Who Exactly Discovered The Philippines? (Answer)
WHO DISCOVERED THE PHILIPPINES? – Young students are taught that Ferdinand Magellan was the person who first found the Philippines. However, is this really true?
Surely, before Magellan even arrived, there were already natives inhabiting the islands of the Philippines. With this in mind, can we say that it was the natives who first found the country?
One thing’s for sure, we cannot attribute the discovery of the Philippines to Ferdinand Magellan. Simply put, Magellan merely “claimed” the Philippines for Spain.
According to an article from BritsInThePhilippines, long before Magellan was even born, traders and colonizers had already visited the island.
Scholars of history believe the Malayo-Polynesians began to migrate outside of Taiwan and Landed in Luzon at around 3,000 B.C. Afterward, over the next 2,000 years, these colonizers migrated throughout the Philippines.
Furthermore, these estimates are backed by research conducted by the Archaeology Division of the National Museum of the Philippines back in 2002. As per the article, the team managed to collect data that revealed a migration from Taiwan to Batanes and Luzon.
This particular migration began 4,000 years ago. Moreover, the communities excelled over the next half-century.
However, there is more evidence which show the Philippine islands was discovered even before 3000 B.C. Previously, DNA evidence suggested that it was highly possible that the Negrito People came to the Philippines from East Africa.
As such, some believe that the people who first discovered the Philippines had to be the Negrito. Today, the Negrito tribe in the Philippines comprise of 25 unique ethnolinguistic groups.
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