Sundaland (also called Sundaica or the Sundaic region ) is a biogeographical region of Southeast Asia corresponding to a larger landmass that was exposed throughout the last 2.6 million years during periods when sea levels were lower. It includes Bali , Borneo , Java , and Sumatra in Indonesia , and their surrounding small islands, as well as the Malay Peninsula on the Asian mainland.
116-714: The area of Sundaland encompasses the Sunda Shelf , a tectonically stable extension of Southeast Asia's continental shelf that was exposed during glacial periods of the last 2 million years. The extent of the Sunda Shelf is approximately equal to the 120-meter isobath . In addition to the Malay Peninsula and the islands of Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, it includes the Java Sea , the Gulf of Thailand , and portions of
232-476: A shootout with MILF rebels in Mamasapano delayed passage of the law. Growing public frustration with post- EDSA governance led to the 2016 election of populist Rodrigo Duterte , whose presidency saw the decline of liberalism in the country albeit largely retaining liberal economic policies. Among Duterte's priorities was aggressively increasing infrastructure spending to spur economic growth;
348-533: A 17th-century war against the Dutch , 18th-century British occupation of Manila , and conflict with Muslims in the south. Administration of the Philippines was considered a drain on the economy of New Spain, and abandoning it or trading it for other territory was debated. This course of action was opposed because of the islands' economic potential, security, and the desire to continue religious conversion in
464-402: A claim on eastern North Borneo . In 1965, Macapagal lost the presidential election to Ferdinand Marcos . Early in his presidency , Marcos began infrastructure projects funded mostly by foreign loans; this improved the economy, and contributed to his reelection in 1969 . Near the end of his last constitutionally-permitted term, Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972 using
580-406: A deep-water channel that has never been crossed by any land bridges. The northern border of Sundaland is more difficult to define in bathymetric terms; a phytogeographic transition at approximately 9ºN is considered to be the northern boundary. Greater portions of Sundaland were most recently exposed during the last glacial period from approximately 110,000 to 12,000 years ago. When the sea level
696-581: A major non-NATO ally. Under President Duterte , ties with the United States weakened in favor of improved relations with China and Russia . The Philippines relies heavily on the United States for its external defense; the U.S. has made regular assurances to defend the Philippines, including the South China Sea . Since 1975, the Philippines has valued its relations with China —its top trading partner, and cooperates significantly with
812-659: A more capable defense system. The Philippines has long struggled against local insurgencies , separatism , and terrorism . Bangsamoro 's largest separatist organizations, the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front , signed final peace agreements with the government in 1996 and 2014 respectively. Other, more-militant groups such as Abu Sayyaf and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters have kidnapped foreigners for ransom, particularly in
928-1290: A northeasterly direction, where it collected waters from some rivers in Central Sumatra and the rivers in Western and Northern Borneo, before flowing into the South China Sea between the North and South Natuna Islands. Finally the Eastern Sunda river system emptied northern Java and southern Borneo, flowing in an easterly direction between Borneo and Java into the Java Sea . [REDACTED] Africa [REDACTED] Antarctica [REDACTED] Asia [REDACTED] Australia [REDACTED] Europe [REDACTED] North America [REDACTED] South America [REDACTED] Afro-Eurasia [REDACTED] Americas [REDACTED] Eurasia [REDACTED] Oceania Philippines in ASEAN (dark grey) – [ Legend ] Pinoy ( colloquial neutral ) Pinay ( colloquial feminine ) The Philippines , officially
1044-509: A savanna corridor—even if fragmented—would have allowed for savanna-dwelling fauna (as well as early humans) to disperse between Sundaland and the Indochinese biogeographic region; emergence of a savanna corridor during glacial periods and subsequent disappearance during interglacial periods would have facilitated speciation through both vicariance ( allopatric speciation ) and geodispersal . Morley and Flenley (1987) and Heaney (1991) were
1160-531: A six-year term ) and the House of Representatives , the lower house , with members elected to a three-year term. Senators are elected at-large , and representatives are elected from legislative districts and party lists . Judicial authority is vested in the Supreme Court , composed of a chief justice and fourteen associate justices , who are appointed by the president from nominations submitted by
1276-427: A three-tier social structure: nobility, freemen, and dependent debtor-bondsmen. Among the nobility were leaders known as datus , who were responsible for ruling autonomous groups ( barangays or dulohan). When the barangays banded together to form a larger settlement or a geographically looser alliance, their more-esteemed members would be recognized as a " paramount datu ", rajah or sultan , and would rule
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#17327661763311392-399: A tropical maritime climate which is usually hot and humid. There are three seasons: a hot dry season from March to May, a rainy season from June to November, and a cool dry season from December to February. The southwest monsoon (known as the habagat ) lasts from May to October, and the northeast monsoon ( amihan ) lasts from November to April. The coolest month is January, and
1508-674: A tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a decades-long dictatorship in a nonviolent revolution . The Philippines is an emerging market and a newly industrialized country , whose economy is transitioning from being agricultural to service- and manufacturing-centered. It is a founding member of the United Nations , the World Trade Organization , ASEAN , the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and
1624-470: A typical year, usually from July to October; eight or nine of them make landfall . The wettest recorded typhoon to hit the Philippines dropped 2,210 millimeters (87 in) in Baguio from July 14 to 18, 1911. The country is among the world's ten most vulnerable to climate change . The Philippines has a democratic government, a constitutional republic with a presidential system . The president
