino in daily conversation and they will generally refer to themselves instead as Filipina. Also, adjectives that have to do with women (e.g. "Filipina beauty") are modified to use the feminine form. In legal documents such as bank accounts and passports, however, both genders are referred to as Filipino.

History[link]

Pre – Colonial[link]

In 2010, a metatarsal from "Callao Man" discovered in 2007 was dated through uranium-series dating as being 67,000 years old.^[25]

Prior to that, the earliest human remains found in the Philippines were thought to be the fossilized fragments of a skull and jawbone, discovered in the 1960s by Dr. Robert B. Fox, an anthropologist from the National Museum.^[26] Anthropologists who 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.

The "Tabon Man" fossils are considered to have come from a third group of inhabitants, who worked the cave between 22,000 and 20,000 BCE. An earlier cave level lies so far below the level containing cooking fire assemblages that it must represent Upper Pleistocene dates like 45 or 50 thousand years ago.^[27] 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 (associated with the Haplogroup O1 (Y-DNA) genetic marker), a group of Malayo-Polynesian-speaking people including those from Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Malagasy, the non-Han Chinese Taiwanese Aboriginals.^[28]

Anthropologist F. Landa Jocano of the University of the Philippines, in 2001 postulates that the present indigenous Filipinos are products of the long process of evolution and movement of people.^[29]

A page from the Boxer Codex showing a Filipino couple bedecked in gold thread. The use of Gold as jewelry and household purposes was common in any social castes of the pre-colonial Filipino society.

Fluctuations in ancient shorelines between 150,000 BP and 17,000 BP connected to the Malay Archipelago region with Maritime Southeast Asia and the Philippines. This may have enabled ancient migrations into the Philippines from Maritime Southeast Asia approximately 50,000 BP to 13,000 BP.^[30]

A January 2009 study of language phylogenies by R. D. Gray at UCLA published in Science (journal), suggests that the population expansion of Austronesian peoples was triggered by rising sea levels of the Sunda shelf at the end of the last ice age in a two-pronged expansion, which moved north through the Philippines and into Taiwan, while a second expansion prong spread east along the New Guinea coast and into Oceania and Polynesia.^[31]

The Negritos are likely descendants of the indigenous populations of the Sunda landmass and New Guinea, predating the Mongoloid peoples who later entered Southeast Asia.^[32] Multiple studies also show that Negritos from Southeast Asia to New Guinea share a closer cranial affinity with Australo-Melanesians.^[32][33] 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 .03% of the total Philippine population.^[34]

The majority of present day Filipinos are a product of the long process of evolution and movement of people.^[35] After the mass migrations through land bridges, migrations continue by boat during the maritime era of South East Asia. The ancient races became homogenized into the Malayo-Polynesians which colonized the majority of the Philippine, Malaysian and Indonesian Archipelagos.^[29]

Since at least the 3rd century, various ethnic groups established several communities. These were formed by the assimilation of various native Philippine kingdoms.^[34] South Asian and East Asian people together with the people of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula, traded with Filipinos and introduced and passed Hinduism and Buddhism to the native tribes of the Philippines. Most of these people stayed in the Philippines where they were slowly absorbed into the local society.

Many of the barangay (tribal municipalities) were, to a varying extent, under the de-jure jurisprudence of one of several neighboring empires, among them the Malay Sri Vijaya, Javanese Majapahit, Brunei, Melaka, Indian Chola, Persia, Arabia, Seljuq/Turkish Ottoman, Greece, Funan, Champa, and Khmer empires, although de-facto had established their own independent system of rule. Trading links with Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Malay Peninsula, Indochina, China, India, Arabia, Japan and the Ryukyu Kingdom flourished during this era. A thalassocracy had thus emerged based on international trade.

Even scattered barangays, through the development of inter-island and international trade, became more culturally homogeneous by the 4th century. Hindu-Buddhist culture and religion flourished among the noblemen in this era.

In the period between the 7th to the beginning of the 15th centuries, numerous prosperous centers of trade had emerged, including the Kingdom of Namayan which flourished alongside Manila Bay,^[36][36][37] Cebu, Iloilo,^[38] Butuan, the Kingdom of Sanfotsi situated in Pangasinan, the Kingdom of Luzon now known as Pampanga which specialized in trade with China, Japan and the Kingdom of Ryukyu in Okinawa, and most of what is now known as South East Asia.

From the 9th century onwards, a large number of Arab traders from the Middle East settled in the Malay Archipelago and intermarried with the local Malay, Indonesian, and Filipino populations.^[39]

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription: The oldest known legal document from the Dynasty of Tondo.

