The flatlands of the southern portion of Upper Pampanga (now Nueva Ecija), was a hospitable place for these new Tagalog settlers between 300 and 200 B.C.

Pangasinan people are the native settlers in northwest area of Central Luzon; Igorot people, particularly Kalanguya, Isinay, and Bugkalot, are native residents in northern area of Central Luzon, precisely present-day Nueva Ecija, with the Bugkalots also live in northwest Aurora.

[17][18][19][20] Nueva Ecija was created as a military district or comandancia governed by Governor-General Fausto Cruzat y Góngora in 1701, but still part of Pampanga at that time.

It included huge swathes of Central Luzon, the Contracosta towns, as well as the Kalilayan area and Polillo Islands.

[18] Historian Cornelio Bascara documents that the province of Bataan was established on January 11, 1757, by Governor-General Pedro Manuel Arandia out of territories belonging to Pampanga and the corregimiento of Mariveles which, at that time, included Maragondon across Manila Bay.

[13][14] In the 19th century, repopulation and rice and tobacco industries caused large numbers of Ilocano settlers to move and stay in north areas of Central Luzon (Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, and Aurora) and south central Zambales; they now made up the largest ethnic group in those areas.

When Rafael María de Aguilar y Ponce de León took over as governor-general of the Philippines, he decreed the separation of the military- district of Nueva Ecija from the province of Pampanga and became a regular province on April 25, 1801, including the town of Baler, acquired from Tayabas.

In 1858, Binangonan de Lampon and the Polillo Islands were separated from Nueva Ecija to form part of Infanta.

In 1901, towns of Nueva Ecija, namely Balungao, Rosales, San Quintin and Umingan were annexed to the province of Pangasinan.

[21] On November 30, 1903, several municipalities from northern Zambales including Agno, Alaminos, Anda, Bani, Bolinao, Burgos, Dasol, Infanta and Mabini were ceded to Pangasinan by the American colonial government.

The hostilities of the war began with simultaneous attacks on Pearl Harbor and on Clark Field[38] and also on a smaller fighter base at Iba, both in Central Luzon.

[38] Prior to the 1941 Japanese invasion, Bataan was a military reservation for the purpose of defending the fortress island of Corregidor.

After the surrenders of Bataan and Corregidor, many who escaped the Japanese reorganized in the mountains as guerrillas still loyal to the U.S. Army Forces Far East (USAFFE).

In March 1942, the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP-1930, a predecessor of the current Communist Party of the Philippines) likewise led in the organization of a broad united front resistance to the Japanese occupation of the Philippines called Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan,[44]: 44  (lit.

[44]: 44 The battle plan of the allied efforts to liberate the Philippines from the Japanese called for invasion forces landing to the north and south of Manila, which would converge on the capital, which was the primary objective.

This would mean that the Northern force, which landed in the Lingayen Gulf, would cross the Central Luzon plains to get to Manila.

Clark Air Base had a notable role in the Battle of Luzon on 23 January 1944, in that it was the first major point of resistance where the Japanese fought back against allied forces who had landed in Agoo, Lingayen, and other towns in along the gulf, a province north.

So they decided to extended their fight into a rebellion against the new government, only to be put down through a series of reforms and military victories by Defense Secretary, and later President, Ramon Magsaysay.

Among the most successful of these were the Land Justice March of the political group known as the Filipino Agrarian Reform Movement (FARM), which intended to march from Tarlac to Malacañang in 1969, although President Marcos was forced to give in to their demands early, meeting them while they were still at Camp Servillano Aquino in Tarlac City itself.

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

[62] Anyone who expressed opposition to Marcos was arrested, often without warrant, in an effort defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile would later admit was meant to "emasculate all the leaders in order to control the situation,"[63] among them Senator and Concepcion native Ninoy Aquino, whose assassination years later would galvanize the effort to oust Marcos.

[67] Detainees were subject to an extensive set of torture methods, while many others were never brought to the detention centers and were simply killed in unofficial "safehouses.

[68] It was also during Martial Law that construction on the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant began in Morong, in 1976,[69] in a deal between the government and Westinghouse Electric brokered by Marcos crony Herminio Disini.

[70] The project was plagued with problems throughout construction, including location, welding, cabling, pipes and valves, permits, and kickbacks, as well as setbacks such as the decline of Marcos's influence due to bad health and PR fallout from the incident at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor.

[81] One obvious reason for creating the sub-province was the area's isolation from the rest of Quezon Province: there were no direct links to the rest of the province and much of the terrain was mountainous and heavily forested, which made the area relatively isolated, and its distance from Quezon's capital Lucena.

The total separation of Aurora from Quezon & transfer of Aurora to Central Luzon were the fulfillment of the wishes and prayers of the residents of the original Municipalities of Baler and Casiguran to be truly independent from Quezon Province for the first time and to reform the original La Pampanga since the Spanish occupation.

PHP244.15 billion is the total value of Agriculture, forestry and fishing of Central Luzon, Nueva Ecija accounted for the biggest share of 32.7 percent.