1740-473: 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 ruled by datus , rajas , and sultans . Extensive overseas trade with neighbors such as the late Tang or Song empire brought Chinese people to
1856-494: Is head of state and head of government , and is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces . The president is elected through direct election by the citizens of the Philippines for a six-year term. The president appoints and presides over the cabinet and officials of various national government agencies and institutions. The bicameral Congress is composed of the Senate (the upper house , with members elected to
1972-685: Is a founding and active member of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and a member of the East Asia Summit , the Group of 24 , and the Non-Aligned Movement . The country has sought to obtain observer status in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation since 2003, and was a member of SEATO . Over 10 million Filipinos live and work in 200 countries , giving the Philippines soft power . During
2088-796: Is a priority hotspot for biodiversity conservation ; it has more than 200 protected areas , which was expanded to 7,790,000 hectares (30,100 sq mi) as of 2023 . Three sites in the Philippines have been included on the UNESCO World Heritage List: the Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea, the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River , and the Mount Hamiguitan Wildlife Sanctuary. The Philippines has
2204-731: Is evidence for several periods of drier conditions, a perhumid core persisted in Borneo. The presence of fossil coral reefs dating to the late Miocene and early Pliocene suggests that, as the Indian monsoon grew more intense, seasonality increased in some portions of Sundaland during these epochs. Palynological evidence from Sumatra suggests that temperatures were cooler during the late Pleistocene; mean annual temperatures at high elevation sites may have been as much as 5 °C cooler than present. Most recent research agrees that Indo-Pacific sea surface temperatures were at most 2-3 °C lower during
2320-625: Is formed by a joining of waters from northeastern Sumatra and the western Malay Peninsula, draining into the Andaman Sea . The Northern Sunda river system , also known as the Great Sunda river system, or Molengraaff river system, was named after a Dutch biologist and geologist who traveled the region extensively in the late 19th century and first proposed the existence of this river system based on his observations in Borneo. The river, arising between Belitung Island and Borneo, flowed in
2436-602: Is now found in the Kapuas River on the island of Borneo, and in the Musi and Batanghari rivers in Sumatra. Selective pressure (in some cases resulting in extinction ) has operated differently on each of the islands of Sundaland, and as a consequence, a different assemblage of mammals is found on each island. However, the current species assemblage on each island is not simply a subset of a universal Sundaland or Asian fauna, as
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#17327661763312552-451: Is synchronized at unpredictable intervals resulting in predator satiation. Higher elevation forests are shorter and dominated by trees in the oak family . Botanists often include Sundaland, the adjacent Philippines , Wallacea and New Guinea in a single floristic province of Malesia , based on similarities in their flora, which is predominantly of Asian origin. During the last glacial period , sea levels were lower and all of Sundaland
2668-575: The Reconquista . The Spanish–Moro conflict lasted for several hundred years; Spain conquered portions of Mindanao and Jolo during the last quarter of the 19th century, and the Muslim Moro in the Sultanate of Sulu acknowledged Spanish sovereignty. Philippine ports opened to world trade during the 19th century, and Filipino society began to change. Social identity changed, with
2784-470: The 2022 election . Marcos's renewal of a pro-US foreign policy, however, has been viewed as a reversal of Duterte's cordiality with China, and territorial disputes in the South China Sea have since escalated. The Philippines is an archipelago of about 7,641 islands , covering a total area (including inland bodies of water) of about 300,000 square kilometers (115,831 sq mi). Stretching 1,850 kilometers (1,150 mi) north to south, from
2900-576: The Batanes Islands (where they built stone fortresses known as ijangs ) and northern Luzon . Jade artifacts have been dated to 2000 BC, with lingling-o jade items made in Luzon with raw materials from Taiwan. By 1000 BC, the inhabitants of the archipelago had developed into four societies: hunter-gatherer tribes, warrior societies, highland plutocracies , and port principalities. The earliest known surviving written record in
3016-684: The Coral Triangle ecoregion, Philippine waters have unique, diverse marine life and the world's greatest diversity of shore-fish species. The country has over 3,200 fish species (121 endemic). Philippine waters sustain the cultivation of fish, crustaceans, oysters, and seaweeds. Eight major types of forests are distributed throughout the Philippines: dipterocarp , beach forest, pine forest, molave forest, lower montane forest , upper montane (or mossy forest ), mangroves , and ultrabasic forest. According to official estimates,
3132-498: The East Asia Summit ; it is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement and a major non-NATO ally of the United States. Its location as an island country on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes it prone to earthquakes and typhoons . The Philippines has a variety of natural resources and a globally-significant level of biodiversity . During his 1542 expedition, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named
3248-654: The Indian Ocean . The eastern boundary of Sundaland is the Wallace Line , identified by Alfred Russel Wallace as the eastern boundary of the range of Asia's land mammal fauna, and thus the boundary of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms . The islands east of the Wallace line are known as Wallacea , a separate biogeographical region that is considered part of Australasia. The Wallace Line corresponds to
