the Philippines is an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean consisting of over 7,000 Islands it sits on a subduction zone in the ring of fire the geologic belt that surrounds the Pacific and is the source of a great deal of the seismic activity experienced from Japan to Alaska to California this geologic history has made the islands mineral rich but also means the inhabitants must deal with the destructive potential of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions of the 7,000 Islands only about 1,000 have human habitation and most of those are around 1 square mile in size the archipelago is split into three Island groups Luzon vasas and mindo mindo is the southernmost group The vasas are the central set and Luzan is the northernmost named for the largest island in the group and in the Philippines as a whole the island of Luzon is the most populated and includes the capital of Manila the earliest trace of homo sapiens the modern human is approximately 47,000 years ago they were preceded by earlier hominids homo lenensis named for where it was found near Luzon is dated to approximately 134,000 years ago and there is evidence that places Homo erectus on the islands as far back as 700,000 years ago the ancestors of the modern native population had established themselves by around 3,000 BCE having migrated from Taiwan other nearby islands and the Asian mainland they were austronesian meaning they belong to a sociocultural and language group spread across Maritime southeast Asia and reached as far west as Madagascar austronesian is the parent language of Malay or Indonesian Taiwanese Tagalog and others spoken throughout islands in the South Pacific early settlements in the Philippines tended to stay along rivers and tended to be somewhat isolated by geography because of this they did not develop an overarching political connection instead maintaining communities via intermarriage and other kinship relations trade between and amongst the islands and the mainland was well established by two 2000 BCE evidenced by Philippine Jade artifacts found throughout the local area produced using techniques common to India in the Philippines these objects along with ideas and the people who carried them traveled via the maritime Jade Road a massively extensive Trade Network that existed for approximately 3,000 years until 1,000 CE the last 1,500 years of this era appear to be a time of extended peace throughout the Philippine islands and the nearby area this is evidenced in part by the trade itself but it is also supported by a lack of archaeological finds of human bones that show evidence of a violent death such evidence however May simply have not yet been found written Philippine history begins around 900 CE the earliest document is the Laguna copper plate inscription which is a record of the Forgiveness of a debt by this time the people of the archipelago had begun to organize themselves into sociopolitical units called bearing Guys these are akin to a citystate and could be as small as 30 people or as large as 500 some of these came together in confederacies ruled by a Paramount leader chosen from among the rulers of the Allied polies called datus in areas that had greater contact with the Indian subcontinent they called the rulers r later in areas that had adopted Islam they were called Sultans Society Within These bearing guys was organized by class with the highest being the magino next the Freeman the mahara then finally the enslaved the alipin all with subcategories to specify a person's status the early cultures of the Philippines practiced a polytheistic animism in which all things have a spirit that must be attended in order to maintain contain good fortune and avoid bad ancestor worship was also included in this with the ancestors sometimes taking on the aspect of animals and vice versa magic and Witchcraft were widely believed to have influence and those who practiced these could be highly respected and or greatly feared Filipinos were introduced to Buddhism and Hinduism sometime before the 9th century CE the archaeological record and documents found in China and India show that some Philippine bearing guys and Islands owed tribute to the Shaya Empire a powerful Indonesian Buddhist state that controlled the maritime trade in the area between the 6th and 13th centuries their influence was followed by that of the majapahit a Hindu Buddhist State centered on the island of java both Buddhism and Hinduism influenced the existing belief systems and culture and influence was made easier by the language connections that seem to exist between Philippines and Indian Sanskrit Islam first arrived in the Philippines via a missionary mam kareim in 1380 he accompanied merchants and preached Sunni Islam to people in the Sulu archipelago he is also credited with building the first mosque in the Philippines he was followed a decade later by the Indonesian minak kabu Prince Raja binda who also set up the Sulu sultan in the early 15th century the Chinese Mariner Jang founded Chinese Muslim communities in the Philippines this history of the Philippines is generally organized as pre- and postc Colonial most of the information we have on the centuries leading up to the Spanish arrival is provided through the Chronicles and histories of other countries notably China some of these are in passing or only noted in trade records others stand out and a bit more of their story can be told the oldest document at bangai is tondo a large poly located on the passig River delta in the modern Manila Bay they were associated with the nearby Manila which was an independent barang guy with whom they shared monopolies on trade across southeast Asia this trade was sufficiently important to the Chinese that under the young law emperor of the Ming Dynasty a governor was appointed to oversee it in fact most of the documented information we have about the Philippines in the precolonial era comes from records of other countries with whom the various bangi interacted China provides the most extensive of these but there is corroborating information from Japan Champa India and others this Kingdom had declined by the early 16th century and had been overtaken by the Luzon the Luzon were the local peoples around tondo who took the opportunity of the conquest by brunai to assert themselves they were a militaristic culture who were involved in Wars all over the Philippines Indonesia and Mainland Asia sometimes under the opes of their state and sometimes as individuals and groups acting as mercenaries another largely documented state is the sultanate of Sulu so-called even though the society pre-existed the introduction of Islam and its political terminology in the 12th and 13th centuries people from the Visas area moved into the Sulu archipelago in the Mindanao section of the Philippine Islands they established their state and were known to trade throughout the area including with the people of Champa on the Indonesian Peninsula some of whom moved to Sulu there was a short war between the Sulu and the Champa in the 12th century after which trade was normalized again shortly before they were overtaken by an outside power in the 13th century according to Chinese records the area was under the control of the brunian sultanate along with maai and Manila little else is said except that they regained their independence at some later date they had certainly done so by the early 15th century when its leader Raja binda converted to Islam and was independently ruling the now sultanate sometime before the 11th century the ranet of bhan emerged on on the island of menau it was a mixed Kingdom with the majority of people practicing Hinduism but the leadership practicing Buddhism they were known for their expertise with gold and had extensive trade ties with China as well as with the various kingdoms of the indo-china peninsula there were other major independent polities of whom less is known they had separate agreements for trade with surrounding states and different cultural influences from them the C and barang GUI was greatly influenced by China and Japan their clothing reflected the styles of both as did cultural norms like blacken teeth other polities like marai and palu were trade partners with China there was also evidence of conflict between the people of the Vasan section of the archipelago and towns on the Chinese Coastline instigated by the philipinos in the decades prior to European Conta the beran salt again pushed into the Philippines they started with tondo and Manila Bay with the idea of breaking their Monopoly on the Chinese trade of certain Goods they were successful establishing sarong also known as the kingdom of Manila as a vassel state in 1500 their leader Sultan bulkia married into the ruling family of the sultanate of Sulu thereby connecting those two powers the first Contact between the people of the Philippines and Europeans was in 1521 when the Spanish expedition to circumnavigate the globe led by the Portuguese Navigator Ferdinand mellin stopped there they anchored off suluan island in the central part of the archipelago on the 14th of March 1521 mellin planted the Spanish flag calling the islands the isas desan Lazaro the next day they landed at nearby ham Han Island where mellin met with the leaders of the SIU and limasawa peoples their leader the Raja humabon spoke at length with mellan and then decided to convert to Catholicism Spanish priests in the Expedition baptized him his wife and many of their household in the tradition of taking a new or additional name at one's baptism the Raja became Carlos in honor of King Charles I of Spain his wife took the name hanana in honor of the King's mother Joanna daughter of the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella the Raja then ordered the people of the nearby Islands to welcome mellin and his men provide them with supplies and convert to Catholicism his level of influence is shown by the fact most of these people followed his lead into the church however datu lapulapu one of the Chiefs on the island of mton refused very little is known about him prior to these events except that he was humab Ban's rival for influence in the area he rejected the idea of conversion and also prevented his neighboring leader datu Zula from sending gifts to melin this prompted humabon and Zula to suggest that mellin forced the issue with a personal visit which mellin saw as an opportunity to both show strength to and a willingness to work in an alliance with the local peoples on the 27th of April 1521 mellin and his Force landed on mton and were immediately barraged with Spears rocks and arrows this initial attack was more demoralizing than deadly to the Spanish offshore the Spanish saw this attack and shot with both muskets and crossbows but were too far away to have an effect Magellan's next move was to push toward the native Village and set fire to some of the houses this gave even more force behind the mton def defense mellin was immobilized by a poisoned arrow to the leg and many of his people were quickly killed by the account of his chronicler Antonio pigafetta they focused on mellin himself which allowed a few of the Spanish to escape lapulapu also made a point of killing all of the natives who aided the Spanish in their attack this did not include Raja humabon and datu Zula despite their promise to fight alongside the SP Spanish they stayed away the Raja did try to Ransom the body of the Portuguese Navigator but lapulapu refused any of his offers seeing the attitudes of his fellows humabon seems to have refugi his conversion going as far as to kill some of the Spanish soldiers who escaped the battle the Expedition continued on its way returning to Spain the next year having finished the first circumnavigation of the earth it was four decades before the Spanish or Portuguese again tried to take any Philippine territory after the disastrous experience of mellan in the Philippines the Spanish did not make another attempt to colonize until 