ĭuring the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the República Filipina (the Philippine Republic). Lazarus), were used by the Spanish to refer to islands in the region before Spanish rule was established. : 6 Other names, such as ' Islas del Poniente' (Western Islands), ' Islas del Oriente' (Eastern Islands), Ferdinand Magellan's name, and ' San Lázaro' (Islands of St. Eventually, the name ' Las Islas Filipinas' would be used for the archipelago's Spanish possessions. The Philippines has a variety of natural resources and a globally-significant level of biodiversity.ĭuring his 1542 expedition, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the islands of Leyte and Samar ' Felipinas' after King Philip II of Castile (then Prince of Asturias). Its location as an island country on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes it prone to earthquakes and typhoons. 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.

The Philippines is an emerging market and a newly industrialized country, whose economy is transitioning from being agricultural to service- and manufacturing-centered.

The country has had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a decades-long dictatorship in a nonviolent revolution. After the United States retook the Philippines from the Japanese, the Philippines became independent in 1946. The ensuing Philippine–American War ended with the United States controlling the territory until the Japanese invasion of the islands during World War II. Spain ceded the territory to the United States, and Filipino revolutionaries declared the First Philippine Republic. The Philippine Revolution began in 1896, which became entwined with the 1898 Spanish–American War. Catholic Christianity became the dominant religion, and Manila became the western hub of trans-Pacific trade. Spanish settlement 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. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of King Philip II of Castile. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for Spain, marked the beginning of Spanish colonization. The adoption of Animism, Islam and Hinduism established island-kingdoms ruled by datus, rajas, and sultans. Negritos, the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by waves of Austronesian peoples. Manila is the country's capital, and its most populated city is Quezon City both are within Metro Manila. It is the world's twelfth-most-populous country, with diverse ethnicities and cultures. 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. 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. In the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of 7,641 islands which are broadly categorized in three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines ( / ˈ f ɪ l ɪ p iː n z/ ⓘ Filipino: Pilipinas), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia.

Gold farming 6.2.3