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Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as well as Quezon City, the country's most populous city. With a population of 64 million , it contains 52.5% of the country's total population and is the 4th most populous island in the world. It is the 15th largest island in the world by land area.
Luzon may also refer to one of the three primary island groups in the country. In this usage, it includes the Luzon Mainland, the Batanes and Babuyan Islands groups of islands to the north, Polillo Islands to the east, and the outlying islands of Catanduanes, Marinduque and Mindoro, among others, to the south. The islands of Masbate, Palawan and Romblon are also included, although these three are sometimes grouped with another of the island groups, the Visayas.
In old Latin, Italian, and Portuguese maps, the island is often called Luçonia or Luconia.
Luções, (also Luzones in Spanish) was a demonym used by Portuguese sailors in Malaysia during the early 1500s, referring to the Kapampangan and Tagalog people who lived in Manila Bay, which was then called Lusong (Kapampangan: Lusung, ), from which Luzon was also derived. The term was also used for Tagalog settlers in Southern Tagalog region, where they created intensive contact with the Kapampangans. Eventually, the term " Luzones" would refer to the settlers of Luzon island, and later on, would be exclusive to the peoples of Central Luzon.
There was also a Buddhist polity known as Ma-i or Maidh, described in Chinese and Bruneian records in the 10th century, although its location is still unknown and scholars are divided on whether it is in modern-day Bay, Laguna or Bulalacao, Mindoro. (1989). 9789711002268, New Day Publishers. ISBN 9789711002268
According to sources at the time, the trade in large native Ruson-tsukuri (literally Luzon-made, Japanese:) clay jars used for storing green tea and rice wine with Japan flourished in the 12th century, and local Tagalog people, Kapampangan and Pangasinan potters had marked each jar with Baybayin letters denoting the particular urn used and the kiln the jars were manufactured in. Certain were renowned over others; prices depended on the reputation of the kiln. South East Asia Pottery – Philippines. Seapots.com. Retrieved on 2010-12-19. Of this flourishing trade, the Burnay jars of Ilocos are the only large clay jar manufactured in Luzon today with origins from this time.
In the early 1300s the Chinese annals, Nanhai zhi, reported that Hindu Brunei invaded or administered Sarawak and Sabah as well as the Philippine kingdoms of Butuan, Sulu, and in Luzon: Ma-i (Mindoro) and Malilu 麻裏蘆 (present-day Manila); Sanmalan 沙胡重 (present-day Siocon or Zamboanga City), Yachen 啞陳 Oton (Part of the Madja-as Kedatuan), and 文杜陵 Wenduling (present-day Mindanao), Reading Song-Ming Records on the Pre-colonial History of the Philippines By Wang Zhenping Page 256. which would regain their independence at a later date.
In 1405, the Yongle Emperor appointed a Chinese governor of Luzon, Ko Ch'a-lao, during Zheng He's Treasure voyages. China also had vassals among the leaders in the archipelago. China attained ascendancy in trade with the area in Yongle's reign. "Philippine Almanac & Handbook of Facts" 1977, p. 59.]]Afterwards, some parts of Luzon were Islamization when the former Majapahit province of Poni broke free, converted to Islam, and imported Sharif Ali, a prince from Mecca who became the Sultan of Bruneian Empire, a nation that then expanded its realms from Borneo to the Philippines and set up the Kingdom of Maynila as its puppet-state. The invasion of Brunei spread Chinese royal descent like Ong Sum Ping's kin and Arab dynasties too into the Philippines like the clan of Sultan Sharif Ali. However, other Luzon kingdoms resisted Islam, like Pangasinan. It had remained a tributary state of China and was a largely Sinicization kingdom, which maintained trade with Japan. The Polity of Cainta also existed as a fortified city-state, armed with walls and cannons.
