The name Eskrima is the Filipino spelling which comes from the Spanish word esgrima, "fencing". Arnis is thought to derive from the phrase arnés de mano, Spanish for "harness of the hand". The origin of the name Kali is not certain, although some suggest it is related to the traditional weapon called a kris, keris, or kalis. Another explanation is that the word is a portmanteau of the Filipino words kamot, or kamay meaning hand or body, and lihok, meaning motion. This explanation may be a more recent innovation, retroactively fitting an acronym to the existing name. However, historically there was never a mother or parent art form known as Kali in the Philippines, including the Muslim populated Southern Mindanao. In fact, the term Kali did not exist until the 1960s when two well known eskrimadors in the United States popularized the word to distinguish what they taught from the teachings of other eskrimadors. Unfortunately, many came to believe that Kali represented a parent art form of escrima and arnis, and eventually the name, Kali, took on a life of its own. Today, the term Kali, although seldom used and mostly in few areas in the Southern Philippines, is gaining more acceptance and popularity throughout the country thanks in due part to the influence of visiting foreigners who more commonly use this term to describe the art. Several theories claim that the difference in the name either implied the region from which the art originated, the time period when the art was developed or the primary weapon of training, although in reality these claims are groundless. One will find the terms Eskrima and Arnis used interchangeably in the Philippines regardless of region, time period or weapon emphasis.

Filipino Martial Arts have seen an increase in prominence due to several Hollywood movies and the teachings of modern masters such as Dan Inosanto, Cacoy Canete, Richard Bustillo, Ryan Gialogo, Raymond Floro, Edgar Sulite, Leo Gaje, Armando P. Angeles, Leo Giron, Mike Inay, Ernesto Presas, Remy Presas and the Father of Eskrima in the USA Angel Cabales.

As with most martial arts, the history of Eskrima is surrounded by legends, making it difficult to pin down facts. This is especially true for eskrima since a significant amount of its history is anecdotal and oral. Being a martial art for the common folk, some of its practitioners lacked the scholarly education to create a written history. This confusion is further complicated by the fact that there are actually many different fighting systems with different histories that are called Eskrima (or Arnis de Mano). The most commonly accepted explanation for the origin of Eskrima systems is that they were originally the fighting systems possessed by every tribe in the Philippines and used by them to fight and defend against each other. But the fact is that the Spaniards had burnt almost all of the arts history that have been written down, and that is why we have to rely on oral stories for most of tha arts history and they did it out of jealousy, anger and greed, for the Filipino's had put up a great fight and they had alot of gold on their islands.

It is historically recorded, though, that when the Spanish conquistadors arrived, some tribes fought them, using native weapons and techniques. Magellan, in particular, was killed in the battle of Mactan in 1521 by forces of the Mactan tribal chief Lapu-Lapu when Magellan landed in Cebu - albeit by an arrow, not the sword or stick as many eskrimadors promote, yet this information is still unknown for alot of spaniards over exaggerated their stories just to impress their King. From this point sources differ on the history of Eskrima. Certainly by the time the Spanish reached the Philippines, they were extremely challenged with how good the fighting the natives have done, when the natives of the philippines only had simple weapons such as: swords, spears and bow & arrows plus only a shield to protect themselves, while the experienced conquerors (conquistadors) had their own fighting system which wasn't much efective, but along with steel armor that covered much of their body, guns and cannons where the reason they got to invade Maharlika (now Philippines). If the Spaniards had no fire power, their thin swords and small daggers would have not done any good for them, and they would have lost every attempt to take over the Philippines. The degree to which this affected the practice of the native fighting arts is a matter of debate, but it seems likely that the Filipinos borrowed what worked and discarded what didn't (or at least, the Filipinos that survived to pass on their fighting arts did so). Kali (eskrima) had to hide itself from the Spaniards, they had to practice it in their dancing and they also had to pretend they were practising the Spanish fencing, just so they would not get caught. And that is why Kali incorporates some Spanish influence, which is just really useless. When the American and Japanese people had control of the Philippines, the Filipino's had to hide it the same way they hid it from the current invaders, or it the art of Filipino combat would have been gone, as would have happend if the Spaniards had found out. Many Europeans and Americans would like to think of escrima as a Western martial art preserved by an Asiatic people, but this is unprovable and incorrect for the art was made by the Filipino people to protect the Filipino people. However, there is little doubt that Spanish fencing did influence the development of escrima as a martial system.

Many believe these Philippine fighting systems have strong historical roots from Indonesian martial arts that are Chinese influenced like Kun Tao. Kun Tao (literally the way of the fist) of course finds its roots from Ch'uan Fa (which is a generic word for what westerners would call kung fu, it also literally means way of the fist). Other systems that have similar movements to many Filipino systems also find their roots from Ch'uan Fa. There are even counts of lost Ch'uan and Tai Chi double stick forms that many of the fleeing renegade monks would have trained for that period. These Chinese-based influences to the martial arts are not as powerful as the direct links to the cultural and political ties found in the Philippines even today. Many even believe the systems are totally intact in the way profound Chinese arts once were before events like the Cultural Revolution.