3364-534: The Java and South China Seas and the thousands of islands that make up Indonesia and the Philippines today. The changing sea levels would have caused these humans to move away from their coastal homes and culture, and farther inland throughout southeast Asia. This forced migration would have caused these humans to adapt to the new forest and mountainous environments, developing farms and domestication, and becoming
3480-513: The Judicial and Bar Council . Attempts to change the government to a federal , unicameral , or parliamentary government have been made since the Ramos administration . Philippine politics tends to be dominated by well-known families , such as political dynasties or celebrities , and party switching is widely practiced. Corruption is significant , attributed by some historians to
3596-656: The Last Glacial Maximum . Snow was found much lower than at present (approximately 1,000 meters lower) and there is evidence that glaciers existed on Borneo and Sumatra around 10,000 years before present. However, debate continues on how precipitation regimes changed throughout the Quaternary. Some authors argue that rainfall decreased with the area of ocean available for evaporation as sea levels fell with ice sheet expansion. Others posit that changes in precipitation have been minimal and an increase in land area in
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3712-655: The Malacca , Siam and Sunda river systems. The Siam river system consists of a northern and a western arm. The northern arm extends the Chao Phraya River to drain the Gulf of Thailand . The western arm forming out of some rivers in central Sumatra flows through the Singapore Straits before joining up with the northern arm to empty into an estuary and the South China Sea to the north of North Natuna Island. The Malacca Straits river system
3828-482: The Moro Gulf and in 1990 on Luzon . The Philippines has 23 active volcanoes ; of them, Mayon , Taal , Canlaon , and Bulusan have the largest number of recorded eruptions. The country has valuable mineral deposits as a result of its complex geologic structure and high level of seismic activity. It is thought to have the world's second-largest gold deposits (after South Africa), large copper deposits, and
3944-726: The Philippine–American War . The war resulted in the deaths of 250,000 to 1 million civilians, primarily due to famine and disease. Many Filipinos were transported by the Americans to concentration camps , where thousands died. After the fall of the First Philippine Republic in 1902, an American civilian government was established with the Philippine Organic Act . American forces continued to secure and extend their control of
4060-601: The Republic of the Philippines , is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia . In the western Pacific Ocean , it consists of 7,641 islands , with a total area of roughly 300,000 square kilometers, which are broadly categorized in three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon , Visayas , and Mindanao . The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to
4176-529: The South China Sea to the Celebes Sea , the Philippines is bordered by the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Sulu Sea to the southwest. The country's 11 largest islands are Luzon , Mindanao , Samar , Negros , Palawan , Panay , Mindoro , Leyte , Cebu , Bohol and Masbate , about 95 percent of its total land area. The Philippines' coastline measures 36,289 kilometers (22,549 mi),
4292-530: The South China Sea . In total, the area of Sundaland is approximately 1,800,000 km. The area of exposed land in Sundaland has fluctuated considerably during the past recent 2 million years; the modern land area is approximately half of its maximum extent. The western and southern borders of Sundaland are clearly marked by the deeper waters of the Sunda Trench – some of the deepest in the world – and
4408-515: The Sunda Shelf ( / ˈ s ʌ n d ə / ) is a south-eastern extension of the continental shelf of Mainland Southeast Asia . Major landmasses on the shelf include Bali , Borneo , Java , Madura , and Sumatra , as well as their surrounding smaller islands. It covers an area of approximately 1.85 million km . Sea depths over the shelf rarely exceed 50 metres and extensive areas are less than 20 metres resulting in strong bottom friction and strong tidal friction. Steep undersea gradients separate
4524-545: The Taft Commission ; the 1934 Tydings–McDuffie Act granted a ten-year transition to independence through the creation of the Commonwealth of the Philippines the following year, with Manuel Quezon president and Sergio Osmeña vice president. Quezon's priorities were defence, social justice, inequality, economic diversification, and national character. Filipino (a standardized variety of Tagalog) became
4640-555: The Tejeros Convention , at which Bonifacio lost his position and Emilio Aguinaldo was elected the new leader of the revolution. The 1897 Pact of Biak-na-Bato resulted in the Hong Kong Junta government in exile. The Spanish–American War began the following year, and reached the Philippines; Aguinaldo returned, resumed the revolution, and declared independence from Spain on June 12, 1898. In December 1898,
4756-409: The sea level falls, and great expanses of the Sunda Shelf are exposed as a marshy plain. The rise of sea level during a meltwater pulse 14,600 to 14,300 years Before Present was as much as 16 meters within 300 years. Present sea levels submerge a number of Pleistocene paleo river systems that drained much of Sundaland during the last glacial maximum 18,000 to 20,000 years ago. To the east of
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4872-701: The "Out of Sundaland" theory . However, this view is an extreme minority view among professional archaeologists, linguists, and geneticists. The Out of Taiwan model (though not necessarily the Express Train Out of Taiwan model) is accepted by the vast majority of professional researchers. A study from Leeds University and published in Molecular Biology and Evolution , examining mitochondrial DNA lineages, suggested that shared ancestry between Taiwan and Southeast Asian resulted from earlier migrations. Population dispersals seem to have occurred at
4988-635: The 1990s, the Philippines began to seek economic liberalization and free trade to help spur foreign direct investment . It is a member of the World Trade Organization and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation . The Philippines entered into the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement in 2010 and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership free trade agreement (FTA) in 2023. Through ASEAN,
