brief History of STS

• Archeological findings show that modern man from Asian mainland first came over land on across narrow channels to live in Batangas and Palawan about 48,000 B.C.
• Subsequently they formed settlement in Sulu, Davao, Zamboanga, Samar, Negros, Batangas, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan and Cagayan.
• The Iron Age lasted from the third century B.C. to 11th century A.D.
• During this period Filipinos were engaged in extraction smelting and refining of iron from ores, until the importation of cast iron from Sarawak and later from China.
• Filipinos from the Butuan were trading with Champa (Vietnam) and those from Ma-I (Mindoro) with China as noted in Chinese records containing several references to the Philippines.
• These archaeological findings indicated that regular trade relations between the Philippines, China and Vietnam had been well established from the 10th century to the 15th century A.D.
• The People of Ma-I and San-Hsu (Palawan) traded bee wax, cotton, pearls, coconut heart mats, tortoise shell and medicinal betel nuts, panie cloth for porcelain, leads fishnets sinker, colored glass beads, iron pots, iron needles and tin.
• Filipinos were already engage in activities and practices related to science forming primitive or first wave technology.
• They were curative values of some plant on how to extract medicine from herbs.
• They had an alphabet, a system of writing, a method of counting and weights and measure.
• They had no calendar but counted the years by the period of the moon and from one harvest to another.
• The later part of the 16th Century Development of schools: Colegio de San Ildefonso-Cebu-1595, Colegio de San Ignacio-Manila-1595, Colegio De Nuestra Senora del Rosario-Manila-1597, Colegio De San Jose-Manila-1601
• San Juan Lazaro Hospital the oldest in the Far East was founded in 1578.
• Successive shipwrecks of and attacks of pirates on the galleons led to declining profits from the trade that led to economic depression in Manila during the later part of the 17th century.
• The Real Sociedad Economica de los Amigos Del Pais de Filipinas founded by Governador Jose Basco y Vargas in 1780 encouraged research in agriculture and industry.
• The society promoted cultivation of indigo, cotton, cinnamon, and silk industry.
• In 1789 Manila was opened to Asian shipping, inaugurating an era of increase in export of rice, hemp, tobacco, sugar, and indigo, and imports of manufacturing goods.
• In 1863 the colonial authorities issued a royal degree to reform the existing educational system.
• In 1871 the school of medicine and pharmacy were opened to UST, after 15 years it had granted the degree of Licenciado en Medicina to 62 graduates.
• The licentiate degree equivalent to a Master degree was granted Bachelor's degree in pharmacy to its 1st six graduates who included Leon Ma. Guerrero considered was the father of Philippine Pharmacy due to his works on Medicinal Plants of the Philippines.
• There were no school for engineering but they offered nautical four year course for pilot of merchant marine that includes the subjects: Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Physics, Hydrography, Meteorology, Navigation, Pilotage.
• Higher education was generally viewed with suspicion as encouraging rebellion among native Filipinos and thus only few daring students were able to undertake higher studies.
• The expanded world trade and commerce in the later part of the 19th century led to the rapid development of Manila as cosmopolitan center.
• Modern amenities such as steam tramways, waterworks, newspaper, electric lights, banking system were introduce in 19th century.
• Jesuits promoted meteorological studies founding Manila observatory at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila in 1865.
• The Spanish introduced formal education and founded scientific institution.
• Parish schools were established where religion, reading, writing, arithmetic and music was taught.
• Sanitation and more advanced methods of agriculture was taught to the natives.
• Later the Spanish established colleges and universities in the archipelago including the oldest existing university in Asia, the University of Santo Tomas.
• The study of medicine in the Philippines was given priority in the Spanish era, especially in the later years.
• The Spanish also contributed to the field of engineering in the islands by constructing government buildings, churches, roads, bridges and forts.
• Biology is given focus.
• Contributors to science in the archipelago during the 19th century were botanists, Fr. Ignacio Mercado., Dr. Trinidad Pardo de Tavera and Dr. Leon Ma Guerrero, chemist Anaclento del Rosario, and medicine scholars Dr. Manuel Guerrero, Dr, Jose Montes and Dr. Elrodario Mercado.
• The Galleon Trade have accounted in the Philippine colonial economy.
• Trade was given more focus by the Spaniard colonial authorities due to the prospects of big profits.
• Agriculture and industrial development on the other hand were relatively neglected.
• The opening of the Suez Canal saw the influx of European visitors to the Spanish colony and some Filipinos were able to study in Europe who were probably influenced by the rapid development of scientific ideals brought by the Age of Enlightenment.
• The Philippine Commission established the Bureau of Government Laboratories which was placed under the Department of Interior.
• The Bureau dealt with the study of tropical diseases and laboratory projects.
• Science during the American period was inclined towards agriculture, food processing, forestry, medicine and pharmacy.