At the time of the Spanish conquest, the island was sparsely settled, except for a few coastal settlements like Binalbagan and Ilog. The island was administered as part of the jurisdiction of Oton until 1734 when it became a military district or corregimiento.

Towards the mid-19^th Century, high demand for sugar pushed many Ilonggo planters to seek large tracts of land in Negros on which to establish their plantations. The forests of Negros were cleared and planted to sugar. The continued boom in the sugar market attracted thousands of migrants principally from the provinces of Panay to settle and work on the sugar plantations. The sugar-based economy of Negros was responsible for the fortunes of a number of prominent Negrense families. Negros continued to rely almost exclusively on sugar for nearly one and a half centuries.

In 1865, the military district of Negros became a politico-military province. In 1890, the island was divided into two provinces. In November 1898, the Negrenses rose in revolt against the Spaniards and established the Cantonal Republic of Negros, incorporating both Negros provinces. The Negros Republic was short-lived, capitulating to the Americans in 1899. In 1901, Negros Occidental was again established as a separate province under American rule.

In the 1980s, the world market prices for sugar dropped, causing widespread economic disruption in Negros Occidental. The continued slump in sugar prices forced many plantations to lay off workers. Unrest spread among the unemployed as huunger gripped the province. By 1985, Negros Occidental was the focus of a national and international effort to stem widespread famine caused by the slump. In the aftermath of the crisis, steps were taken to diversify the economy of Negros Occidental.

Sugar is central to the evolution of Negrense culture. The affluence and the prosperity that the industry brought to the province nourished a charming, genteel, sometimes lavish, spirit that sets the Negrense apart from his Ilonggo kinsman. Negrenses are regarded as affectonate, generous, fun-loving people who enjoy the good life.

The Negrenses celebrate in style. Negros cuisine developed from this eagerness for festivity, though much of this remarkable cuisine is guarded jealously in family kitchens. Inasal – barbecued chicken marinated in coconut vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and other spices – is perhaps the most famous dish. Negros pastries and confectionery are equally renowned. Piaya , a flatbread made from flour, eggs, lard and sesame seeds filled with muscovado (brown powdered sugar) syrup. Pastel de manga (wafer with mango filling), panyo-panyo (a pastry delicately folded like a lady’s handkerchief), guapple pie (made from guava-apple hybrid) and barquillos are also favorites.

Negros Occidental is rich in structures and buildings that are remnants of a once affluent lifestyle. The Palacio Episcopal (Bishop’s Palace), built in 1830, served as a home and refuge for Spanish military and civil officials. The San Sebastian Cathedral, a popular Bacolod City landmark, was built in 1876 and became the nucleus of this settlement. Silay City boasts of fine examples of sugar barons’ palatial homes, like the Balay Negrense Museum, embellished and decorated with expensive furniture and finery. In other towns, steam locomotives, used to cart sugarcane from the fields to the sugar refineries, attract railway and steam engine enthusiasts from all over the world. Hacienda towns like Victorias and Manapla have unusual churches built during the heyday of the sugar industry.

The annual Masskara Festival in Bacolod City, is another display of Negrense joie de vivre. This Mardi Gras-like celebration commemorates the foundation of Bacolod City with masks and costumed street dancing, fairs, and carnivals and is held on the weekend closest to the 19^th of October.

Negros Occidental still rides on its sweet success of having made one of the most dramatic economic transformations in recent decades. It is a key growth center in Western Visayas. Apart from producing 800 metric tons of raw sugar a year, the province also produces rice, corn, coconuts, abaca, bananas, mangoes and pineapples. Local marine grounds are teeming with blue crabs, blue marlins, squid, groupers, mussels while inland fishing provide rich harvests of prawns, milkfish and "tilapia". The province also contains rich deposits of metallic and non-metallic mineral reserves. The dramatic turnabout of Negros Occidental is attributed to the quality of manpower the province has. Its population of 2.43 million has a labor force of 1.53 million highly motivated, educated, skilled, trainable and entrepreneurial individuals.

Negros Occidental is accessible from Manila and Cebu through several daily flights. Regular shipping and ferry links provide access from Panay Island and other neighboring areas. The province has a network of 5,475 kilometer government-maintained roads, six seaports and an airport for domestic commercial flights. Local power supply comes from Palinpinon Geothermal Plant in Negros Oriental while water supply is tapped mainly from ground and spring sources. Bacolod City and 16 other cities and municipalities have their own water districts that provide formal water system. The Philippine Long Distance Co. provides the main telephone system in the province, complemented by six other telephone companies that offer fixed and mobile cellular phone systems. Negros Occidental has a well-developed banking and financing system composed of 104 banks and 119 financial intermediaries.

The investment opportunities in Negros Occidental are diverse and vibrant. The large consumer population alone provides vast potentials for retail trade and consumer services such as department stores and other similar service facilities. Business ventures in furniture making, garments, gifts, toys and houseware items, and clay-based products would enjoy strong support from a skilled labor pool and a fast growing local demand and proven export markets. Enterprises in food processing, cutflowers and metalworks can be certain of a solid production base and strong local market linkages. Other preferred areas for investments include the growing of tropical plants and processing into high-value products for export, the production of sucrose-based surfactants and detergents, the production of dairy product, organic fertilizer, citric acid, and particle boards, livestock breeding and fattening, sericulture, the manufacture of metal components and small equipment, bricks for housing and pyrotechnics, and industrial tree farming.

Negros Occidental used to have 261,560 hectares of forest land, however indiscriminate logging activities have reduced forest cover to a mere 4.8 % of this original figure. Denuded hills, silted creeks and barren land may have been enough signals to end human activities that destroy the environment but illegal logging continues to threaten the very small remaining forest in the province. Convinced that such attacks and abuses on the environment must be stopped, the provincial government declared an "Environment War" and embarked on program to bring back the wilderness.

The "Balik Ilahas" program was launched to restore 18,000 hectares of forests in five critical watersheds. Faced with such a big task, the provincial government began working within its ranks and tapped into various government offices and employed community participation as the main strategy to get the program going at the field level. With the cooperation of various local sectors, funds, technical assistance and other resources were poured into the localities. So began the massive reforestation and agro-forestation of Negros Occidental. It was a program that hinged on 67 Integrated Social Forestry sites covering 27,749 hectares with 9,451 beneficiaries, including holders of Certificates of Stewardship Contracts (8,329 covering 22,000 hectares). The program also tapped tribal groups residing within the area to join in the forest protection efforts. By the end of 1998, a total of 50 million tree seedlings with a survival rate of 58% were planted within the project sites. This feat of bringing back the wilderness enabled the "Balik Ilahas" project to garner the 1998 Gawad Galing Pook. This is a clear manifestation that a determined political leadership locked in partnership of both the government institutions and local communities can successfully address daunting issues like environmental degradation.

Development Initiative Highlights:

• To increase crop yields of non-traditional crops
• To increase volume of livestock and poultry as substantial source of income for the province
• To encourage the growth of export-oriented small and medium scale enterprises through aggressive marketing and trade exhibits.