ThePhilippines, officially theRepublic of the Philippines, is anarchipelagic country inSoutheast Asia. Located in the westernPacific Ocean, it consists of about7,641 islands, with a total area of about 300,000 square kilometers, which are broadly categorized inthree main geographical divisions from north to south:Luzon,Visayas, andMindanao. With a population of over 112 million, it is the world'sfourteenth-most-populous country.
The Philippines is bounded by theSouth China Sea to the west, thePhilippine Sea to the east, and theCelebes Sea to the south. It sharesmaritime borders withTaiwan 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, andChina to the northwest. It hasdiverse ethnicities anda rich culture.Manila isthe country's capital, andits most populated city isQuezon City. Both are withinMetro Manila.
Negritos, the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed bywaves ofAustronesian peoples. The adoption ofanimism,Hinduism withBuddhist influence, andIslam establishedisland-kingdoms. Extensive overseas trade with neighbors such as the lateTang orSong empire broughtChinese people to the archipelago as well, which would also gradually settle in andintermix over the centuries. The arrival of the explorerFerdinand Magellan marked the beginning ofSpanish colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorerRuy López de Villalobos named the archipelagolas Islas Filipinas in honor ofKing Philip II.Catholicism became the dominant religion, and Manila became the western hub oftrans-Pacific trade.Hispanic immigrants fromLatin America andIberia would also selectively colonize. ThePhilippine Revolution began in 1896, and became entwined with the 1898Spanish–American War. Spain ceded the territory to the United States, andFilipino revolutionaries declared theFirst Philippine Republic. The ensuingPhilippine–American War ended with the United States controlling the territory until theJapanese invasion of the islands duringWorld War II. Afterthe United States retook the Philippines from the Japanese, the Philippines became independent in 1946. Since then, the country notably experienced aperiod of martial law from 1972 to 1981 under the dictatorship ofFerdinand Marcos and his subsequent overthrow by thePeople Power Revolution in 1986, returning to democracy.
The Philippines is anemerging market and adeveloping andnewly industrialized country,whose economy is transitioning from being agricultural to service- and manufacturing-centered. It has a variety of natural resources and a globally-significantlevel of biodiversity. The country is also part ofmultiple international organizations and forums, mainly inASEAN. Despite its fast economic growth, it continues to struggle withinequality, widespreadcorruption, and vulnerability to natural disasters due to its location within the PacificRing of Fire, and to the equator, making it prone toearthquakes,monsoon rains, andtyphoons, to which the Philippines has built aresilience. (Full article...)
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