5104-749: The Indo-Pacific Warm Pool/ Western Pacific Warm Pool and an important driver of the Hadley circulation and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), particularly in January when it is a major heat source to the atmosphere. ENSO also has a major influence on the climate of Sundaland; strong positive ENSO events result in droughts throughout Sundaland and tropical Asia . The high rainfall supports closed canopy evergreen forests throughout
5220-410: The Malay Peninsula, through Sumatra and Java, and across to Borneo. Additionally, Wurster et al. (2010) analyzed stable carbon isotope composition in bat guano deposits in Sundaland and found strong evidence for the expansion of savanna in Sundaland. Similarly, stable isotope composition of fossil mammal teeth supports the existence of the savanna corridor. In contrast, other authors argue that Sundaland
5336-591: The Muslim minority in the Philippines; concerns have been raised about domestic abuse and war affecting the approximately 2.5 million overseas Filipino workers in the region. The Philippines has claims in the Spratly Islands which overlap with claims by China, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The largest of its controlled islands is Thitu Island , which contains the Philippines' smallest town . The 2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff , after China seized
5452-669: The Philippine Autonomy Act and the Jones Law . The official title "Republic of the Philippines" was included in the 1935 constitution as the name of the future independent state, and in all succeeding constitutional revisions. 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 , who lived 50,000 to 67,000 years ago. The oldest modern human remains on
5568-866: The Philippines (AFP) consist of three branches: the Philippine Air Force , the Philippine Army , and the Philippine Navy . Civilian security is handled by the Philippine National Police under the Department of the Interior and Local Government . The AFP had a total manpower of around 280,000 as of 2022 , of which 130,000 were active military personnel, 100,000 were reserves, and 50,000 were paramilitaries . In 2023, US$ 477 million (1.4 percent of GDP)
5684-790: The Philippines as soldiers and colonists. Spanish Manila became the capital of the Captaincy General of the Philippines and the Spanish East Indies in 1571, Spanish territories in Asia and the Pacific. The Spanish invaded local states using the principle of divide and conquer , bringing most of what is the present-day Philippines under one unified administration. Disparate barangays were deliberately consolidated into towns , where Catholic missionaries could more easily convert their inhabitants to Christianity , which
5800-431: The Philippines becoming ruled by the Crown of Castile, as part of the Spanish Empire , for more than 300 years. Catholic Christianity 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
5916-409: The Philippines during the 14th century, via the Indianized Hindu Majapahit Empire . By the 15th century, Islam was established in the Sulu Archipelago and spread from there. Polities founded in the Philippines between the 10th and 16th centuries include Maynila , Tondo , Namayan , Pangasinan , Cebu , Butuan , Maguindanao , Lanao , Sulu , and Ma-i . The early polities typically had
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#17327661763316032-473: The Philippines had 7,000,000 hectares (27,000 sq mi) of forest cover in 2023. Logging had been systemized during the American colonial period and deforestation continued after independence, accelerating during the Marcos presidency due to unregulated logging concessions. Forest cover declined from 70 percent of the Philippines' total land area in 1900 to about 18.3 percent in 1999. Rehabilitation efforts have had marginal success. The Philippines
6148-429: The Philippines has signed FTAs with China , India , Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The country has bilateral FTAs with Japan , South Korea, and four European states : Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The Philippines has a long relationship with the United States , involving economics, security , and interpersonal relations. The Philippines' location serves an important role in
6264-461: The Philippines is the early-10th-century AD Laguna Copperplate Inscription , which was written in Old Malay using the early Kawi script with a number of technical Sanskrit words and Old Javanese or Old Tagalog honorifics . By the 14th century, several large coastal settlements emerged as trading centers and became the focus of societal changes . Some polities had exchanges with other states throughout Asia. Trade with China began during
6380-409: The Philippines. Rizal was executed on December 30, 1896, for rebellion, and his death radicalized many who had been loyal to Spain. Attempts at reform met with resistance; Andrés Bonifacio founded the Katipunan secret society, which sought independence from Spain through armed revolt, in 1892. The Katipunan Cry of Pugad Lawin began the Philippine Revolution in 1896. Internal disputes led to
6496-407: The Quaternary has been investigated by analyzing foraminifera l δ O and pollen from cores drilled into the ocean bed, δ O in speleothems from caves, and δ C and δ N in bat guano from caves, as well as species distribution models, phylogenetic analysis, and community structure and species richness analysis. Perhumid climate has existed in Sundaland since the early Miocene ; though there
6612-460: The Spanish colonial period's padrino system . The Roman Catholic church exerts considerable but waning influence in political affairs, although a constitutional provision for the separation of Church and State exists. A founding and active member of the United Nations, the Philippines has been a non-permanent member of the Security Council . The country participates in peacekeeping missions, particularly in East Timor . The Philippines
6728-442: The Spanish to refer to islands in the region before Spanish rule was established. During the Philippine Revolution , the Malolos Congress proclaimed it the República Filipina (the Philippine Republic ). American colonial authorities referred to the country as the Philippine Islands (a translation of the Spanish name). The United States began changing its nomenclature from "the Philippine Islands" to "the Philippines" in
