The Philippines is formally the Republic of the Philippines, an archipelagic nation in Southeast Asia. It is positioned in the western Pacific Sea, and also consists of about 7,640 islands, that are broadly categorized under three primary geographical departments from north to southern: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

The Philippines is bounded by the West Philippine Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the eastern, as well as the Celebes Sea to the southwest, and shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east as well as southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and also China to the northwest.

The Philippines covers a location of 300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi) as well as, as of 2020, had a populace of around 109 million people, making it the world’s thirteenth-most populous nation. The Philippines is an international state, with diverse ethnic cultures as well as cultures throughout its islands. Manila is the nation’s resources, while the biggest city is Quezon City, both lying within the urban area of City Manila.

Negritos, a few of the archipelago’s earliest inhabitants, were complied with by succeeding waves of Austronesian peoples. Fostering of animism, Hinduism as well as Islam established island-kingdoms called Kedatuans, Rajahnates and also Sultanates. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for Spain, marked the start of Spanish emigration.

In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos called the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. Spanish negotiation via Mexico, beginning in 1565, led to the Philippines becoming part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. Throughout this time, Catholicism came to be the dominant faith, as well as Manila ended up being the western hub of trans-Pacific profession.

In 1896, the Philippine Revolution started, which after that ended up being knit with the 1898 Spanish– American Battle. Spain delivered the region to the United States, while Filipino revolutionaries proclaimed the First Philippine Republic. The ensuing Philippine– American Battle ended with the USA developing control over the territory, which they preserved up until the Japanese intrusion of the islands during The second world war.

Complying with liberation, the Philippines came to be independent in 1946. Ever since, the unitary sovereign state has often had a troubled experience with freedom, which included the topple of a dictatorship by the People Power Revolution.

It is considered to be an emerging market as well as a newly industrialized nation, which has an economy transitioning from being based upon agriculture to being based extra on solutions and also production. The Philippines is a starting participant of the United Nations, World Profession Company, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Collaboration forum, as well as the East Asia Summit.

The Philippines’ setting as an island country on the Pacific Ring of Fire and near the equator makes the country vulnerable to quakes as well as tropical storms. The country has a variety of natural resources and also a globally significant level of biodiversity.