Afl-Cio Filipino American Labor Leader Signed National Ufw Philip Cruz

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176290343484 AFL-CIO FILIPINO AMERICAN LABOR LEADER SIGNED NATIONAL UFW PHILIP CRUZ . This book is inscribed and signed twice by Philip Vera Cruz. A very significant piece of personal history of Filipino immigrants and the farmworkers movement! Softcover w/ excellent binding, hinges and pages. Book is rubbed and bumped, but overall quite nice. Large trade paperback 7 x 10 inches. Please see all pictures for further condition details Philip Vera Cruz was a Filipino American labor leader, farmworker, and leader in the Asian American movement. He helped found the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, which later merged with the National Farm Workers Association to become the United Farm Workers. 
 On July 21, 1994, Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard of the California State Legislature delivered a brief homage to Philip Vera Cruz (1904-1990), a founding member of the United Farm Workers, who died on June 10 at the age of ninety. Vera Cruz left a “legacy of commitment and dedication to social justice,” Rep. Roybal-Allard stated, which survives “in the work of grassroots organizers” everywhere. From his arrival in this country in 1926 as a “colonial ward,” neither alien nor citizen, from beleaguered Asian territory annexed by the U.S. after the Spanish-American War (1896-98) and the Filipino-American War (1899-1902), to his leadership (together with Larry Itliong) of the historic 1965 Delano Grape Strike, the course of Vera Cruz’s life followed a typical pattern—youthful initiation, crisis (peripeteia), discovery---memorably delineated in Carlos Bulosan’s classic life-history of the Filipino migrant worker, America Is in the Heart (1948).   In contrast to Bulosan, now part of the ethnic canon in Asian American Studies, Philip is almost unknown despite his being vice-president of the United Farm Workers from its founding up to 1977. His 1992 memoir, edited by Craig Scharlin and Lilia Villanueva, has not really circulated as widely, despite or maybe because of its candid yet tempered criticism regarding the leadership style of Cesar Chavez. Chavez’s place in the pantheon of heroic Americans like Martin Luther King appears secure. But Philip’s name has remained in limbo. Except for a handful of Filipino academics, most Filipino Americans (now larger in numbers than the Chinese group), nor the Latinos whom he championed, I am sure, have never heard of Philip Vera Cruz. Nor will his compatriots spend time and energy to find out about Philip’s life and his significant contribution to the popular-democratic struggles of the working people in this country and around the world.   Before attempting an explanation why, I want to pose the general problem of how to make sense of the life of any individual, how to understand its distinctive physiognomy and meaning. Are all human lives alike? Yes and no. We all belong to the natural species of homo sapiens/faber, sharing common needs and aspirations. Praxis, our interaction with nature to produce and reproduce our social existence, unites all humans. However, we are all different because our lives are shaped by multiple contexts in history, contexts which are often variable and unpredictably changing, so that one needs the coordinates of the body, psyche, and society to map the trajectory of any single individual’s life-history. Writing on Luther and Gandhi, Erik Erikson focused on the identity crisis of individuals in the life-cycle framed by the structure of ideological world images. He noted in particular identity problems as omnipresent in the “mental baggage of generations of new Americans, who left their motherlands and fatherlands behind to merge their ancestral identities in the common one of self-made men… Migration means cruel survival in identity terms, too, for the very cataclysms in which millions perish open up new forms of identity to the survivors” (1975, 43). Philip was a survivor, indeed, but was he a self-made man in the cast of the Anglo Horatio Alger models?   Instead of following a psychohistorical approach, I want to engage the challenge of Philip’s testimonio as a constellation of personal events, events that can be read as an allegory of the Filipino community’s struggle to fashion subjects capable of fidelity to promises and commitments, and thus invested with self-respect and self-esteem. Winning reciprocity and recognition, Philip held himself accountable to his family, ethnic compatriots, and co-workers in terms of universal maxims and norms that suggest a collective project for the “good life” envisaged within and through the contingencies and risks of late capitalist society.   Today, given the debate on multiculturalism, the nature of identity is almost equivalent to cultural belonging, to genealogy and affiliation. In the culture wars in which everyone is engaged, whether one likes it or not, the politics of identity seems to have repudiated any universal standard or “metanarrative,” so that one’s life can only be situated within the frame of limited localities, specific zones of contact, particularities of time and place. I do not subscribe to the postmodernist doctrine of nominalist relativism—that only atomistic sense-data, not general concepts, can provide experimental knowledge. As Charles Sanders Peirce argued, consensual belief can be fixated at the end of any inquiry provided we agree that the reasons for any belief are fallible and open to modification. Whatever the position one takes in the dialectic of global and local, the singular and the universal, it is difficult to avoid the question of how to adjudicate the relative power of social/cultural and individual/psychic factors in the shaping of subaltern lives. Nietzsche and Derrida cannot so easily reject the Enlightenment legacy of doubt and critique without pulling the rug from under their feet; such legacy, on the other hand, has been put on trial by its victims—by feminists and by thinkers like Fanon, Aime Cesaire, Mariategui, C.L.R. James, Edward Said, and others.   I submit that the life-pattern of an individual like Philip Vera Cruz is unique and at the same time typical for a colonized subaltern in the U.S. Empire. But it is not idiosyncratic since he, like thousands of his compatriots from the Philippines (or other colonial possessions like Puerto Rico), was exposed to the same political, economic and ideological forces that shaped the lives of the majority of migrant workers in the U.S. in the last century. This occurred in varying degrees, with nuanced complexities, depending on their ethnic/racial, gender, class, and national positions at particular historical conjunctures. In the case of the Filipino subject—the “nationals”  in the first three decades of the last century—the crucial context for understanding the ethos or subject-position of this group is none other than the violent suppression of the revolutionary struggle of Filipinos against colonial domination, first by Spain and then by the U.S. This coincided then with the beginning of segregation enforced by lynching mobs, the confinement of Native Americans to reservations, and mass war hysteria against the “Black Legend” (leyenda Negra) during the Spanish-American War. In this charged climate, nationality, racialized physiognomy, and social class marked all Filipinos, and continues to mark them, as stigmata difficult even for assimilationists to erase.   Despite the defeat of the anti-imperialist insurgency, Filipinos who grew up in the first three decades of the last century absorbed the ideals and passion for independence which saturated the milieu and resonated up to the outbreak of World War II. Philip’s will to autonomy is displayed in his realistic attitude to religion—for him, “churches are only as good as what they do, not what they say” (2000, 80)—a practicable stance easily harmonized with his emphasis on what he calls traditional Filipino values of helpfulness, understanding, and loyalty.   The racialized subjugation of the natives, the arguably genocidal extermination of over one million Filipinos resisting U.S. aggression, continued through a dual policy of coercion and “Benevolent Assimilation.” Eventually the U.S. coopted the elite and used the patron-client system to pacify the seditious peasantry. The Americanization of the Filipino through selective education and the liberal habitus of a “free-market” order, side by side with feudal or tributary institutions, produced the subaltern mentality which one will find in most Filipinos then (and up to now, in the professional stratum and the petty bourgeoisie in general), particularly those recruited for work in the Hawaiian plantations, the student pensionados sent by the colonial government, or those who, like Philip and Bulosan, chose on their own to pursue the adventure of making their fortune in the U.S. in the years of the Great Depression.   Unlike in Iraq and Afghanistan today, U.S. colonizing strategy in early twentieth-century drew from the experience of the brutal taming of the American Indians and the juridical/ideological policing of blacks, Tejanos, Chinese, etc. Class and ethnic stratification via mass public education regulated the rigor of industrialization while the few exceptional cases of successful careers gave an illusion of mobility and possibilities of change. The gradual but inexorable movement from the impoverished rural village to the modern city and then to the North American continent replaced the lure of revolutionary ideals. The impact of the defeat of the armed nationalist movement registered in different ways for every Filipino migrant—one needs to qualify here that Filipinos were not technically immigrants until the establishment of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1935 when entry of Filipinos was limited to 50 every year. One can say that the primal scenario of defeat bred suspicion, not trust; however, every Filipino of peasant or working-class origin had to settle account with that “curse” by sly, cunning accommodation or by hidden forms of civil disobedience if she or he wants to show fidelity to the promise of being responsible to family and community.   For Bulosan, the personal experience of peasant revolts brutally put down by the U.S. in the twenties allowed him to see in collective suffering a promise and hope of liberation. He interpreted every episode in his life as part of this narrative of transformation. Thus early union organizing by the CIO in the West Coast and the popular front of intellectuals—especially the international front against fascism in Spain and Europe--made it possible for him to withstand the cruelties of the McCarthy repression in the fifties and the equally brutal suppression of the Communist-led peasant uprising in the Philippines in the late forties and fifties. The symbolic action of the native’s laughter at his fate produced a catharsis that helped him recover from disillusionment. Hence the pattern of life for the Bulosan protagonist in his fiction is that of the young peasant who gets his education from community/worker struggles, pan-ethnic solidarity with all the oppressed (including women), and from his conviction that underneath the ruin of his dreams, the temporary deprivations and exclusions, survives the image of “America” as the embodiment of equality, dignity and material prosperity for all, a condition that will be brought about by mass struggles and personal sacrifices. It was a narrative of maturation, learning from collective experience, and a celebration of universal togetherness, a belonging to a redemptive fraternity. Bulosan arrived in Seattle in the thirties without any possessions and died in Seattle in the fifties penniless, but supported and acclaimed by a large vibrant community of workers and colleagues of various ethnic and racial backgrounds throughout the country.   With Philip Vera Cruz, this typical narrative acquired some telling if commonplace deviations. It was a narrative of emancipation, no doubt, but also a story of disenchantment and a caustic tale of reserved affirmation of the human comedy.   In broad outline, Philip’s life conforms to Bulosan’s in that both were colonized subjects from the Philippines, and both participated in the anti-capitalist reform-minded struggle of multiethnic farmworkers, but they were also two unique individuals.  As Sartre once said in wrestling with the problem of how one can define the individuality of members of the same group: “Valery is a petty bourgeois intellectual, no doubt about that. But not every petty bourgeois intellectual is Valery.” Philip shared the same subject-position as millions of his countrymen: “Because of our colonial education we looked up to anything American as good” (2000, 11); but he diverged in overturning the dominant hierarchy of values, valorizing integrity and faithfulness to one’s words, solidarity, as the universal measure.   Key to the difference lies in Philip’s more independent temperament that was manifest early; for example, he defied his parents in going to school despite their refusal or indifference. Philip was able to pay for his passage from the sale of the last piece of family property. His family did not go through the more arduous ordeals of Bulosan’s clan in strife-torn Pangasinan province. Philip accepted the beneficent claims of U.S. education, not questioning its ideological function; so he finished high school in Washington in between hoeing beets in North Dakota, earning income as a busboy in a country club in Spokane, Washington, and doing various chores in Chicago. In Chicago, however, Philip engaged in intellectual pursuits, he was active in various community organizations; he also studied for a while at Gonzaga University in Spokane before being drafted into the army in 1942. What is unusual is that even though Philip learned the art of survival in the cities where Filipinos were discriminated and ostracized, he did not experience the violent racist attacks that Bulosan and other Filipinos suffered in California and Washington in the thirties and forties. Philip quietly accepted subaltern status so long as he could send money to his family back home.   It was not until Philip settled in Delano in 1943 and began working in the grape vineyards that he would be exposed to the overt racial segregation, hostility, and institutional harassment that Filipinos experienced every day. I think it was Philip’s knowledge of diverse settings, modalities of survival and adjustment, as well as his uninterrupted devotion to supporting his brother and sister by regular remittances, that enabled Philip to maintain some distance from the plight of the Filipino community even while being categorized as belonging to that politically and economically subordinated group. His civic consciousness was dormant, his capabilities as a citizen untapped by any mediating political or social institution that could turn them into actual powers.   It is also revealing that Philip did not display the more reflexive astuteness that Bulosan showed in his dealings with compatriots, perhaps due to the latter’s health problems and physical inability to really earn a living. Philip was able to manage and still save money to send home to his mother, a fulfillment of his vow to his father. Despite accommodation to city life, Philip expressed an appreciation not for the pastoral innocence of the countryside but for the independence of the farmer cultivating productive land, for the self-disciplined industriousness of “simple folk,” which contrasted sharply with the deceit and betrayal rampant in urban life. After leaving his birthplace, Saoang, Ilocos Sur, and “crossing the Pacific in search of a better life, wandering around the U.S. for many years,” Philip finally returned to a rural place resembling his natal village, though he also was painfully cognizant of the disparity: “Saoang was green, lush, tropical….and there was always the sight of the blue ocean that contrasted so beautifully with the rolling green foothills that came down almost to the water, whereas Delano is flat, hot but dry, with almost no green vegetation except what’s planted on the farms, and no bodies of water” (2000, 7).   Philip celebrated the “Saong tradition of migrant work” in the 1940s when the New Deal was being tested in factories and fields. Despite his direct acquaintance with racism, Philip never showed any tendency to chauvinist exclusivism; he acknowledged the influence of his Anglo friend Bill Berg from New York—Philip would talk to Filipinos about how “white people had also fought for freedom and are also revolutionaries, that the minority in this country cannot fully succeed without the help of all freedom fighters, whaever the color of their skin” (2000, 23). After the victory over fascist Germany and militarist Japan, the U.S. entered the era of the Cold War. Times changed and labor-capital antagonisms, muted by white supremacy and Western chauvinism, simmered under the surface (for a good historical background to the farmworker’s movement, see Kushner 1975).   One of the major events that produced a decisive swerve in Philip’s life, even if not consciously recognized in words, took place in his witnessing the 1948 Stockton strike led by the veteran labor organizers Chris Mensalvas and Ernesto Mangaong, close friends of Carlos Bulosan. Both organizers were officers of the Cannery Workers Union, ILWU Local 37, in Seattle where Filipinos predominated. Of great significance to Philip was Mensalvas and Mangaong’s successful effort to thwart the government’s attempt to deport them under the anticommunist McCarran Act. Earlier in his life, as field help or restaurant worker, Philip never experienced any sustained involvement in strikes or worker protests. Philip is silent about his views regarding the witch-hunt of left activists, nor does he make any mention of the Huk uprising in the Philippines, nor Mao’s triumph in liberating China, nor of the Korean War. Instead he comments on why Filipinos who entered the U.S. before 1936 (like himself) could not be deported because they were nationals, not aliens. In any case, he emphasizes the important of the Stockton strike as “the first major agricultural workers strike” before the 1965 Delano strike.   