Museums in the Philippines

The Philippines is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It consists of about 7,641 islands in the western Pacific Ocean.

The capital city of the Philippines is Manila, and the country is endowed with abundant natural resources and some of the world’s highest biodiversity.

Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago’s earliest inhabitants.

Successive waves of Austronesian peoples followed them. Exchanges with Malay, Indian, Arab, and Chinese nations occurred. Then, various competing maritime states were established under different rulers.

The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer in 1521, marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization. In 1543, the Spanish named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain.

The Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. Spanish colonization resulted in Catholicism becoming the dominant religion.

During this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with the Americas.

Independence from Spain was declared in 1898, which led to the First Philippine Republic, followed by the bloody Philippine–American War (1899 – 1902).

The war resulted in the deaths of thousands of combatants as well as tens of thousands of civilians.

Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, when the Philippines was recognized as an independent nation.