Philippine History, Geography, Culture...

1. HISTORY
-The word ’history’ is derived from the Greek noun ’historia’ meaning ’inquiry or research, knowledge acquired by investigation.
-Learning by inquiry about the past of mankind was later developed into a discipline by the Greek historians Thucydides and Heredeotus (who is popularly known as ’Father of History’.
PHILIPPINE HISTORY
Philippine history, many argue, did not begin with the coming of the Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. Rather, it began in the 13th century, when 10 datus from Borneo, each with a hundred of his kinsmen, landed in what is now known as Panay Island in the Visayas.
Yet, it was Magellan and succeeding expeditions from Spain, who put the Philippine archipelago on the map of the world. The intrepid Magellan was dubbed as the discoverer of the Philippines after he landed in Homonhon Islet, near Samar, on March 17, 1521. He was later killed in Mactan Island of Cebu in a clash with native warriors, led by a chieftain named Lapu-Lapu.
The Philippines was a prize catch for Spain which, at that time, was locked in a fierce struggle for world colonization with Portugal. The archipelago, named Filipinas for Spain's Philip II, was composed of 7,107 islands and islets spanning 1,854 kilometers from north to south. The Philippines, also a window to the New World, stretched from China to the north and the Indonesian archipelago to the south. The northernmost tip of the country, Y'ami of the Batanes Island group, is 241 kilometers south of Taiwan, while the southernmost tip, Sibutu of the Tawi-Tawi group of islands, is just 14.4 kilometers north of Borneo.
The Philippines, in fact, is at most strategic location, making it a natural hub for commerce. Manila and Cebu are premiere centers of trade in the region. To the east is the vast Pacific Ocean and beyond it, the New World. To the west are the kingdoms of Indochina, including Cambodia and Thailand; while southwest is Malaysia.
There are three major geographical groups in the country: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The northern portion of the archipelago is composed of the largest island, Luzon. The Visayas region is made up of about 6,000 islands, including Panay, Leyte, Samar, Cebu, and Bohol. Mindanao is the second largest island and encompasses about 400 smaller islands.
Spanish colonizers succeeded in introducing Christianity in Luzon and Visayas but were unsuccessful in Mindanao, where Muslims staved off Spanish efforts.
Spain's rule lasted from the 16th to the 19th century but was marked with a series of revolts. When three Filipino priests were executed for national activities, a group of reformists formed the Propaganda Movement that would later paved the way for the Philippine Revolution. A young doctor-writer, Jose Rizal, was arrested and later executed by Spanish officials for his scathing criticisms of Spanish rule in the Philippines through two novels. Rizal, who was just 30 years old when he was executed, would later be recognized by historians as Asia's first nationalist. His contemporaries include Gandhi and Dr. Sun Yat-sen.
The Philippine Revolution was launched after Rizal's death and was led first by Andres Bonifacio and then by Emilio Aguinaldo. Philippine independence was proclaimed on June 12, 1898, on the balcony of Aguinaldo's home in kawit, Cavite. However, the Philippines was annexed by the Americans by means of the Treaty of Paris with Spain on December 10, 1898. This brought about the Filipino-American War. The Philippines then remained an American colony for nearly 50 years. In 1935, a semiautonomous Philippine Commonwealth was inaugurated in Manila, with President Manuel L. Quezon and Vice-President Sergio Osmena. This became the Philippine goverment in exile during the war.
From 1941 - 1945, the Philippines came under the Japanese empire. A puppet goverment, the Second Philippine Republic, was established, with President Manuel A. Roxas. This was the first fully independent and internationally recognized Filipino goverment.
The Philippines then became the showcase of democracy in Asia and had peaceful transition of power through many successive presidents - Roxas, Quirino, Magsaysay, Garcia, Macapagal, and Marcos. On September 21, 1972, President Marcos declared Martial Law and pushed through a new constitution in 1973, which prolonged his stay in power. He jailed his political rivals, dismissed Congress, silenced media critics, and ruled as a virtual dictator in what he called "Constitutional Authoritarianism."
On August 21, 1983, his arch-rival, former Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, returned home from three years of self-exile abroad. At the airport, Aquino was shot dead by a military assasin. This galvanized the Filipino people to fight the dictator. And on Febuary 22, 1986, Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, Deputy Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, and reformist military officers broke away from the Marcos camp and prepared to fight a bloody confrontation with Marcos and his loyalist forces. They were supported by the "People Power Revolution" of Febuary 22-25, 1986, which forced Marcos and his party to flee to Hawaii on board the US Air Force planes.
Mrs. Corazon "Cory" Aquino became the Philippines' First Lady President on February 25, 1986. She was succeeded by President Fidel V. Ramos in 1992.

2. GEOGRAPHY geography is the science that studies the lands, the features, the inhabitants, and the phenomena of the Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth"The Philippines is an archipelago comprising 7,107 islands with a total land area of 300,000 square kilometres (120,000 sq mi). The 11 largest islands contain 94% of the total land area. The largest of these islands is Luzon at about 105,000 square kilometres (41,000 sq mi). The next largest island is Mindanao at about 95,000 square kilometres (37,000 sq mi). The archipelago is around 800 kilometres (500 mi) from the Asian mainland and is located between Taiwan and Borneo.
The islands are divided into three groups: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Luzon islands include Luzon Island itself, Palawan, Mindoro, Marinduque, Masbate and Batanes Islands. The Visayas is the group of islands in the central Philippines, the largest of which are: Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte and Samar. The Mindanao islands include Mindanao itself, plus the Sulu Archipelago, composed primarily of Basilan, Sulu Island, and Tawi-Tawi.
The nation claims an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 200 nautical miles (370 km) from its shores.
Only approximately 1,000 of its islands are populated, and fewer than one-half of these are larger than 2.5 square kilometres (0.97 sq mi).
The Philippines is part of a western Pacific arc system characterized by active volcanoes. Among the most notable peaks are Mount Mayon near Legazpi City, Taal Volcano south of Manila, and Mount Apo in Mindanao. All of the Philippine islands are prone to earthquakes.
The Philippines is divided into a hierarchy of local government units (LGUs) with the 80 provinces as the primary unit. Provinces are further subdivided into cities and municipalities, which are in turn composed of barangays. The barangay is the smallest local government unit.
The island province of Marinduque prides itself as being the geographic center of the Philippines. The Marinduque governor has stated that their claim to be the Geographical Center of the Philippines has received notice and support from the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA). The Luzon Datum of 1911 in Marinduque is used as point number one for all map makers in the country.
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY- The Philippines is divided into 17 regions with all provinces grouped into one of 16 regions for administrative convenience. The National Capital Region however, is divided into four special districts.
The islands are volcanic in origin, being part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, and are mostly mountainous. The highest point in the country is the peak of Mount Apo in Mindanao, which is 2,954 metres (9,692 ft) above sea level.
The longest river is the Cagayan River or Rio Grande de Cagayan in northern Luzon measuring 354 kilometers.

3. CULTURE This includes traditions, language, arts, etc. which are found in museums, churches and galleries, found within the heart of the key cities. The culture of the Philippines reflects the country's complex history.
Most provinces have their own identifying folk dances too wherein they showcase the elegance and beauty of the way we do things, the way we dress, the way we see things as shown in different paintings, as we have been influenced by events that happened in our history. Native dances occur in amazing diversity throughout the Philippines. However, many of them are of varied origins and functions – Some are part of a tribal rite or sacrifice; others are in native feasts and festivals to conciliate the spirits, seek deliverance from pestilence or mark births and deaths; and still others have a lighter burden to carry: flirtation or courtship, or to lighten the tasks of planting or harvesting.
The Philippines is one of two predominantly Roman Catholic nations in Asia-Pacific. From a census in 2000, Catholics constitute 80.9%, with Aglipayan followers at 2%, Evangelical Christians at 2.8%, Iglesia Ni Cristo at 2.3%, and other Christian denominations at 4.5%. Islam is the religion for about 5% of the population, while 1.8% practice other religions. The remaining 0.6 did not specify a religion while 0.1% are irreligious.
Linguistic Affiliation. The official languages are Filipino, which is based on Tagalog with words from other native languages, and English. Since only 55 percent of residents speak Filipino fluently, English is used in colleges, universities, the courts, and the government. The country's seventy to eighty dialects are derived from Malay languages. Three dialects are of national importance: Cebuano in the southern islands, Ilocano in the north, and Tagalog, the language of the National Capital Region.
In the last half of the 19th century, Filipino painters showed enough maturity of concept and technique to merit critical acclaim. Damian Domingo got recognition as the “father of Filipino painting.” Towards the end of the Spanish regime, two Filipino painters won recognition in Europe – Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo and Juan Luna. Hidalgo’s Antigone and Luna’s Spolarium were both acclaimed in Europe as masterpieces of Filipino painting. In 1884, Luna won the first Gold Medal at the Exposicion Nacional de Bellas Artes for his Spolarium.
Filipino sculptors came to be known in the middle of the 19th century. Classical Philippine sculpture reached its peak in the works of Guillermo Tolentino (1890-1976). His best known masterpiece is the Bonifacio Monument, which is a group sculpture composed of numerous figures massed around a central obelisk. The principal figure is Andres Bonifacio, leader of the revolution against Spain in 1896. Behind him stands Emilio Jacinto, the brains of the Katipunan.
Filipino sculptors came to be known in the middle of the 19th century. Classical Philippine sculpture reached its peak in the works of Guillermo Tolentino (1890-1976). His best known masterpiece is the Bonifacio Monument, which is a group sculpture composed of numerous figures massed around a central obelisk. The principal figure is Andres Bonifacio, leader of the revolution against Spain in 1896. Behind him stands Emilio Jacinto, the brains of the Katipunan. Napoleon Abueva (born 1930), one of Tolentino'’s pupils, is one of the pioneering modernists in sculpture. He used various media.