Philip’s education materialized in the school of arduous labor in households, restaurants, factory and field, and in his solidarity meditations. Personal witnessing of farmworker organizing, as well as the testimony of actual participants in the struggle for humane treatment, helped shape Philip’s trust in the competence and sustainable strength of the organized masses to influence the course of their lives, even to the point of converting their passive resignation into active self-determination. Before touching on Philip’s decision to resign from the UFW as a critique of Chavez’s top-down style, I want to introduce the two aspects of identity, the idem and ipse identity, theorized by the philosopher Paul Ricoeur, as pivotal elements in the construction of an ethnic autobiography.   So far, what I have reviewed are the events of Philip’s development as reflexive protagonist of his adventure in the U.S. This is a narrative of the development of character, what Ricoeur calls the “self” (idem/sameness) as a permanent structure of qualities or dispositions by which a person is recognized. This structure consists not just of acquired habits but also learned identification with values, norms, ideals, models, heroes, in which the person or the community recognizes itself. This continuity of character should be distinguished from the self as ipse (selfhood) embodied in the phenomenon of promise, “that of keeping one’s word in faithfulness to the word that has been given. Keeping one’s word expresses a self-constancy that, far from implying temporal changelessness, meets the challenge of variation in beliefs and feelings…The continuity of character is one thing, the constancy of friendship quite another” (1983, 106). The question “What am I?” differs from “Who am I?,” the former is sameness without selfhood and the latter selfhood without sameness.   The practice of belonging implies accountability. We have seen Philip prove his faithfulness to his father and to his family by sharing his hard-won wages, denying himself the opportunity for an education or even for a relatively comfortable life. He has in effect been fulfilling an unspoken promise to maintain his organic linkage with the community. This is itself a mark of character as well as a sign of self-hood, although the practice of helping the family back home is shared by the majority of Filipino workers in one degree or another. Another sub-cultural characteristic of Philip’s generation is what he calls pride, the refusal or failure to convey the forbidding reality of their lives to their parents and relatives back home. Everyone in the colony believed in America as the “land of promise,” a place where hard work would reward you with success, status in terms of money and material possessions. Conditioned by this ideological expectation, Philip and the “Manongs” lived a life of suspended utopian longing, if not stubborn self-deception. Philip did not want to disappoint his brother so he persuaded him not to follow and join him: “I was trying to be truthful but at the same time I didn’t want to tell him the details of how hard life was here.” Philip confessed the nature of the collective predicament:   "I couldn’t tell them some of the truths about my life here because I wanted to make them believe that America was good as I believed before I left. I had to struggle to make it good, at least for myself. Most of my Filipino compatriots felt this way too, and that’s why very few of us wrote truthfully about our lives here to our families back home. Many of us were guilty of fooling our families in the Philippines into believing we were something here that we really were not" (2000, 29).   For the most part, Philip never dwelt at length or in depth on the illusions most colonials cherished about the United States. To be sure, the schooling and ideological apparatuses of the state conditioned every native to believe in the equivalence of prosperity and everyday life in the metropolis. So efficient was this mass indoctrination that it had to take the daily ordeals of survival for these young Filipinos to get rid of years of what Filipino historian Renato Constantino calls “mis-education.” An emblematic symptom of this may be found in Philip’s discovery of his ignorance when he disembarked from the ship that took him to Vancouver: he saw that the wealthy class enjoyed themselves above the deck while hundreds of his companions suffered in the steerage. This “shock of recognition” precipitated a turn or reversal that reinforced the latent streak of independence already manifested in his childhood.   We can speculate then that Philip’s narrative of his life is an attempt to explain his character, the habitus of the self shared with his ethnic group. But what distinguishes Philip from the others, and in what way is this selfhood (ipse), a departure from the typical paradigm of the immigrant fable of success in America? What kind of moral or ethical subject is exemplified in Philip’s decision to reveal his judgment of Chavez as a consequence of his being faithful to the demand of the larger Filipino community that was prior to his obligation to the bureaucratic constraints or rules of being an official of the union?   Philip’s critique of Chavez’s authoritarian style is nothing new, as Frank Bardache (1993), Rodolfo Acuna (1988), and others have elaborated on this on various occasions. Qualified by profuse praise of Chavez’s charismatic stature and his self-sacrificing devotion to the welfare of the farm workers, Philip’s objection to Chavez’s top-down management was long suppressed for the sake of the public image of UFW unity. However, the struggle for popular democracy in the Philippines and in the U.S. pre-empted Philip’s devotion to UFW bureaucracy. It was only when Chavez embraced the brutal Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines, and invited the fascist labor minister Blas Ople to speak to the UFW rank and file in the August 1977 Convention, while muzzling his own vice-president Philip, that Philip could no longer restrain himself.   This crisis is significant for configuring Philip’s narrative because it ushered the rupture, the ethical choice, that defined his character from idem-sameness to ipse-selfhood: his opposition to the authoritarian rule of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines coincided with a national upsurge of radicalism among Filipino-Americans, in particular the second or third-generation youth, who were mobilized in the late sixties and seventies by the civil-rights and anti-war campaigns. This is the youth that he appeals to at the end, his audience, his hope for a new future. No such turning-point can be found in the early stages of Philip’s life that equals this episode in intensity and resonance. Patient and forgiving, self-effacing to the point of seeming to be fatalistic or indifferent, Philip finally disrupted postcolonial inertia and connected his present with other moments in his life when he rebelled, contradicted abusive authority, and tried to help sustain a community of honest, dignified, morally capable citizens of equal status.   In the section of his autobiography, “The movement must go beyond its leaders,” Philip opposed the irrational cult of a leader and the suppression of criticism which deprived union members of “their right to reason for themselves.” Capability for moral choice needs to be actualized by democratic public institutions such as unions, etc. Notwithstanding the praise of Chavez by Peter Mathiessen, the biographers Richard Griswold del Castillo, Jacques Levy, Joan London, John Gregory Dunne, and others, Philip’s reservation may be explained by his identification with the plight of his compatriot Larry Itliong who initiated the Delano grape strike and had never really been credited for his part in this historic event. Philip regretted not having been closer to Larry whose self-contradictions, tied to the apathy and suspicion of his ethnic group, limited his efficacy. Responding to those who wanted to preserve the mythical aura of Chavez and the movement, Philip writes: “For me, we need the truth more than we need heroes” (2000, 91). He has broken from the circumscribed locus of family and ethnic kinship; defamiliarized, he joins a larger family of citizens united by the solidarity of civic cooperation and the humanizing telos of  transformative political praxis.   Truth, in Philip’s eyes, concerned principles, not personalities. Although he resigned from the union after he publicly distanced himself from Chavez’s support of the Marcos dictatorship, Philip remained supportive of the UFW and the entire unionizing movement. Although he bewailed the fact that he sacrificed too much in his struggle to survive (a duty to support his family in the Philippines) and maintain his dignity as a Filipino assisting his community and fighting for workers’ rights, Philip was never bitter nor cynical. He affirmed an internationalism that transcended the narrow parochial claims of ethnicity, racial affiliation, and nationality: “…I respect the differences between people through their cultures, and I think all efforts, energies, and money should be concentrated to serving the people instead of making profits for a select group or country here and there.”   The narrative climaxes with an invocation to his successors, the youthful workers whose representatives here may be the editors, Scharlin and Villanueva. Philip’s message to the young generation in whom rests the future of any country clearly serves as the leitmotif of his chronicle: “The success of any positive changes in this country depends on the strength of the workers and the organizations that hold the workers together are the unions…. Nothing will really change in this country without the total support of the working class” (2000, 154). He was seventy three when he chose the popular, democratic resistance against the right-wing Marcos dictatorship over Chavez’s open support for it, a stand that also confirmed his internationalist, progressive spirit of opposing capitalism as a system whose destructive exploitative logic was the lesson and truth that Philip wanted to impart by recording his life.   In retrospect, Philip’s life is in search of a narrative scheme that would contradict if not interrupt the commodified story of immigrant success, a narrative that would capture what Sartre calls (with reference to Kierkegaard) “the singular universal” (1974, 141). It would be a narrative that would assume the world-historical objectivity of human character but also recognize the active subject who fills the “holes of history” and opens up the space for global transformation. Such is the lesson I find from studying the autobiography of Philip Vera Cruz, a revolutionary Filipino worker, who replied to the perennial question we often hear addressed to us, ourselves as others: “Why don’t you go back where you came from?”  He couldn’t—until he could account for why he stayed and fought.   References   Acuna, Rodolfo. 1988.  Occupied America: A History of Chicanos. New York: Harper and Row.   Bardache, Frank. 1993.  “Cesar’s Ghost: Decline and Fall of the U.F.W.”  Nation (26 July/2 August): 130-35.   Dunne, John Gregory.  1971.  Delano.  New York: Farrar, Straus and  Giroux.   Erikson, Erik.  1975.  Life History and the Historical Moment.  New York: W.W. Norton.   Etulain, Richard, ed.  2002.  Cesar Chavez: A Brief Biography with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins. Griswold del Castillo, Richard and Richard A. Garcia. 1995.  Cesar Chavez: A Triumph of Spirit. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.   Kushner, Sam.  1975.  Long Road to Delano. New York: International  Publishers.   Levy, Jacques.  1975.  Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa.  New York W.W. Norton.   London, Joan and Henry Anderson.  1970.  So Shall Ye Reap.  New York: Thomas W. Crowell.   Ricoeur, Paul.  1983. “Self as Ipse.” In Freedom and Interpretation, ed. Barbara Johnson. New York: Basic Books.   San Juan, E. 1998.  From Exile to Diaspora: Versions of the Filipino Experience in the United States. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.   Sartre, Jean-Paul.  1974.  Between Existentialism and Marxism.  New York: William Morrow and Co.   Valledor, Sid Amores, ed.  2004.  The Original Writings of Philip Vera Cruz. Unpublished manuscript.   Vera Cruz, Philip (with Craig Scharlin and Lilia Villanueva. 2000. Philip Vera Cruz: A Personal History of Filipino Immigrants and the Farmworkers Movement.  Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) led by organizer Larry Itliong, and the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) led by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta. They became allied and transformed from workers' rights organizations into a union as a result of a series of strikes in 1965, when the mostly Filipino farmworkers of the AWOC in Delano, California, initiated a grape strike, and the NFWA went on strike in support. As a result of the commonality in goals and methods, the NFWA and the AWOC formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee on August 22, 1966.[3] This organization was accepted into the AFL-CIO in 1972 and changed its name to the United Farm Workers Union.[4] Contents 1 History 1.1 Founding of the UFW 1.2 Historic complications in organizing farm workers prior to UFW formation 1.3 Community organizing and divisions of labor in the UFW 1.4 Texas strike 1.5 Texas campaign 1.6 1970s 1.7 1980s 1.8 Recent developments 2 Geography 2.1 Immigration 3 Roles 4 Historic sites 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 7.1 Archival collections 8 External links 8.1 General 8.2 Archives and documentation History Founding of the UFW See also: Delano grape strike Part of a series on Chicanos and Mexican Americans Mexican America Terms History Culture Literature Chicana/o studies Visual art Law Population Lists Flag of the United States.svg United States portalCategoryIndex vte Dolores Huerta grew up in Stockton, California, in the San Joaquin Valley, an area filled with farms. In the early 1950s, she completed a degree at Delta Community College, part of the University of the Pacific. She briefly worked as an elementary school teacher. Huerta saw that her students, many of them children of farm workers, were living in poverty without enough food to eat or other basic necessities. To help, she became one of the founders of the Stockton chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO). The CSO worked to improve social and economic conditions for farm workers and to fight discrimination.[5] By 1959, César Chávez had already established professional relationships with local community organizations that aimed to empower the working class population by encouraging them to become more politically active. In 1952, Chávez met Fred Ross, who was a community organizer working on behalf of the Community Service Organization. This group was affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation, headed by Saul Alinsky.[6] To further her cause, Huerta created the Agricultural Workers Association (AWA) in 1960. Through the AWA, she lobbied politicians on many issues, including allowing migrant workers without U.S. citizenship to receive public assistance and pensions and creating Spanish-language voting ballots and driver's tests. In 1962, she co-founded a workers' union alongside community activists such as Larry Itliong and César Chávez, which was later known as the United Farm Workers (UFW). The UFW was created through the emergence of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) which was mainly composed of Filipino migrant workers and the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) which was mainly composed of Mexican migrant workers. Larry Itliong was a Filipino American labor organizer who fore-fronted the grape strike in Coachella Valley that spearheaded the Delano Grape Strike of 1965. He became assistant director of the UFW.[7][8] Chávez was the dynamic leader and speaker and Huerta was a skilled organizer and tough negotiator. Huerta was instrumental in the union's many successes, including the strikes against California grape growers in the 1960s and 1970s.[5] During Chávez's participation in the Community Service Organization, Fred Ross trained César Chávez in the grassroots, door-to-door, house meeting tactic of organization, a tactic crucial to the UFW's recruiting methods. The house meeting tactic successfully established a broad base of local Community Service Organization chapters during Ross's era, and Chávez used this technique to extend the UFW's reach as well as to find up and coming organizers. During the 1950s, César Chávez and Fred Ross developed twenty-two new Community Service Organization chapters in the Mexican American neighborhoods of San Jose. In 1959, Chávez claimed the rank of executive director in the Community Service Organization. During this time, Chávez observed and adopted the notion of having the community become more politically involved to bring about social changes that the community sought. This was a vital tactic in Chávez's future struggles in fighting for immigrant rights.[6][9] César Chávez's ultimate goal in his participation with the Community Service Organization and the Industrial Areas Foundation was to eventually organize a union for the farm workers. Saul Alinsky did not share Chávez's sympathy for the farm workers struggle, claiming that organizing farm workers, "was like fighting on a constantly disintegrating bed of sand." (Alinsky, 1967)[6] In March 1962, at the Community Service Organization convention, Chávez proposed a pilot project for organizing farm workers, which the organization's members rejected. Chávez responded by resigning from the organization to create the farm workers union that later became known as the National Farm Workers Association.