The Philippines
Updated September 2006
The Philippines is a tropical mountainous archipelago of 7,100 large and small islands located in Southeast Asia, north of Borneo, south of Taiwan, and east of the Asian mainland across the South China Sea. The Filipino people, derived mainly from Southern Mongoloid ancestral stocks, have a common prehistory of at least 5,500 years and speak closely-related Malayo-Polynesian languages. Colonized by Spain for 350 years, the modern Filipino nation emerged through the Revolution of 1896-98, came under U.S. occupation for 45 years, and was granted formal independence in 1946.
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 Photo: Christian Erni
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