Many people from Luzon were employed within Portuguese Malacca. For example, the Spice trade Regimo de Raja, based in Malacca, was highly influential and was appointed as Temenggong (Sea Lord)—a governor and chief general responsible for overseeing of maritime trade—by the Portuguese. As Temenggong, de Raja was also the head of an Navy which traded and protected commerce in the Indian Ocean, the Strait of Malacca, the South China Sea,Antony, Robert J. Elusive Pirates, Pervasive Smugglers: Violence and Clandestine Trade in the Greater China Seas. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010. Print, 76. and the medieval maritime principalities of the Philippines.Junker, Laura L. Raiding, Trading, and Feasting: The Political Economy of Philippine Chiefdoms. Honolulu: University of Hawaiì Press, 1999.Wilkinson, R J. An Abridged Malay-English Dictionary (romanised). London: Macmillan and Co, 1948. Print, 291. His father and wife carried on his maritime trading business after his death. Another important Malacca trader was Curia de Raja who also hailed from Luzon. The "surname" of "de Raja" or "diraja" could indicate that Regimo and Curia, and their families, were of noble or royal descent as the term is an abbreviation of Sanskrit adiraja.Junker, 400. http://sambali.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-borneo-route.html
Fernão Mendes Pinto noted that a number of Luções in the Islamic fleets went to battle with the Portuguese in the Philippines during the 16th century. The Sultan of Aceh gave one of them (Sapetu Diraja) the task of holding Aru (northeast Sumatra) in 1540. Pinto also says one was named leader of the Malays remaining in the Moluccas Islands after the Portuguese conquest in 1511. Antonio Pigafetta notes that one of them was in command of the Brunei fleet in 1521. However, the Luções did not only fight on the side of the Muslims. Pinto says they were also apparently among the natives of the Philippines who fought the Muslims in 1538.
On Mainland Southeast Asia, Lusung/Luções warriors aided the Burmese king in his invasion of Siam in 1547. At the same time, Lusong warriors fought alongside the Siamese king and faced the same elephant army of the Burmese king in the defence of the Siamese capital at Ayutthaya. Luções military and trade activity reached as far as Sri Lanka in South Asia where Lungshanoid pottery made in Luzon were discovered in burials."Quest of the Dragon and Bird Clan; The Golden Age (Volume III)" -Lungshanoid (Glossary)- By Paul Kekai Manansala
Scholars have thus suggested that they could be mercenaries valued by all sides.Anthony Reid (1995). 9780731521326, Department of Anthropology, The Australian National University. ISBN 9780731521326
In Spanish times, Luzon became the focal point for trade between the Americas and Asia. The Manila Galleons constructed in the Bicol region brought silver mined from Peru and New Spain to Manila. The silver was used to purchase Asian commercial goods like Chinese silk, Indian gems and Indonesian spices, which were then exported back to the Americas. The Chinese valued Luzon so much, in that when talking about Spain and the Spanish-Americas, they preferred to call it as "Dao Lusong" (Greater Luzon) while the original Luzon was referred to as "Xiao (Small) Lusong" to refer to not only Luzon but the whole Philippines.Chinese in Mexico by Chao Romero, pages 203 to 205
Luzon also became a focal point for global migration. The walled city of Intramuros was initially founded by 1200 Spanish families. The nearby district of Binondo became the center of business and transformed into the world's oldest Chinatown. There was also a smaller district reserved for Japanese migrants in Dilao. Cavite City also served as the main port for Luzon and many Mexican soldiers and sailors were stationed in the naval garrisons there.Galaup "Travel Accounts" page 375. When the Spanish evacuated from Ternate, Indonesia; they settled the Papuan languages refugees in Ternate, Cavite which was named after their evacuated homeland. After the short British Occupation of Manila, the Indian Sepoy soldiers that mutinied against their British commanders and joined the Spanish, then settled in Cainta, Rizal.
Newcomers who were impoverished Mexicans and peninsulares were accused of undermining the submission of the natives. In 1774, authorities from Bulacan, Tondo, Laguna Bay, and other areas surrounding Manila reported with consternation that discharged soldiers and deserters (from Mexico, Spain and Peru) were providing Indios military training for the weapons that had been disseminated all over the territory during the British war. "Eva Maria Mehl: Forced migration in the Spanish pacific world: From Mexico to the Philippines, 1765–1811" Page 100. From the original Spanish language source in the archives of Mexico: "CSIC ser. Consultas riel 208 leg.14 (1774)" There was also continuous immigration of Tamils and Bengalis into the rural areas of Luzon: Spanish administrators, native nobles, and Chinese businessmen imported them as slave labor during this period. Peasants, Servants, and Sojourners: Itinerant Asians in Colonial New Spain, 1571–1720 By Furlong, Matthew J. "Slaves purchased by the indigenous elites, Spanish and Hokkiens of the colony seemed drawn most often from South Asia, particularly Bengal and South India, and less so, from other sources, such as East Africa, Brunei, Makassar, and Java..." Chapter 2 "Rural Ethnic Diversity" Page 164 Translated from: "Inmaculada Alva Rodríguez, Vida municipal en Manila (siglos xvi–xvii) (Córdoba: Universidad de Córdoba, 1997), 31, 35–36."
