To honor King Philip the Second of Spain in 1543, the Republic of the Philippines was named the Filipinas.

Before its independece, the Philippines was named the Philippine Islands.

The Filipino-American Independence War took place from 1898 to 1902, killing 4,234 Americans and 16,000 Filipinos in action, and 200,000 died from famine and pestilence. Because of this, the Philippines lost and was colonized until 1946.

In 1521, the first Europeans to visit he Philippines were those in the Spanish expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer.

The Spanish city of Manila on the site of Moro was established by Lopez de Legaspi in 1571.

Manila became a leading comercial center of East Asia, carrying on trade with China, India, and the East Indies at the end of the 16th century.

After the U.S. naval victory in Manila Bay for winning the Spanish-American War on May 1, 1898, Commodore George Dewey supplied Aguinaldo with arms and urged him to rally the Filipinos against the Spanish.

The first aggressive moves in Asia by Japan in 1931 shifted U.S. sentiment toward immediate independence to the Philippines.

On December 8 (Dec. 7, U.S. time), 1941, war suddenly came to the Philippines when Japan attacked without warning.

In 1967, the Philippines became one of the founding countries of the ASEAN or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.