1542 this expedition was led by ruie Lopez de via Lobos he set out from Mexico with six ships and approximately 400 people against his Navigator's advice he landed in Mindanao but far away from any of the Chinese or Malay Traders they'd hoped to find isolated they made repairs on their ships but were prevented from getting back out to sea by the weather without supplies they resorted to eating whatever they could find much of which made them sick the survivors eventually left and landed on sarangani they claimed the territory for Spain and named it for Charles ith son crowned Prince Phillip shortly after they were graded by a Portuguese ship with with a letter from the government of the malakas in Indonesia demanding to know why the Spanish were in Portuguese territory which began a brief correspondence that consisted of the Portuguese asking the Spanish to leave and the Spanish explaining the elements of the treaties that allowed them to colonize in the region the vi aobos Expedition tried to return to Mexico but were still incredibly low on supplies they were captured by the Portuguese who jailed VI aobos and sent the remaining Spaniards on a ship back to Lisbon to be returned to Spain from there finally in November 1564 an expedition under Miguel Lopez de Legazpi left Mexico sailing west and reached the Philippines in February of the next year they arrived at SIU in the central part of the archipelago conquering it despite local opposition this marks the first Spanish colony in the islands and the beginning of a colonial hold that would last until the end of the 19th century they expanded to the island of panai in 1568 and came into contact with Muslim Pirates who attacked the settlement he sent Conquistador Martin de GOI to conquer Manila and tondo tondo surrendered in the face of the massive Naval Force Manila was taken and renamed noeva castia or Newcastle and made the capital of the Spanish East Indies which encompassed the Philippines and all Pacific Spanish territories despite the official name change it has remained Manila though with different spellings to the modern day the Spanish took the bearing guys a little at a time conquering via force and culture the colonies grew rapidly through settlement directly from Spain and from the Americas like Britain Spain used its colonies as a place to send undesir bles and so many who came from Europe were criminals or debtors there was also a large part of the population who came from New Spain and they created a Mexican Filipino subculture the Catholic missionaries were hugely influential in this effort as they built schools and hospitals alongside their churches the Spanish also built presidios or fortresses which proved their Worth to the locals when Outsiders attacked this does not mean the Islanders did not push back in 1587 a group of local datus leaders conspired to overthrow the Spanish they tried to involve nearby brunai and Borneo playing on the conflict between their Muslim population and the Catholic Spaniards they also had promises from the Japanese but they did not follow through the whole plan was revealed to the Spanish via a spy the datus were executed and their heads were displayed as a warning the rest of the people involved were fined imprisoned or exiled there were also external forces fighting against the Spanish the Portuguese were a major source of conflict until the 1580 Iberian Union which brought the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal under the same government for a few decades Chinese Pirates were a constant annoyance but were not a serious threat a few times the Japanese claimed prior control over the territory and asked for fty and tribute but this ended with a normalization of trade relations between Japan and Spain in the early 17th century the nearby Muslim states regularly attacked Philippine Islands both because they wanted specifically to push out the Spanish because they were catholic and because they wanted the territory a desire that existed long before the Spanish arrived the biggest external threat however was the Dutch this was not solely a fight over Colonial territory as the Dutch and Spanish had longstanding conflict in Europe the vagaries of inheritance meant that the habsburgs who ruled Spain also gained control of the Netherlands in the early 16 Century the main conflict between the Dutch and their hapsburg rulers was religious Spain and the hapsburgs were catholic and demanded that everyone in their territories be Catholic as well many of the Dutch were members of the newly emerging Protestant sects this ongoing conflict known as the 80 years war spilled over into Southeast Asia and the Pacific where the Dutch held Indonesia and the Spanish held the Philippines three battles were fued between the Spanish and Dutch fleets all indecisive ultimately the conflict between Spain and the Netherlands was subsumed into the 30 Years War and resolved within it in 1599 King philli ordered a referendum in the Philippines that would approve Spanish rule unsurprisingly it passed they could now claim to the the rest of the world that their overlordship of the archipelago was legitimate in the eyes of the people who lived there Spain used the Philippines as it did its other colonies exploiting natural resources for the benefit of the Empire using it to reduce population pressure at home and as a pieace in the great Colonial rivalry of the ERA this required consistent governance across the entirety of the Spanish held parts of the archipelago which was established relatively quickly the Phil Philippines were then integrated into the vice royalty of New Spain which oversaw all of the Spanish colonies in the Americas and the Pacific unlike their American colonies however the Philippines did not produce a great deal of wealth for the crown and in fact often cost more to maintain than it contributed this loss was deemed worth it though because of their strategic value although it did mean that the maintenance particularly of military