6844-417: The Sulu Archipelago and Maguindanao , but their presence has been reduced. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its military wing, the New People's Army (NPA), have been waging guerrilla warfare against the government since the 1970s and have engaged in ambushes, bombings, and assassinations of government officials and security forces; although shrinking militarily and politically after
6960-468: The Sunda Shelf alone (due to lowered sea level) is not enough to decrease precipitation in the region. One possible explanation for the lack of agreement on hydrologic change throughout the Quaternary is that there was significant heterogeneity in climate during the Last Glacial Maximum throughout Indonesia. Alternatively, the physical and chemical processes that underlie the method of inferring precipitation from δ O records may have operated differently in
7076-418: The Sunda Shelf and changing landbridge connections with mainland Southeast Asia have resulted in a high degree of endemism and local distribution discontinuities, discussed at Sundaland , the biogeographical province that has resulted from these changes. The exposure of the Sunda Shelf during eustatic sea level changes has effects on the El Niño oscillation. W. Earle in 1845 was the first to describe
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#17327661763317192-501: The Sunda Shelf from the Philippines , Sulawesi , and the Lesser Sunda Islands (not including Bali ). Biogeographically , Sundaland is a term for the region of Southeastern Asia which encompasses these areas of the Asian continental shelf that were exposed during the last ice age . Sundaland included the Malay Peninsula on the Asian mainland, as well as the large islands of Borneo , Java , and Sumatra , and their surrounding islands. The same steep undersea gradients that mark
7308-512: The Sunda Shelf is the Sahul Shelf . Separating these two regions of shallow seas is Wallacea , which encompasses Sulawesi and the thousands of smaller islands making up Nusa Tenggara and Maluku . Within Wallacea lie some of the deepest seas in the world, with depths of up to 7,000 metres. Passing between Bali and Lombok , and Borneo and Sulawesi, Wallacea is marked by a transition zone of flora and fauna first described by Alfred Russel Wallace . The complicated history of island formation on
7424-413: The United States' island chain strategy in the West Pacific; a Mutual Defense Treaty between the two countries was signed in 1951, and was supplemented with the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement and the 2016 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement . The country supported American policies during the Cold War and participated in the Korean and Vietnam wars. In 2003, the Philippines was designated
7540-446: The archipelago as well, which would also gradually settle in and intermix over the centuries. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan , a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for Castile , 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 of Castile . Spanish colonization via New Spain , beginning in 1565, led to
7656-494: The capital city of Manila , is connected to Laguna de Bay (the country's largest lake ) by the Pasig River . On the western fringes of the Pacific Ring of Fire , the Philippines has frequent seismic and volcanic activity. The region is seismically active, and has been constructed by plates converging towards each other from multiple directions. About five earthquakes are recorded daily, although most are too weak to be felt. The last major earthquakes were in 1976 in
7772-647: The community. Population density is thought to have been low during the 14th to 16th centuries due to the frequency of typhoons and the Philippines' location on the Pacific Ring of Fire . Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived in 1521, claimed the islands for Spain, and was killed by Lapulapu 's men in the Battle of Mactan . Unification and colonization by the Crown of Castile began when Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi arrived from New Spain ( Spanish : Nueva España ) in 1565. Many Filipinos were brought to New Spain as slaves and forced crew. Whereas many Latin Americans were brought to
7888-462: The country (3,500 of which are endemic), Philippine rain forests have an array of flora: about 3,500 species of trees, 8,000 flowering plant species, 1,100 ferns , and 998 orchid species have been identified. The Philippines has 167 terrestrial mammals (102 endemic species), 235 reptiles (160 endemic species), 99 amphibians (74 endemic species), 686 birds (224 endemic species), and over 20,000 insect species. As an important part of
8004-411: The country. Japan is the biggest bilateral contributor of official development assistance to the Philippines; although some tension exists because of World War II , much animosity has faded. Historical and cultural ties continue to affect relations with Spain . Relations with Middle Eastern countries are shaped by the high number of Filipinos working in those countries, and by issues related to
8120-431: The east, and the Celebes Sea to the south. 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. It is the world's twelfth-most-populous country , with diverse ethnicities and cultures . Manila is the country's capital , and its most populated city
8236-420: The eastern boundary of Sundaland are identified biogeographically by the Wallace Line , identified by Alfred Russel Wallace , which marks the eastern boundary of Asia's land mammal fauna, and is the boundary between the Indomalayan and Australasian realms. The shelf has resulted from millennia of volcanic activity and erosion of the Asian continental mass, and the build up and consolidation of debris along
8352-581: The economy contracted by 7.3 percent annually in 1984 and 1985. On August 21, 1983, opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. (Marcos's chief rival) was assassinated on the tarmac at Manila International Airport . Marcos called a snap presidential election in 1986 which proclaimed him the winner, but the results were widely regarded as fraudulent. The resulting protests led to the People Power Revolution , which forced Marcos and his allies to flee to Hawaii . Aquino's widow, Corazon ,
8468-639: The enactment of the Bangsamoro Organic Law; an intensified crackdown on crime and communist insurgencies; and an anti-drug campaign that reduced drug proliferation but that has also led to extrajudicial killings . In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic reached the Philippines, necessitating nationwide lockdowns that caused a brief but severe economic recession . Under a promise of continuing Duterte's policies, Marcos's son, Bongbong Marcos , ran with Duterte's daughter, Sara , and won
