Spanish settlement through Mexico, beginning in 1565, led to the Philippines becoming ruled by the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain.

The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for Spain, marked the beginning of Spanish colonization. The adoption of Animism, Hinduism and Islam established island-kingdoms ruled by datus, rajas, and sultans. Negritos, the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by waves of Austronesian peoples. Manila is the country's capital, and its most populated city is Quezon City both are within Metro Manila. It is the world's twelfth-most-populous country, with diverse ethnicities and cultures.

It shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the south. In the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of 7,641 islands which are broadly categorized in three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

The Philippines ( / ˈ f ɪ l ɪ p iː n z/ ( listen) Filipino: Pilipinas), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia.

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