Maritime Historiography of the Visayas: A Prologue to the History of the Islands in the Seas

Abstract

This paper is a modest attempt to offer a new framework for the writing of a "total" national history, one that underscores the role of the sea as a factor in the historical development of a region. Following the trend in modern historiography inspired by Fernand Braudel, the discussion in this paper uses the maritime perspective as analytical framework for the reconstruction of the history of the Visayas. Thus, as a starting point for the construction of a historical discourse, this work explores the role of the bodies of water surrounding the Visayas Islands in the development of the region. Intended as an introductory essay of an ambitious project on the history of the Visayas, this study also examines the folklore and etymologies about the Visayan Islands.
Everything must he recaptured and relocated in the general framework of history, so that despite the difficulties, the fundamental paradoxes and contradictions, we may respect the unity of history, which is also the unity of rife.