fortifications was not consistent the Spanish systems of Agriculture were forced into the native filipinos with the enoma or Collective farm at its Center in this system all of the land belongs to the king the people work it for him as well as for themselves and they owe a portion of their crop to the crown after each Harvest for many the focus was on cash crops tobacco coffee Indigo and sugar both for themselves and for trade that trade and the trade of all the goods coming out of the Philippines was limited to Spain and Spanish Holdings in the 18th century the Spanish Philippines were involved in more European conflicts with the Seven Years War Britain took the opportunity of their opposing sides to make it run at Manila in hopes of gaining control over what could be one of the most important trade cities in Asia it was a logical extension of the East India company's unofficial rule over over the subcontinent which was backed by the might of the British Empire a British Fleet sailed into Manila Bay on the 24th of September 1762 over the next 12 days they bombarded the city's fortifications took control of some of the surrounding area and assessed the Spanish ability to defend their Capital they found it wanting which was in their favor on the dawn of the 6th of October they pushed into the city with little effort the Spanish contingent at the the Royal Gate refused to surrender and 180 of them were killed Manuel Rojo de Rio iier the Archbishop and temporary governor of Manila agreed to surrender in hopes it would stop any more violence he described the aftermath of the battle as a pillage that lasted over a day and made a point of saying that it was not only the British soldiers but also locals who took advantage of the moment of lawlessness it ended only with an agreement to pay a $4 million Ransom which was only partially paid the agreement between Roa and British Lieutenant General William Draper had assured the Catholic church and its activities would not be interfered with that the property of the Spanish citizens of the Philippines would be respected and they would have the same freedoms of travel and trade as did the British in the meantime members of the Spanish Colonial Administration fled the city and arranged a sort of govern in Exile in pomena under the leadership of Simone de Anda is Salazar the head judge of the royal adenia of Manila Anda wrote to inform Archbishop Rojo that he had assumed the position of governor general an assumption the Archbishop refused to accept this stopped any potential negotiation between Anda and the British as the former refused to even talk to the latter until he was addressed as the governor general but the British refused to to recognize him as such because they'd already been working with Rojo this did not stop the adenia from putting together an army of 10,000 to prevent the British from making any gains Beyond Manila Bay fighting continued through the early months of 1763 past the official end of the Seven Years War because neither of the governments in Europe was aware of the capture of Manila nor were the people in the Philippines aware the war had ended but in the meantime after the death of Archbishop Rojo in January 1764 the British and governor general Anda agreed to an Armistice it went into effect at almost the exact time the British got word that the war was over their new orders explained the archipelago was to be retained by Spain the occupation ended in the first week of April 1764 the shift to industrialism throughout the world at the turn of the 19th century made the Filipino trade in raw material too valuable to be limited to only Spain in 1834 Spain opened the ports to the world at the same time improvements in communication and transportation made it easier for people to get involved in this increased mercantilism the communal state-owned enco mienda were privatized and private businesses were opened to cater to the new trade opportunities a Filipino middle class emerged as well as a wealthy one those who could afford to send their sons to European and American universities these young men came home with ideas of freedom and liberty this coincided with the wars fought in the Spanish colonies in the Americas which were their fights for independence from the mother country some Filipinos fought in these wars and like the French who fought in the American Revolution they brought home new ideas a Filipino national identity emerged including both the descendants of Spanish colonists and the local indigenous peoples this came to be opposed to recent spanish immigrants who took over governmental positions and sought to keep the Filipinos in a second class position this led to a brief Revolt in Manila in 1823 by mid-century the demonstrations for Independence were common and came together in What's called the propaganda movement the leaders of these sought basic civil rights and equal status under the law for Spanish and Filipino people including giving the Philippines a place in the Spanish Parliament and the status of a province they sought to abolish the use of forced labor and to end the requirement that some Goods only be sold to the government lastly they wanted secular control over the priesthoods the propaganda movement ended with the arrest and deportation of one of its leaders Jose Ral a revolutionary movement called the Katipunan took its place the Philippine Revolution began in August 1898 with the express purpose of making the Philippines an independent country the rebels did fairly well in the countryside but failed to take Manila this war between Spain and its colony was combined with another war between Spain and another of its territories Cuba the push for Independence on that Caribbean island got the United States involved which changed the balance of power the Americans took the opportunity to gain a foothold in the the Western Pacific with the Battle of Manila Bay on the 1st of May 1898 the Americans essentially decided the conflict between Spain and the Philippines in favor of themselves the battle marks the end of the Spanish Colonial period for the archipelago the Philippine revolutionaries under the leadership of Emilio aguinaldo created a temporary government in June 1898 which oversaw the writing of a constitution and elections the first Philippine Republic was born on the 21st of January 1899 with aguinaldo as president the US however refused to recognize the new state this led to a brief war in which the US was successful the Philippines became an unofficial territory of the United States a status which it maintained until 1946 one element of the treaty that ended the Spanish American War war in 1898 was a $20 million payment from the United States to Spain in exchange for the Philippines this began the American Colonial period which lasted until the archipelago was granted its independence after the second world war the Filipinos had initially seen the Americans as aiding them in their independence from Spain but the Americans did not see things this way for them it was an opportunity as President William McKinley put it to uplift and and civilize and christianize them in August 1898 the Americans established a military government at Manila with this self-created Authority they set up local governments including schools and courts with the American model while this was being set up by the Americans the Philippine revolutionary government which had formed during the Spanish American war held elections to seat an assembly whose purpose was to write a constitution for their new state this founding document was adopted and set to go into effect on the 21st of January 1899 creating the first Philippine Republic on the 4th of January however the United States issued a proclamation stating that the Spanish having seeded the Philippines to them meant that the American military rule was to go into effect over the whole archipelago immediately this undermined the new government and its president Emilio aguinaldo issued a response that reaffirmed the independence of the Philippines and asserted their right to defend themselves open Warfare began on the 4th of February 1899 with an American assault on San Juan aguinaldo's government issued a declaration of war against the United States on the 2nd of June 1899 the Filipinos were not equipped for traditional Warfare against a modern State most of them did not even have guns but were working with bows arrows and Spears after a few months of this they shifted to Guerilla tactics with the idea of inflicting constant losses rather than trying to overtake them entirely this prompted an American shift to methods for fighting an internal Rebellion which included the use of camps to collect civilians with the idea of segregating them ostensibly to protect them from the gorillas they also had camps for prisoners of War which were not well supplied disease ran rampant in these camps forcing more Filipino deaths than the Warfare itself the Insurgency continued through the next year prompting a declaration of Martial law by General Arthur MacArthur on the 20th of December 1900 at the same time an American commission headed by Future President William Howard Taft began designing and enacting a government positions in local governments and the newly developed Civil Service were used to some effect to persuade resistance leaders away from their anti-American efforts hostilities were greatly reduced when President aguinaldo was captured in March 1901 on the 19th of April he officially surrendered and swore allegiance to the United States he called on his people to lay down their weapons but some local leaders like Miguel malvar and Vincent lukman continued the fighting until April 1902 isolated pockets of resistance carried on intermittently until 1913 this War cost more in people and materials for the United States than the Spanish American War the Filipinos lost at least 200,000 civilians from diseases like chera and denter as well as famine the US had implemented a scorched Earth policy in the places they hoped to root out the gorilla troops and were not shy about using extreme methods to get information from Prisoners the Philippine Fighters also used brutal tactics against the Americans they captured after the war the Philippines were put under a type of territor oral government administered by and answerable to the United States called the insular government this administration's purpose was to Shepherd the Philippines into Independence elections were held for an assembly in 1907 which served as a lower House of a bicameral legislature with the US appointed Philippine commission serving as the Upper House the assembly passed resolutions annually calling for Philippine Independence in 1916 the Philippine autonomy act also known as the Jones law was put into effect it replaced the Philippine Commission in their legislature with an elected Senate and stated unequivocally that the American policy was for Philippine Independence though without a time frame for when it would happen any activities around Independence were put on hold during World War I after the war however a Philippine delegation came to the US to present their case directly in Washington president woodro Wilson was sufficiently impressed to state that they were ready for Independence in his farewell address in 1921 but his successors apparently disagreed president Warren Harding sent a delegation to investigate and it returned that they were not ready for Independence though that was widely disputed it was not until January 1933 that the United States government allowed for a timeline for Philippine Independence this was established by the Philippine Independence Act of 1934 which gave guidelines for the writing of a constitution and establishing a commonwealth under this act the Philippines would become independent on the 4th of July following the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Commonwealth the new Philippine Constitution went into effect on the 15th of November 1935 meaning the