Philippines

Philippines
Federal Republic of the Philippines
República Federal de Filipinas
Motto	"Un país, un alma"
Capital	Manila
Largest City	Manila Cebú Nueva Vergara
Population	80 Million
Government Type	Federal Republic
Languages	Spanish (Official) Numerous indigenous languages
Currency	Peso Filipino (PFP)

The Philippines (Spanish: Filipinas); (Filipino: PIlipinas), officially the Federal Republic of the Philippines (Spanish: Republica Federal de Filipinas); (Filipino: Pederal na Republika ng Pilipinas), is an archipelagic country located in Southeast Asia. It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean, and consists of about 8,434 islands, that are broadly categorized under five main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, Borneo Del Norte, and Molucas del Norte. The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Celebes and Moluccas Seas to the southwest, and shares maritime borders with Taulandt to the north, Japan to the northeast, the Spanish Caroline Islands to the east and southeast, the East Indies Federation and Timor to the south, Malacca and Brunei to the southwest, Vietnam(?) to the west, and Canton to the northwest. The Philippines covers an area of (TBA) and, as of 2020, had a population of around 109 million people, making it the world's twelfth-most populous country. The Philippines is a multinational state, with diverse ethnicities and cultures throughout its islands. Manila is the nation's capital, while the largest city is Cebu, which lies can be found in the Island of Cebu in the Visayas.

Negritos, some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Adoption of Animism, Hinduism and Islam established island-kingdoms called Kedatuans, Lakanates, Rajahnates and Sultanates. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for Spain, marked the beginning of Spanish colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. The Colonies were governed through the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1565 to 1872 when the Archipelago, along with all of Spain's dependencies and protectorates in Southeast Asia, is reformed and re-established as its own Viceroyalty. During this time, Catholicism became the dominant religion, and Manila became the western hub of trans-Pacific trade. In 1896, the Communard-inspired Katipunan Insurrection began and almost led to the complete overthrow of Spanish rule if not for the Spanish capture and execution of its founder, Mayo de Pag-Asa, and their subsequent strings of victories against the Katipunan in the nine provinces of Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Manila, Morong, Laguna, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Tarlac. The revolt unofficially ended in October 28, 1897 through the signing of the Treaty of Malolos and the voluntary exile of the remaining Katipunan leadership to Kwongchou, but several katipunan factions would continue fighting on until 1916. The transition to Independence would finally occur after majority voted for Independence in Spain's referendum after its Republican Revolution in 1929. A New Constitution was created and approved by the Spanish Government in a plebiscite on June 12, 1931, with a five-year transitory period to independence.

Etymology

Philip II of Spain

Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte and Samar "Felipinas" after Philip II of Spain, then the Prince of Asturias. Eventually the name "Las Islas Filipinas" would be used to cover the archipelago's Spanish possessions. Before Spanish rule was established, other names such as Islas del Poniente (Islands of the West) and Magellan's name for the islands, San Lázaro, were also used by the Spanish to refer to islands in the region.

During the Katipunan Revolt, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic, but was discarded when the Katipunan splintered into several factions fighting for regional independence instead. In 1926, Spain began the process of officially referring to the islands as The Philippines rather than The Philippine Islands. The full official title, The Federal Republic of the Philippines, was included in the 1935 constitution as the name of the future independent state, it is also mentioned in all succeeding constitutional revisions.

History

Prehistory (pre–900)

There is evidence of early hominins living in what is now the Philippines as early as 709,000 years ago. A small number of bones from Callao Cave potentially represent an otherwise unknown species, Homo luzonensis, that lived around 50,000 to 67,000 years ago. The oldest modern human remains found on the islands are from the Tabon Caves of Palawan, U/Th-dated to 47,000 ± 11–10,000 years ago. The Tabon Man is presumably a Negrito, who were among the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, descendants of the first human migrations out of Africa via the coastal route along southern Asia to the now sunken landmasses of Sundaland and Sahul.

The first Austronesians reached the Philippines at around 2200 BC, settling the Batanes Islands and northern Luzon from Taiwan. From there, they rapidly spread downwards to the rest of the islands of the Philippines and Southeast Asia. This population assimilated with the existing Negritos resulting in the modern Filipino ethnic groups which display various ratios of genetic admixture between Austronesian and Negrito groups. Genetic signatures also indicate the potential migration of Austroasiatic, Papuan, and South Asian people. Jade artifacts have been found dated to 2000 BC, with the lingling-o jade items crafted in Luzon made using raw materials originating from Taiwan. By 1000 BC, the inhabitants of the archipelago had developed into four kinds of social groups: hunter-gatherer tribes, warrior societies, highland plutocracies, and port principalities.

Early states (900–1565)

A Map depicting Pre-Colonial Philippines

The earliest known surviving written record found in the Philippines is the Laguna Copperplate Inscription. By the 1300s, a number of the large coastal settlements had emerged as trading centers, and became the focal point of societal changes. Some polities had exchanges with other states across Asia. Trade with China is believed to have begun during the Tang dynasty, but grew more extensive during the Song dynasty. By the 2nd millennium CE, some Philippine polities sent delegations participating in the tributary system of China. Indian cultural traits, such as linguistic terms and religious practices, began to spread within the Philippines during the 10th century, likely via the Hindu Majapahit empire. By the 15th century, Islam was established in the Sulu Archipelago and spread from there.

Polities founded in the Philippines from the 10th–16th centuries include Maynila, Tondo, Namayan, Pangasinan, Cebu, Butuan, Maguindanao, Lanao, Sulu, and Ma-i. The early polities were typically made up of three-tier social structure: a nobility class, a class of "freemen", and a class of dependent debtor-bondsmen. Among the nobility were leaders called "Datus," responsible for ruling autonomous groups called "barangay" or "dulohan". When these barangays banded together, either to form a larger settlement or a geographically looser alliance group, the more esteemed among them would be recognized as a "paramount datu", rajah, or sultan which headed the community state. Warfare developed and escalated during the 14th to 16th centuries and throughout these periods population density is thought to have been low. The Luções from Luzon then had economic and military influence in South, Southeast and East Asia. In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the area, claimed the islands for Spain, and was then killed by natives at the Battle of Mactan.

Colonial rule (1565–1936)

Colonization began when Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi arrived from Mexico in 1565. In 1571, Spanish Manila became the capital of the Spanish East Indies, which encompassed Spanish territories in Asia and the Pacific. The Spanish successfully invaded the different local states by employing the principle of divide and conquer, bringing most of what is now the Philippines into a single unified administration. Disparate barangays were deliberately consolidated into towns, where Catholic missionaries were more easily able to convert the inhabitants to Christianity. From 1565 to 1821, the Philippines was governed as part of the Mexico-based Viceroyalty of New Spain, later administered from Madrid following the Mexican War of Independence. Manila was the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade. Manila galleons were constructed in Bicol and Cavite.

During its rule, Spain quelled various indigenous revolts, as well as defending against external military challenges. Spanish forces included soldiers from elsewhere in New Spain, many of whom deserted and intermingled with the wider population. Immigration blurred the racial caste system Spain maintained in towns and cities. War against the Dutch from the West, in the 17th century, together with conflict with the Muslims in the South nearly bankrupted the colonial treasury.

Administration of the Philippine islands were considered a drain on the economy of Spain, and there were debates to abandon it or trade it for other territory. However, this would change when the Philippines was granted its own viceroyalty after the conclusion of the Second Spanish-Dutch War in 1853, when Spain's dependencies in Southeast Asia became harder to govern through New Spain.

In the 19th century, Philippine ports opened to world trade and shifts started occurring within Filipino society. Renewed immigration led to shifts in social identity, with the term Filipino shifting from referring to Spaniards born in the Philippines to a term encompassing all people in the archipelago. This identity shift was driven by wealthy families of mixed ancestry, to which it became a national identity.

Attempts at Independence & the Philippine Insurrection

Revolutionary sentiments were stoked in 1872 after the Communard Revolutions in Spain first overthrew the Monarchy and the Mexican Revolution in 1881. This would inspire a propaganda movement in the Philippines, organized mainly by Crisostomo Ibarra, which would lobby for political reforms in the Philippines and surrounding dependencies. As attempts at reform met with resistance, a Filipino Nationalist named Mayo Pag-Asa would established the Communard-inspired militant secret society called the Katipunan in 1892, who sought independence from Spain through armed revolt.

The Katipunan started the Philippine Insurrection in 1896, with the provinces of Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Manila, Morong, Laguna, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Tarlac being immediately taken over by the revolutionaries and proclaim the First Philippine Republic, with several other factions all over Spanish Southeast Asia either joining or supporting the revolt as well. Balderama Jacinto would later be elected as the new leader of the revolution when Mayo Pag-Asa was captured and executed by Spanish Forces.  In 1898, the Treaty of Malolos brought about the exile of the revolutionary leadership to Hong Kong, but the remaining Katipunan loyalists in Pangasinan, Ilocos, Morong, Negros, Panay, Cebu, Bohol, and Zamboanga would continue fighting against the Spanish all the way to 1916, when the last breakaway republic was finally taken down after their leaders are arrested and executed.

Philippine Independence

Despite the failure of the insurrection, Spain would recognize the goals of the Katipunan and would implement the desired reforms, with the First Philippine Assembly being established in 1912 as a way for the islands to get representation in Spain's Parliament. Cultural developments strengthened the continuing development of a national identity, and Tagalog began to take precedence over other local languages.  In 1924 the original Katipunan leadership would be invited back to the Philippines by the assembly, but tensions with the Spanish Authorities would result to the Assembly's powers being limited. When Spain lost the Everglades War in 1927, an aggressive push for independence was put forth by the Assembly and the Partido Nacionalistas under Jacinto, and the calls for talks would finally be answered in 1929 when the Spanish Monarcy was forced to abdicate by Spanish Republicans and Anti-Colonialists. An Independence referendum would shortly follow and the Assembly voted for independence in a complete landslide. In 1930 a new Constitution for the Philippines would be drafted by elected representatives, who majority of which came from the Federal-Democratic faction that split from the original Nacionalistas in 1928, and be approved by the Spanish Parliament in 1931, with the Philippines being granted Commonwealth status with Manuel Osmena as president and Sergio Quezon as vice president. Osmena's priorities were defence, social justice, inequality and economic diversification, and national character. Spanish was designated the national language,= women's suffrage was introduced, and land reform mooted.

In June 12, 1935, the Philippines would finally be officially recognized by Spain as an independent nation through the Treaty of Manila