Historical Overview

I have chosen the Philippines as my country of focus for my Core Assessment.  My reasons for choosing this country are personal, as I lived and volunteered there in 1992-1993.  I very much loved the country and still keep in touch with many of the people I became friends with there.          

Historical Overview

            The Philippines is an interesting and unique country in many ways.  Part of southeastern Asia, it is an archipelago consisting of over 7,107 islands between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea.  It is a chain of volcanic islands with mountainous interiors and coastal lowlands that vary in size depending on the island. The history of the Philippines is believed to have begun with the arrival of Negrito & Austronesian peoples by boat from nearby islands in the Polynesian chains. While Negritos were believed to live a more isolated culture, the Austronesian peoples were travelers and traders. They brought cultural influences and practices from various Asian nations such as India, China and Japan (Bisht, 2004).  Later, as part of Spanish world exploration, the Philippines came under Spanish rule and were part of the Spanish empire from about 1524 to 1898 (Riley, 2013).  In 1898, the United States purchased the Philippines from Spain and annexed it, finally granting it independence on July 4, 1946 after the end of World War II.  However, it should be noted that during the war, the Japanese occupied much of the nation for a period of time (Philippine Historical Society, 2014) and was a particularly difficult and brutal time for Filipino people.