20 Facts About Luzon

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

Name Luzon is thought to derive from lusong, a Tagalog word referring to a particular kind of large wooden mortar used in dehusking rice.

Luzon was originally inhabited by Negritos before Austronesians from Taiwan arrived and displaced them.

However, other Luzon kingdoms resisted Islam, like the Wangdom of Pangasinan which had remained a tributary state to China and was a largely Sinified kingdom which maintained trade with Japan.

Under Spain, Luzon came to be known as the Nueva Castilla or the New Castile.

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In Spanish times, Luzon became the focal point for trade between the Americas and Asia.

People from the Philippines, primarily from Luzon, were recruited by France, first to defend Indo-Chinese converts to Christianity being persecuted by their native governments.

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

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.

Luzon is roughly divided into four sections; Northern, Central and Southern Luzon, and the National Capital Region.

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.

Central section of Luzon is characterized by a flat terrain, known as the Central Luzon plain, the largest in the island in terms of land area.

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.

Northern section of Southern Luzon is dominated by the Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the country.

Southeastern portion of Luzon is dominated by the Bicol Peninsula, a mountainous and narrow region extending approximately 150 kilometres southeast from the Tayabas Isthmus in Quezon province to the San Bernardino Strait along the coasts of Sorsogon.

Luzon is part of the Philippine Mobile Belt, a fast deforming plate boundary zone hemmed in between two opposing subduction zones, the west-dipping Philippine Trench-East Luzon Trench subduction zone, and the east-dipping north–south trending Manila Trench-Negros Trench-Cotabato Trench.

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.

Almost all of the languages of Luzon belong to the Philippine group of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family.