[6] UFW Flag By 1965, the National Farm Workers Association had acquired twelve hundred members through Chávez's person-to-person recruitment efforts, which he had learned from Fred Ross just a decade earlier. Out of those twelve hundred, only about two hundred paid dues.[6] Also in 1962, Richard Chavez, the brother of César Chávez, designed the black Aztec eagle insignia that became the symbol of the NFW and the UFW.[2] César Chávez chose the red and black colors used by the organization.[10] Although still in its infant stages, the organization lent its support to a strike by workers in the rose industry in 1965. This initial protest by the young organization resulted in a failed attempt to strike against the rose industry. That same year the farm workers who worked in the Delano fields of California wanted to strike against the growers in response to the grower's refusal to raise wages from $1.20 to $1.40 an hour, and they sought out Chávez and the National Farm Workers Association for support. The Delano agricultural workers were mostly Filipino workers affiliated with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, a charter of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. The unification of these two organizations, in an attempt to boycott table grapes grown in the Delano fields, resulted in the creation of the United Farm Workers of America.[6] The AFL-CIO chartered the United Farm Workers, officially combining the AWOC and the NFWA, in August 1966.[11] Historic complications in organizing farm workers prior to UFW formation In the early history of American agriculture, farm workers experienced many failed attempts to organize agricultural laborers. In 1903, Japanese and Mexican farm workers attempted to come together to fight for better wages and better working conditions. This attempt to organize agricultural laborers was ignored and disbanded when organizations, such as the American Federation of Labor, neglected to support their efforts, often withholding assistance on the basis of race.[6] In 1913, the Industrial Workers of the World organized a rally of two thousand farm workers at a large ranch in a rural area of Northern California. This resulted in an attack by National Guardsmen against participants. As a result of the violence, the two lead organizers for the Industrial Workers of the World were arrested, convicted of murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Some believe the two people arrested were wrongly convicted.[6] In the later 1910s and the 1920s in the United States, further attempts to organize farm laborers were undertaken by spontaneous local efforts, and some by communist unions. These attempts also failed because, at that time, the law did not require employers to negotiate with workers. Employers at the time could legally fire employees for union activity.[4] In 1936, the National Labor Relations Act took effect. This legislation provided most American workers the right to join unions and bargain collectively. Agricultural workers were exempt from the protection of this law. Some believe that this labor category was excluded as a result of a political tactic to gain the support of Southern politicians in the passing of this law.[4] In 1941, the United States Government and the Mexican Government enacted the Bracero Program. Initially, the two governments established this joint project to address Second World War labor shortages by allowing "guest workers" from Mexico to work in the American agricultural industry until the end of the crop harvest. Thousands of Mexican Nationals came north to work in American fields, and growers used the opportunity to undercut domestic wages. They also used the Braceros to break strikes by resident farm workers. This government extended the program until 1964.[4] Community organizing and divisions of labor in the UFW Many Mexican women in California who joined the UFW in the 1960s had been previously involved in community-based activism in the 1950s through the Community Service Organization for Latino civil rights. The racial discrimination and economic disadvantages they faced from a young age made it necessary to form networks of support like the CSO to empower Latinos in America with voter registration drives, citizenship classes, lawsuits and legislative campaigns, and political protests against police brutality and immigration policies.[12] While male activists held leadership roles and more authority, the women activists participated in volunteering and teaching valuable skills to individuals of the Latino community. By the 1960s, Huerta and others began to shift their attention to the labor exploitation of Latino farm workers in California and began to strike, demonstrate, and organize to fight for a myriad of issues that Mexican laborers faced. While many of the male leaders of the movement had the role of being dynamic, powerful speakers that inspired others to join the movement, the women devoted their efforts to negotiating better working contracts with companies, organizing boycotts, rallying for changes in immigration policies, registering Latinos to vote with Spanish language ballots, and increasing pressure on legislation to improve labor relations.[13] Among the women who engaged in activism for labor rights, traditional and non traditional patterns of activism existed. Mexican-American women like Dolores Huerta used their education and resources arrange programs at the grassroots level, sustaining and leading members it into the labor movement. As the sister-in-law of César Chávez, Huerta co-founded the National Farmworkers Association, which became the United Farm Workers. She had great influence over the direction that it took, breaking stereotypes of the Mexican woman in the 1960s. However, it was most common for Chicana activists and female labor union members to be involved in administrative tasks for the early stages of UFW. Women like Helen Chávez were important in responsibilities such as credit union bookkeeping and behind the scenes advising. Still, both women along with other Chicana activists participated in picketing with their families in the face of police intimidation and racial abuse.[14] Keeping track of union services and membership were traditionally responsibilities given to female organizers and it was integral to the institutional survival of the UFW, but it has gone much less recognized throughout history due to the male led strikes receiving majority public attention.[15] Texas strike This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) In May 1966, California farm worker activist Eugene Nelson traveled to Texas and organized local farmworkers into the Independent Workers' Association. At the time, some melon workers lacked access to fresh water while working in the fields, some lacked sanitary facilities for human waste, and some were present in the fields as crop dusters dropped pesticides on the crops.[16][17] On June 1, Nelson led workers to strike to protest poor working conditions and demanded $1.25 as a minimum hourly wage. Workers picketed and were arrested by Texas Rangers and local police. Day laborers arrived from Mexico to harvest the crop, and by the end of June the strike had failed.[16][17] On July 4, members of UFWOC, strikers, and members of the clergy set out on a march to Austin to demand the $1.25 minimum wage and other improvements for farm workers. Press coverage intensified as the marchers made their way north in the summer heat. Politicians, members of the AFL-CIO, and the Texas Council of Churches accompanied the protestors. Gov. John Connally, who had refused to meet them in Austin, traveled to New Braunfels with then House Speaker Ben Barnes and Attorney General Waggoner Carr to intercept the march and inform strikers that their efforts would have no effect. Protestors arrived in Austin in time for a Labor Day rally, but no changes in law resulted. Strikes and arrests continued in Rio Grande City through 1966 into 1967. Violence increased as the spring melon crop ripened and time neared for the May harvest. In June, when beatings of two UFWOC supporters by Texas rangers surfaced, tempers flared. At the end of June as the harvest was ending, members of the Senate Subcommittee on Migratory Labor, including Senators Harrison Williams and Edward Kennedy, arrived in the lower Rio Grande Valley to hold hearings in Rio Grande City and Edinburg, Texas. The senators took their findings back to Washington as a report on pending legislation. Subsequently, the rangers left the area and the picketing ended. On September 20, Hurricane Beulah's devastations ruined the farming industry in the Valley for the following year. One major outcome of the strikes came in the form of a 1974 Supreme Court victory in Medrano v. Allee, limiting jurisdiction of Texas Rangers in labor disputes. Farm workers continued to organize through the 1970s on a smaller scale, under new leadership in San Juan, Texas, independent of César Chávez. Texas campaign By mid-1971 the Texas campaign was well underway. In Sept. 1971, Thomas John Wakely, recent discharge from the United States Air Force joined the San Antonio office of the Texas campaign. His pay was room and board, $5.00 a week plus all of the menudo he could eat. The menudo was provided to the UFOC staff by the families of migrant workers working the Texas fields. TJ worked for UFOC for about 2 years and his responsibilities included organizing the Grape Boycott in San Antonio. His primary target was the H-E-B grocery store chain. In addition, he attempted to organize Hispanic farm workers working the farmers market in San Antonio — an institution at that time controlled by the corporate farms. Among his many organizing activities included an early 1972 episode where he and several other UFOC staff members who were attempting to organize warehouse workers in San Antonio were fired upon by security agents of the corporate farm owners. In mid-1973 the San Antonio office of the UFOC was taken over by the Brown Berets. This radicalization of the San Antonio UFOC office led to the eventual collapse of the San Antonio UFOC organizing campaign. 1970s Membership (US records)[18] Finances (US records; ×$1000)[18]      Assets      Liabilities      Receipts      Disbursements In 1970, Chávez decided to move the union's headquarters from Delano to La Paz, California, into a former sanatorium in the Tehachapi Mountains. Whereas Chávez thought this change would help create "a national union of the poor ... serving the needs of all who suffer," other union members objected to this distancing of the leadership away from the farmworkers.[19] The union was poised to launch its next major campaign in the lettuce fields in 1970 when a deal between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the growers nearly destroyed it. Initially the Teamsters signed contracts with lettuce growers in the Salinas Valley, who wanted to avoid recognizing the UFW. Then in 1973, when the three-year UFW grape contracts expired, the grape growers signed contracts giving the Teamsters the right to represent the workers who had been members of the UFW. The UFW responded with strikes, lawsuits and boycotts, including secondary boycotts in the retail grocery industry. The union struggled to regain the members it had lost in the lettuce fields; it never fully recovered its strength in grapes, due in some part to incompetent management of the hiring halls it had established that seemed to favor some workers over others. The battles in the fields became violent, with a number of UFW members killed on the picket line. The violence led the state in 1975 to enact the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, creating an administrative agency, the ALRB, that oversaw secret ballot elections and resolved charges of unfair labor practices, like failing to bargain in good faith, or discrimination against activists. The UFW won the majority of secret ballot elections in which it participated.[20] In the late 1970s, the leadership of the UFW was wracked by a series of conflicts, as differences emerged between Chávez and some of his former colleagues.[21] In 1977, the Teamsters signed an agreement with the UFW promising to end their efforts to represent farm workers.[20] 1980s In the 1980s, the membership of the UFW shrank, as did its national prominence.[4] After taking office in the 1980s, California Governor George Deukmejian stopped enforcement of the state's farm labor laws, resulting in farm workers losing their UFW contracts, being fired, and blacklisted.[22] Due to internal squabbles, most of the union's original leadership left or were forced out, except for Chávez and Huerta.[4][21] By 1986, the union had been reduced to 75 contracts and had stopped organizing.[19] In the 1980s, the UFW joined with the AFL-CIO and other organizations for the national Wrath of Grapes campaign, re-instituting the grape boycott. In the early 1980s, Tomas Villanueva, a well-known organizer who had a reputation for his activism for farm workers, agreed to help the UFW when they were in need of a leader for their march in Washington state.[23] Villanueva joined César Chávez in organizing the boycotts and strikes that occurred in Washington state. On September 21, 1986, Villanueva became the first president of the Washington state UFW. He was a great leader for the UFW activists in Washington since he led many strikes and influenced people to join the United Farm Workers movement. People who were against the movement started threatening leaders of the group such as Villanueva, but he continued organizing rallies. Even though there was some success in Washington state, the overall UFW membership started decreasing towards the end of the 1980s. Additionally, there was a major scare over pesticides in California at the time; watermelons would make the farm workers and consumers very ill. The UFW was outraged to hear about the use of illegal pesticides, and Chávez decided to fast for 36 days to protest the dangers pesticides had on farm workers and their community.[24] This influenced the legislature in California to create more food testing programs, resulting in pesticide-free produce, and to encourage organic farming. Recent developments Wikimedia Commons has media related to Labor Department Honors Farmworkers and Cesar Chavez. In July 2008 the farm worker Ramiro Carrillo Rodriguez, 48, died of a heat stroke. According to United Farm Workers, he was the "13th farm worker heat death since CA Governor Schwarzenegger took office"[25] in 2003. In 2006 California's first permanent heat regulations were enacted[26] but these regulations were not strictly enforced, the union contended. Auturo "Artie" Rodriguez, former President of the UFW In 2013, farm workers working at a Fresno facility, for California's largest peach producer, voted to de-certify the United Farm Workers.[27] News of this decertification was released to the public in 2018.[28] César Chávez is a film released in March 2014, directed by Diego Luna about the life of the Mexican-American labor leader who co-founded the United Farm Workers. The film stars Michael Peña as Chávez. Co-producer John Malkovich also co-stars in the role of an owner of a large industrial grape farm who leads the sometimes violent opposition to Chávez's organizing efforts. The United Farm Workers of America’s work is dedicated to helping farm workers have the proper conditions in the work field and stand with them in the fight for equality. One of the issues that the UFW is constantly fighting for is the ongoing abuse that dairy workers at Darigold farms are facing. Darigold farms workers are known to have dealt with issues such as sexual harassment and wage theft. The UFW has taken an active role in a particular case called the "Darigold Dozen".[29] The Darigold Dozen are 12 dairy farm workers from Washington who filed a lawsuit against the dairy farm they are employed by for wage theft.[30] The UFW held a 5 day Fast[31] on September 20, 2018,[32] outside the Darigold headquarters to protest the poor work condition and treatments the Darigold farmers face and to bring attention to the Darigold Dozen. On May 8, 2019 the employers of the Darigold Dozen dropped their countersuit against their former employees and dropped a lawsuit that they had filed against the UFW. The UFW continues to raise awareness on the treatment of Darigold farm workers and speaks out against Starbucks[33] who buy their milk from the Darigold company. On the UFW website, they have flyers and videos about the conditions dairy farmers face, which they encourage people to share with others. Lastly, they have also emailed the CEO of Starbucks asking him to cut ties with Darigold company. Geography The grape strike officially began in Delano in September 1965. In December, union representatives traveled from California to New York, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Detroit, and other large cities to encourage a boycott of grapes grown at ranches without UFW contracts. In the summer of 1966, unions and religious groups from Seattle and Portland endorsed the boycott. Supporters formed a boycott committee in Vancouver, prompting an outpouring of support from Canadians that continued throughout the following years. In 1967, UFW supporters in Oregon began picketing stores in Eugene, Salem, and Portland. After melon workers went on strike in Texas, growers held the first union representation elections in the region, and the UFW became the first union to ever sign a contract with a grower in Texas. National support for the UFW continued to grow in 1968, and hundreds of UFW members and supporters were arrested. Picketing continued throughout the country, including in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Florida. The mayors of New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Detroit, and other cities pledged their support, and many of them altered their cities’ grape purchases to support the boycott. In 1969, support for farm workers increased throughout North America. The grape boycott spread into the South as civil rights groups pressured grocery stores in Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, Nashville, and Louisville to remove non-union grapes. Student groups in New York protested the Department of Defense and accused them of deliberately purchasing boycotted grapes. On May 10, UFW supporters picketed Safeway stores throughout the U.S. and Canada in celebration of International Grape Boycott Day. César Chávez also went on a speaking tour along the East Coast to ask for support from labor groups, religious groups, and universities.[11] Mapping UFW Strikes, Boycotts, and Farm Worker Actions 1965-1975 shows over 1,000 farm worker strikes, boycotts, protests, and other actions as collected by El Macriado, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Seattle Times, etc. Between 1965 and 1975 the United Farm Workers activism throughout the United States saw a tremendous increase, starting with just 7 states such as California, New York, Washington D.C., Mississippi, Arizona, Illinois, and Texas. This movement and fight for change have expanded to a total of 42 states in the span of 10 years. Other organizations that followed in the United Farm Workers fight to empower and seek justice for farm workers are Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)[34] - 1967, Treeplanters & Farmworkers United of the Northwest[35] (PCUN) - 1985, and Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)[36]- 1993. Immigration The UFW during Chávez's tenure was committed to restricting immigration. With the introduction of new laws restricting immigration like the Alien Contract Labor Act of 1885, Chávez and other like-minded individuals fought the influx of people that could hurt their cause. Chávez and Dolores Huerta, co-founder and president of the UFW, fought the Bracero Program that existed from 1942 to 1964. Their opposition stemmed from their belief that the program undermined U.S. workers and exploited the migrant workers. Since the Bracero Program ensured a constant supply of cheap immigrant labor for growers, immigrants could not protest any infringement of their rights, lest they be fired and replaced. Their efforts contributed to Congress ending the Bracero Program in 1964. In 1973, the UFW was one of the first labor unions to oppose proposed employer sanctions that would have prohibited hiring illegal immigrants. On a few occasions, concerns that illegal immigrant labor would undermine UFW strike campaigns led to controversial events, The UFW describes these as anti-strikebreaking events, but some have also interpreted them as anti-immigrant. In 1969, Chávez and members of the UFW marched through the Imperial and Coachella Valleys to the border of Mexico to protest growers' use of illegal immigrants as strikebreakers. In its early years, the UFW and Chávez went so far as to report illegal immigrants who served as strikebreaking replacement workers (as well as those who refused to unionize) to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.[37][38][39][40][41] In 1973, the United Farm Workers set up a "wet line" along the United States-Mexico border to prevent Mexican immigrants from entering the United States illegally and potentially undermining the UFW's unionization efforts.[42] During one such event, in which Chávez was not involved, some UFW members, under the guidance of Chávez's cousin Manuel, physically attacked the strikebreakers after peaceful attempts to persuade them not to cross the border failed.[43][44][45] In 1979, Chávez used a forum of a U.S. Senate committee hearing to denounce the federal immigration service, which he said the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service purportedly refused to arrest illegal Mexican immigrants who Chávez claims are being used to break the union's strike.[46] Roles The role of César Chávez, the founder of UFW, was to frame his campaigns in terms of consumer safety and involving social justice, bringing benefits to the farmworker unions. One of UFW's, along with Chávez's, important aspects that has been overlooked is building coalitions.[47] The United Farm Workers allows farmworkers to help improve their working conditions and wages. The UFW embraces nonviolence in its attempt to cultivate members on political and social issues.[48] The union publicly adopted the principles of non-violence championed by Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On July 22, 2005, the UFW announced that it was joining the Change to Win Federation, a coalition of labor unions functioning as an alternative to the AFL-CIO. On January 13, 2006, the union officially disaffiliated from the AFL-CIO. In contrast to other Change to Win-affiliated unions, the AFL-CIO neglected to offer the right of affiliation to regional bodies to the UFW.[49] Historic sites National Farm Workers Association Headquarters, Delano, California, listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) The Forty Acres, Delano, California, NRHP-listed What I learned from Philip Vera Cruz I first met Philip Vera Cruz when I was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley in the early 1970s. I remember thinking how out of place Philip looked on campus. He wore old work clothes, a sweater vest, and a crumpled brown hat. His hair was gray and his face lined from the years he had worked in the fields of California under the relentless sun. Philip had come to UC Berkeley to speak before an Asian American Studies class. When he opened his mouth to speak, the students were in for a surprise. Despite the quiet demeanor usually associated with older Asian immigrants, Philip spoke with great force and passion. Philip was a vice president of the United Farm Workers Union, the highest-ranking Filipino in the union. United Farm Workers (UFW) Movement: Philip Vera Cruz, Unsung Hero advancing justice-la.org 2 aasc.ucla.edu United Farm Workers (UFW) Movement: Philip Vera Cruz, Unsung Hero 24 Untold Civil Rights Stories Although I was active with the United Farm Workers, Philip had to teach me that it was the Filipino Americans who first organized a farmworkers union in the San Joaquin Valley. He proudly shared the story of how the Filipino Americans launched the historic Delano grape strike. He explained that the establishment of the United Farm Workers Union was a merger between two separate unions, one representing Filipino American workers and the other with a primarily Mexican membership. Philip was a courageous union leader who dared to speak up, organize, and challenge the arrogance of power. He was convinced that although the wealthy growers, politicians, and the courts opposed the union, the workers could prevail if they stood up and organized. Through the years as I became more involved in the labor movement, I kept in touch with Philip, and we became good friends. When I began traveling across the country to organize the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), Philip was always there to give me advice and counsel. The formation of APALA was a dream-come-true for Philip. For so long he had been discouraged because the contributions and potential of Asian American workers in the labor movement had gone unrecognized. In 1991 when I began work as director of the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, I helped to publish a book on Philip’s life written by Craig Scharlin and Lilia Villanueva. In 1992 when I was elected president of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, we honored Philip as an “Asian Pacific American Labor Pioneer” at the founding convention. When my second son was born in 1993, my wife and I chose “Philip” as his middle name, in honor of Philip Vera Cruz. And in 1994 when Philip passed away, I organized a memorial service in his hometown of Bakersfield, California, and presented his eulogy. The Delano Grape Strike and the Role of Philip Vera Cruz The Delano grape strike in California, which began in 1965, led to the birth of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW). The strike established the reputation of Cesar Chavez nationally and worldwide. But few people know that it was in fact Filipino American workers, under the leadership of Philip Vera Cruz and others, who on September 8, 1965, voted to strike and therefore helped to begin this historic movement in American labor. The Filipino American members voted to strike to oppose the growers’ threat to reduce wages. The Delano grape strike did not end until the UFW finally won contracts with the growers in 1970. With little formal education or training, Philip emerged as a leader of the United Farm Workers Union, a leader in the Filipino American community, and as an Asian American labor pioneer. Philip saw the farmworkers movement in a broad context as a struggle against racism, worker exploitation, and a system that is driven by profits. The story of Philip represents a chapter of U.S. labor history and Asian American history that has seldom been told. Philip’s story embodies the spirit of the manong, the first Filipino Americans, and the spirit of all workers struggling for liberation. “My life within the union, my life now outside the union, are all one: my continual struggle to improve my life and the lives of my fellow workers. But our struggle never stops.” advancing justice-la.org 3 aasc.ucla.edu Untold Civil Rights Stories: Asian Americans Speak Out for Justice United Farm Workers (UFW) Movement: Philip Vera Cruz, Unsung Hero Workers For Justice Today 25 His Times and Life Philip’s life, which spans almost the entire twentieth century, represents the untold story of American immigrant farmworkers from the early 1900s through the 1990s. In reflecting upon life, Philip Vera Cruz once said: “I see life as a continuous progressive struggle — a group of people struggle to survive. They get older and they are gone. But the next ones will come together and solve some of their problems. They’ll align themselves with others and make advances that the previous generation wasn’t able to accomplish... If more young people could just get involved in the important issues of social justice, they would form a golden foundation for the struggle of all people to improve their lives.”1 1. Philip Vera Cruz: A Personal History of Filipino Immigrants and the Farmworkers Movement, Craig Scharlin and Lilia Villanueva, UCLA Labor Center and UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1992, p. 141. An American Immigrant Farmworker Philip was born in the Philippines on Christmas Day of 1904. His family originated in the province of Ilocos Sur on the island of Luzon north of Manila, the country’s capital. In 1926, he came to the United States. Philip said, “When my mother asked me how long I planned to stay away, I told her three years. Well, I’ve been here in the U.S. over 50 years now and I haven’t been back yet… That’s the way it has been for most of us Filipino old-timers.”2  He spent the next fifty years working in a wide variety of jobs, in a box factory in Seattle, as a busboy in Spokane, as a beet harvester in North Dakota, and as a hotel worker in Minneapolis. But most of the time, he worked as a farm laborer in California’s San Joaquin Valley. In August of 1942 during World War II, he was drafted and sent to San Luis Obispo, California, for basic training. Because he was in his late thirties, he was discharged and assigned to work on the farms in 2. Ibid., p. 17 “When my mother asked me how long I planned to stay away, I told her three years. Well, I’ve been here in the U.S. over 50 years now and I haven’t been back yet…” –Philip Vera Cruz Philip’s life is part of the story of the manong generation, the first wave of Filipino immigrants who came to the United States in the 1920s and the 1930s to seek a better life. Almost all were young, single men. They worked in the fields, in the factories, and in lowwage service jobs. 1920s The large influx of Filipino workers began in 1924, following the passage of a restrictive immigration act that barred immigration from China and Japan. In the West Coast, the demand for low-wage laborers was filled by immigrant Filipinos. Filipinos were exempt from the racially restrictive immigration policies because the Philippines was a U.S. protectorate, and Filipinos were classified as U.S. nationals. By 1930 about one hundred thousand Filipinos were living in Hawaii and the U.S. mainland. 1930s In 1934 U.S Congress passed the Tydings McDuffie Independence Act. This act granted the Phillipines independence and changed Filipinos’ status from U.S. nationals to aliens. As a result, Filipinos were subject to the same Asian exclusion acts previously imposed on other Asian immigrants. The Tydings McDuffie Act reduced the influx of Filipino immigrants from a steady flow to a slow trickle. Life in America was harsh for the manongs. They found work in the most physically demanding jobs, with substandard pay and working conditions. In addition they were subjected to intense prejudice and discrimination. In the 1930s, anti-Filipino riots perpetrated by white vigilantes were common throughout the state of California. Filipino Americans were also subjected to antimiscegenation laws that prohibited men from marrying outside their ethnic group. Due to the much lower number of Filipino women than men in the United States and the restrictions prohibiting future Filipino immigration, the manong generation was effectively prevented from marrying or raising families. Most lived their entire lives as single men. How Filipino American Workers Reached America advancing justice-la.org 4 aasc.ucla.edu Untold Civil Rights Stories: Asian Americans Speak Out for Justice United Farm Workers (UFW) Movement: Philip Vera Cruz, Unsung Hero 26 Untold Civil Rights Stories the San Joaquin Valley to assist the war effort with food production. Delano Delano, a small town in the heart of the California Central Valley, became Philip’s home. He picked grapes, harvested lettuce, and cut asparagus. During the 1940s he regularly worked nine to ten hours a day and was paid about seventy cents per hour. Pay and working conditions in the farms were deplorable. The workers performed stooped labor in the scorching heat of the sun, where temperatures ranged from 100 degrees to 110 degrees during the summer. Farmworkers lived in labor camps with outdoor toilets, showers, and kitchens. The workers had no access to health care, no benefits, and virtually no rights on the job. Philip said, “The facilities in those camps were pretty bad. The first camp I lived in had a kitchen that was so full of holes, flies were just coming in and out… along with mosquitoes, roaches, and everything else. The toilet was an outhouse with the pit so filled-up it was impossible to use.”3 The small town of Delano was divided by railroad tracks that ran north and south. These tracks also served as the color line segregating the minority farmworkers on the west side and the white farmowners on the east side. The town’s business district was located on the east side of the tracks. Chinatown was located on the west side and welcomed nonwhites. The streets of Chinatown also served as the hiring hall for Filipino American grape pickers. The growers sent foremen down to the streets of Chinatown to recruit farmworkers. The Asparagus Strike I n 1948 Philip was involved in his first strike. He went up to Byron, a small town seventeen miles north of Stockton, to work in the asparagus fields. Filipino American workers organized a strike around wages and working conditions in the labor camps. 3. Ibid., p. 5 “After all, it was the Filipinos who started this phase of the farmworkers movement when they alone sat down in Delano grape fields back in 1965.” PHOTO: GIL ORTIZ advancing justice-la.org 5 aasc.ucla.edu Untold Civil Rights Stories: Asian Americans Speak Out for Justice United Farm Workers (UFW) Movement: Philip Vera Cruz, Unsung Hero Workers For Justice Today 27 The strike quickly spread throughout the Stockton area, including Byron, Elton, and Tracy. The strike was led by the Cannery Workers Union, part of the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers Union Local 37. The president of the local was Chris Mensalvas, and the Business Representative was Ernest Mangaoang, both Filipino labor leaders. Philip said that Chris Mensalvas was the most talented Filipino American union organizer in the country in the 1940s and 1950s. Because of the labor activities of Mensalvas and Mangaoang, the government tried to deport them to the Philippines under the McCarran Act, claiming they were aliens and communist agitators. Mensalvas and Mangaoang won the case against the government after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mangaoang v. Boyd that Filipinos who entered this country before the Tydings McDuffie Act entered as nationals and therefore could not be deported as aliens.4 The asparagus strike was an important milestone in Filipino American labor history. After several months, the strike won some concessions. Although the settlement was not a complete victory, this was nevertheless a significant campaign and one of the first successful strikes involving farmworkers. Many Filipino American workers, who received their first education in the power of the strike, subsequently became union leaders themselves. 4. Ibid., p. 14 1950s: Organizing Farm Workers I n the late 1950s Philip joined the National Farm Labor Union (NFLU), affiliated with the AFLCIO. The membership was mostly Filipino Americans, with some Mexican Americans and African American workers. Philip served as president of the local in Delano. This was Philip’s first experience as a union leader and the beginning of a new phase of his life. The work to organize farm labor in the Central Valley attracted the attention of the AFL-CIO. In 1959 the AFL-CIO established the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) as a pre-union formation to test the waters for farm labor organizing. Two of the first organizers hired by AWOC were Dolores Huerta and Larry Itliong. Dolores Huerta later left AWOC to work for Cesar Chavez with the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). 1960s: Delano Grape Strike Philip also joined AWOC shortly before the Delano grape strike of 1965. The origins of the Delano grape strike began further south in Coachella and spread north to Delano. In Coachella the Filipino workers in AWOC had demanded $1.40 an hour, a wage increase of $0.10 per hour. This was the beginning of the harvest season, and the Coachella growers acceded to the demand. Yet when the harvest season moved north to Delano, the Delano growers refused to meet the wages paid by the growers in Coachella. This triggered outrage among the Delano farmworkers. “I see life as a continuous progressive struggle — a group of people struggle to survive. They get older and they are gone. But the next ones will come together and solve some of their problems. They’ll align themselves with others and make advances that the previous generation wasn’t able to accomplish.... If more young people could just get involved in the important issues of social justice, they would form a golden foundation for the struggle of all people to improve their lives.” advancing justice-la.org 6 aasc.ucla.edu Untold Civil Rights Stories: Asian Americans Speak Out for Justice United Farm Workers (UFW) Movement: Philip Vera Cruz, Unsung Hero 28 Untold Civil Rights Stories On September 8, 1965, at the Filipino Hall in Delano, the Filipino American members of AWOC met to discuss whether to accept the reduced wages proposed by the growers. Instead of settling, the Filipino American members voted to strike, one of the most significant decisions in the history of farm labor struggles in California. The strike was launched by Filipino Americans and lasted for five years. In the coming years, the Delano grape strike would establish the reputation of Cesar Chavez nationally and worldwide. The birth of the United Farm Workers Union occurred during the strike. The Delano grape strike did not end until the UFW finally won contracts with the growers in 1970. In March 1966, six months after the Delano strike began, the NFWA organized a historic farmworkers march from Delano to Sacramento. Hundreds joined the march, and thousands rallied in Sacramento. The march helped to put the Delano grape strike into the national spotlight. Following the march, the AFL-CIO encouraged a merger between AWOC and NFWA. The merger occurred in August 1966 and was supported by the vast majority of Filipino American and Mexican American farmworkers. The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee was born under the leadership of Cesar Chavez. Three Filipino Americans were included as officers in the leadership team: Larry Itliong, Andy Imutan, and Philip. Philip said, “When the UFW came along it really changed my life. It gave me the opportunity to bring my basically philosophical and questioning nature down to earth, and apply it to real everyday issues that actually affect people’s lives. As a Filipino American it gave me the opportunity to participate in the political struggles of this country.”5 Philip was assigned to build broad-based support for the Delano grape strike. He traveled throughout the country, speaking before students, community organizations, and churches. The United Farm Workers movement captured the spirit and imagination of people everywhere. The campaign to boycott nonunion grapes attracted national and international support. Philip also recruited new UFW supporters and organizers. For many, this was their first exposure to the labor movement, and many of today’s leaders received their first union training with the UFW. Philip, like all other union staff members, re5. Ibid., p. 25 Photo: A weakened Cesar Chavez looks apprehensive. With him are Philip Vera Cruz, Julio Hernandez and Jim Drake. PHOTO COURTESY OF w w w.farmworkermovement.org PHOTO BY RICHARD GRADY Photo: Philip Vera Cruz (center), Vice President of the United Farm Workers (UFW), and unidentified men at a boycott meeting, c.1970s. PHOTO BY C ATHY MURPHY Photo: United Farm Workers officials, June 10, 1976. Standing, left to right: Marshall Ganz, Phillip Vera Cruz, Richard Chavez, Pete Velasco. Sitting, left to right: Mack Lyons, Cesar Chavez, Gilbert Padilla, Eliseo Medina, Dolores Huerta. advancing justice-la.org 7 aasc.ucla.edu Untold Civil Rights Stories: Asian Americans Speak Out for Justice United Farm Workers (UFW) Movement: Philip Vera Cruz, Unsung Hero Workers For Justice Today 29 ceived a salary of $5 per week plus expenses for food and gas. The UFW was not a job — it was a commitment. For Philip the UFW was his family and his purpose in life. When the strike was finally settled and when union contracts were won, one of the first projects that Cesar Chavez launched was the construction of a retirement home for Filipino farmworkers. Plans were unveiled at the United Farm Worker’s first convention held in 1971. At this convention, Cesar Chavez was elected president, Dolores Huerta was elected first vice-president, and Philip was elected second vice-president, the highest-ranking Filipino officer. 1970s: Internal Conflicts within the Union Although he invested his life building the union, Philip had some disagreements with the leadership of the United Farm Workers. One disagreement involved the union’s position on undocumented workers. The UFW feared the growth of the undocumented workforce in the fields. They feared the growers’ use of undocumented workers as strikebreakers, and on occasion even called the federal immigration authorities when undocumented workers appeared to cross the picket lines. Philip vehemently disagreed with this position and firmly believed that the union had a responsibility to organize all workers, regardless of their immigration status. The UFW position was an early position on organizing undocumented workers that is different now, and has been for many years. Philip also disagreed with the leadership of the UFW on the issue of the Philippines. In the late 1970s, Filipino American activists throughout the country were mobilizing to oppose the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, president of the Philippines. Philip joined other Filipino Americans in calling for an end to martial law and widespread political repression. In 1977 Marcos invited Cesar Chavez to visit the Philippines. In spite of Philip’s opposition, Chavez accepted the invitation to travel to the Philippines, where he received a special Presidential Appreciation Award. Philip thought it was contradictory for the UFW convention to oppose some repressive regimes and not the Philippines. He said, “I cannot understand why a resolution was passed to condemn the dictatorship of Nicaragua and at the same convention, to praise the dictatorship of the Philippines.”6 6. Ibid., p. 120 Agbayani Village One of the first accomplishments after the UFW won contracts in the fields was the construction of a retirement home for farmworkers. The retirement home was named Agbayani Village after Filipino American farmworker Paulo Agbayani, who died while on a union picket line in 1967. Agbayani Village was designed as a sixty-unit home for retired farmworkers. Each tenant was provided a private room and an adjoining bathroom. In addition there was a central kitchen, dining hall, living room, and recreation room. The entire building had central air conditioning, an unheard-of luxury for farmworkers who spent endless summers working in the fields under the relentless sun. Construction of Agbayani Village began in April 1973. More than two thousand people were involved in building the village, nearly all volunteers. People came from all over the country and as far away as Canada, Japan, and Europe to help. When the village opened in 1975, Philip was the UFW officer in charge of Agbayani Village. The residents were almost exclusively manongs and retired farmworkers. Although they had worked throughout their lives in the fields, most had no life savings and no family. Yet at Agbayani Village, they now had their own community and a place to call home. Over the years, college students would make a pilgrimage to Agbayani Village to help with construction projects in order to bring gifts to the manongs and to hear their stories. advancing justice-la.org 8 aasc.ucla.edu Untold Civil Rights Stories: Asian Americans Speak Out for Justice United Farm Workers (UFW) Movement: Philip Vera Cruz, Unsung Hero 30 Untold Civil Rights Stories Philip resigned from the UFW in 1977. In the following years, Philip lived in Bakersfield, California, with Debbie Vollmer. Debbie had a private law practice in Bakersfield where she practiced criminal defense. Philip’s schedule slowed down. He spent time growing vegetables in his backyard, caring for his cats, reading, and following world events. Philip also traveled to speak to student and community groups, although with less frequency than before. In 1987, he returned home to the Philippines after more than sixty years. He was honored by President Corazon Aquino, Ninoy Aquino’s widow, and was presented the Ninoy Aquino award. Ninoy Aquino was a presidential candidate in the Philippines, and was assassinated on August 21, 1983. In 1991 the UCLA Labor Center and UCLA Asian American Studies Center published a book on Philip’s life. Written by Craig Scharlin and Lilia Villanueva, the book is now in its third printing. The publication of Philip Vera Cruz: A Personal History of Filipino Immigrants and the Farm Workers Movement opened up a new chapter in Philip’s life. Thousands of copies were distributed. Many were used in Asian American studies and labor studies classes on college campuses throughout the country, and many young people who had never heard of Philip or the history of the Filipino American Farm Workers drew inspiration from his story. Philip again was on the speaking circuit, addressing classrooms and speaking passionately about his life with the union. He always made it a point to get to know activists personally, especially young people. He would engage in deep discussions with them, remember their names, and always express concern about their work and their plans for the future. On May 1, 1992, Philip flew back to Washington DC to attend the founding convention of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). The APALA convention staged a march on the U.S. Department of Justice to protest the acquittal of the police officers accused of beating Rodney King in Los Angeles. Philip, at age 87, was on the front lines again, marching with other Asian American workers on May Day. On the same evening before an auditorium of five hundred people, he received an award as an Asian Pacific American Labor Pioneer. He was thrilled to participate in a convention full of Asian American union activists who were building a new labor movement, and he was also pleased to know that others were carrying on the work he had begun as a farmworker and union organizer. Philip said, “My life within the union, my life now outside the union, are all one: my continual struggle to improve my life and the lives of my fellow workers. But our struggle never stops.”7 Philip passed away on June 10, 1994, at the age of eighty-nine. A memorial service was held in Bakersfield, and people from throughout California drove for many hours to attend the early morning service. 7. Ibid., p. 125 “When the UFW came along it really changed my life. It gave me the opportunity to bring my basically philosophical and questioning nature down to earth, and apply it to real everyday issues that actually affect people’s lives.” advancing justice-la.org 9 aasc.ucla.edu Untold Civil Rights Stories: Asian Americans Speak Out for Justice United Farm Workers (UFW) Movement: Philip Vera Cruz, Unsung Hero Workers For Justice Today 31 Profits Enslave the World (A poem by Philip Vera Cruz) While still across the ocean I heard about the USA So thrilled by wild imagination I left home through Manila Bay Then on my way I thought and wondered Alone what would the future be? I gambled parental care and love To search for human liberty But beautiful bright pictures painted Were just half of the whole story Reflections of great wealth and power In the land of slavery Minorities to shanty towns, slums… Disgraceful spots for all to see In the enviable Garden of Eden, Land of affluence and poverty Since then I was a hungry stray dog, Too busy to keep myself alive… It seems equality and freedom Will never be where millionaires thrive! A lust for power causes oppression To rob the poor to senseless greed: The wealthy few’s excessive profits Tend to enslave the world to need.1 Philip Vera Cruz, who helped found the United Farm Workers union, died on Saturday at Mercy Hospital in Bakersfield, Calif., his hometown. He was 89. The cause was emphysema, said his wife, Deborah Vollmer. Born in Ilocos Sur, the Philippines, Mr. Vera Cruz came to the United States in 1926 and for the next 30 years worked at menial jobs on farms and in canneries and restaurants in Minnesota and Washington State. For a year, he attended Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash. In the 1950's, he moved to California and helped bring together small groups of Filipino farm workers. That led to the formation in the 1960's of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, composed mainly of Filipinos, which engaged in a series of strikes in the California towns of Coachella and Delano. Merger Under Chavez With the success of these strikes, the Filipino faction in 1965 joined with agricultural workers of other ethnic groups, largely Mexican, to form the United Farm Workers, under the direction of Cesar Chavez. The union soon began a decade of strikes and other labor actions in its efforts to gain recognition and better salaries and working conditions. Mr. Vera Cruz resigned his post as second vice president of the union in 1977 because of differences with Mr. Chavez. Chief among them was Mr. Vera Cruz's belief that Mr. Chavez had become an apologist for Ferdinand Marcos, then President of the Philippines. In 1988, long after his retirement, Mr. Vera Cruz visited Manila, where President Corazon Aquino gave him an award for long service to Filipinos in the United States. In addition to his wife, Mr. Vera Cruz is survived by a brother, Judge Martin Vera Cruz of Pagadian, the Philippines, and a sister, Leonor Retota of Vallejo, Calif. Philip Vera Cruz (December 25, 1904 – June 12, 1994) was a Filipino American labor leader, farmworker, and leader in the Asian American movement. He helped found the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), which later merged with the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). As the union's long-time second vice president, he worked to improve the working conditions of migrant workers.[1] Contents 1 Early life 2 Labor activities 3 Leaving the UFW and later life 4 Legacy 5 See also 6 References 7 External links Early life Vera Cruz was born in Saoang , Ilocos Sur, Philippines on December 25, 1904. As a small boy, he tended to water buffalo (carabaos) for his father, which he described as much easier than the work he would do in California.[2] In 1926, Vera Cruz moved to the United States, where he performed a wide variety of jobs, including working in an Alaskan cannery, a restaurant, and a box factory.[3] He was briefly a member of the Industrial Workers of the World.[4] For a year, beginning in 1931, Vera Cruz studied at Gonzaga University.[5] In 1942, he was drafted into the United States Army, but was later discharged due to age.[6] Labor activities Vera Cruz eventually settled in California, where he became a farmworker. He joined the AFL-CIO-affiliated union, the National Farm Labor Union, in the 1950s. His union local, based in Delano, California, had an Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC). The prime focus of AWOC was to add members to the National Farm Labor Union. AWOC was composed primarily of Filipino American farmworker organizers, although it did hire Dolores Huerta. Huerta eventually quit the AWOC to join the National Farm Workers of America, which had a primarily Mexican American membership.[7] Philip Vera Cruz, a former UFW Vice President, described the start of the great Delano grape strike. "On September 8, 1965, at the Filipino Hall at 1457 Glenwood St. in Delano, the Filipino members of AWOC held a mass meeting to discuss and decide whether to strike or to accept the reduced wages proposed by the growers. The decision was 'to strike" and it became one of the most significant and famous decisions ever made in the entire history of the farmworkers struggles in California. It was like an incendiary bomb, exploding out the strike message to the workers in the vineyards, telling them to have sit-ins in the labor camps, and set up picket lines at every grower's ranch… It was this strike that eventually made the UFW, the farmworkers movement, and Cesar Chavez famous worldwide."[7] On September 8, 1965, the Delano local voted to strike against the grape growers. Following the strike call, the growers attempted to bring in Mexican American workers, some of whom were affiliated with the National Farm Workers of America. Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and other leaders of the National Farm Workers of America met with several National Farm Labor Union organizers, including Vera Cruz, Larry Itliong, Benjamin Gines and Pete Velasco. Together, they decided that both unions would strike against the grape growers, an action which eventually led to both unions joining to become the United Farm Workers.[8] The new union debuted in August 1966, and continued the strike into 1970.[9] In the new union, Vera Cruz served as second vice president and on the managing board.[3] Leaving the UFW and later life Vera Cruz resigned from the UFW in 1977. Vera Cruz and Chavez had been drifting apart, and Vera Cruz felt that Chavez did not give Filipinos due credit for their role in starting the labor movement.[10] Things culminated that year, when Chavez traveled to the Philippines to meet with Ferdinand Marcos, whom Vera Cruz saw as a brutal dictator.[11] Vera Cruz continued to live in the San Joaquin Valley of California after his resignation, and remained active in union and social justice issues for the rest of his life.[9] Vera Cruz received the Ninoy M. Aquino Award in 1987, traveling to the Philippines for the first time in fifty years to accept it.[12] In 1992, the AFL-CIO's Asia Pacific American Labor Committee honored Vera Cruz at its founding convention.[13] He died at the age of 89 in 1994, in Bakersfield, California.[14] Legacy In 2013, the New Haven Unified School District renamed Alvarado Middle School Itliong-Vera Cruz Middle School in honor of Vera Cruz and Larry Itliong; this school is the first school in the United States to be named after Filipino Americans.[15] See also Dolores Huerta Larry Itliong Cesar Chavez The Philippines (/ˈfɪlɪpiːnz/ (listen); Filipino: Pilipinas),[14] officially the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas),[d] is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of around 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the southwest. It shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. The Philippines covers an area of 300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi) and, as of 2021, it had a population of around 109 million people,[7] making it the world's thirteenth-most populous country. The Philippines has diverse ethnicities and cultures throughout its islands. Manila is the country's capital, while the largest city is Quezon City; both lie within the urban area of Metro Manila. Negritos, some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Adoption of animism, Hinduism and Islam established island-kingdoms called Kedatuan, Rajahnates, and Sultanates. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for Spain, marked the beginning of Spanish colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. Spanish settlement through Mexico, beginning in 1565, led to the Philippines becoming part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. During this time, Catholicism became the dominant religion, and Manila became the western hub of trans-Pacific trade. In 1896, the Philippine Revolution began, which then became entwined with the 1898 Spanish–American War. Spain ceded the territory to the United States, while Filipino revolutionaries declared the First Philippine Republic. The ensuing Philippine–American War ended with the United States establishing control over the territory, which they maintained until the Japanese invasion of the islands during World War II. Following liberation, the Philippines became independent in 1946. Since then, the unitary sovereign state has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a decades-long dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. The Philippines is an emerging market and a newly industrialized country whose economy is transitioning from being agriculture-centered to services- and manufacturing-centered. It is a founding member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and the East Asia Summit. The Philippines's position as an island country on the Pacific Ring of Fire that is close to the equator makes it prone to earthquakes and typhoons. The country has a variety of natural resources and is home to a globally significant level of biodiversity. Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 2.1 Prehistory (pre–900) 2.2 Early states (900–1565) 2.3 Colonial rule (1565–1946) 2.4 Postcolonial period (1946–present) 3 Geography and environment 3.1 Biodiversity 3.2 Climate 4 Government and politics 4.1 Foreign relations 4.2 Military 4.3 Administrative divisions 5 Demographics 5.1 Ethnic groups 5.2 Languages 5.3 Religion 5.4 Health 5.5 Education 6 Economy 6.1 Science and technology 6.2 Tourism 7 Infrastructure 7.1 Transportation 7.2 Water supply and sanitation 8 Culture 8.1 Values 8.2 Architecture 8.3 Music and dance 8.4 Literature 8.5 Cinema 8.6 Mass media 8.7 Cuisine 8.8 Sports 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 11.1 Citations 11.2 Bibliography 12 Further reading 13 External links 13.1 Government 13.2 Trade 13.3 General information 13.4 Books and articles 13.5 Wikimedia 13.6 Others Etymology Main article: Name of the Philippines Philip II of Spain Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte and Samar "Felipinas" after Philip II of Spain, then the Prince of Asturias. Eventually the name "Las Islas Filipinas" would be used to cover the archipelago's Spanish possessions.[15] Before Spanish rule was established, other names such as Islas del Poniente (Islands of the West) and Ferdinand Magellan's name for the islands, San Lázaro, were also used by the Spanish to refer to islands in the region.[16][17][18][19] During the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the period of the Spanish–American War (1898) and the Philippine–American War (1899–1902) until the Commonwealth period (1935–1946), American colonial authorities referred to the country as The Philippine Islands, a translation of the Spanish name.[20] The United States began the process of changing the reference to the country from The Philippine Islands to The Philippines, specifically when it was mentioned in the Philippine Autonomy Act or the Jones Law.[21] The full official title, Republic of the Philippines, was included in the 1935 constitution as the name of the future independent state,[22] it is also mentioned in all succeeding constitutional revisions.[23][24] History Main article: History of the Philippines For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Philippine history. Prehistory (pre–900) Main article: Prehistory of the Philippines There is evidence of early hominins living in what is now the Philippines as early as 709,000 years ago.[25] A small number of bones from Callao Cave potentially represent an otherwise unknown species, Homo luzonensis, that lived around 50,000 to 67,000 years ago.[26][27] The oldest modern human remains found on the islands are from the Tabon Caves of Palawan, U/Th-dated to 47,000 ± 11–10,000 years ago.[28] The Tabon Man is presumably a Negrito, who were among the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, descendants of the first human migrations out of Africa via the coastal route along southern Asia to the now sunken landmasses of Sundaland and Sahul.[29] The first Austronesians reached the Philippines at around 2200 BC, settling the Batanes Islands and northern Luzon from Taiwan. From there, they rapidly spread downwards to the rest of the islands of the Philippines and Southeast Asia.[30][31] This population assimilated with the existing Negritos resulting in the modern Filipino ethnic groups which display various ratios of genetic admixture between Austronesian and Negrito groups.[32] Genetic signatures also indicate the possibility of migration of Austroasiatic, Papuan, and South Asian people.[33] Jade artifacts have been found dated to 2000 BC,[34][35] with the lingling-o jade items crafted in Luzon made using raw materials originating from Taiwan.[36] By 1000 BC, the inhabitants of the archipelago had developed into four kinds of social groups: hunter-gatherer tribes, warrior societies, highland plutocracies, and port principalities.[37] Early states (900–1565) Main article: History of the Philippines (900–1565) The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the oldest known writing found in the Philippines The earliest known surviving written record found in the Philippines is the Laguna Copperplate Inscription.[38] By the 14th century, several the large coastal settlements had emerged as trading centers and became the focal point of societal changes.[39] Some polities had exchanges with other states across Asia.[40][41] Trade with China is believed to have begun during the Tang dynasty, and grew more extensive during the Song dynasty,[42] and by the second millennium some polities participated in the tributary system of China.[43][40] Indian cultural traits, such as linguistic terms and religious practices, began to spread within the Philippines during the 10th century, likely via the Hindu Majapahit empire.[44][39][45] By the 15th century, Islam was established in the Sulu Archipelago and spread from there.[46] Polities founded in the Philippines from the 10th–16th centuries include Maynila,[47] Tondo, Namayan, Pangasinan, Cebu, Butuan, Maguindanao, Lanao, Sulu, and Ma-i.[48] The early polities were typically made up of three-tier social structures: a nobility class, a class of "freemen", and a class of dependent debtor-bondsmen.[39][40] Among the nobility were leaders called "Datus", responsible for ruling autonomous groups called "barangay" or "dulohan".[39] When these barangays banded together, either to form a larger settlement[39] or a geographically looser alliance,[40] the more esteemed among them would be recognized as a "paramount datu",[39][37] rajah, or sultan[49] which headed the community state.[50] Warfare developed and escalated during the 14th to 16th centuries,[51] and throughout these periods population density is thought to have been low,[52] which was also caused by the frequency of typhoons and the Philippines' location on the Pacific Ring of Fire.[53] In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the area, claimed the islands for Spain and was then killed by Lapulapu's fighters at the Battle of Mactan.[54] Colonial rule (1565–1946) Main articles: History of the Philippines (1565–1898) and History of the Philippines (1898–1946) Manila in 1847. Colonization began when Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi arrived from Mexico in 1565.[55][56]: 20–23  In 1571, Spanish Manila became the capital of the Spanish East Indies,[57] which encompassed Spanish territories in Asia and the Pacific.[58][59] The Spanish successfully invaded the different local states by employing the principle of divide and conquer,[60] bringing most of what is now the Philippines into a single unified administration.[61][62] Disparate barangays were deliberately consolidated into towns, where Catholic missionaries were more easily able to convert the inhabitants to Christianity.[63]: 53, 68 [64] From 1565 to 1821, the Philippines was governed as part of the Mexico-based Viceroyalty of New Spain, later administered from Madrid following the Mexican War of Independence.[65] Manila was the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade.[66] Manila galleons were constructed in Bicol and Cavite.[67][68] During its rule, Spain quelled various indigenous revolts,[69] as well as defending against external military challenges.[70][71][failed verification] Spanish forces included soldiers from elsewhere in New Spain[72] as well as broader Latin America, many of whom deserted and intermingled with the wider population.[73][74][75] Immigration blurred the racial caste system[63]: 98 [76][77] Spain maintained in towns and cities.[78] War against the Dutch from the west, in the 17th century, together with conflict with the Muslims in the south nearly bankrupted the colonial treasury.[79] Administration of the Philippine islands was considered a drain on the economy of Spain,[70] and there were debates to abandon it or trade it for other territory. However, this was opposed because of economic potential, security, and the desire to continue religious conversion in the islands and the surrounding region.[80][81] The Philippines survived on an annual subsidy provided by the Spanish Crown,[70] which averaged 250,000 pesos[82] and was usually paid through the provision of 75 tons of silver bullion being sent from the Americas.[83] British forces occupied Manila from 1762 to 1764 during the Seven Years' War, with Spanish rule restored through the 1763 Treaty of Paris.[56]: 81–83  The Spanish considered their war with the Muslims in Southeast Asia an extension of the Reconquista.[84] The Spanish–Moro conflict lasted for several hundred years. In the last quarter of the 19th century, Spain conquered portions of Mindanao and Jolo,[85] and the Moro Muslims in the Sultanate of Sulu formally recognized Spanish sovereignty.[86][87] Filipino Ilustrados in Spain formed the Propaganda Movement. Photographed in 1890. In the 19th century, Philippine ports opened to world trade, and shifts started occurring within Filipino society.[88][89] The Latin American wars of independence and renewed immigration led to shifts in social identity, with the term Filipino shifting from referring to Spaniards born in the Philippines to a term encompassing all people in the archipelago. This identity shift was driven by wealthy families of mixed ancestry, to which it became a national identity.[90][91] Revolutionary sentiments were stoked in 1872 after three activist Catholic priests were executed on weak pretences.[92][93][94] This would inspire a propaganda movement in Spain, organized by Marcelo H. del Pilar, José Rizal, Graciano López Jaena, and Mariano Ponce, lobbying for political reforms in the Philippines. Rizal was executed on December 30, 1896, on charges of rebellion. This radicalized many who had previously been loyal to Spain.[95] As attempts at reform met with resistance, Andrés Bonifacio in 1892 established the militant secret society called the Katipunan, who sought independence from Spain through armed revolt.[96] The Katipunan started the Philippine Revolution in 1896.[97] Internal disputes led to an election in which Bonifacio lost his position and Emilio Aguinaldo was elected as the new leader of the revolution.[98]: 145–147  In 1897, the Pact of Biak-na-Bato brought about the exile of the revolutionary leadership to Hong Kong. In 1898, the Spanish–American War began and reached the Philippines. Aguinaldo returned, resumed the revolution, and declared independence from Spain on June 12, 1898.[63]: 112–113  The First Philippine Republic was established on January 21, 1899.[99] General Douglas MacArthur coming ashore during the Battle of Leyte on October 20, 1944 The islands had been ceded by Spain to the United States along with Puerto Rico and Guam as a result of the latter's victory in the Spanish–American War in 1898.[100][101] As it became increasingly clear the United States would not recognize the First Philippine Republic, the Philippine–American War broke out.[102] The war resulted in the deaths of 250,000 to 1 million civilians, mostly because of famine and disease.[103] After the defeat of the First Philippine Republic in 1902, an American civilian government was established through the Philippine Organic Act.[104] American forces continued to secure and extend their control over the islands, suppressing an attempted extension of the Philippine Republic,[98]: 200–202 [105] securing the Sultanate of Sulu,[106] and establishing control over interior mountainous areas that had resisted Spanish conquest.[107] Cultural developments strengthened the continuing development of a national identity,[108][109] and Tagalog began to take precedence over other local languages.[63]: 121  Governmental functions were gradually devolved to Filipinos under the Taft Commission[110] and in 1935 the Philippines was granted Commonwealth status with Manuel Quezon as president and Sergio Osmeña as vice president.[111] Quezon's priorities were defence, social justice, inequality and economic diversification, and national character.[110] Tagalog was designated the national language,[112] women's suffrage was introduced,[113] and land reform mooted.[114][115] During World War II the Japanese Empire invaded,[116] and the Second Philippine Republic, under Jose P. Laurel, was established as a puppet state.[117][118] From 1942 the Japanese occupation of the Philippines was opposed by large-scale underground guerrilla activity.[119][120][121] Atrocities and war crimes were committed during the war, including the Bataan Death March and the Manila massacre.[122][123] Allied troops defeated the Japanese in 1945. It is estimated that over one million Filipinos had died by the end of the war.[124][125] On October 11, 1945, the Philippines became one of the founding members of the United Nations.[126][127] On July 4, 1946, the Philippines was officially recognized by the United States as an independent nation through the Treaty of Manila, during the presidency of Manuel Roxas.[127][128][129] Postcolonial period (1946–present) Main articles: History of the Philippines (1946–1965), History of the Philippines (1965–1986), and History of the Philippines (1986–present) Efforts to end the Hukbalahap Rebellion began during Elpidio Quirino's term,[130] however, it was only during Ramon Magsaysay's presidency that the movement was suppressed.[131] Magsaysay's successor, Carlos P. Garcia, initiated the Filipino First Policy,[132] which was continued by Diosdado Macapagal, with celebration of Independence Day moved from July 4 to June 12, the date of Emilio Aguinaldo's declaration,[133][134] and pursuit of a claim on the eastern part of North Borneo.[135][136] In 1965, Macapagal lost the presidential election to Ferdinand Marcos. Early in his presidency, Marcos initiated numerous infrastructure projects[137] but, together with his wife Imelda, was accused of corruption and embezzling billions of dollars in public funds.[138] Nearing the end of his term, Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972.[139][140] This period of his rule was characterized by political repression, censorship, and human rights violations.[141] On August 21, 1983, Marcos' chief rival, opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr., was assassinated on the tarmac at Manila International Airport. Marcos called a snap presidential election in 1986.[142] Marcos was proclaimed the winner, but the results were widely regarded as fraudulent.[143] The resulting protests led to the People Power Revolution,[144] which forced Marcos and his allies to flee to Hawaii, and Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, was installed as president.