8584-421: The first to postulate the existence of a continuous corridor of savanna vegetation through the center of Sundaland (from the modern Malay Peninsula to Borneo) during the last glacial period , based on palynological evidence. Using the modern distribution of primates, termites, rodents, and other species, other researchers infer that the extent of tropical forest contracted—replaced by savanna and open forest —during
8700-458: The flora and fauna of Sundaland during multiple glacial periods in the last million years, and are serving the same role at present. Dipterocarp trees characteristic of modern Southeast Asian tropical rainforest have been present in Sundaland since before the Last Glacial Maximum . There is also evidence for savanna vegetation, particularly in now submerged areas of Sundaland, throughout the last glacial period . However, researchers disagree on
8816-557: The general features of the Sunda and Sahul Shelves, which he termed the "Great Asiatic Bank" and the "Great Australian Bank" respectively. The paleo river systems of the Sunda Shelf are vast submerged river systems that extend present-day river systems and may be interpreted to follow topographic lows in a down-slope direction. During the driest period of the Pleistocene era (about 17,000 years BP) some four distinct catchment areas form
8932-510: The idea of a "Great Asiatic Bank", based in part on common features of mammals found in Java, Borneo and Sumatra. Explorers and scientists began measuring and mapping the seas of Southeast Asia in the 1870s, primarily using depth sounding . In 1921 Gustaaf Molengraaff , a Dutch geologist, postulated that the nearly uniform sea depths of the shelf indicated an ancient peneplain that was the result of repeated flooding events as ice caps melted, with
9048-487: The islands are from the Tabon Caves of Palawan , U/Th-dated to 47,000 ± 11–10,000 years ago. Tabon Man is presumably a Negrito , among the archipelago's earliest inhabitants descended from 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 from Taiwan around 2200 BC, settling
9164-475: The islands of Leyte and Samar " Felipinas " after the Prince of Asturias , later Philip II of Castile . Eventually, the name " Las Islas Filipinas " would be used for the archipelago's Spanish possessions. Other names, such as " Islas del Poniente " (Western Islands), " Islas del Oriente " (Eastern Islands), Ferdinand Magellan's name, and " San Lázaro " (Islands of St. Lazarus), were used by
9280-403: The islands of Sundaland, transitioning to deciduous forest and savanna woodland with increasing latitude. The remaining primary (unlogged) lowland forest is known for giant dipterocarp trees and orangutans ; after logging, forest structure and community composition change to be dominated by shade intolerant trees and shrubs. Dipterocarps are notable for mast fruiting events , where tree fruiting
9396-481: The islands were ceded by Spain to the United States with Puerto Rico and Guam after the Spanish–American War. The First Philippine Republic was promulgated on January 21, 1899. Lack of recognition by the United States led to an outbreak of hostilities that, after refusal by the U.S. on-scene military commander of a cease-fire proposal and a declaration of war by the nascent Republic, escalated into
9512-639: The islands, suppressing an attempted extension of the Philippine Republic , securing the Sultanate of Sulu , establishing control of interior mountainous areas which had resisted Spanish conquest, and encouraging large-scale resettlement of Christians in once-predominantly-Muslim Mindanao. Cultural developments in the Philippines strengthened a national identity, and Tagalog began to take precedence over other local languages. Governmental functions were gradually given to Filipinos by
9628-545: The last glacial period, but other cores from the region show pollen from savanna-woodland species increasing through glacial periods. And in contrast to previous findings, Wurster et al. (2017) again used stable carbon isotope analysis of bat guano, but found that at some sites rainforest cover was maintained through much of the last glacial period. Soil type, rather than long-term existence of a savanna corridor, has also been posited as an explanation for species distribution differences within Sundaland; Slik et al. (2011) suggest that
9744-406: The last glacial period. Vegetation models using data from climate simulations show varying degrees of forest contraction; Bird et al. (2005) noted that although no single model predicts a continuous savanna corridor through Sundaland, many do predict open vegetation between modern Java and southern Borneo. Combined with other evidence, they suggest that a 50–150 kilometer wide savanna corridor ran down
9860-442: The late Pliocene , and the exposed area of Sundaland was smaller than what is observed at present. Sundaland was partially submerged starting around 18,000 years ago and continuing until about 5000 BC. During the Last Glacial Maximum the sea level fell by approximately 120 meters, and the entire Sunda Shelf was exposed. All of Sundaland is within the tropics ; the equator runs through central Sumatra and Borneo. Like elsewhere in
9976-552: The late Tang dynasty , and expanded during the Song dynasty . Throughout the second millennium AD, some polities were also part of the tributary system of China . With extensive trade and diplomacy, this brought Southern Chinese merchants and migrants from Southern Fujian , known as "Langlang" and "Sangley" in later years, who would gradually settle and intermix in the Philippines. Indian cultural traits such as linguistic terms and religious practices began to spread in
10092-502: The margins as sea levels rose and fell. The seas between the islands cover relatively stable ancient peneplains that are characterised by low seismicity, low isostatic gravity anomalies and no active volcanoes with the exception of Sumatra, Java, and Bali, which while connected to the Sunda Shelf, belong geologically to the young Sunda Arc orogenic system (i.e., the Sunda Mountain System). During glacial periods ,
