Philippines
The Philippines,[f] officially the Republic of the Philippines,[g] is an archipelagic country in
Southeast Asia. In the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of 7,641 islands, with a total area of
300,000 square kilometers, which are broadly categorized in three main geographical divisions
from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines is bounded by the South
China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the south. It shares
maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and
southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China
to the northwest. It is the world's twelfth-most-populous country, with diverse ethnicities and
cultures. Manila is the country's capital, and its most populated city is Quezon City. Both are
within Metro Manila.
Negritos, the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by waves of Austronesian
peoples. The adoption of animism, Hinduism with Buddhist influence, and Islam established
island-kingdoms ruled by datus, rajas, and sultans. Extensive overseas trade with neighbors
such as the late Tang or Song empire brought Chinese people to the archipelago as well, which
would also gradually settle in and intermix over the centuries. The arrival of Ferdinand
Magellan, a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for Castile, marked the beginning of Spanish
colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas
Filipinas in honor of King Philip II of Castile. Spanish colonization via New Spain, beginning in
1565, led to the Philippines becoming ruled by the Crown of Castile, as part of the Spanish
Empire, for more than 300 years. Catholic Christianity became the dominant religion, and
Manila became the western hub of trans-Pacific trade. Hispanic immigrants from Latin America
and Iberia would also selectively colonize. The Philippine Revolution began in 1896, and became
entwined with the 1898 Spanish–American War. Spain ceded the territory to the United States,
and Filipino revolutionaries declared the First Philippine Republic. The ensuing Philippine–
American War ended with the United States controlling the territory until the Japanese invasion
of the islands during World War II. After the United States retook the Philippines from the
Japanese, the Philippines became independent in 1946. The country has had a tumultuous
experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a decades-long dictatorship in a
nonviolent revolution.
The Philippines is an emerging market and a newly industrialized country, whose economy is
transitioning from being agricultural to service- and manufacturing-centered. It is a founding
member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, ASEAN, the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum, and the East Asia Summit; it is a member of the Non-Aligned
Movement and a major non-NATO ally of the United States. Its location as an island country on
the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes it prone to earthquakes and typhoons.
The Philippines has a variety of natural resources and a globally-significant level of biodiversity.
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