In the years leading up to 1000 C.E., there were already several maritime societies existing in the islands but there was no unifying political state encompassing the entire Philippine archipelago. Instead, the region was dotted by numerous semi-autonomous barangays (settlements ranging is size from villages to city-states) under the sovereignty of competing thalassocracies ruled by datus, rajahs or sultans^[40] or by upland agricultural societies ruled by "petty plutocrats". States such as the Kingdom of Maynila and Namayan, the Dynasty of Tondo, the Confederation of Madyaas, the rajahnates of Butuan and Cebu and the sultanates of Maguindanao and Sulu existed alongside the highland societies of the Ifugao and Mangyan.^{[41][42][43][44]} Some of these regions were part of the Malayan empires of Srivijaya, Majapahit and Brunei.^[45][46][47]

By the 13th century, Arab and Indian Missionaries/Traders from Malaysia and Indonesia brought Islam to the Philippines, where it both replaced and was practiced together with indigenous religions. Most indigenous tribes of the Philippines practiced a mixture of Animism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Native villages, called barangays were populated by locals called Timawa (Middle Class/ freemen) and Alipin (servants & slaves). They were ruled by Rajahs, Datus and Sultans, a class called Maginoo (royals) and defended by the Maharlika (Lesser nobles, royal warriors and aristocrats).^[34] These Royals and Nobles are descended from native Filipinos with varying degrees of Indo-aryan, East Asian, Dravidian, Arab and even Greek ancestry which is evident in today's DNA analysis among South East Asian Royals who mostly claim their ancestry from the Alexandrian Era. This tradition continued among the Spanish and Portuguese traders who also intermarried with the local populations.^[48]

Colonial influence[link]

A mestiza de sangley woman in a photograph by Francisco Van Camp, c. 1875.

The arrival of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 began a period of European colonization. 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 officials and religious missionaries born in Spain and Mexico. Most Spaniards who settled were of Andalusian ancestry but there were also Catalonian, Moorish and Basque settlers. The Peninsulares (governors born in Spain), mostly of Castilian ancestry, settled in the islands to govern their territory. Most settlers married the daughters of rajahs, datus and sultans (chieftains) to reinforce the colonization of the islands. The Ginoo and Maharlika castes (royals and nobles) in the Philippines prior to the arrival of the Spanish formed the privileged Principalia (nobility) during the Spanish period. In the 16th and 17th centuries, thousands of Japanese traders also migrated to the Philippines and assimilated into the local population.^[49]

A caricature of General Marcelo Azcárraga Palmero taken from the Catalan newspaper la Campana de Gràcia. He became the only Spanish prime minister of Filipino descent.

As a part of the Seven years war, the British forces occupied Manila between 1762 and 1764. However, the only part of the Philippines which the British held was the Spanish colonial capital of Manila and the principal naval port Cavite, both of which are located on Manila Bay. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris (1763). At the end of the war the treaty signatories were not aware that Manila had been taken by the British and was being administered as a British colony. Consequently, no specific provision was made for the Philippines. Instead they fell under the general provision that all other lands not otherwise provided for be returned to the Spanish Empire.^[50] Many Indian Sepoy troops and their British captains mutinied and were left in Manila and some parts of the Ilocos and Cagayan. The ones in Manila settled at Cainta, Rizal and the ones at the north settled at Isabela. Most were assimilated into the local population.

The arrival of the Spaniards to the Philippines attracted new waves of immigrants from China, and maritime trade flourished during the Spanish period. The Spanish recruited thousands of Chinese migrant workers called sangleys to build the colonial infrastructure in the islands. Most Chinese immigrants converted to Christianity, intermarried with the locals, and adopted Hispanized names and customs and became fully assimilated. The children of unions between Filipinos and Chinese that became fully assimilated were designated in official records as mestizos de sangley but viewed themselves as Filipinos. The Chinese mestizos were largely confined to the Binondo area until the 19th century. However, they eventually spread all over the islands, and became traders, moneylenders and landowners.

A total of 110 Manila-Acapulco galleons set sail between 1565 to 1815, during the Philippines trade with Mexico. Until 1593, three or more ships would set sail annually from each port. European criollos, mestizos and mulattos of Spanish, Portuguese, French and Mexican descent from the Americas, mostly from Latin America came in contact with the Filipinos. Japanese, Indian and Cambodian Christians who fled from religious persecutions and killing fields also settled in the Philippines during the 17th until the 19th centuries.

With the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1867, Spain opened the Philippines for international trade. European investors such as British, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Russian, Italian and French were among those who settled in the islands as business increased. More Spaniards arrived during the next century. Many of these European migrants intermarried with local mestizos and some assimilated with the indigenous population. Their enterprises became the precursors of the current Chinese and oriental dominated major corporations and conglomerates of the country.

Water carriers in Iloilo, 1899.