Others believe that since FMA is weapons-based, this suggests its roots and development are independent and autonomous of most foreign "fist" systems. In fact, it can be said that the inevitable similarities are due to the weaponry components of both Filipino, Indonesian and Chinese martial arts. Any exercises or similar hand movements to that of the Indonesian and Chinese arts were introduced only in recent years to augment the newer eskrima groups - something which is less apparent in the more traditional and established authentic systems. But Filipino's had their own empty hand systems, which inculed arts like; sikaran (kicking art), Dumog (submission) and all the fist strikes come from weapon fighting techniques, because the Guru's (instructors) believe the hand can strike the same way if there was a weapon in the hand or not, so Filipino's already have alot of empty hand styles.

Although the turbulent and conflict wrought history and environment of the Philippines enabled the FMA to develop into an efficient, albeit violent art, this changed recently in the sense that some systematization allowed easier and quicker teaching for the basics. Except for a few older and established systems, before this change it was more common to pass the art from generation to generation in an informal approach. Regardless of teaching methodology, these arts are considered so effective and easy to learn with sufficient practice that the U.S. military teaches it to some varying degree in all of its branches, particularly U.S. groups like the Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces and Delta Force. Many special operations groups were stationed in the Philippines for some period of time during WWII - the period when these arts first became apparent to the America mainstream.

For the last century, the most important practice of Eskrima has been in dueling without any form of protection, which was common in the Philippines and among Filipinos elsewhere; one of the areas being Hawaii pre-annexation. The founders of most of the currently popular Eskrima systems were famous duelists; legends circulate about how many people so-and-so has killed. Certainly duels did happen and deaths did result. However, to reduce legal problems that arose from injury or death, most duels would later often be fought with hardwood sticks instead of blades. Public dueling has almost all been eliminated from the Filipino society - even deemed illegal in the Philippines today. Although, with dilligence one can still find regular gathering of masters in major parks in the Philippines where at a drop of a hat one will not hesitate to prove their point through an unprotected "friendly match". Local folk in the Philippines are much more likely to carry knives than guns, and much more likely to use them when tempers rise, than people in North America or Europe. As a result, knife-fighting (and to a lesser extent, fighting with machetes) is still very much a living skill in the Philippines, like in rural areas and especially in places where insurgents base themselves.

For a more precise history, one must distinguish between the different systems of Eskrima (see below).

One must then attempt to trace back the lineage of their teacher as far as possible in order to understand where the techniques came from. Often this is difficult; for example, Antonio Illustrisimo (duelist and grandmaster) seemed to have learned to fight while traveling around the Philippines (and the rest of the Pacific) as a sailor, while his nephew and student Floro Villabrille claimed to have been taught by a blind princess in the mountains - a claim later refuted by the older Illustrisimo. Both have since died.

Secrecy was also a large part of this art and teaching it outside of the Filipino community was considered taboo until the 1960s when Eskrima was first brought over to the U.S. by Grandmaster Angel Cabales. Still instructors of stick fighting classes in the 1960s and 1970s were reprimanded by Filipino elders for publicly teaching what had been traditionally kept secret, a practice which preserved a language and a culture, preventing a watering down of the art.

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in martial arts from cultures all over the world, including Eskrima, Capoeira, Savate, Muay Thai and others. Arguably one of the best arts for learning to use or defend against knives, Eskrima has appealed to people not necessarily interested in its cultural aspects. As a consequence, most Eskrima systems have been modified (in varying degrees) to make them more marketable to a worldwide audience. Usually this involves increased emphasis on locking, controls and disarms, as well as focusing on its "self-defense" aspects, along with some influence from Asian martial arts (sometimes in name only). The art of eskrima is actually a defense through offense-based art (the best defense is a good offense) rather than just a defense-based art, as it is often depicted. Modern training methods tend to de-emphasize careful footwork and low stances, with more emphasis on learning techniques as opposed to more direct and effective tactics designed to instantly end an encounter (which is generally believed to have lethal results and are, therefore, discouraged).

Eskrima has also begun to be practiced as a sport, although there is as yet little standardization or uniformity. The rules, with their corresponding effect on technique, have yet to be decided upon, although several tournaments have been held with various sets of rules. The oldest and most common set is the WEKAF (World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation) rules that work on a 10 point must system where participants spar with a body protector and helmet. This format has sometimes been criticized because it emphasizes training in offensive techniques at the expense of defensive "preserving" techniques, giving rise to the impression that combatants are merely bashing at each other in a disorganized way, trying to get in more hits than one's opponent. This is, to some, an anti-thesis to traditional training methods, where training in footwork and arm/weapon movements are intricate and precise as to become like dance (one popular tradition is that eskrima survived during the centuries of Spanish colonial rule because techniques were learned in secret as dance steps). As a consequence, WEKAF tournaments may be seen as not promoting the original art.

There are efforts amongst the Eskrima society to cross train in other tournament competitions where there is noted differences of the rules applied to the contest. For example there are competitions using padded sticks and no body armor. Judges are required to confirm a legitimate target has been struck. The bladded concept using the padded stick and consideration by the judges to the effectiveness of the attack and or defense is often visually seen by the spectator. This is a stop and go point system style.

One other variation of tournament combat is seen with again padded sticks and minimal body armor protection but the competition is continuous similar to the WEKAF 10 point method. One major difference seen in this method is an awareness of the importance of defending oneself, even after scoring a point.