In 1585, the Tinguians were mentioned for the first time in a letter from Father Domingo de Salazar to the King of Spain.

The Spanish established a garrison to protect their missionaries from head hunters so that they could Christianize the Tinguians and locate gold mines.

Juan Pareja OSA, a former parish priest in Bantay, led the conversion of the province.

Pareja these towns battled almost daily against the rancherias of Palang, Talamuy, Bataan, Cabulao, Calaoag, and Langiden.

After 25 years the Christians were numbered about a thousand "baptized, living in community, with schools, church and municipal house, tilling the earth to support themselves and their children."

On October 9, 1846, Abra became an independent province with the capital and residence of the provincial governor located in Bucay.

[further explanation needed] The beginning months of the 1970s marked a period of turmoil and change in the Philippines, as well as in Abra.

[9] During his bid to be the first Philippine president to be re-elected for a second term, Ferdinand Marcos launched an unprecedented number of public works projects.

[16] This period in Philippine history is remembered for the Marcos administration's record of human rights abuses,[17][18] particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against the Marcos dictatorship.

Numerous human rights abuses against Itnegs were documented in the various Amnesty International missions which allowed to conduct investigations in the country after Marcos had to give in to political pressure.

The 623rd PC burned down four houses and a rice granary, which still contained the remains of three villagers including an unborn baby, and Barangay Councilman Rodolfo Labawig, pregnant mother Josefina Cayandag, and her unborn child.

[21] The revolutionary Marxist priest Conrado Balweg, who fought for the rights of the Cordillera tribes, began his crusade in Abra.

After successfully negotiating a peace accord with Balweg's group in 1987, the Philippine government created the Cordillera Administrative Region, which includes Abra.

The province is bordered by the towering mountain ranges of the Ilocos in the west and the Cordillera Central in the east.

It is joined by the Tineg River originating in the eastern uplands at a point near the municipality of Dolores.

[25] The 27 municipalities of the province comprise a total of 303 barangays, with Poblacion in La Paz as the most populous in 2010, and Pattaoig in San Juan as the least.

The province's lone professional sports team is the Abra Weavers of the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL).