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The present name of the Philippines was bestowed by the Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos [1] [2] or one of his captains Bernardo de la Torre [3] [4] in 1543, during an expedition intended to establish greater Spanish control at the western end of the division of the world established between Spain and Portugal by the treaties of Tordesillas and Zaragoza.
As an archipelago, the Philippines comprises about 7,641 islands [1] [2] clustered into three major island groups: Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. Only about 2,000 islands are inhabited, [3] and more than 5,000 are yet to be officially named. [2] The following list breaks the islands down by region and smaller island group for easier reference.
The Philippines claims fifty-two landforms in the Spratly Island group. Of these fifty-two landforms, only five islands, two cays, and three reefs are under Philippine occupation: the Flat Island (), the Loaita Island (), the Nanshan Island (), the Thitu Island (), the West York Island (), the Lankiam Cay (), the Northeast Cay (), the Irving Reef (Balagtas), the Commodore Reef (Rizal), and the ...
The history of the Philippines from 1565 to 1898 is known as the Spanish colonial period, during which the Philippine Islands were ruled as the Captaincy General of the Philippines within the Spanish East Indies, initially under the Viceroyalty of New Spain, based in Mexico City, until the independence of the Mexican Empire from Spain in 1821.
The Philippines, [f] officially the Republic of the Philippines, [g] is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia.In the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of 7,641 islands, with a total area of roughly 300,000 square kilometers, which are broadly categorized in three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
This may be based on masibát, a native word for "abundant with lances," [66] perhaps in reference to the island's well-armed inhabitants; or on masabat, Bikol for "to meet along the way," [67] alluding to the strategic position of the town (now city) that bears the name, as well as the island named after it, within old Philippine maritime ...
The Philippines is divided into three major island groups: Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. Luzon and Mindanao archipelagoes are both named after the largest island in their respective groups, while the Visayas (also referred to as the Visayan Islands) is an archipelago of roughly similar-sized islands.
On June 11, 1978, Philippine president Ferdinand E. Marcos issued a decree formally incorporating the Kalayaan Island Group, an area of the Spratly Islands which covers the land claimed by Freedomland or Colonia St. John, into its national territory as the Municipality of Kalayaan. [22]