country was to be released from us oversight on the 4th of July 1946 the new government set to work with ambitious plans plans many of which were left unfulfilled due to the Great Depression and the uncertainty surrounding the local political and Military circumstances due to Japan's recent alliance with Germany and its ongoing Invasion From China the concerns about Japan were well founded as the Empire's attack on the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December 1941 was accompanied by an attack on the Philippines this brought the Philippines into the war with their army being integrated into the US army forces Far East the American Military in the archipelago was under the control of the general Douglas MacArthur the son of Arthur MacArthur who had been the military governor of the Philippines after the Spanish American war in order to prevent its destruction the city of Manila was declared open and it was taken by the Japanese on the 2nd of January 1942 smuggled out with General MacArthur and his staff and family the Philippine president and vice president Manuel El kison and Sergio osmena set up a government in Exile in Washington DC the Japanese set up a puppet government called the Philippine executive commission whose purpose was to oversee the transition of the Philippines to an independent state some Filipinos saw more potential in actually gaining independence via the Japanese than via the Americans but most were pushing back against either in favor of genuine Independence in the initial Japanese invasion poor preparation meant the American planes were destroyed on the ground meaning they were not available to protect the US Army and Naval forces from Japanese attack the American and Filipino soldiers were forced to retreat South as far as they could go stopping at kador island and surrendering there this prompted one of the most infamous events of the war the ban Death March because of this they had no means to transfer the 75,000 men to a Camp 65 M or 105 km North other than via a March this was done with little thought to the prisoners needs including food shelter or medical care because the Japanese didn't believe in surrender they saw no value in the men and treated them accordingly the numbers vary widely but it is estimated that approximately 600 Americans and as many as 15,000 Filipinos did not reach the camp this would later be Avenged by American paratroopers and special forces units who rescued the prisoners and retook kador in February 1945 the Japanese did everything they could to dehumanize the Filipinos making for a particularly brutal occupation forced labor was common including forcing women children and some men into slavery as comfort women for the Japanese soldiers the actions of the occupiers prompted a fierce backlash in the form of of an underground resistance movement this resistance was organized as isolated Guerilla cells scattered throughout the archipelago by the end of the war nearly 300,000 Filipinos were directly involved in Guerilla activities with an unknown number supporting them in October 1944 the Americans returned to the Philippines under General MacArthur in the intervening years the Philippine gorillas had destroyed a great deal of the Japanese control and were able to provide intelligence and work alongside the Americans this was after a protracted argument between the Army and Navy about whether the AR capelo needed to be liberated by the Americans at all due to his own and his father's involvement with the Philippines MacArthur felt a personal need to assure the Commonwealth's Liberation the major push to retake the islands was the Battle of late Gulf on the 23rd to 26th of October 1944 which is still known as the largest naval B Battle in History the main Allied Fleet consisting of the heavy American aircraft carriers fast battleships and most modern escorts was commanded by Admiral William Hoy they were on the Eastern side of the Philippine islands where they saw Japanese carriers coming from Japan with the apparent intent of attacking The Invasion Fleet as soon as they were seen they turned back with the Americans racing behind them away from the Philippines at the same time a fleet of Japanese battleships and heavy Cruisers under the leadership of Admiral kurita Teo came from the Dutch East Indies toward the American Invasion Fleet on the western side of the islands this was the primary Japanese strike group not the fleet after which howy chased they ran into a line of American submarines which attacked damaging and sinking some of the ships they called for help prompting American planes to be launched from nearby aircraft carriers the Japanese Super battleship mhi was sunk after which the Japanese turned around the Americans thought they were retreating but they turned back around as soon as the American attacks stopped they attacked the American destroyers and aircraft carriers who fought back so fiercely some sacrificing themselves that kurita thought the entire American Fleet was in front of him he turned around again not realizing he was in a better position on the same night a third Japanese group encountered the older American ships at the suraga strait which had been placed to provide bombardment to support the invasion using their radar they were able to destroy most of the Japanese ships before they were aware Americans were in the straight because some of these were ships from Pearl Harbor which had been restored this is thought of as avenging that attack this was the last Battleship versus Battleship engagement in history the Americans took Manila back beginning on the 3rd of February ruary 1945 conducting an exhausting streetby street battle that lasted until the 3rd of March some of the heaviest fighting actually happened in the baseball stadium where the Japanese used the dugouts like bunkers the civilian population of Manila got caught in the middle of the battle and was prevented from leaving by the Japanese meaning tens of thousands were killed fighting