[142][145] The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo was the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century. The return of democracy and government reforms beginning in 1986 were hampered by national debt, government corruption, and coup attempts.[146][147] A communist insurgency[148][149] and a military conflict with Moro separatists persisted,[150] while the administration also faced a series of disasters, including the sinking of the MV Doña Paz in December 1987,[151] and the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991.[152][153] Aquino was succeeded by Fidel V. Ramos, whose economic performance, at 3.6% growth rate,[154][155] was overshadowed by the onset of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.[156][157] Ramos' successor, Joseph Estrada, was overthrown by the 2001 EDSA Revolution and succeeded by his vice president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, on January 20, 2001.[158] Arroyo's 9-year administration was marked by economic growth[159] but was tainted by corruption and political scandals.[160][161] On November 23, 2009, 34 journalists and several civilians were killed in Maguindanao.[162][163] Economic growth continued during Benigno Aquino III's administration, which pushed for good governance and transparency.[164][165] In 2015, a shootout in Mamasapano resulted in the death of 44 members of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force, which caused a delay in the passage of the Bangsamoro Organic Law.[166][167] Former Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte won the 2016 presidential election, becoming the first president from Mindanao.[168][169] Duterte launched an anti-drug campaign[170][171] and an infrastructure program.[172][173] The implementation in 2018 of the Bangsamoro Organic Law led to the creation of the autonomous Bangsamoro region in Mindanao.[174][175] In early 2020, the Cpandemic reached the country[176][177] causing the gross domestic product to shrink by 9.5%, the country's worst annual economic performance since records began in 1947.[178] Marcos' son, Bongbong Marcos, won the 2022 presidential election, together with Duterte's daughter, Sara Duterte, as vice president.[179] Geography and environment Main articles: Geography of the Philippines and List of islands of the Philippines Topography of the Philippines The Philippines is an archipelago composed of about 7,640 islands,[180][181] covering a total area, including inland bodies of water, of around 300,000 square kilometers (115,831 sq mi),[182][183] with cadastral survey data suggesting it may be larger.[184] The exclusive economic zone of the Philippines covers 2,263,816 km2 (874,064 sq mi).[185] Its 36,289 kilometers (22,549 mi) coastline gives it the world's fifth-longest coastline.[186] It is located between 116° 40', and 126° 34' E longitude and 4° 40' and 21° 10' N latitude and is bordered by the Philippine Sea to the east,[187][188] the South China Sea to the west,[189] and the Celebes Sea to the south.[190] The island of Borneo is located a few hundred kilometers southwest,[191] and Taiwan is located directly to the north. Sulawesi is located to the southwest, and Palau is located to the east of the islands.[192][193] The highest mountain is Mount Apo, measuring up to 2,954 meters (9,692 ft) above sea level and located on the island of Mindanao.[194] Running east of the archipelago, the Philippine Trench extends 10,540-meter (34,580 ft) down at the Emden Deep.[195][196][197] The longest river is the Cagayan River in northern Luzon, measuring about 520 kilometers (320 mi).[198] Manila Bay,[199] upon the shore of which the capital city of Manila lies, is connected to Laguna de Bay,[200] the largest lake in the Philippines, by the Pasig River.[201] The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, which runs 8.2 kilometers (5.1 mi) underground through a karst landscape before reaching the ocean, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[202] Mayon is an active stratovolcano, located in the south of the island of Luzon Situated on the western fringes of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity.[203] The Philippine region is seismically active and has been progressively constructed by plates converging towards each other in multiple directions.[204][205][206] Around five earthquakes are registered daily, though most are too weak to be felt.[207][206] The last major earthquakes were the 1976 Moro Gulf earthquake and the 1990 Luzon earthquake.[208] There are many active volcanoes such as Mayon, Mount Pinatubo, and Taal Volcano.[209] The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991 produced the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century.[210] The Philippines is the world's second-biggest geothermal energy producer behind the United States, with 18% of the country's electricity needs being met by geothermal power.[211] The country has valuable[212] mineral deposits as a result of its complex geologic structure and high level of seismic activity.[213][214] The Philippines is thought to have the second-largest gold deposits after South Africa, along with a large amount of copper deposits,[215] and the world's largest deposits of palladium.[216] Other minerals include chromite, nickel, and zinc. Despite this, a lack of law enforcement, poor management, opposition because of the presence of indigenous communities, and past instances of environmental damage and disaster have resulted in these mineral resources remaining largely untapped.[215][217] Biodiversity Main article: Wildlife of the Philippines See also: List of threatened species of the Philippines The Philippine Eagle is endemic to the forests of the country. The Philippines is a megadiverse country.[218][219] Eight major types of forests are distributed throughout the Philippines; dipterocarp, beach forest, pine forest, molave forest, lower montane forest, upper montane or mossy forest, mangroves, and ultrabasic forest.[220] As of 2021, the Philippines has 7 million hectares of forest cover, according to official estimates, though experts contend that the actual figure is likely much lower.[221] Deforestation, often the result of illegal logging, is an acute problem in the Philippines. Forest cover has declined from 70% of the Philippines's total land area in 1900 to about 18.3% in 1999.[222] With an estimated 13,500 plant species in the country, 3,200 of which are unique to the islands,[223] Philippine rainforests boast an array of flora,[224] including many rare types of orchids[225] and rafflesia.[226] Around 1,100 land vertebrate species can be found in the Philippines including over 100 mammal species and 243 bird species not thought to exist elsewhere.[223][227] The Philippines has among the highest rates of discovery in the world with sixteen new species of mammals discovered in the last ten years. Because of this, the rate of endemism for the Philippines has risen and likely will continue to rise.[228] Parts of its marine waters contain the highest diversity of shorefish species in the world.[229] Large reptiles include the Philippine crocodile[230] and saltwater crocodile.[231] The largest crocodile in captivity, known locally as Lolong, was captured in the southern island of Mindanao,[232] and died on February 10, 2013, from pneumonia and cardiac arrest.[233] The national bird, known as the Philippine eagle, has the longest body of any eagle; it generally measures 86 to 102 cm (2.82 to 3.35 ft) in length and weighs 4.7 to 8.0 kg (10.4 to 17.6 lb).[234][235] The Philippine eagle is part of the family Accipitridae and is endemic to the rainforests of Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao.[236] The Philippines has the third highest number of endemic birds in the world (behind Indonesia and Australia) with 243 endemics. Notable birds include the Celestial monarch, flame-templed babbler, Red-vented cockatoo, Whiskered pitta, Sulu hornbill, Rufous hornbill, Luzon bleeding-heart and the Flame-breasted fruit dove.[227] Philippine maritime waters produce unique and diverse marine life[237] and is an important part of the Coral Triangle ecoregion.[238][239] The total number of corals and marine fish species in this ecoregion is estimated at 500 and 2,400 respectively.[223] New records[240][241] and species discoveries continue.[242][243][244] The Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea was declared a World Heritage Site in 1993.[245] Philippine waters also sustain the cultivation of fish, crustaceans, oysters, and seaweeds.[246] One species of oyster, Pinctada maxima, produces pearls that are naturally golden in color.[247] Pearls have been declared a "national gem".[248] Climate Main article: Climate of the Philippines Köppen climate classification of the Philippines The Philippines has a tropical maritime climate that is usually hot and humid. There are three seasons: a hot dry season from March to May; a rainy season from June to November; and a cool dry season from December to February. The southwest monsoon lasts from May to October and the northeast monsoon from November to April. Temperatures usually range from 21 °C (70 °F) to 32 °C (90 °F). The coolest month is January; the warmest is May.[249] The average yearly temperature is around 26.6 °C (79.9 °F). In considering temperature, location in terms of latitude and longitude is not a significant factor, and temperatures at sea level tend to be in the same range. Altitude usually has more of an impact. The average annual temperature of Baguio at an elevation of 1,500 meters (4,900 ft) above sea level is 18.3 °C (64.9 °F), making it a popular destination during hot summers.[249] Annual rainfall measures as much as 5,000 millimeters (200 in) in the mountainous east coast section but less than 1,000 millimeters (39 in) in some of the sheltered valleys.[250] Sitting astride the typhoon belt, the islands experience 15–20 typhoons annually from July to October,[250] with around 19 typhoons[251] entering the Philippine area of responsibility in a typical year and 8 or 9 making landfall.[252][253] Historically typhoons were sometimes referred to as baguios.[254] The wettest recorded typhoon to hit the Philippines dropped 2,210 millimeters (87 in) in Baguio from July 14 to 18, 1911.[255] The Philippines is highly exposed to climate change and is among the world's ten countries that are most vulnerable to climate change risks.[256] Government and politics Main articles: Politics of the Philippines and Government of the Philippines See also: Political history of the Philippines President Bongbong Marcos Vice President Sara Duterte Malacañang Palace is the official residence of the president of the Philippines. The Philippines has a democratic government in the form of a constitutional republic with a presidential system.[257] The president functions as both head of state and head of government[258] and is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.[257] The president is elected by direct election for a single six-year term.[259] The president appoints and presides over the cabinet.[260]: 213–214  The bicameral Congress is composed of the Senate, serving as the upper house, with members elected to a six-year term, and the House of Representatives, serving as the lower house, with members elected to a three-year term.[261] Philippine politics tends to be dominated by those with well-known names, such as members of political dynasties or celebrities.[262][263] Senators are elected at-large[261] while the representatives are elected from both legislative districts and through sectoral representation.[260]: 162–163  The judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court, composed of a chief justice as its presiding officer and fourteen associate justices,[264] all of whom are appointed by the president from nominations submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council.[257] There have been attempts to change the government to a federal, unicameral, or parliamentary government since the Ramos administration.[265] There is a significant amount of corruption in the Philippines,[266][267][268] which some historians attribute to the system of governance put in place during the Spanish colonial period.[269] Foreign relations Main article: Foreign relations of the Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and U.S. President Donald Trump discuss matters during a bilateral meeting in November 2017. As a founding and active member of the United Nations,[270] the country has been elected to the Security Council.[271] Carlos P. Romulo was a former president of the United Nations General Assembly.[272][273] The country is an active participant in peacekeeping missions, particularly in East Timor.[274][275] Over 10 million Filipinos live and work overseas.[276][277] The Philippines is a founding and active member of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).[278] It has hosted several summits and is an active contributor to the direction and policies of the bloc.[279][280] It is also a member of the East Asia Summit,[281] the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Group of 24, and the Non-Aligned Movement.[282] [283] [284] The country is also seeking to obtain observer status in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.[285][286] The Philippines has a long relationship with the United States, covering economics, security, and people-to-people relations.[287] A Mutual Defense Treaty between the two countries was signed in 1951 and supplemented with the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement and the 2016 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.[288] The Philippines supported American policies during the Cold War and participated in the Korean and Vietnam wars.[289][290] In 2003 the Philippines was designated a major non-NATO ally.[291] Under President Duterte, ties with the United States have weakened[292] with military purchases instead coming from China and Russia,[293][294] while Duterte states that the Philippines will no longer participate in any U.S.-led wars.[295] In 2021, it was revealed the United States would defend the Philippines including the South China Sea.[296] The Philippines attaches great importance to its relations with China and has established significant cooperation with the country.[297][298][299][300][301][302] Japan is the biggest bilateral contributor of official development assistance to the country.[303][304][305] Although historical tensions exist because of the events of World War II, much of the animosity has faded.[306] Historical and cultural ties continue to affect relations with Spain.[307][308] Relations with Middle Eastern countries are shaped by the high number of Filipinos working in these countries,[309] and by issues related to the Muslim minority in the Philippines;[310] concerns have been raised regarding issues such as domestic abuse and war affecting[311][312] the approximately 2.5 million overseas Filipino workers in the region.[313] The Philippines has claims in the Spratly Islands which overlap with claims by China, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The largest of its controlled islands in Thitu Island, which contains the Philippines's smallest village.[314][315] The Scarborough Shoal standoff in 2012, where China took control of the shoal from the Philippines, led to an international arbitration case[316] and has made the shoal a prominent symbol in the wider dispute.[317] Military Main article: Armed Forces of the Philippines BRP Jose Rizal (FF-150) is the lead ship of her class of guided missile frigates of the Philippine Navy The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) consist of three branches: the Philippine Air Force, the Philippine Army, and the Philippine Navy.[318] The AFP is a volunteer force.[319] Civilian security is handled by the Philippine National Police under the Department of the Interior and Local Government.[320][321] As of 2018, $2.843 billion,[322] or 1.1 percent of GDP is spent on military forces.[323] In Bangsamoro, the largest separatist organizations, the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, were engaging the government politically in the 2000s.[324] Other more militant groups like the Abu Sayyaf have kidnapped foreigners for ransom, particularly in the Sulu Archipelago.[326][327][328][329] Their presence decreased through successful security provided by the Philippine government.[330][331] The Communist Party of the Philippines and its military wing, the New People's Army, have been waging guerrilla warfare against the government since the 1970s, reaching its apex in 1986 when communist guerrillas gained control of a fifth of the country's territory before significantly dwindling militarily and politically after the return of democracy in 1986.[332][333] Administrative divisions Main article: Administrative divisions of the Philippines The Philippines is governed as a unitary state, with the exception of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM),[334] although there have been several steps towards decentralization within the unitary framework.[335][336] A 1991 law devolved some powers to local governments.[337] The country is divided into 17 regions, 81 provinces, 146 cities, 1,488 municipalities, and 42,036 barangays.[338] Regions other than Bangsamoro serve primarily to organize the provinces of the country for administrative convenience.[339] As of 2015, Calabarzon was the most populated region while the National Capital Region (NCR) was the most densely populated.