In the 1600s, Fr. Joaqin Martinez de Zuñiga, conducted a census of the Archdiocese of Manila which held most of Luzon under its spiritual care, and it had the following number of tributes, with each tribute representing a family of 6-7, and he reported 90,243 native Filipino tributes; 10,512 Chinese (Sangley) and mixed Chinese Filipino mestizo tributes; and 10,517 mixed Spanish Filipino mestizo tributes. Pure Spaniards are not counted as they are exempt from tribute. Out of these, Fr. Joaqin Martinez de Zuñiga estimated a total population count exceeding half a million souls.
People from the Philippines, primarily from Luzon, were recruited by France (then in alliance with Spain), first to defend Indo-Chinese converts to Christianity being persecuted by their native governments. Eventually, Filipino mercenaries helped the French French Indochina Vietnam and Laos and to re-establish Cambodia as a French Protectorate. This process culminated in the establishment of French Cochinchina, centered in Saigon.
A great number of infrastructure projects were undertaken during the 19th century that put the Philippine economy and standard of living ahead of most of its Asian neighbors and even many European countries at that time. Among them were a railway system for Luzon, a tramcar network for Manila, and Asia's first steel suspension bridge Puente Claveria, later called Puente Colgante.
During the Pacific War, the Philippines were considered to be of great strategic importance because their capture by Japan would pose a significant threat to the U.S. As a result, 135,000 troops and 227 aircraft were stationed in the Philippines by October 1941. Luzon was captured by Imperial Japanese forces in 1942 during their campaign to capture the Philippines. General Douglas MacArthur—who was in charge of the defense of the Philippines at the time—was ordered to Australia, and the remaining U.S. forces retreated to the Bataan Peninsula.
A few months after this, MacArthur expressed his belief that an attempt to recapture the Philippines was necessary. The U.S. Pacific Commander Admiral Chester Nimitz and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest King both opposed this idea, arguing that it must wait until victory was certain. MacArthur had to wait two years for his wish; it was 1944 before a campaign to recapture the Philippines was launched. The island of Leyte was the first objective of the campaign, which was captured by the end of December 1944. This was followed by the attack on Mindoro and later, Luzon.
The end of the World War necessitated decolonization due to rising nationalist movements across the world's many colonies. Subsequently, the Philippines gained independence from the United States. Luzon then arose to become the most developed island in the Philippines. However, the lingering poverty and inequality caused by the long dictatorship of US-supported dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, gave rise to the Philippine diaspora and many people from Luzon have migrated elsewhere and had established large overseas communities; mainly in the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore and Saudi Arabia. Eventually, the People Power Revolution led by Corazon Aquino and Jaime Sin, removed Marcos and his cronies from power and they fled to Hawaii where the US granted them asylum. The following administrations are subsequently managing the political and economic recovery of the Philippines with the particular aim of spreading development outside of Luzon and into the more isolated provinces of the Visayas and Mindanao. During the administration of Ferdinand Marcos' son, Bongbong Marcos, Luzon became a destination of American and Japanese investments, it being the location of the Luzon Economic Corridor. Luzon Economic Corridor project draws foreign investments – Marcos By Filane Mikee Cervantes
Luzon is roughly divided into four sections; Northern Luzon, Central Luzon, Southern Luzon, and Southeastern Luzon.
The Cordillera mountain range, which feature the island's north-central section, is covered in a mixture of tropical pine forests and Luzon rainforest, and is the site of the island's highest mountain, Mount Pulag, rising at 2,922 metres. The range provides the upland headwaters of the Agno River, which stretches from the slopes of Mount Data, and meanders along the southern Cordillera mountains before reaching the plains of Pangasinan.
The northeastern section of Luzon is generally mountainous, with the Sierra Madre, the longest mountain range in the country, abruptly rising a few miles from the coastline. Located in between the Sierra Madre and the Cordillera Central mountain ranges is the large Cagayan Valley. This region, which is known for being the second largest producer of rice and the country's top corn-producer, serves as the Drainage basin for the Cagayan River, the longest in the Philippines.
