The Calamian Islands or the Calamianes is a group of islands in the province of

Palawan Palawan (, ), officially the Province of Palawan (; ), is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of . The capital and largest c ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. It includes: *

Busuanga Island Busuanga, is the largest island in the Calamian Group of islands in the province of Palawan in the Philippines. Busuanga Island is the second largest island in the province after Palawan island itself. The island is located halfway between the ...

Coron Island Coron is the third-largest island in the Calamian Islands in northern Palawan in the Philippines. The island is part of the larger Coron, Palawan, municipality of the same name. It is about southwest of Manila and is known for several Empire of ...

* Culion Island *

Calauit Island Calauit Island is an island of the Calamian Archipelago, just off the north-western coast of Busuanga Island. It is part of the municipality of Busuanga in the province of Palawan, Philippines. The entire island was declared as a wildlife sanc ...

* Malcapuya Island * Banana Island * Pass Island * Calumbuyan Island * ''several minor islets''

History

Historically, before the Spanish came, the Calamianes was part of the nation of

Sandao Sāndǎo (), also known as Sanyu () and Sanshu (; ), were a collection of a prehispanic Philippine polities recorded in Chinese annals as a nation occupying the islands of (present-day Calamian), (present-day Palawan), and (possibly Pulilan, n ...

a vassal state of

Ma-i Mait (also spelled Maidh, Ma'I, Mai, Ma-yi, or Mayi; Baybayin: ; Hanunoo: ; Hokkien ; Mandarin ), was a medieval sovereign state located in what is now the Philippines. Its existence was first documented in 971 in the Song dynasty documents k ...

at nearby

Mindoro Mindoro is the seventh largest and eighth-most populous island in the Philippines. With a total land area of 10,571 km2 ( 4,082 sq.mi ), it has a population of 1,408,454, as of the 2020 census. It is located off the southwestern coast of ...

. Then, the Calamianes fell to the Brunei and Sulu Sultanates. Eventually, the Calamianes was site of the Spanish politico-militar ''Provincia de Calamianes''. It became the site of a

Presidio A presidio (''jail, fortification'') was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire mainly between the 16th and 18th centuries in areas under their control or influence. The term is derived from the Latin word ''praesidium'' meaning ''pr ...

or a Spanish military garrison, and the small group of islands received, almost 100 Mexican soldier-colonists in the 1670s. The

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy (political entity), Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered ...

later purchased mainland Paragua from the Sultan of Borneo. By the end of the 1700s, the Calamianes had 2,289 native families too.ESTADISMO DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS TOMO PRIMERO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish)
/ref>ESTADISMO DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS TOMO SEGUNDO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish)
/ref> During the American occupation (1898-1948), the old ''Provincia de Calamianes'' was dissolved and jointly administered with the Island of Paragua as the new Province of Palawan. During the American occupation and up until recently, Culion Island was host to a

leper colony A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. '' M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East ...

. Busuanga Island hosts the largest town, Coron, in the Calamian Islands. Coron Island is known for having the cleanest inland body of water in the Philippines, called Kayangan Lake. Calauit Island is known for hosting a number of endangered African animal species. Diving spots, with coral reefs and sunken

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

shipwrecks, also lies within the waters of these islands.

Geology

Part of the

North Palawan Block North Palawan Block is a microcontinental block situated in the western Philippines and the southern tip of the Manila Trench. The North Palawan block is considered to form the northeastern portion of a much larger area of block faulted and foun ...

, Busuanga and Culion islands consist mainly of the Liminangcong Formation, a

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time scale, geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic stratum, strata.Owen ...

chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...

. This chert forms the distinguishing mountain ranges, with the Middle-Late Jurassic Guinlo Formation clastics forming the valleys on Busuanga. Coron Island is distinguished by its

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch a ...

Coron

Limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

References

External links

* * * * Archipelagoes of the Philippines Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean Archipelagoes of Southeast Asia Maritime Southeast Asia {{Mimaropa-geo-stub