History of Philippines

History of the Philippines:
People first reached the Philippines about 30,000 years ago, when the Negritos immigrated from Sumatra and Borneo via boats or land-bridges. They were followed by Malays, then Chinese beginning in the ninth century, and Spaniards in the sixteenth.
Ferdinand Magellan claimed the Philippines for Spain in 1521. During the next 300 years, Spanish Jesuit priests and conquistadors spread Catholicism and Spanish culture across the archipelago, with particular strength on the island of Luzon.
The Spanish Philippines was actually controlled by the government of Spanish North America prior to Mexican independence in 1810.
Throughout the Spanish colonial era, the people of the Philippines staged a number of uprisings. The final, successful revolt began in 1896, and was marred by the executions of Filipino national hero Jose Rizal (by the Spanish) and Andres Bonifacio (by rival Emilio Aguinaldo). The Philippines declared its independence from Spain on June 12, 1898.
However, the Filipino rebels did not defeat Spain unaided; the United States fleet under Admiral George Dewey actually had destroyed Spanish naval power in the area in the May 1 Battle of Manila Bay.
Rather than granting the archipelago independence, the defeated Spanish ceded the country to the United States in the December 10, 1898 Treaty of Paris.
Revolutionary hero General Emilio Aguinaldo led the rebellion against American rule that broke out the following year. The Philippine-American War lasted three years and killed tens of thousands of Filipinos and about 4,000 Americans. On July 4, 1902, the two sides agreed to an armistice. The US government emphasized that it did not seek permanent colonial control over the Philippines, and set about instituting governmental and educational reform.
Throughout the early 20th century, Filipinos took increasing amounts of control over governance of the country. In 1935, the Philippines was established as a self-governing commonwealth, with Manuel Quezon as its first president. The nation was slated to become fully independent in 1945, but World War II interrupted that plan.
Japan invaded the Philippines, leading to the deaths of over a million Filipinos. The US under General Douglas MacArthur was driven out in 1942, but retook the islands in 1945.
On July 4, 1946, the Republic of the Philippines was established. The early governments struggled to repair the damage caused by World War II.