10208-1003: The mid to late-Holocene. Oppenheimer locates the origin of the Austronesians in Sundaland and its upper regions. From the standpoint of historical linguistics , the home of the Austronesian languages is the main island of Taiwan , also known by its unofficial Portuguese name of Formosa; on this island the deepest divisions in Austronesian are found, among the families of the native Formosan languages . [REDACTED] Africa [REDACTED] Antarctica [REDACTED] Asia [REDACTED] Australia [REDACTED] Europe [REDACTED] North America [REDACTED] South America [REDACTED] Afro-Eurasia [REDACTED] Americas [REDACTED] Eurasia [REDACTED] Oceania Sunda Shelf Geologically ,
10324-662: The national language, women's suffrage was introduced , and land reform was considered. The Empire of Japan invaded the Philippines in December 1941 during World War II , and the Second Philippine Republic was established as a puppet state governed by Jose P. Laurel . Beginning in 1942, the Japanese occupation of the Philippines was opposed by large-scale underground guerrilla activity . Atrocities and war crimes were committed during
10440-497: The past. Some authors working primarily with pollen records have also noted the difficulties of using vegetation records to detect changes in precipitation regimes in such a humid environment, as water is not a limiting factor in community assemblage. Sundaland, and in particular Borneo, has been an evolutionary hotspot for biodiversity since the early Miocene due to repeated immigration and vicariance events. The modern islands of Borneo, Java, and Sumatra have served as refugia for
10556-652: The peneplain becoming more perfect with each successive flooding event. Molengraaff also identified ancient, now submerged, drainage systems that drained the area during periods of lower sea levels. The name "Sundaland" for the peninsular shelf was first proposed by Reinout Willem van Bemmelen in his Geography of Indonesia in 1949, based on his research during World War II . The ancient drainage systems described by Molengraaff were verified and mapped by Tjia in 1980 and described in greater detail by Emmel and Curray in 1982 complete with river deltas , floodplains and backswamps. The climate and ecology of Sundaland throughout
10672-520: The predecessors to future human populations in these regions. Genetic similarities were found between populations throughout Asia and an increase in genetic diversity from northern to southern latitudes. Although the Chinese population is very large, it has less variation than the smaller number of individuals living in Southeast Asia, because the Chinese expansion occurred fairly recently, from
10788-625: The region. The colony survived on an annual subsidy from the Spanish crown averaging 250,000 pesos, usually paid as 75 tons of silver bullion from the Americas. British forces occupied Manila from 1762 to 1764 during the Seven Years' War , and Spanish rule was restored with the 1763 Treaty of Paris . The Spanish considered their war with the Muslims in Southeast Asia an extension of
10904-551: The region. According to the most widely accepted theory, the ancestors of the modern-day Austronesian populations of the Maritime Southeast Asia and adjacent regions are believed to have migrated southward, from the East Asia mainland to Taiwan , and then to the rest of Maritime Southeast Asia . An alternative theory points to the now-submerged Sundaland as the possible cradle of Austronesian languages: thus
11020-484: The same time as sea levels rose, which may have resulted in migrations from the Philippine Islands to as far north as Taiwan within the last 10,000 years. The population migrations were most likely to have been driven by climate change — the effects of the drowning of an ancient continent. Rising sea levels in three massive pulses may have caused flooding and the submerging of the Sunda continent, creating
11136-501: The sandy soils of the now submerged seabed are a more likely dispersal barrier. Before Sundaland emerged during the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene (~2.4 million years ago), there were no mammals on Java. As sea level lowered, species such as the dwarf elephantoid Sinomastodon bumiajuensis colonized Sundaland from mainland Asia. Later fauna included tigers, Sumatran rhinoceros, and Indian elephant, which were found throughout Sundaland; smaller animals were also able to disperse across
11252-456: The shoal from the Philippines, led to an international arbitration case which the Philippines eventually won; China rejected the result, and made the shoal a prominent symbol of the broader dispute. China has rejected new Philippine maritime laws aimed at strengthening sovereignty in the South China Sea, stating they infringe on Chinese territorial claims and vowing to defend its interests in contested areas. The volunteer Armed Forces of
11368-455: The spatial extent of savanna that was present in Sundaland. There are two opposing theories about the vegetation of Sundaland, particularly during the last glacial period: (1) that there was a continuous savanna corridor connecting modern mainland Asia to the islands of Java and Borneo, and (2) that the vegetation of Sundaland was instead dominated by tropical rainforest, with only small, discontinuous patches of savanna vegetation. The presence of
11484-501: The species that inhabited Sundaland before flooding did not all have ranges encompassing the entire Sunda Shelf. Island area and number of terrestrial mammal species are related, with the largest islands of Sundaland (Borneo and Sumatra) having the highest diversity. The name "Sunda" goes back to antiquity, appearing in Ptolemy 's Geography , written around 150 AD. In an 1852 publication, English navigator George Windsor Earl advanced
11600-594: The specter of communism and began to rule by decree ; the period was characterized by political repression , censorship , and human rights violations . Monopolies controlled by Marcos's cronies were established in key industries, including logging and broadcasting; a sugar monopoly led to a famine on the island of Negros . With his wife, Imelda , Marcos was accused of corruption and embezzling billions of dollars of public funds. Marcos's heavy borrowing early in his presidency resulted in economic crashes , exacerbated by an early 1980s recession where
11716-563: The term Filipino encompassing all residents of the archipelago instead of solely referring to Spaniards born in the Philippines . Revolutionary sentiment grew in 1872 after 200 locally recruited colonial troops and laborers alongside three activist Catholic priests were executed on questionable grounds . This inspired the Propaganda Movement , organized by Marcelo H. del Pilar , José Rizal , Graciano López Jaena , and Mariano Ponce , which advocated political reform in