continued in the islands until the Japanese surrender on the 2nd of September 1945 just a few months later on the 15th of November 1945 the Philippine Commonwealth celebrated its 10th anniversary preparations began for official Independence which was granted with much ceremony on the 4th of July 1946 the post-war history of the Philippines has been a balance between having successfully achieved Independence and subsequent struggle with internal conflict liberated from Japanese Occupation by the United States in the summer of 1945 the Republic of the Philippines was born on the 4th of July 1946 the first Decades of the new state were a mixture of economic and social reform and introduction of the Philippines onto the world stage The Growing Pains of the new Republic were felt even before independence Philippine president Manuel Kon died in 1944 still running his government in Exile from the US he was succeeded by his vice president Sergio osmena osmena was not very well known by his countrymen and his political party had fallen out of favor during the Japanese Occupation the first set of presidential elections for the new Republic was held in April 1946 before they were officially independent so there would be no lame duck period should the presidency change hands OS Mena's opponent was Manuel roxus a populist who was vocally supported by General Douglas MacArthur roxus son to rebuild his Nation from not only the bitter years of the Japanese Occupation but he also wanted to mend the nearly four centuries of foreign domination his people had endured roxus wanted to bring the Philippines into the United Nations and open the archipelago to the world he also understood that like so many countries around the globe after the second world war the rebuilding of his country relied on massive loans from the United States his administration ensured those funds by signing 99-year lease agreements with the Americans on major military bases that had already been established these loans also tied the Philippine and American economies tightly together roxas's presidency was cut short on the 15th of April 1948 when he suffered a fatal heart attack while giving a speech at Clark Airbase his vice president alido Kino immediately succeeded to the presidency Kino oversaw many of the social reforms his predecessor had pledged to implement this included health insurance an old AG pension system unemployment insurance State Relief and Open Labor opportunities that had not previously existed kirino also created agencies to help offer Aid and Loans to Filipinos who had been previously cut out of economic assistance the next election was set for the year after he took office at which point he ran for a full term of his own his opponent was Jose Laurel who had been president under the Japanese Occupation and was considered by many to be a collaborator the election was seen as corrupt at the time and is considered so by many historians but there is disagreement as to whether This truly affected the outcome as Laurel did not take any major steps to dispute it Kino's presidency also saw the emergence of a Communist party that opposed him and his government openly calling for its overthrow by the 1953 election the US was supporting his opponent Ramon Mages who won easily the the administration of Ramon Mages has been held up as an example of honest and non-corrupt governing to the point that his single term in office has been called the Golden Years by many Filipinos Mages championed his people on the world stage reinforcing the concept of the Philippines as a bulwark against the spread of Communism both at home and abroad in 1954 he led the foundation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization also known as the Manila pact which which proclaimed the Philippines as an international partner in the fight against communism Mages sent members of the Philippine Army to help United Nations Forces protect South Korea he also briefly forced communist groups at home to go into Exile and cease their political agitation Mages did not have the opportunity to complete the reforms he designed he was killed in a plane crash on the 17th of March 1957 vice president Carlos P Garcia succeeded him and then served a full term of his own Garcia was succeeded by his vice president diado makapal after losing to him in the 1961 elections Maple's Administration is best known for enacting land reforms around the tency of farmers and for changing the date on which Philippine Independence is celebrated from the 4th of July to the 12th of June changing the recognition away from the end of the occupation by the US to the end of Spanish Colonial period in 1898 he lost the 1965 election to Ferdinand Marcos the best known modern leader of the Philippines and not for positive reasons Ferdinand Marcos held control over the Philippines between 1965 and 1986 Marcos began as a president elected on Promises of economic and social reforms and ended in a brutal dictatorship a military attempt to bring part of Borneo under Philippine rule prompted a massacre of Muslims in southern parts of the archipelago a terrible occasion that was made worse by the Marcos administration's suppression of Journalism around the events despite this he was incredibly popular and won a second term in 1969 his second term saw a great deal of unrest beginning with massive financial problems directly related to his unrestrained spending during his campaign demonstrations that turned violent rumors of a pled cou d'a and an attack during a campaign rally allowed Marcos to suspend the RIT of of habus Corpus and enact martial law in 1972 his political opponents were forbidden from expressing themselves even in a peaceful manner they were either arrested or sented to Exile generally without any sort of actual trial to prove their guilt martial law would remain in effect until 1981 this second term coincided with a constitutional convention planned for 1970 during which revisions would be made to the 1935 Constitution Marcos