Tondo (historical polity) in the context of "Baybayin"

In early Philippine history, barangay is the term historically used by scholars to describe the complex sociopolitical units that were the dominant organizational pattern among the various peoples of the Philippine archipelago in the period immediately before the arrival of European colonizers. Academics refer to these settlements using the technical term "polity", but they are usually simply called "barangays".

Most barangays were independent villages consisting of thirty to a hundred households. Other barangays — most notably those in Maynila, Tondo, Panay, Pangasinan, Caboloan, Cebu, Bohol, Butuan, Cotabato, and Sulu — were large cosmopolitan polities.

The history of the Philippines dates from the earliest hominin activity in the archipelago at least by 709,000 years ago. Homo luzonensis, a species of archaic humans, was present on the island of Luzon at least by 134,000 years ago. The earliest known anatomically modern human was from Tabon Caves in Palawan dating about 47,000 years. Negrito groups were the first inhabitants to settle in the prehistoric Philippines. These were followed by Austroasiatics, Papuans, and Austronesians. By around 3000 BCE, seafaring Austronesians, who form the majority of the current population, migrated southward from Taiwan.

Scholars generally believe that these ethnic and social groups eventually developed into various settlements or polities with varying degrees of economic specialization, social stratification, and political organization. Some of these settlements (mostly those located on major river deltas) achieved such a scale of social complexity that some scholars believe they should be considered early states. This includes the predecessors of modern-day population centers such as Manila, Tondo, Pangasinan, Cebu, Panay, Bohol, Butuan, Cotabato, Lanao, Zamboanga and Sulu as well as some polities, such as Ma-i, whose possible location is either Mindoro or Laguna. These polities were influenced by Islamic, Indian, and Chinese cultures. Islam arrived from Arabia, while Indian Hindu-Buddhist religion, language, culture, literature and philosophy arrived from the Indian subcontinent . Some polities were Sinified tributary states allied to China. These small maritime states flourished from the 1st millennium. These kingdoms traded with what are now called China, India, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. The remainder of the settlements were independent barangays allied with one of the larger states. These small states alternated from being part of or being influenced by larger Asian empires like the Ming dynasty, Majapahit and Brunei or rebelling and waging war against them.

Maynila, also known commonly as Manila and as the Rajahnate of Maynila, was a major Tagalog bayan ("country" or "city-state") situated along the modern-day district of Intramuros in the city of Manila, at the southern bank of the Pasig River. It was considered to be one of the most cosmopolitan of the early historic settlements on the Philippine archipelago, fortified with a wooden palisade which was appropriate for the predominant battle tactics of its time. At the northern bank of the river lies the separately-led polity of Tondo.

Maynila was led by paramount rulers who were referred to using the Malay title of "Raja". Maynila is sometimes interpreted to be the Kingdom of Luzon, although some historians suggest that this might rather refer to the Manila Bay region as a whole, expanding the possible dominion of the kingdom.