Country

Philippines

Also Known As Republic of the Philippines

South-eastern Asia

The Philippines is an archipelago of more than seven thousand islands in the western Pacific off the southeast coast of mainland Asia, grouped into the three main island regions of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. Colonized by Spain from the sixteenth century and ceded to the United States in 1898 after the Spanish-American War, it was granted independence by the United States on 4 July 1946 following the Japanese occupation of the Second World War. Its capital, Manila, sits on the island of Luzon on Manila Bay, at the heart of the country's largest metropolitan area.

Facts

Capital

Manila 2

Population

114,000,000 2

Britannica 2026 estimate, over 114 million.

Population Estimate Year

2026 2

Area (sq km)

347,681 2

Independence or Founding Year

1946 2

The United States granted independence on 4 July 1946, ending nearly five decades of American colonial rule that had itself followed over three centuries of Spanish rule.

Landlocked

No 3

Income Group

Upper-Middle 4

Government Type

Republic 3

Classification

Sovereignty Status

UN Member State 1

Learn More

An Archipelago Between Two Empires

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Few countries changed colonial hands as abruptly as the Philippines did in 1898. Spain had ruled the archipelago for more than three centuries, since Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founded the first permanent Spanish settlement in the 1560s, governing it for most of that time not directly from Madrid but through the Spanish colonial administration in Mexico City, a reminder that the Philippines' Spanish name, honoring King Philip II, arrived by way of a different Spanish empire across the Pacific entirely. The Spanish-American War ended that in a single year: Spain ceded the islands to the United States in the Treaty of Paris, and a new colonial administration, an ocean away from the old one, began almost overnight. The Philippine-American War that followed was fought by Filipinos who had just finished fighting Spain for their own independence and now faced a second colonial power claiming the same territory. American rule lasted until 1946, interrupted by Japanese occupation during the Second World War, and independence finally arrived on 4 July 1946, a date the United States deliberately chose to echo its own.

Seven Thousand Islands, Three Regions

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

An archipelago of more than seven thousand islands cannot be governed, or even easily described, as one undifferentiated landmass, and the Philippines has long organized itself around three island groups that function almost as three countries. Luzon in the north holds Manila and the bulk of the country's population and political weight; the Visayas, a scatter of mid-sized islands including Cebu and Panay, sits between Luzon and Mindanao and gave the archipelago much of its early Spanish-era name recognition, the islands Ferdinand Magellan reached in 1521; Mindanao in the south is the second-largest island, historically less integrated into the Manila-centered state and home to the country's largest Muslim population, a legacy of trade contact with the Islamic sultanates of maritime Southeast Asia that predated Spanish colonization entirely. The three-region structure is not a formal administrative unit so much as a geographic fact every Filipino grows up navigating, since moving between them, even today, more often means a flight or a ferry than a road.

Philippines

Cities

201 entries

Continent

Country (Contained By)

Population Band

Subregion

Capital Status

Founding Era

Elevation Band

Coastal or Inland

Climate Zone

Time Zone

Showing 1 to 50 of 201 in Cities, page 1 of 5.

FAQs

Why does the Philippines celebrate its independence on 12 June when it became independent in 1946?

Independence Day was moved from 4 July to 12 June, the date of Aguinaldo's 1898 declaration.

The Philippines became independent from the United States on 4 July 1946, and that date was first observed as Independence Day. President Diosdado Macapagal later moved Independence Day to 12 June, the date of Emilio Aguinaldo's declaration of independence in 1898.

Connections

Associated With

Bataan Peninsula

Cebu City

Source Cebu City (Wikipedia)

Chocolate Hills

The Chocolate Hills are a geological formation in the Philippine province of Bohol.

Source Chocolate Hills (Wikipedia)

Davao City

Davao City is a city in Philippines.

Source Davao City (Wikipedia)

Manila

Manila is Philippines's capital.

Source Manila (Wikipedia)

Metro Manila

Metro Manila is associated with Philippines.

Source Metro Manila (Wikipedia)

Quezon City

Quezon City is a city in Philippines.

Source Quezon City (Wikipedia)

Southeast Asia

The Philippines is the easternmost archipelagic state of the Southeast Asia region.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Spain

This source names Spain directly: "Colonized by Spain from the sixteenth century and ceded to the United States in 1898 after the Spanish-American War, it was granted independence by the United States on 4 July 1946 following the..."

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Taguig

Source Taguig (Wikipedia)

Taiwan

The Philippines lies to the south.

Source Taiwan (Wikipedia)

United States

This source names United States directly: "Colonized by Spain from the sixteenth century and ceded to the United States in 1898 after the Spanish-American War, it was granted independence by the United States on 4 July 1946 following the..."

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Zamboanga City

Source Zamboanga City (Wikipedia)

Zamboanga Peninsula

Bordered By Water

Has Capital

Manila

Manila is Philippines's capital.

Source Manila (Wikipedia)

Long-Form Articles

An Archipelago Between Two Empires

Seven Thousand Islands, Three Regions

In the Other Atlases

Same As

Philippines

Also in Political Atlas: the same subject.

Governed By

Marcos Administration

Also in Political Atlas: which governs this subject.

Source Bongbong Marcos (Wikipedia)tier 2