Philippines

The Philippines is made up of thousands of islands in the western Pacific, grouped into Luzon in the north, the Visayas in the middle and Mindanao in the south. The islands are the tops of a mountain chain on the Ring of Fire, with volcanoes such as Mayon, an almost perfect cone, and Taal, which rises from the middle of a lake. Off the east coast the Philippine Trench drops to some of the deepest water on earth, and typhoons arrive from the Pacific most years.

Before colonial rule the islands were a world of independent barangays and trading ports, with Muslim sultanates in Sulu and Mindanao. Magellan’s expedition arrived in 1521, and Spain then ruled from Manila for more than three centuries, trading Chinese silk for Mexican silver on the Manila galleons. José Rizal’s novels helped inspire the revolution of 1896, but in 1898 the islands passed to the United States. Independence came in 1946, and in 1986 the peaceful People Power Revolution restored democracy.

Filipino culture mixes Malay roots with three centuries of Spanish Catholicism and half a century of American schooling. Every town honours its patron saint with a fiesta, Christmas decorations go up in September, and basketball courts stand in nearly every barangay. Adobo, sinigang and lechon anchor the food. Widespread English helped the country build a large outsourcing industry, and millions of Filipinos work abroad as nurses, seafarers and caregivers, sending home earnings that sustain the economy alongside electronics, rice, coconuts and bananas.