Luzon

Luzon is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines.

They are clustered into the three major island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Luzon is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines.

Situated in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

With a population of 53 million, In 2017 it was said to be the fourth most populous island in the world (after Java, Honshu, and Great Britain), containing 52.5% of the country's total population.

Luzon may also refer to one of the three primary island groups in the country.

The geographical divisions of the Philippines are the three island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

As such, it includes the Luzon mainland, the Batanes and Babuyan groups of islands to the north, Polillo Islands to the east, and the outlying islands of Catanduanes, Marinduque, Masbate, Romblon, Mindoro and Palawan, among others, to the south.

It is located off the southwestern coast of Luzon and northeast of Palawan.

Located in the northern region of the 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.

The earliest evidence of human life around present-day Manila is the nearby Angono Petroglyphs, dated to around 3000 BC. Negritos, the aboriginal inhabitants of the Philippines, lived across the island of Luzon, where Manila is located, before the Malayo-Polynesians migrated in and assimilated them.

As such, it includes the Luzon mainland, the Batanes and Babuyan groups of islands to the north, Polillo Islands to the east, and the outlying islands of Catanduanes, Marinduque, Masbate, Romblon, Mindoro and Palawan, among others, to the south.

The island group is located approximately 162 km north of the Luzon mainland and about 190 km south of Taiwan, separated from the Babuyan Islands of Cagayan Province by the Balintang Channel, and from Taiwan by the Bashi Channel.

It is ranked 15th largest in the world by land area.

As such, it includes the Luzon mainland, the Batanes and Babuyan groups of islands to the north, Polillo Islands to the east, and the outlying islands of Catanduanes, Marinduque, Masbate, Romblon, Mindoro and Palawan, among others, to the south.

The Babuyan Islands, also known as the Babuyan Group of Islands, is an archipelago in the Philippines, located in the Luzon Strait north of the main island of Luzon.

As such, it includes the Luzon mainland, the Batanes and Babuyan groups of islands to the north, Polillo Islands to the east, and the outlying islands of Catanduanes, Marinduque, Masbate, Romblon, Mindoro and Palawan, among others, to the south.

Masbate is at the crossroads of two island groups: Visayas and Luzon.

The Austronesian groups were divided further into two types of nations; coastal maritime states or highlander civilizations based on the mountains and which had built up plutocracies based on agriculture, plutocracies such as the Igorot Society which is responsible for building the Banaue Rice Terraces.

The Igorot Society is the term for the collection of several ethnic groups in the Philippines that come from the Cordillera Administrative Region of Luzon.

From just before the first millennium, the Tagalog and Kapampangan peoples of south and central Luzon had established several major coastal polities, most notable among them those of Maynila, Tondo and Namayan.

Most of them inhabit and form a majority in the Metro Manila and Calabarzon regions of southern Luzon, as well as a plurality in the provinces of Bulacan, Bataan, Zambales, Nueva Ecija and Aurora in Central Luzon and in the islands of Marinduque and Mindoro in MIMAROPA.

From just before the first millennium, the Tagalog and Kapampangan peoples of south and central Luzon had established several major coastal polities, most notable among them those of Maynila, Tondo and Namayan.

In early Philippine history, the Tagalog settlement at Tondo (Baybayin: ) was a major trade hub located on the northern part of the Pasig River delta, on Luzon island.

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the first Philippine document written in 900AD, names places in and around Manila Bay as well as Medan in Indonesia.

Manila Bay is a natural harbour which serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines.

Luzon was originally inhabited by Negrito people before Austronesians from Taiwan displaced them.

These first settlers may have landed in northern Luzon in the archipelago of the Philippines, intermingling with the earlier Australo-Melanesian population who had inhabited the islands since about 23,000 years earlier.

Eventually, the kingdoms of Luzon regained independence from Majapahit after the Battle of Manila (1365) and Sulu also reestablished independence and in vengeance, assaulted the Majapahit province of Poni (Brunei) before a fleet from the capital drove them out.

The lowlanders of Luzon use the kampilan, bararao and panabas, while the Moros and animists of the South still continue the tradition of making kris.

These kingdoms were based on leases between village rulers (Datu) and landlords (Lakan) or Rajahs, to whom tributes and taxes were levied.

Together with Lakan (Luzon), Apo in Central and Northern Luzon, Sultan and Rajah, they are titles used for native royalty.

The name Luzon is thought to derive from the Tagalog word lusong, which is a large wooden mortar used in dehusking rice.

The Tagalog homeland, Katagalugan, covers roughly much of the central to southern parts of the island of Luzon—particularly in Aurora, Bataan, Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Metro Manila, Nueva Ecija, Quezon, Rizal and Zambales.

These kingdoms were based on leases between village rulers (Datu) and landlords (Lakan) or Rajahs, to whom tributes and taxes were levied.

In early Philippine history, the rank of Lakan denoted a "paramount ruler" (or more specifically, "paramount datu") of one of the large coastal barangays (known as a "bayan") on the central and southern regions of the island of Luzon.

During the 1300s, the Javanese-centered Hindu empire of Majapahit briefly ruled over Luzon as recorded in the epic poem Nagarakretagama, which stated that they had colonies in the Philippines at Saludong (Manila) and Solot (Sulu).

According to the Nagarakretagama, canto XIII and XIV mentioned several states in Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara islands, Maluku, New Guinea, Mindanao, Sulu Archipelago, Luzon and some parts of the Visayas islands (Contested) as under the Majapahit realm of power.

Consequently, the First Philippine Republic was established in Malolos, Bulacan.

It is one of the major suburbs conurbated to Metro Manila, situated in the southwestern part of Bulacan, in the Central Luzon Region (Region 3) in the island of Luzon and part of the Metro Luzon Urban Beltway Super Region.

Luzon was captured by Imperial Japanese forces in 1942 during their campaign to capture the Philippines.

The Japanese used first-line troops at the outset of the campaign, and concentrating their forces enabled a swift overrun of most of Luzon during the first month.

The walled city of Intramuros was initially founded by 1200 Spanish families.

Before the first arrival of Europeans on Luzon island, the island was part of the Hindu Majapahit empire around the 14th century, according to the epic eulogy poem Nagarakretagama which described its conquest by Mahārāja Hayam Wuruk.

As Temenggung, he was also the head of an armada which traded and protected commerce between the Indian Ocean, the Strait of Malacca, the South China Sea, and the medieval maritime principalities of the Philippines.

In Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, it was long called the "South China Sea" (Dagat Timog Tsina in Tagalog, Laut China Selatan in Malay), with the part within Philippine territorial waters often called the "Luzon Sea", Dagat Luzon, by the Philippines.

As Temenggung, he was also the head of an armada which traded and protected commerce between the Indian Ocean, the Strait of Malacca, the South China Sea, and the medieval maritime principalities of the Philippines.

The inscription forgives the descendants of Namwaran from a debt of 926.4 grams of gold, and is granted by the chief of Tondo (an area in Manila) and the authorities of Paila, Binwangan and Pulilan, which are all locations in Luzon.