4. NATIONALISM
Nationalism is a belief, creed or political ideology that involves an individual identifying with his or her home country or nation. Nationalism should be distinguished from the related construct of patriotism, which is the extent to which an individual offers support for his or her home country or nation.
Filipino nationalism began with nationalistic ideals in the 1800s Philippines that came as a consequence of more than three centuries of Spanish rule. This served as the backbone of the first nationalist revolution in Asia, the Philippine Revolution of 1896, and continues up to this day. These nationalistic sentiments have led to a wide-ranging campaign for political, social, and economical freedom in the Philippines.
The term "Filipino" originally referred to the natives of the Philippines themselves. It was Pedro Chirino, a Spanish Jesuit, who first called the natives "Filipinos," in his book Relación de las Islas Filipinas (Rome, 1604). However, during their 333-year rule of the Philippines, the Spanish rulers preferred to call the natives indios.
The earliest signs of the effect to Filipino Nationalism could be seen in the writings of Luis Rodríguez Varela, a Creole educated in liberal France and highly exposed to the Age of Enlightenment. Knighted under the Order of Carlos III, Varela was perhaps the only Philippine Creole who was actually part of European nobility. The court gazette in Madrid announced that he was to become a Conde and from that point on proudly called himself El Conde Filipino. He championed the rights of Filipinos in the islands and slowly made the term applicable to anyone born in the Philippines.
The belated development of Philippine nationalism was caused by the natives' tendency to be regionalistic. The geography of the Philippines did not help. The Philippines is insular and the people were divided by waters. In fact, the term "Filipino" originally means Spaniards born in the Philippines and not the native inhabitants. But certain events eventually led to the development of native patriotism. Things that happened which transcended the cultural and geographical boundaries that had been barriers to the unification of the inhabitants of the archipelago.
The development of native patriotism that resulted from the execution of Fathers Gomez, Burgos and Zamora also began the unconsicous formation of the ideological side of patriotism--nationalism. The Propaganda Movement (1872-1892) called for the assimilation of the Philippines as a province of Spain so that the same laws will be applied in the Philippines and that the inhabitants of the Philippines will experience the same civil liberties and rights as that of a Spanish citizen. Men like Marcelo H. del Pilar, Graciano Lopez Jaena, and Jose Rizal bombarded both the Spanish and Filipino public with nationalist literature. Rizal's novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo became the bibles of Philippine nationalism. This time, the term Pilipino was not only for Spaniards born in the Philippines but was generically applied to every inhabitants born in the Philippine Islands. The movement ended in a failure, but the literature that resulted from it became the source of what came to be Philippine nationalism.
As the movement was failing in Europe, Jose Rizal returned to the Philippines and created his La Liga Filipina in 1892. It also failed after his arrest a just few days after the creation of the group. The group split into two: the ilustrado elites formed their own Cuerpo de Compromisarios, while the lowly ilustrados formed the revolutionary Katipunan. The former disappeared into oblivion, while the latter started the Philippine Revolution (1896-1898) by 1896, culminating both the formation of patriotic sentiment and nationalistic ideals. The Philippine nationalism that emerged after the Propaganda Movement and the Philippine Revolution was only limited to the people of Visayas to Luzon, and may be to some extent, northern portions of Mindanao. Generally, the islands of Sulu, Palawan, and Mindanao had a different story. These islands had been once dominated by two powerful Muslim Sultanates prior to the arrival of the Spaniards: the Sultanate of Sulu and the Sultanate of Maguindanao. Never did the Spaniards take sufficient control of these islands and the people came to clearly distinguish themselves from those from Visayas and Mindanao. For more than three centuries, the people in these islands waged war against the Spanish Empire. Their nationalism is different since it is deeply rooted in their religion--Islam.
The United States of America replaced Spain in the Philippines after the Treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898. The period 1901 to 1910 became known as, what Teodoro Agoncillo called, the period of suppressed nationalism. The Filipinos were to be americanized through education. Nationalist essays and literature were suppressed. The raising of the Philippine flag was banned. Any utterances against the Americans and about Philippine nationalism was considered an act of sedition. The nationalism that emerged after this period is a nationalism trapped behind the rhetorics of party-politics. The Filipino that emerged were, in Renato Constantino's words, "Limited Filipinos". Filipinos by name, Spanish-American by heart. Cultural by form, yet a damaged culture by substance. This is what by some is called the decadence, by some the tragedy of Philippine nationalism.

5. INTERNATIONALISM
The principle of cooperation among nations, for the promotion of their common good. Internationalism is a movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation among nations for the theoretical benefit of all. Partisans of this movement, such as supporters of the World Federalist Movement, claim that nations should cooperate because their long-term mutual interests are of greater value than their individual short term needs. Internationalism teaches that the people of all nations have more in common than they do differences, and thus that nations should treat each other as equals.

6. BUREAUCRACY
A Bureaucracy is "a body of nonelective government officials" and/or "an administrative policy-making group." Historically, bureaucracy referred to government administration managed by departments staffed with nonelected officials. In modern parlance, bureaucracy refers to the administrative system governing any large institution.