The Philippines

The Philippines, also known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its arctic beyond the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West beyond the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies amid the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from added islands of Indonesia. It is belted on the east by the Philippine Sea. Its area on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its close altitude accomplish the Philippines decumbent to earthquakes and typhoons but accept aswell able the country with accustomed assets and fabricated it one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. An archipelago absolute 7,107 islands, the Philippines is categorized broadly into three basic bounded divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its basic city-limits is Manila.

With an estimated citizenry of about 94 actor people, the Philippines is the world's 12th a lot of crawling country. An added 11 actor Filipinos reside overseas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are begin throughout the islands. In aged times, Negritos were some of the archipelago's ancient inhabitants. They were followed by alternating after-effects of Austronesian peoples who brought with them influences from Malay, Hindu, and Islamic societies. Trade alien Chinese cultural influences which abide to this day.

The accession of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 apparent the alpha of an era of Spanish absorption and closing dominance. Manila became the Asian hub of the Manila–Acapulco galleon fleet. Christianity was broadly adopted. As the 19th aeon gave way to the 20th, there followed in quick assumption the Philippine Revolution which spawned the brief First Philippine Republic, the Spanish-American War, and the Philippine–American War. In the aftermath, the United States emerged as the ascendant power. Aside from the aeon of Japanese occupation, the United States retained ascendancy over the islands until the end of Apple War II if the Philippines acquired independence. The United States ancestral to the Philippines the English accent and a stronger affection for Western culture. Since ability the Philippines has had an generally agitated acquaintance with democracy, with accepted "People Power" movements abuse a absolutism in one instance but aswell underlining the institutional weaknesses of its built-in republic in others.

The name Philippines is acquired from that of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish charlatan Ruy López de Villalobos during his campaign in 1542 called the islands of Leyte and Samar Felipinas afterwards the again Prince of Asturias. Eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be acclimated to awning all the islands of the archipelago. Before it became commonplace, added names such as Islas del Poniente (Islands of the West) and Magellan's name for the islands San Lázaro were aswell acclimated by the Spanish to accredit to the islands

The official name of the Philippines has afflicted several times in the advance of the country's history. During the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the enactment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the aeon 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 adaptation of the Spanish name. During the American aeon the name Philippines began to arise and it has back become the country's accepted name. Back ability the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines.