Portal:Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands, with a total area of about 300,000 square kilometers. The islands are broadly categorized in three main geographical divisions. From north to south, the divisions are: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. With a population of over 114 million, it is the world's thirteenth-most-populous country. 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 southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. It has diverse ethnicities and a rich culture. 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. Extensive overseas trade with neighbors such as the late Tang or Song empire brought Chinese people to the archipelago as well, who would also gradually settle in and intermix over the centuries. The arrival of the explorer Ferdinand Magellan 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. Catholicism 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. Since then, the country notably experienced a period of martial law from 1972 to 1981 under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and his subsequent overthrow by the People Power Revolution in 1986, returning to democracy. The Philippines is an emerging market and a developing and newly industrialized country, whose economy is transitioning from being agricultural to service- and manufacturing-centered. It has a variety of natural resources and a globally-significant level of biodiversity. The country is also part of multiple international organizations and forums, mainly in the Asia-Pacific region. Despite its fast economic growth, it continues to struggle with inequality, widespread corruption, and vulnerability to natural disasters due to its location both within the Pacific Ring of Fire and near the equator, making it prone to earthquakes, monsoon rains, and typhoons, to which the Philippines has built a resilience. (Full article...) Selected article -The history of the Philippines dates from the earliest hominin activity in the archipelago at least by 709,000 years ago. Homo luzonensis, a species of archaic humans, was present on the island of Luzon at least by 134,000 years ago. The earliest known anatomically modern human was from Tabon Caves in Palawan dating about 47,000 years. Negrito groups were the first inhabitants to settle in the prehistoric Philippines. These were followed by Austroasiatics, Papuans, and Austronesians. By around 3000 BCE, seafaring Austronesians, who form the majority of the current population, migrated southward from Taiwan. Scholars generally believe that these ethnic and social groups eventually developed into various settlements or polities with varying degrees of economic specialization, social stratification, and political organization. Some of these settlements (mostly those located on major river deltas) achieved such a scale of social complexity that some scholars believe they should be considered early states. This includes the predecessors of modern-day population centers such as Manila, Tondo, Pangasinan, Cebu, Panay, Bohol, Butuan, Cotabato, Lanao, Zamboanga, and Sulu as well as some polities, such as Ma-i, whose possible location is either Mindoro or Laguna. These polities were influenced by Islamic, Indian, and Chinese cultures. Islam arrived from Arabia, while Indian Hindu-Buddhist religion, language, culture, literature, and philosophy arrived from the Indian subcontinent. Some polities were Sinified tributary states allied to China. These small maritime states flourished from the 1st millennium. These kingdoms traded with what are now called China, India, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. The remainder of the settlements were independent barangays allied with one of the larger states. These small states alternated from being part of or being influenced by larger Asian empires such as the Ming dynasty, Majapahit, and Brunei or rebelling and waging war against them. (Full article...) Did you know (auto-generated) -
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Selected biography -Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay Sr. QSC GCGH KGE GCC (August 31, 1907 – March 17, 1957) was a Filipino politician and military officer who was the seventh president of the Philippines, serving from 1953 until his death in 1957. An automobile mechanic by profession, Magsaysay was appointed military governor of Zambales after serving as a guerrilla leader during the Pacific War. He then served two terms as Liberal Party congressman for Zambales's at-large district before being appointed Secretary of National Defense by President Elpidio Quirino. He was eventually elected as president under the banner of the Nacionalista Party, the youngest to be elected to the position, and second youngest overall (after Emilio Aguinaldo). He was the first Philippine president born in the 20th century and the first to be born after the Spanish colonial era. Magsaysay died in a plane crash on March 17, 1957, in Cebu. His successor, Carlos P. Garcia, assumed the presidency. He is the most recent Philippine president to have died in office. (Full article...) General imagesThe following are images from various Philippines-related articles on Wikipedia.
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