After the defeat of Spain during the Spanish-American War in 1898, Filipino general, Emilio Aguinaldo declared independence on 12 June while general Wesley Merritt became the first American governor of the Philippines. On 10 December 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.^[51][52] After the Philippine–American War, the United States civil governance was established in 1901, with William Howard Taft as the first American Governor-General.^[53] A number of Americans settled in the islands and thousands of interracial marriages between Americans and Filipinos have taken place since then. Due to the strategic location of the Philippines, as many as 21 bases and 100,000 military personnel were stationed there since the United States first colonized the islands in 1898. These bases were decommissioned in 1992 after the end of the Cold War, but left behind thousands of Amerasian children.^[54] The country gained independence from the United States in 1946. The Pearl S. Buck International Foundation estimates there are 52,000 Amerasians scattered throughout the Philippines. In addition, numerous Filipino men enlisted in the US Navy and made careers in it, often settling with their families in the United States. Some of their second or third generation-families returned to the country.

Filipino students from Lamitan.

Following its independence, the Philippines has seen both small and large-scale immigration into the country, mostly involving Americans, British, Europeans, and some Chinese and Japanese peoples. After WWII, South Asians continued to migrate into the islands. Most of which assimilated and avoided the local social stigma instilled by the early Spaniards against them by keeping a low profile and/or by trying to pass as Spanish mestizos. This was also true for the Chinese and Arab immigrants, majority of whom are also post WWII arrivals. More recent migrations into the country by Koreans, Persians, Brazilians, and other Southeast Asians have contributed to the enrichment of the country's ethnic landscape, language and culture. Centuries of migration, diaspora, assimilation, and cultural diversity made most Filipinos open-minded in embracing interracial marriage and multiculturalism. Philippine nationality law is currently based upon the principles of your place of birth or origin, and therefore descent from a parent who is a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines is the primary method of acquiring national citizenship. Birth in the Philippines to foreign parents does not in itself confer Philippine citizenship, although RA9139, the Administrative Naturalization Law of 2000, does provide a path for administrative naturalization of certain aliens born in the Philippines.

Filipinos of mixed ethnic origins are still referred to today as mestizos. However in common parlance, mestizos are only used to refer to Filipinos mixed with Spanish or any other European ancestry. Filipinos mixed with any foreign ethnicities are named depending on their predominant physical aspect.

Genetic studies[link]

Migration of the Austronesian peoples and their languages based on archeological studies.

A study by Leeds University and published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, showed that mitochondrial DNA lineages have been evolving within Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) since modern humans arrived approximately 50,000 years ago. Population dispersals occurred at the same time as sea levels rose, which resulted in migrations from the Philippine Islands to as far north as Taiwan within the last 10,000 years.^[55]

Filipinos are an Austronesian people, a linguistic and genetic group that includes other ethnicities from maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and the Pacific islands.^[56] Haplogroup O1a-M119 (labeled as "Haplogroup H" in this study), is commonly found among Filipinos and is shared with other Austronesian-speaking populations.^[57][58] After the 16th century, the colonial period saw the influx of limited genetic influence from Europeans and other populations from the Americas, Oceania, and Asia.

Filipinos also exhibit Sundadonty.^[59] The latter is regarded as having a more generalised morphology and having a longer ancestry than its offspring, Sinodonty. Dental morphology provides clues to prehistoric migration patterns, with Sinodont dental patterns occurring in East Asia, Central Asia, North Asia, and the Americas. Sundadont patterns occur in mainland and maritime Southeast Asia as well as Oceania.^[60] Filipinos are also one of the Austronesian ancestors of modern Oceanic populations, including the Māori people of New Zealand. The current predominant theory of Austronesian migrations holds that Austronesians are believed to have reached Oceania through successive southward and eastward migrations ultimately from Taiwan.^[61]

Languages[link]

Austronesian languages have been spoken in the Philippines for thousands of years. According to a recent study by Mark Donohue of the Australian National University and Tim Denham of Monash University, there is no linguistic evidence for an orderly north-to-south dispersal of the Austronesian languages from Taiwan through the Philippines and into Island Southeast Asia (ISEA).^[62] Many adopted words from Sanskrit were incorporated during the Indian cultural influence starting from the 5th century BC, in common with its Southeast Asian neighbours. Starting in the second half of the 16th century, Spanish was the official language of the country for the more than three centuries that the islands were governed through Mexico City on behalf of the Spanish Empire. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Spanish was the preferred language among Ilustrados and educated Filipinos in general. Significant disagreement exists, however, on the extent Spanish use beyond that. It has been argued that the Philippines were less hispanized than Canaries and America, with Spanish only being adopted by the ruling class involved in civil and judicial administration and culture. Spanish was the language of only approximately ten percent of the Philippine population when Spanish rule ended in 1898.^[63] As a lingua franca or creole language of Filipinos, major languages of the country like Chavacano, Cebuano, Tagalog, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Bicolano, Hiligaynon, and Ilocano assimilated many different words and expressions from Castilian Spanish.