Philippines

The only Asian country colonised by Spain, and then the only one taken by the United States, which is why it is Catholic and English-speaking at once. Magellan reached the islands in 1521 and was killed at Mactan by Lapu-Lapu; Spain returned to conquer and named the territory for its king, governing it from Mexico for two and a half centuries with the Manila galleon carrying Chinese silk east and American silver west. Catholic conversion was near total outside the Muslim south and the mountain north, and friars became the effective local government. Jose Rizal's novels and his execution in 1896 catalysed a revolution that had almost won when the United States bought the islands from Spain for twenty million dollars in 1898. The Philippine-American War that followed killed somewhere between two hundred thousand and a million Filipinos and is barely remembered in the country that fought it. Independence came in 1946 after Japanese occupation. Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and was removed by the People Power revolution of 1986. His son was elected president in 2022. Around a tenth of Filipinos work abroad and their remittances are a tenth of the economy. The country has about 115 million people across more than seven thousand islands. Filipino and English are both official, with around 180 languages spoken. Manila is the capital and Quezon City the largest. The Banaue rice terraces have been cultivated for around two thousand years. The country sits on the typhoon belt and the Ring of Fire.

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