The Philippines (Filipino: Pilipinas ) officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. To its west across the South China Sea is Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest separates it from the island of Borneo and to the south the Celebes Sea from other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea. An archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines has the 5th longest coastline in the world. The islands are categorized broadly into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The capital city is Manila.
With an estimated population of about 92,000,000 people, the Philippines is the world's 12th most populous country. It is estimated that there are about 11,000,000 overseas Filipinos worldwide, equivalent to about 11% of the total population of the Philippines. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. Ecologically, the Philippines with its tropical climate is one of the most diverse countries in the world.
Its national economy is the 47th largest in the world, with an estimated 2008 gross domestic product (GDP nominal) of over US$ 166.9 billion (nominal). Primary exports include semiconductors and electronic products, transport equipment, garments, copper products, petroleum products, coconut oil, and fruits. Major trading partners include China, Japan, the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia. Its unit of currency is the Philippine peso (PHP).
In ancient times the archipelago was populated by successive waves of Austronesian peoples who brought with them influences from Malay, Hindu, and Islamic cultures. Trade introduced Chinese cultural influences. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 marked the beginning of an era of Spanish interest and eventually dominance. The Philippines became the Asian hub of the Manila-Acapulco galleon treasure fleet. Christianity became widespread and there was a brief British occupation. As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, there followed in quick succession the short-lived Philippine Revolution, the Spanish-American War, and the Philippine-American War. In the aftermath, the United States replaced Spain as the dominant power. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until the end of World War II when the Philippines gained independence. The United States bequeathed to the Philippines the English language and its democratic presidential system of government. Since independence the Philippines has had an often tumultuous experience with democracy, with popular "People Power" movements overthrowing a dictatorship in one instance but also underlining the institutional weaknesses of its constitutional republic in others.
Etymology
Main article: Name of the PhilippinesThe name Philippines was derived from King Philip II of Spain in the 16th century. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos used the name Las Islas Filipinas , in honor of the Prince of Asturias (Spain) during his expedition to the islands, originally referring to the islands of Leyte and Samar. Despite the presence of other names, the name Filipinas was chosen as the name of the archipelago.
The official name of the Philippines changed throughout the course of its history. During the Philippine Revolution, it was officially called República Filipina or the Philippine Republic . From the period of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War, until the Commonwealth period, American colonial authorities referred to the country as the Philippine Islands , a translation of the original Spanish name. It was during the American period that the name Philippines began to appear, a name that has become its common name. The official name of the country is now Republic of the Philippines .
History
Main article: History of the PhilippinesArcheological discoveries show that humans existed in the Philippines around 40,000 years ago. The Negritos, a pre-Mongoloid ethnic group that migrated from mainland Asia, settled in the islands about 30,000 years ago. Another ethnic group of Malayo-Polynesian speaking people originated from the populations of Taiwanese aborigines and settled in the Philippines approximately 6,000 years ago. They would populate the regions now known as Malaysia, Indonesia, the Pacific Islands, and Madagascar. By 1000 B.C.E the inhabitants of the archipelago had stratified into four kinds of social groups: hunter-gathering tribes, warrior societies, petty plotucratracies and maritime centered harbor principalities.
The martime oriented peoples then traded with other Asian countries during the subsequent period. Before the arrival of Islam; Animism, Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism were the religions worshiped by various Philippine classical kingdoms. There was no unifying political state encompassing the entire Philippine Archipelago. Instead, the islands were divided among competing thalassocracies ruled by various datus, rajahs, and sultans. Among these were the Kingdom of Maynila, Namayan, the Dynasty of Tondo, the Madya-as Confederacy, Butuan Rajahnate, Cebu Rajahnate, Maguindanao Sultanate, and Sulu Sultanate. Some of these societies were part of the Malayan empires of Srivijaya, Majapahit, and Brunei. Islam was brought to the Philippines by traders, and proselytizers from Malaysia, and Indonesia. By the 13th century, Islam were established in the Sulu Archipelago, and reached Mindanao, the Visayas, and Luzon by 1565.
In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the Philippines, and claimed the islands for Spain. Colonization began when Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi, arrived from Mexico in 1565, and formed the first European settlements in Cebu. In 1571, they established Manila as the capital of the Spanish East Indies..
Spanish rule brought political unification to the archipelago that later became the Philippines, and introduced elements of western civilization such as the code of law, printing and the calendar. The Philippines was governed as a territory of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1565 to 1821, before it was administered directly from Madrid after the Mexican revolution. The Manila galleons which linked Manila to Acapulco traveled once or twice a year between the 16th and 19th century. The Spanish military fought off various indigenous revolts and several external colonial challenges from the British, Chinese pirates, Dutch, and Portuguese. Roman Catholic missionaries converted most of the inhabitants to Christianity and founded schools, universities, and hospitals. In 1863 a Spanish decree introduced education, establishing free public schooling in Spanish.
Many criollos and mestizos became wealthy. The influx of Spanish settlers secularized churches, and government positions traditionally held by the criollos . The ideals of revolution also began to spread through the islands. Criollo insurgency resulted in the Novales Mutiny, and the revolt in Cavite El Viejo in 1872 that was a precursor to the Philippine Revolution.
An ideology of a revolution grew after colonial authorities executed the three priests, Mariano Gómez, José Burgos and Jacinto Zamora (collectively known as Gomburza ), who were accused of sedition, in 1872. This would inspire a propaganda movement in Spain, organized by José Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar and Mariano Ponce, lobbying for political reforms in the Philippines. Rizal was eventually executed on December 30, 1896, on charges of rebellion. As attempts at reform were meeting with resistance, Andrés Bonifacio in 1892 established the secret society called the Katipunan, a society along the lines of the freemasons, which sought independence from Spain through armed revolt. Bonifacio and the Katipunan started the Philippine Revolution in 1896. A faction of the Katipunan, the Magdalo of Cavite province, eventually came to challenge Bonifacio's position as the leader of the revolution and Emilio Aguinaldo took over. In 1898, the Spanish-American War began in Cuba and reached the Philippines. Aguinaldo declared Philippine independence from Spain in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898, and the First Philippine Republic was established the following year. Meanwhile, the islands were ceded by Spain, together with Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam, to the United States for $20 million dollars, in the Treaty of Paris. This lead to the Philippine-American War after the First Philippine Republic was not recognized by the United States and eventually resulted in American control over the islands.
In 1935, the Philippines was granted Commonwealth status. Plans for independence over the next decade were interrupted by World War II when Japan invaded. Allied troops defeated the Japanese in 19
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