Marinduque: History
=== Middle ages ===
The island was called Malindig in Tagalog and Malindog in Visayan languages. It was likely a constituent of the Kingdom of Luzon, due to the immediate Spanish claims to the island after the fall of Manila in May 1570.
It is possible that there were nobility who ruled Malindig since there were principalia or princely figures in Marinduque during Spanish rule.
From the Visayan name Malindog, Marinduque became the name of the island in Castilian.
In 1571, Governor-General Miguel López de Legaspi had entrusted (encomienda) Marinduque to Fr. Pedro de Herrera, the first Augustinian priest who introduced Christianity to Marinduqueños.
Marinduque was part of the province of Balayan (now Batangas) in the 16th century, and of Mindoro from the 17th to 19th century.
Antoine-Alfred Marche, a French naturalist, carried out an archaeological investigation in Marinduque from April to July 1881. An abundant yield of urns, vases, gold ornaments, skulls, and other ornaments were found. He brought these to France in 40 crates. Part of it is said to be housed at the Musée de l'Homme ("museum of man") in France. The finds also included an image of wooden polytheistic religious statues (anito) which at the time were already called pastores by Marinduqueños.
One of the artifacts found by Marche also found its way to the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. (Catalogue No. A127996-0, Department of Anthropology, NMNH, Smithsonian Institution). Fragile jarlets that were found were said to have travelled from China to Marinduque. Buried in a cave for centuries and excavated in the late 19th century, these were brought to Paris and one was then brought to the Smithsonian Institution museum.
Marinduque, governed through the province of Mindoro, was a constituent of the First Philippine Republic from January 1899 to April 1901 under President Emilio Aguinaldo.
During the Philippine–American War, Marinduque was the first province where American invaders established concentration camps. In the Battle of Pulang Lupa, under the direction of Colonel Maximo Abad, 250 Filipino soldiers defeated 54 American infantrymen.
Col. Abad after capturing the Americans later surrendered on 15 April 1901, upon orders from President Aguinaldo and due to the capture of Governor Martin Lardizabal and two other officials who were held hostage by the Americans at Fort Santiago.
On 23 June 1902, by virtue of Act No. 423, the US-Philippine Commission annexed the islands of Mindoro (now two separate provinces) and Lubang (now part of Occidental Mindoro) to the province. Four months later, on the 10th of November, Marinduque was annexed to the province of Tayabas (now Quezon) by virtue of Act No. 499.
On 21 February 1920, Act No. 2280 was passed by the Philippine Congress, reestablishing Marinduque as a separate province.
According to Henry Otley Beyer, an American anthropologist, while many other accidental discoveries and finds have been recorded from time to time and European and Filipino scientists had casually explored a few burial caves and sites, no systematic work had been done anywhere else prior to these explorations. After Marche, the next important archaeological work was undertaken by Dr. Carl Gunthe in the Visayas Island Group in 1922. …