The fourth largest island in the Philippines, approximately 200 kilometers at its greatest length, and about 90 at its greatest breadth, the boot-shaped Negros is located south of Panay and Guimaras, north of Cebu, Bohol and Mindanao. The relatively short distances between these islands make island hopping feasible. Panay and Negros are between 13 and 70 kilometers distant; from Negros to the nearest point of Mindanao is a mere 45 kilometers and Cebu across the deep Tañon Strait is only 4 kilometers distant. Located in the center of the Visayas region, Negros shares the same topographic characteristic of neighboring Panay, a volcanic island with a mountainous spine, set more toward the eastern coast. Tall volcanoes dominate the cordilleras: Mt. Kanlaon (2465 meters) Mandalagan (1879), Sicaba Diutay (1536), Sicaba Daku (1379), Silay (1534) and Lantawan (1049). All these peaks are volcanoes, Kanlaon being the most active. Kanlaon releases a steady stream of steam tapped for geothermal electricity, which is distributed throughout the island, to Panay and Cebu.

Negros' volcanic origin has made the island fertile and fit for large scale agriculture, but the eastward and southward siting of the cordilleras leaves little room for plains to the east and south, except for a small pocket at Tanjay and Bais. For this reason, the large sugar plantations or hacienda, the backbone of Negros' economy are found to the west and north.

Buglas, according to Fray Martinez de Zuñiga is the ancient name of the island. This is also the name found in the Povedano manuscript, said to be an history of Negros according to the encomendero of Himamaylan Povedano. Historians doubt the authenticity of the manuscript discovered in a demolished casa real. So goes the story. The Spanish called the island Negros after the Aytas (locally called Ati) who lived in the hinterland, although they recognized the presence of Malay groups. Antonio de Morga's 1607 manuscript mentions them. Negros archaeological history is still insufficiently documented. Although evidence of trade goods and gold ornaments have been discovered since the 1970s, many of the finds came about by accident and unsystematic "pot hunting" has disturbed many sites. Nonetheless, whatever had been found—Neolithic tools, pottery, porcelain, gold ornaments, etc.—relate Negros to other islands like Luzon, Mindoro and Cebu.  But systematic and extensive archaeological studies done by Junkers at the Tanjay River basin indicate the presences of numerous settlements coexisting as trading partners.  Could we safely say that similar such settlements existed throughout the island?  Or was Tanjay exceptional?  How do you square this with the marginal status of Negros, basically left alone until the opening of sugar plantations in the 19^th century?

Negros is first mentioned in Spanish documents by Magellan's chronicler Antonio de Pigafetta who writes of an island west of Cebu inhabited by Negritos.  An exploratory expedition of sixteen, sent by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and headed by Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa to explore Cebu island, was driven by currents to Negros.  The group reported the presence of Negroes in the hinterland and natives of Malay ancestry who tattooed their bodies.  By 1571, Negros had been divided into encomiendas among 17 encomenderos, reduced to ten in 1576.

For more than two centuries, the Spanish were somewhat dismissive of the island, daunted by the thick forests that blanketed the island up to the shore. They concentrated their attention on Panay and Cebu.

The spiritual administration of Negros was less stable than other islands where a specific religious order was assigned as permanent missionaries.  Although the Augustinians had established a foothold at Ilog as early as 1571 or 75, at Binalbagan in 1572, and at Tanjay in 1580, they turned over administration of the island to the secular clergy of the Cebu diocese.  Later, Jesuits succeeded to the missions of the seculars: in 1628 or 32 at Ilog, around 1627 in Binalbagan, in 1640 at Kabangkalan. The missions, never became full parishes, were all dependencies of the Jesuit college at lloilo.  The Augustinian Recollects administered Binalbagan and Bago from 1625-38, when they left Negros to begin their mission in Romblon.

A 1757 letter of the bishop-elect of Cebu to the King stated that Ilog, Tanjay, Dumaguete, Binalbagan and Tacqauan were about to be made parishes under the secular clergy; however, despite their parish status, many places in Negros could not afford a stone church. So indicated a report in 1785 which states that except for Dumaguete, the churches in Negros were all of wood and thatch.

On the western coast, Bacolod (present capital of Negros Occidental) was not established as a town until 1755 or 56, after the inhabitants of the coastal settlement called Magsungay, were attacked by forces under Datu Bantilan of Sulu (14 July 1755) and the townspeople transferred from the coast to a hilly area called Bacolod.  The town was constituted a parish in 1788 under the secular clergy, but did not have a resident priest until 1802, as the town was served by the priest from Bago, and later Binalbagan.

By the 19th century, Negros' fortunes began to turn.  Three factors contributed to its economic transformation. First, the end of slave raids.  Riding on the winds of the habagat or southwest monsoon, raiding parties from the south attacked the coastal settlements destroying not only villages and livelihood but also decimating the population.  By 1790, slave raids on Bacolod had ceased, although the whole archipelago was not free from raiders until the 1840s when Gov. Gen. Narcisco Claveria launched a massive campaign against the stronghold of the raiders in Tungkil and had established an effective blockade of the Sulu and Visayan Seas, by using an armada of steam-powered iron boats. Peace descended on the island.  Second, a change in Spanish policy regarding the Philippines. Where the economic importance of the Philippines lay in being the transshipment point for Oriental goods, the termination of the galleon trade in 1815 shifted Spanish interest in the Philippines from being a trading station to being an agricultural colony that produced goods needed in the mother land.  Third, a change in status of sugar from being a luxury in Europe to being a necessity. The demand for the produce increased unexpectedly.

The mid-19th century saw the growth and expansion of the sugar industry in Negros.  Here the fortunes of Negros are intimately tied with neighboring Iloilo where an international port was opened in 1855.  A year later, Nicolas Loney was appointed as British vice-consul at Iloilo.  Looney introduced steam-driven sugar presses, extended loans to sugarcane planters and established Looney and Co., the first international company in Iloilo.  Looney's technological innovation was an improvement over the traditional method of sugar extraction, learned from the Chinese, where a wooden mill run by a carabao expressed the sugarcane juice.  The juice was then heated in a large open pan, until it thickened to molasses and was finally reduced to raw sugar.  Looney's machines were exported to the neighboring island, and as demand for sugar production increased more lands were cleared to make plantations.

Lured to western Negros were not only Ilongos seeking for larger tracts of land but also foreigners.  In 1843, Yves Leopold Germaine Gaston from Normandy, France, installed the first sugar mill (horno economico) at Buen Retiro.  He settled in Silay and became a dominant figure in the industry.  In 1860 Luis de Luzurriaga, a Spaniard, introduced steam engines and modern equipment for sugar milling.  Machines were made in England.  Among the Ilongo families that opened haciendas in Negros were the Locsin, Lacson, and Claparols.

A decree of 20 June 1848 by Governor Claveria ordered the restructuring of Negros politically and religiously.  The capital was transferred from Himamaylan to Bacolod and the Recollects were asked to assume spiritual administration of Negros, which they did that same year.  Transfer of Bacolod to Recollects, however, took place only in 1871.

In 1889, the island was divided politically into east and west: Dumaguete became the capital of Negros Oriental while Bacolod remained the capital of Negros Occidental.  For a brief moment, the two provinces were reunited under the cantonal government of the Negrense revolutionaries, from 6 November 1898 to the end of February 1899, when the American placed Col.  James Smith military governor, followed by Melecio Severino (June 1900) until the civil government was established in 1901.

West Negros speaks Hiligaynon and is decidedly turned toward Iloilo, from which many of the settlers came; the east speaks Cebuano and is oriented toward Cebu from which its is separated by the narrow but deep Tañon Strait.  While sugar was not as much cultivated in the east as in the west, nonetheless, one of Negros largest plantation and sugar mill is the Central Azucarera de Tanjay, which extends to neighboring town of Bais.

Dumaguete, Negros Oriental’s capital, is known for Siliman University, founded as Silliman Institute on August 28, 1901 by American Presbyterian missionaries.  Intended to be an industrial school, it grew to be an academic university.

Despite the ups and downs of the sugar industry, Negros continued to dominate the market, bringing affluence to the island, especially to the western side.  The 1930s saw the peak of Negros affluence when many stately homes were built.