A folk legend holds that the name was originally derived from the tagay, a plant that grows abundantly in the northern part of the province.

They were later moved to the uplands or variably assimilated by the Austronesians, from whom the Ibanags, Itawes, Yogads, Gaddangs, Irayas and Malawegs descended - who actually came from one ethnicity.

Cagayan was a major site for the Maritime Jade Road, one of the most extensive sea-based trade networks of a single geological material in the prehistoric world, operating for 3,000 years from 2000 BCE to 1000 CE.

[7][8][9][10] Even before the Spaniards came to Cagayan, the Cagayanos have already made contact with various civilizations like the Chinese, Japanese and even Indians, as evidenced by various artifacts and even the presence of minor to moderate foreign linguistic elements in the languages of the natives.

Various other peoples, mainly the Ilocanos, Pangasinenses, Kapampangans and Tagalogs, as well as Visayans, Moros, Ivatans, and even foreigners like the Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Spaniards and others were further infused to the native Cagayanes to become the modern Cagayano that we know today.

The north coast was also the site of a Wokou state when the Japanese pirate-lord Tay Fusa[11] set up his stronghold there before its destruction during the 1582 Cagayan battles.

In 1581, Captain Juan Pablo Carreon arrived in Cagayan with a hundred fully equipped soldiers and their families by order of Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñaloza, the fourth Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines.

On June 29, 1583, Spanish conquistador Juan de Salcedo traced the northern coastline of Luzon and set foot on the Massi (Pamplona), Tular, and Aparri areas.

During the Second World War, with air raids by Japanese fighters and bombers, the province of Cagayan suffered much destruction by bombing and later invasion.

While under the Japanese Occupation, several pre-war infantry divisions and regular units of the Philippine Commonwealth Army were re-established during the period on January 3, 1942, to June 30, 1946.

Part of the action were the Filipino soldiers of the 11th and 14th Infantry Regiment, Philippine Commonwealth Army, USAFIP-NL liberated the province of Cagayan during the Second World War.

[further explanation needed] After World War II Baldomero Perez of Tuguegarao was temporarily appointed as Governor of Cagayan by the Philippine Civil Affairs Unit, serving until he was replaced by Peregrino R. Quinto in 1946.

Beginning in the 1970s, Cagayan became known as a bailiwick of Juan Ponce Enrile of Gonzaga, who as Secretary and later Minister of National Defense became one of the most powerful figures during the Martial Law period under President Ferdinand Marcos.

His influence enabled the construction of Port Irene, a modernized international harbor facility in Santa Ana that was named after Marcos' daughter Irene, which later formed the basis for the creation of the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport, whose enabling law was authored by Enrile as a Senator in 1995 and now includes Santa Ana and parts of Aparri.

Loan-funded government spending to promote Ferdinand Marcos’ 1969 reelection campaign caused[17][18] the Philippine economy took a sudden downwards turn in the last months of the 1960s.

Known as the 1969 Philippine balance of payments crisis, this led to social unrest throughout the country beginning with the First Quarter Storm protests of 1970,[19][20] : "43" [21][22] and incidents of violence like the Plaza Miranda bombing.

[31] In Tuguegarao, Camp Marcelo Adduru became the province's main detention center for "political detainees",[32] who were often never formally charged with a crime, and thus technically not counted by Marcos as "prisoners.

He was later honored by having his name inscribed on the wall of remembrance of the Philippines' Bantayog ng mga Bayani, in recognition of his martyrdom while resisting authoritarianism.

[36][37] Cagayan saw incidents of political violence during the 1986 Philippine presidential election, including the fatal shooting by militiamen of opposition leader Euginio Coloma in the municipality of Buguey.

[38] A number of Cagayanon politicians played parts in the People Power Revolution two weeks after the election, and in the following one year in which the Philippines was under an interim provisional revolutionary government between 1986 and 1987.

[41] Cagayan was also the site of the Hotel Delfino Siege in Tuguegarao, which took place on March 4, 1990, when efforts to arrest suspended governor Rodolfo Aguinaldo for supporting rebellions against the government of President Corazon Aquino led to him storming the provincial capitol and taking hostages including his would-be arresting officer, Brigadier General Oscar Florendo of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Civil Relations Service.

The stand-off deteriorated into a series of gun-battles throughout the town, with Florendo being killed presumably in a crossfire inside the hotel and Aguinaldo managing to escape and go into hiding before later surrendering and being cleared of legal charges by winning reelection in 1992.

[47] As a result of the catastrophe, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) indicated that it would review its protocols regarding the release of water in Magat Dam and improve its watershed.

The eastern coast forms the northern portion of the Sierra Madre mountain range, while the western limits are generally hilly to low in elevation.

Cagayan is predominantly Roman Catholic with 85%[citation needed] of the population affiliated and the Aglipayan Church has a very strong minority in the province.

[54] Poverty incidence of Cagayan Source: Philippine Statistics Authority[55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62] Agricultural products are rice, corn, peanut, beans, and fruits.

Completed in October 2014, the international airport can accommodate large aircraft such as the Airbus A319-100 and Boeing regional jets of comparable size.

Sanchez Mira, Claveria, and Santa Praxedes have facilities for excursion stays while Fuga Island is being developed as a world-class recreation and tourism center.