Along the southern limits of the Cordillera Central lies the lesser-known Caraballo Mountains. These mountains form a link between the Cordillera Central and the Sierra Madre mountain ranges, separating the Cagayan Valley from the Central Luzon plains.
The western coasts of Central Luzon are typically flat extending east from the coastline to the Zambales Mountains, the site of Mount Pinatubo, made famous because of its enormous 1991 eruption. These mountains extend to the sea in the north, forming Lingayen Gulf, and to the south, forming the Bataan Peninsula. The peninsula encloses Manila Bay, a natural harbor considered to be one of the best natural ports in East Asia, due to its size and strategic geographical location.
The Sierra Madre mountain range continues to stretch across the western section of Central Luzon, snaking southwards into the Bicol Peninsula.
Located southwest of Laguna de Bay is Taal Lake, a crater lake containing the Taal Volcano, the smallest in the country. The environs of the lake form the highland Tagaytay Ridge, which was once part of a massive prehistoric volcano that covered the southern portion of the province of Cavite and the whole of Batangas province.
South of Laguna Lake are two solitary mountains, Mount Makiling in Laguna and Batangas provinces, and Mount Banahaw, the highest in the region of Calabarzon.
The peninsula's coastline features several smaller peninsulas, gulfs and , which include Lamon Bay, San Miguel Bay, Lagonoy Gulf, Ragay Gulf, and Sorsogon Bay.
Table note(s):
The North-Southeastern trending braided left-lateral strike-slip Philippine Fault System traverses Luzon, from Quezon City and Bicol Region to the northwestern part of the island. This fault system takes up part of the motion due to the subducting plates and produces large earthquakes. Southwest of Luzon is a collision zone where the Palawan micro-block collides with SW Luzon, producing a highly seismic zone near Mindoro island. Southwest Luzon is characterized by a highly volcanic zone, called the Macolod Corridor, a region of crustal thinning and spreading.
Using geologic and structural data, seven principal blocks were identified in Luzon in 1989: the Sierra Madre Oriental, Angat, Zambales, Central Cordillera of Luzon, Bicol, and Catanduanes Island blocks.Rangin and Pubellier in Tectonics of Circum-Pacific Continental Margins p148 fig 4 Using seismic and geodetic data, Luzon was modeled by Galgana et al. (2007) as a series of six micro blocks or micro plates (separated by subduction zones and intra-arc faults), all translating and rotating in different directions, with maximum velocities ~100 mm/yr NW with respect to Sundaland/Eurasia.
Other ethnic groups lesser in population include the of Zambales and Bataan, the Ibanag people of Cagayan province and Isabela province, the Gaddang people of Nueva Vizcaya, the Igorot of the Cordilleras, the bugkalot people of Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Nueva Ecija and Aurora, Umiray and Tagabulós of Aurora and Quezon, Remontado of Quezon, and the Mangyan of Mindoro.
Due to historical centuries-old migrations, populations of ethnic , , Japanese Filipinos, , and Muslim Moro people from Mindanao have also been present in urban areas. Historical Filipino mestizo populations, particularly Sangley and Spanish Filipino, and more recent mixed mestizos of Americans, Japanese, Koreans, Indians (mostly Punjabi people), and Arabs are also occasionally present. The historical Sangley and their Chinese Filipino and Sangley are spread all across Luzon of several generations across the centuries. According to old Spanish censuses, around 1/3rd of the population of Luzon are mestizo admixed with either or both Han Chinese Chinese Filipino (mostly from Metro Manila to Pampanga) and/or Hispanic (Spanish Filipino or Latino) descent (Mostly in Cavite and Manila).Jagor, Fëdor, et al. (1870). The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes Most Americans have settled in Central Luzon's highly urbanized cities of Angeles City and Olongapo due to the former presence of the U.S. air and naval bases (Clark & Subic) there, while a majority of the Koreans and Japanese have mainly settled in the major cities and towns like Koreatown in Angeles City and Baguio and Subic.
English is spoken by many inhabitants. The use of Spanish as an official language declined following the American occupation of the Philippines. Almost inexistent among the general populace, Spanish is still used by the elderly of some families of great tradition (Rizal, Liboro...) and by upper and middle-class residents of Spanish blood.
There are also sizable communities of Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims in Metro Manila and in other, especially, urban areas due to the immigration of Indian Filipino, Japanese, Koreans, Filipino Chinese, Moro people and Muslims from other countries to the island.
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