11832-535: 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. The country has had
11948-423: The tropics, rainfall, rather than temperature, is the major determinant of regional variation. Most of Sundaland is classified as perhumid, or everwet, with over 2,000 millimeters of rain annually; rainfall exceeds evapotranspiration throughout the year and there are no predictable dry seasons like elsewhere in Southeast Asia. The warm and shallow seas of the Sunda Shelf (averaging 28 °C or more) are part of
12064-540: The war, including the Bataan Death March and the Manila massacre . The Philippine resistance and Allied troops defeated the Japanese in 1944 and 1945. Over one million Filipinos were estimated to have died by the end of the war. On October 11, 1945, the Philippines became a founding member of the United Nations . On July 4, 1946, during the presidency of Manuel Roxas , the country's independence
12180-613: The warmest is May. Temperatures at sea level across the Philippines tend to be in the same range, regardless of latitude; average annual temperature is around 26.6 °C (79.9 °F) but is 18.3 °C (64.9 °F) in Baguio , 1,500 meters (4,900 ft) above sea level. The country's average humidity is 82 percent. Annual rainfall is as high as 5,000 millimeters (200 in) on the mountainous east coast, but less than 1,000 millimeters (39 in) in some sheltered valleys. The Philippine Area of Responsibility has 19 typhoons in
12296-463: The world's fifth-longest , and the country's exclusive economic zone covers 2,263,816 km (874,064 sq mi). Its highest mountain is Mount Apo on Mindanao, with an altitude of 2,954 meters (9,692 ft) above sea level. The Philippines' longest river is the Cagayan River in northern Luzon, which flows for about 520 kilometers (320 mi). Manila Bay , on which is
12412-466: The world's largest deposits of palladium . Other minerals include chromium , nickel , molybdenum , platinum , and zinc . However, poor management and law enforcement, opposition from indigenous communities, and past environmental damage have left these resources largely untapped. The Philippines is a megadiverse country , with some of the world's highest rates of discovery and endemism (67 percent). With an estimated 13,500 plant species in
12528-520: Was an extension of the Asian continent. As a result, the modern islands of Sundaland are home to many Asian mammals including elephants , monkeys , apes , tigers , tapirs , and rhinoceros . The flooding of Sundaland separated species that had once shared the same environment. One example is the river threadfin ( Polydactylus macrophthalmus , Bleeker 1858), which once thrived in a river system now called "North Sunda River" or "Molengraaff river". The fish
12644-407: Was decreased by 30–40 meters or more, land bridges connected the islands of Borneo, Java, and Sumatra to the Malay Peninsula and mainland Asia. Because the sea level was 30 meters or more lower throughout much of the last 800,000 years, the current status of Borneo, Java, and Sumatra as islands has been a relatively rare occurrence throughout the Pleistocene. In contrast, the sea level was higher during
12760-836: Was initially Syncretist . Christianization by the Spanish friars occurred mostly across the settled lowlands over the course of time. From 1565 to 1821, the Philippines was governed as a territory of the Mexico City -based Viceroyalty of New Spain; it was then administered from Madrid after the Mexican War of Independence . Manila became the western hub of trans-Pacific trade by Manila galleons built in Bicol and Cavite . During its rule, Spain nearly bankrupted its treasury quelling indigenous revolts and defending against external military attacks, including Moro piracy ,
12876-472: Was installed as president and a new constitution was promulgated. The return of democracy and government reforms which began in 1986 were hampered by national debt , government corruption, and coup attempts . A communist insurgency and military conflict with Moro separatists persisted; the administration also faced a series of disasters, including the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991. Aquino
12992-548: Was marked by economic growth, but was tainted by corruption and political scandals, including electoral fraud allegations during the 2004 presidential election . Economic growth continued during Benigno Aquino III 's administration, which advocated good governance and transparency. Aquino III signed a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) resulting in the Bangsamoro Organic Law establishing an autonomous Bangsamoro region, but
13108-494: Was primarily covered by tropical rainforest. Using species distribution models, Raes et al. (2014) suggest that Dipterocarp rainforest persisted throughout the last glacial period. Others have observed that the submerged rivers of the Sunda Shelf have obvious, incised meanders, which would have been maintained by trees on river banks. Pollen records from sediment cores around Sundaland are contradictory; for example, cores from highland sites suggest that forest cover persisted throughout
13224-675: Was recognized by the United States with the Treaty of Manila . Efforts at post-war reconstruction and ending the Hukbalahap Rebellion succeeded during Ramon Magsaysay 's presidency, but sporadic communist insurgency continued to flare up long afterward. Under Magsaysay's successor, Carlos P. Garcia , the government initiated a Filipino First policy which promoted Filipino-owned businesses. Succeeding Garcia, Diosdado Macapagal moved Independence Day from July 4 to June 12—the date of Emilio Aguinaldo's declaration— and pursued
13340-547: Was spent on the Philippine military. Most of the country's defense spending is on the Philippine Army, which leads operations against internal threats such as communist and Muslim separatist insurgencies; its preoccupation with internal security contributed to the decline of Philippine naval capability which began during the 1970s. A military modernization program began in 1995 and expanded in 2012 to build
13456-482: Was succeeded by Fidel V. Ramos , who liberalized the national economy with privatization and deregulation . Ramos's economic gains were overshadowed by the onset of the 1997 Asian financial crisis . His successor, Joseph Estrada , prioritized public housing but faced corruption allegations which led to his overthrow by the 2001 EDSA Revolution and the succession of Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on January 20, 2001. Arroyo's nine-year administration
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