[4] Among all 82 provinces in the Philippines, Laguna accounted for the largest share (5%) of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with a total of Php 990.69 billion in 2022.

It has numerous natural and cultural attractions such as Cavinti Falls aka Pagsanjan Falls, the University of the Philippines Los Baños and the University of the Philippines Open University in Los Baños, the hot spring resorts of Calamba on the slopes of Mount Makiling, Pila historic town plaza, Taytay Falls in Majayjay, the wood carvings and papier-mâché created by the people of Paete, the annual Sampaguita Festival in San Pedro, the turumba of Pakil, the tsinelas footwear from Liliw, the Pandan Festival of Luisiana, the Pinya Festival of Calauan, the Seven Lakes of San Pablo, and the Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery in Nagcarlan.

In 1577, Spanish Franciscan missionaries arrived in Manila, and in 1578 they started evangelizing Laguna, Morong (now Rizal), Tayabas (now Quezon) and the Bicol Peninsula as part of the colonizing effort.

Eventually the Chinese were able to kill Luys de Velasco and ten of his men, before securing themselves in San Pablo while waiting for reinforcement from the mainland.

A detachment of British troops under Captain Thomas Backhouse entered the province in search of the silver cargo of the galleon Filipina while Francisco de San Juan led a band of volunteers that fought them in several engagements in and around the then provincial capital of Pagsanjan.

Backhouse plundered the town and burned its newly reconstructed church but San Juan succeeded in escaping with the precious hoard to Pampanga where the treasure greatly bolstered the defense effort of Governor-General Simón de Anda y Salazar.

[12] In 1774, authorities from Bulacan, Tondo, Laguna Bay, and other areas surrounding Manila reported with consternation that discharged soldiers and deserters (from Mexico, Spain and Peru) were providing Indios military training for the weapons that had been disseminated all over the territory during the British war.

[16] A major event in Laguna occurred in 1840, when religious intolerance led the people of Majayjay, Nagcarlan, Bay, and Biñan to join the revolt of Hermano Pule (Apolinario de la Cruz) of Lucban, Tayabas.

Rizal would go on to write two novels, Noli Me Tángere and El filibusterismo, which in part fueled additional anti-colonial sentiment, contributing to the eventual Philippine Revolution.

In 1896, thousands of inhabitants, especially of Bay, Los Baños, Nagcarlan, Magdalena, Santa Cruz, and Pagsanjan had joined the revolutionary Katipunan.

Laguna was one of the eight provinces to rise in revolt against the Spanish misrule led by Generals Paciano Rizal in Calamba, Severino Taiño in Pagsanjan, Agueda Kahabagan in Calauan, and Miguel Malvar in Batangas.

[17] The defeat in Sambat meant the end of large-scale organized revolt in Laguna, the Malungingnging chapter of the Katipunan failing to replicate the relative success of the revolution in Cavite.

[18] Pio del Pilar and Paciano Rizal led revolutionary troops to victory in the Battle of Calamba in May 1898, and the surrender of the last Spanish garrison in Laguna in Santa Cruz, on August 31 of the same year.

The Taft Commission was established to govern the Philippines during the interim period, which appointed Juan Cailles as the provincial governor of Laguna.

Teodoro Asedillo organized peasants in Longos, Cavinti, Paete, and Sampaloc in Tayabas province under the Katipunan ng mga Anak-Pawis sa Pilipinas, a labor federation opposed to American colonization.

[24]: 365–366 On May 2, 1935, members of the Sakdalista party in Cabuyao and nearby towns took over the municipal hall and church as part of a general uprising with the main goal of achieving immediate independence from the United States.

[further explanation needed] The International Rice Research Institute was established in 1960, during the presidency of Carlos P. Garcia, and a site in Los Baños was selected to be its headquarters.

[30] The social unrest which arose when Ferdinand Marcos' debt-driven campaign spending led to the 1969 Philippine balance of payments crisis[31][32] spread beyond the capital and also triggered protests by students in Laguna, especially UP Los Baños.

Among those who experienced arrest and torture during martial law were Dr. Aloysius Baes, while among those who became desaparecidos were Tish Ladlad, Cristina Catalla, Gerardo "Gerry" Faustino, Rizalina Ilagan, Ramon Jasul, Professor Jessica Sales, and Philippine Council for Agricultural Research and Resource Development artist-illustrator Manuel Ontong.

[33][34][35] Camp Vicente Lim in the Canlubang district of Calamba was among the many sites where prisons were put up to contain detainees who dared to criticize the Marcos administration.

The spillway had been the second part of a plan to reduce flooding on the lakeshore towns of Metro Manila in the 1970s, but the various economic crises of the 1970s led to a lack of budget, which meant that only the Manggahan Floodway in Rizal province was built.

[39][40] Within the first year of Manggahan Floodway's completion in 1986, Laguna was hit by an unusual large flood which lasted for 2 months and resulted in high mortality and morbidity rates due to gastroenteritis and other water-borne diseases.

The Laguna Volcanic Field is composed of over 200 dormant and monogenetic maars, crater lakes, scoria cones and stratovolcanoes, the tallest of which is Mount Makiling at 1,090 m (3,580 ft) in elevation.

The northeastern half is made up of the municipalities of Santa Maria, Mabitac, Famy, Siniloan, Pangil, Pakil, Paete, Kalayaan, and Lumban.

The eastern half is composed of the municipalities of Victoria, Pila, Santa Cruz (the capital), Rizal, Nagcarlan, Liliw, Magdalena, Majayjay, Pagsanjan, Luisiana, and Cavinti.

With a population of 3,382,193 (2020 census),[4] and a total area of 1,760 km2 (680 sq mi) of land, Laguna produces millions of pesos worth of coconuts, rice, sugar, citrus fruits, lanzones and other products.

Tourists[71] flock to its beauty spots, especially Pagsanjan Falls, Calamba and Los Baños hot springs, Mount Makiling, Caliraya Lake and many others.

Other historical sites include the Alberto House in Biñan, the Cuartel de Santo Domingo in Santa Rosa, the Pagsanjan Municipal Hall, the Pagsanjan Arch, the Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery, the ancestral homes and Pinagbayanan crematorium in Pila, Emilio Jacinto Shrine in Santa Cruz, the Baker Memorial Hall in UP Los Baños, and the Tipakan in Luisiana.

Other historical markers include the Japanese Garden in Cavinti and the Homma-Yamashita Shrine in Los Baños, both of which commemorate the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during the Second World War, the memorial sites of the Battle of Sambat in Pagsanjan and the Battle of Mabitac in Mabitac, and the Bantayog ng Kagitingan, Bantayog ng mga Bayani, Trece Martires Monument, and the Bonifacio Monument in San Pablo.

Notable alumni from colleges in Laguna include Teodoro Casiño, a former member of the House of Representatives; Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., the chairman of San Miguel Corporation; and Jerrold Tarog, film director.