used this to his Advantage arranging changes to the government that allowed him to remain in power after the provisions of the earlier Constitution would have required that he Ste down he changed the actual nature of the government by shifting it from a presidential system to a parliamentary one people no longer directly voted for a president the party with the largest number of seats in Congress nominated their candidate by 1973 the new constitution was in place and no one could affect effectively oued Marcos his new Administration was composed of nepotist who enacted his policies while enriching themselves Marcos also assured the support of the military with a steady supply of money Marcos claimed that he needed to enact these policies to ensure that the new Society he was creating would Thrive he vowed to eliminate corruption ease economic strain on his fellow citizens and make the Philippines a stronger international player despite this the Philippine economy shrunk steadily as trade relations dwindled causing Millions to go hungry and not a small number of deaths in the face of these elements it is hardly surprising that the Marcos Administration relied on blunt force to stay in power those deemed a threat to the regime were arrested and held without trial and only released if they were scared into submission records show 3,257 extrajudicial executions were conducted along with 35,000 and documented incidents of torture International pressure mounted for Marcos to cease his human rights violations and restore civil rights throughout the Philippines martial law was officially lifted in January 1981 but Marcos retained all of the Power he'd held during that time elections held in June of that year put Marcos into another six-year term but pressure from increasing opposition outside the Philippines especially from the United States combined with shock over the the poorly covered up assassination of marcos's primary opposition Senator benno Nino Akino Jr forced a snap election on the 7th of February 1986 Marcos was up against Corazon aino the wife of the assassinated leader each side declared their candidate the winner though it is evident that aino actually did get more votes the dispute prompted weeks of civil unrest and an attempted coup culminating in two inaugurations Marcos at his Palace and aino at a social club shortly after his ceremony however Marcos and his family were evacuated from the capital in a US Army helicopter eventually ending up in Hawaii where Ferdinand Marcos Would Die 3 years later Imelda eventually returned to the Philippines and still lives there as of this writing corazone Akino was elected as the next president of the Philippines and immediately formed a revolutionary government to normalize the situation left by Marcos and provided for a transitional Freedom Constitution this new constitution effectively crippled the powers of the president they could no longer unilaterally declare martial law proposed the creation of autonomous regions in the coderas and Muslim Mindanao to stabilize the Philippine islands and hopefully prevent Civil War and restored the presidential form of government and the bamal Congress she also did not renew treaties that would have allowed the United States to maintain control over various military bases that they'd held since the second world war unfortunately ao's Administration was plagued by infighting as well as a devastating natural disaster different groups sought varied agendas and this slowed economic and social reform to a crawl her work toward fixing the economy after the kleptocratic Marcos regime was somewhat undone by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo on the 2nd of April 1991 when the volcano started erupting a tremendous explosion on the 12th of July 1991 buried Clark Airbase rendering it unusable for Recovery a staggering $100 million in damage at least 840 deaths were reported and over 200,000 were left Homeless aino was succeeded by Fidel Ramos who negotiated with various armed opposition groups and managed to bring many of them to a peaceful reconciliation however his successor Joseph Estrada conducted military operations to put down one of these Insurgent groups the morrow Islamic Liberation Front Estrada did not finish his term in office but resigned after being impeached over bribes from illegal gambling operations the two most recent presidents of the nation have been controversial Rodrigo detert began his presidency in 2016 with a platform of increased infrastructure spending tax reform increased enforcement of anti-drug laws and other General improvements he was and is generally approved of by the people of the Philippines but his methods which included briefly implementing martial law and outright executions of criminals are widely questioned this and his attempts to reorient Philippine policy away from the US and toward China and Russia caused push back from much of the rest of the world his successor Ferdinand Marcos Jr better known as bong bong came to power in 2022 his administration has been marked by the socioeconomic issues of recovery from the covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns as well as attempts to shift away from some of the more criticized of deter programs the first Decades of the 21st century have been a time of international unease for the Philippines as the Republic sought to either reinforce old alliances or establish new foreign ties in the early 2000s the Chinese government sought to form closer economic and political ties but these failed to materialize in part because China has steadily pushed for territorial expansion and ownership of all regions and resources in the South China Sea the rich fishing grounds newly discovered underwater deposits of oil and command of the waterways around Taiwan make this region an important part of the Chinese government's future goals no matter what the future holds the Philippines will be an important part of politics in the Pacific and the rest of the world