[340] Administrative map of the Philippines Regions of the Philippines  Designation Name Regional center Area[340] Population (as of 2015)[341] % of Population Population density[340] NCR National Capital Region Manila 619.54 km2 (239.21 sq mi) 12,877,253 12.75% 20,785/km2 (53,830/sq mi) Region I Ilocos Region San Fernando (La Union) 12,964.62 km2 (5,005.67 sq mi) 5,026,128 4.98% 388/km2 (1,000/sq mi) CAR Cordillera Administrative Region Baguio 19,818.12 km2 (7,651.82 sq mi) 1,722,006 1.71% 87/km2 (230/sq mi) Region II Cagayan Valley Tuguegarao 29,836.88 km2 (11,520.08 sq mi) 3,451,410 3.42% 116/km2 (300/sq mi) Region III Central Luzon San Fernando (Pampanga) 22,014.63 km2 (8,499.90 sq mi) 11,218,177 11.11% 512/km2 (1,330/sq mi) Region IV-A Calabarzon Calamba 16,576.26 km2 (6,400.13 sq mi) 14,414,774 14.27% 870/km2 (2,300/sq mi) Mimaropa Southwestern Tagalog Region Calapan 29,606.25 km2 (11,431.04 sq mi) 2,963,360 2.93% 100/km2 (260/sq mi) Region V Bicol Region Legazpi City 18,114.47 km2 (6,994.04 sq mi) 5,796,989 5.74% 320/km2 (830/sq mi) Region VI Western Visayas Iloilo City 20,778.29 km2 (8,022.54 sq mi) 7,536,383 7.46% 363/km2 (940/sq mi) Region VII Central Visayas Cebu City 15,872.58 km2 (6,128.44 sq mi) 7,396,898 7.33% 466/km2 (1,210/sq mi) Region VIII Eastern Visayas Tacloban 23,234.78 km2 (8,971.00 sq mi) 4,440,150 4.40% 191/km2 (490/sq mi) Region IX Zamboanga Peninsula Pagadian[342] 16,904.03 km2 (6,526.68 sq mi) 3,629,783 3.59% 215/km2 (560/sq mi) Region X Northern Mindanao Cagayan de Oro 20,458.51 km2 (7,899.07 sq mi) 4,689,302 4.64% 229/km2 (590/sq mi) Region XI Davao Region Davao City 20,433.38 km2 (7,889.37 sq mi) 4,893,318 4.85% 239/km2 (620/sq mi) Region XII Soccsksargen Koronadal 22,610.08 km2 (8,729.80 sq mi) 4,245,838 4.20% 188/km2 (490/sq mi) Region XIII Caraga Butuan 21,120.56 km2 (8,154.69 sq mi) 2,596,709 2.57% 123/km2 (320/sq mi) BARMM Bangsamoro Cotabato City 36,826.95 km2 (14,218.96 sq mi) 4,080,825 4.04% 111/km2 (290/sq mi) Demographics Main article: Demographics of the Philippines See also: List of cities in the Philippines The Commission on Population estimated the country's population to be 107,190,081 as of December 31, 2018, based on the latest population census of 2015 conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority.[343] The population increased from 1990 to 2008 by approximately 28 million, a 45% growth in that time frame.[344] The first official census in the Philippines was carried out in 1877 and recorded a population of 5,567,685.[345] A third of the population resides in Metro Manila and its immediately neighboring regions.[346] The 2.34% average annual population growth rate between 1990 and 2000 decreased to an estimated 1.90% for the 2000–2010 period.[347] Government attempts to reduce population growth have been a contentious issue.[348] The population's median age is 22.7 years with 60.9% aged from 15 to 64 years old.[6] Life expectancy at birth is 69.4 years, 73.1 years for females and 65.9 years for males.[349] Poverty incidence dropped to 21.6% in 2015 from 25.2% in 2012.[350] The capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both within the single urban area of Metro Manila.[351] Metro Manila is the most populous of the 3 defined metropolitan areas in the Philippines[352] and the 5th most populous in the world.[353] Census data from 2015 showed it had a population of 12,877,253 constituting almost 13% of the national population.[354] Including suburbs in the adjacent provinces (Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal) of Greater Manila, the population is around 23,088,000.[353] Across the country, the Philippines has a total urbanization rate of 51.2%.[354] Metro Manila's gross regional product was estimated as of 2009 to be ₱468.4 billion (at constant 1985 prices) and accounts for 33% of the nation's GDP.[355] In 2011 Manila ranked as the 28th wealthiest urban agglomeration in the world and the second in Southeast Asia.[356]  vte Largest cities in the Philippines 2020 Philippine census of population and housing Rank Name Region Pop. Rank Name Region Pop. Quezon City Quezon City Manila Manila 1 Quezon City National Capital Region 2,960,048 11 Valenzuela National Capital Region 714,978 Davao City Davao City Caloocan Caloocan 2 Manila National Capital Region 1,846,513 12 Dasmariñas Calabarzon 703,141 3 Davao City Davao Region 1,776,949 13 General Santos Soccsksargen 697,315 4 Caloocan National Capital Region 1,661,584 14 Parañaque National Capital Region 689,992 5 Zamboanga City Zamboanga Peninsula 977,234 15 Bacoor Calabarzon 664,625 6 Cebu City Central Visayas 964,169 16 San Jose del Monte Central Luzon 651,813 7 Antipolo Calabarzon 887,399 17 Makati National Capital Region 629,616 8 Taguig National Capital Region 886,722 18 Las Piñas National Capital Region 606,293 9 Pasig National Capital Region 803,159 19 Bacolod Western Visayas 600,783 10 Cagayan de Oro Northern Mindanao 728,402 20 Muntinlupa National Capital Region 543,445 Ethnic groups Main article: Ethnic groups in the Philippines See also: Filipinos Dominant ethnic groups by province There is substantial ethnic diversity with the Philippines, a product of the seas and mountain ranges dividing the archipelago along with significant foreign influences.[258] According to the 2010 census, 24.4% of Filipinos are Tagalog, 11.4% Visayans/Bisaya (excluding Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Waray), 9.9% Cebuano, 8.8% Ilocano, 8.4% Hiligaynon, 6.8% Bikol, 4% Waray, and 26.2% are "others",[6][357] which can be broken down further to yield more distinct non-tribal groups like the Moro, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, Ibanag, and Ivatan.[358] There are also indigenous peoples[359] like the Igorot,[360] the Lumad,[361] the Mangyan,[362] the Bajau,[363] and the tribes of Palawan.[364][365] Negritos are considered among the earliest inhabitants of the islands.[366] These minority aboriginal settlers are an Australoid group and are a left-over from the first human migration out of Africa to Australia and were likely displaced by later waves of migration.[367] At least some Negritos in the Philippines have Denisovan admixture in their genomes.[368][369] Ethnic Filipinos generally belong to several Southeast Asian ethnic groups classified linguistically as part of the Austronesian or Malayo-Polynesian speaking people.[359] There is some uncertainty over the origin of this Austronesian speaking population, with it being likely that ancestors related to Taiwanese aborigines brought their language and mixed with existing populations in the area.[370][371] The Lumad and Sama-Bajau ethnic groups have ancestral affinity with the Austroasiatic Mlabri and Htin peoples of mainland Southeast Asia. There was a westward expansion of Papuan ancestry from Papua New Guinea to eastern Indonesia and Mindanao detected among the Blaan and Sangir.[33] Under Spanish rule there was immigration from elsewhere in the empire, especially from the Spanish Americas.[372] In relation to these, the National Geographic project concluded in 2016 that people living in the Philippine archipelago carried genetic markers in the following percentages: 53% Southeast Asia and Oceania, 36% Eastern Asia, 5% Southern Europe, 3% Southern Asia, and 2% Native American[373] (From Latin America).[372] A map that shows all ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines. Chinese Filipinos are mostly the descendants of immigrants from Fujian in China after 1898,[374] numbering around 2 million, although there are an estimated 20% of Filipinos who have partial Chinese ancestry, stemming from precolonial and colonial Chinese migrants.[375] While a distinct minority, Chinese Filipinos are well-integrated into Filipino society.[258][376] As of 2015, there are 220,000 to 600,000 American citizens living in the country.[377] There are also up to 250,000 Amerasians scattered across the cities of Angeles, Manila, and Olongapo.[378] Other important non-indigenous minorities include Indians[379][380] and Arabs.[381] There are also Japanese people, which include escaped Christians (Kirishitan) who fled the persecutions of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu.[382] The descendants of mixed-race couples are known as Tisoy.[383] Languages Main article: Languages of the Philippines Population by mother tongue (2010) Language Speakers Tagalog 24.44 %   22,512,089 Cebuano 21.35 %   19,665,453 Ilokano 8.77 %   8,074,536 Hiligaynon 8.44 %   7,773,655 Waray 3.97 %   3,660,645 Other local languages/dialects 26.09 %   24,027,005 Other foreign languages/dialects 0.09 %   78,862 Not reported/not stated 0.01 %   6,450 TOTAL 92,097,978 Source: Philippine Statistics Authority[384] Ethnologue lists 186 individual languages in the Philippines, 182 of which are living languages, while 4 no longer have any known speakers. Most native languages are part of the Philippine branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is a branch of the Austronesian language family.[359][385] In addition, various Spanish-based creole varieties collectively called Chavacano exist.[386] There are also many Philippine Negrito languages that have unique vocabularies that survived Austronesian acculturation.[387] Filipino and English are the official languages of the country.[388] Filipino is a standardized version of Tagalog, spoken mainly in Metro Manila.[389] Both Filipino and English are used in government, education, print, broadcast media, and business, with third local languages often being used at the same time.[390] The Philippine constitution provides for the promotion of Spanish and Arabic on a voluntary and optional basis.[388] Spanish, which was widely used as a lingua franca in the late nineteenth century, has since declined greatly in use,[391] although Spanish loanwords are still present today in Philippine languages,[392][393] while Arabic is mainly taught in Islamic schools in Mindanao.[394] Nineteen regional languages act as auxiliary official languages used as media of instruction: Aklanon, Bikol, Cebuano, Chavacano, Hiligaynon, Ibanag, Ilocano, Ivatan, Kapampangan, Kinaray-a, Maguindanao, Maranao, Pangasinan, Sambal, Surigaonon, Tagalog, Tausug, Waray, and Yakan.[4] Other indigenous languages such as, Cuyonon, Ifugao, Itbayat, Kalinga, Kamayo, Kankanaey, Masbateño, Romblomanon, Manobo, and several Visayan languages are prevalent in their respective provinces.[395] Article 3 of Republic Act No. 11106 declared the Filipino Sign Language as the national sign language of the Philippines, specifying that it shall be recognized, supported and promoted as the medium of official communication in all transactions involving the deaf, and as the language of instruction of deaf education.[396][397] Religion Main article: Religion in the Philippines The historical Paoay Church in Ilocos Norte. Declared as a National Cultural Treasure by the Philippine government in 1973 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the collective group of Baroque Churches of the Philippines in 1993. The Philippines is a secular state which protects freedom of religion. Christianity is the dominant faith,[398][399] shared by about 89% of the population.[400] As of 2013, the country had the world's third largest Roman Catholic population, and was the largest Christian nation in Asia.[401] Census data from 2015 found that about 79.53% of the population professed Catholicism.[402] Around 37% of the population regularly attend Mass. 29% of self-identified Catholics consider themselves very religious.[403] An independent Catholic church, the Philippine Independent Church, has around 66,959 adherents.[402] Protestants were 9.13% of the population in 2015.[404] 2.64% of the population are members of Iglesia ni Cristo.[402] The combined following of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches comes to 2.42% of the total population.[402][405] Islam is the second largest religion. The Muslim population of the Philippines was reported as 6.01% of the total population according to census returns in 2015.[402] Conversely, a 2012 report by the National Commission of Muslim Filipinos stated that about 10,700,000 or 11% of Filipinos are Muslims.[398] The majority of Muslims live in Mindanao and nearby islands.[399][406] Most practice Sunni Islam under the Shafi'i school.[407] The percentage of combined positive atheist and agnostic people in the Philippines was about 3% of the population as of 2008.[408] The 2015 Philippine Census reported the religion of about 0.02% of the population as "none".[402] A 2014 survey by Gallup International Association reported that 21% of its respondents identify as "not a religious person".[409] Around 0.24% of the population practice indigenous Philippine folk religions,[402] whose practices and folk beliefs are often syncretized with Christianity and Islam.[410][411] Buddhism is practiced by around 0.03% of the population,[402] concentrated among Filipinos of Chinese descent.[412] Health Main article: Health in the Philippines St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig. In 2016, 63.1% of healthcare came from private expenditures while 36.9% was from the government (12.4% from the national government, 7.1% from the local government, and 17.4% from social health insurance).[413] Total health expenditure share in GDP for the year 2016 was 4.5%. Per capita health expenditure rate in 2015 was US$323, which was one of the lowest in Southeast Asia.[414] The budget allocation for Healthcare in 2019 was ₱98.6 billion[415] and had an increase in budget in 2014 with a record high in the collection of taxes from the House Bill 5727 (commonly known as Sin tax Bill).[416] There were 101,688 hospital beds in the country in 2016, with government hospital beds accounting for 47% and private hospital beds for 53%.[417] In 2009, there were an estimated 90,370 physicians or 1 per every 833 people, 480,910 nurses and 43,220 dentists.[418] Retention of skilled practitioners is a problem. Seventy percent of nursing graduates go overseas to work. As of 2007, the Philippines was the largest supplier of nurses for export.[419] The Philippines suffers a triple burden of high levels of communicable diseases, high levels of non-communicable diseases, and high exposure to natural disasters.[420] In 2018, there were 1,258 hospitals licensed by the Department of Health, of which 433 (34%) were government-run and 825 (66%) private.[421] A total of 20,065 barangay health stations and 2,590 rural health units provide primary care services throughout the country as of 2016.[422] Cardiovascular diseases account for more than 35% of all deaths.[423][424] 9,264 cases of HIV were reported for the year 2016, with 8,151 being asymptomatic cases.[425] At the time the country was considered a low-HIV-prevalence country, with less than 0.1% of the adult population estimated to be HIV-positive.[426] HIV/AIDS cases increased from 12,000 in 2005[427] to 39,622 as of 2016, with 35,957 being asymptomatic cases.[425] There is improvement in patients access to medicines due to Filipinos' growing acceptance of generic drugs, with 6 out of 10 Filipinos already using generics.[428] While the country's universal health care implementation is underway as spearheaded by the state-owned Philippine Health Insurance Corporation,[429] most healthcare-related expenses are either borne out of pocket[430] or through health maintenance organization (HMO)-provided health plans. As of April 2020, there are only about 7 million individuals covered by these plans.[431] Education Main article: Education in the Philippines Founded in 1611, the University of Santo Tomas is the oldest extant university in Asia. The Philippines had a simple literacy rate of 98.3% as of 2015, and a functional literacy rate of 90.3% as of 2013.[432] Education takes up a significant proportion of the national budget. In the 2020 budget, education was allocated PHP17.1 billion from the PHP4.1 trillion budget.[433] The Commission on Higher Education lists 2,180 higher education institutions, among which 607 are public and 1,573 are private.[434] Primary and secondary schooling is divided between a 6-year elementary period, a 4-year junior high school period, and a 2-year senior high school period.[435][436][437] The Department of Education covers elementary, secondary, and non-formal education.[438] The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority administers middle-level education training and development.[439][440] The Commission on Higher Education was created in 1994 to, among other functions, formulate and recommend development plans, policies, priorities, and programs on higher education and research.[441] In 2004, madaris were mainstreamed in 16 regions nationwide, mainly in Muslim areas in Mindanao under the auspices and program of the Department of Education.[442] Public universities are all non-sectarian entities and are classified as State Universities and Colleges or Local Colleges and Universities.[434] The University of the Philippines, a system of eight constituent universities, is the national university system of the Philippines.[443] The country's top ranked universities are as follows: University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, and University of Santo Tomas.[444][445][446] The University of Santo Tomas, established in 1611, has the oldest extant university charter in the Philippines and Asia.[447][448] Economy Main article: Economy of the Philippines Real GPD per capita development of the Philippines A proportional representation of Philippines exports, 2019 In 2020, the Philippine economy produced an estimated gross domestic product (nominal) of $367.4 billion.[449] Primary exports in 2019 included integrated circuits, office machinery/parts, insulated wiring, semiconductors, transformers; major trading partners included China (16%), United States (15%), Japan (13%), Hong Kong (12%), Singapore (7%), Germany (5%).[6] Its unit of currency is the Philippine peso (₱[450] or PHP[451]).[452] A newly industrialized country,[453][454] the Philippine economy has been transitioning from one based upon agriculture to an economy with more emphasis upon services and manufacturing.[453] Of the country's 2018 labor force of around 43.46 million, the agricultural sector employed 24.3%,[455] and accounted for 8.1% of 2018 GDP.[456] The industrial sector employed around 19% of the workforce and accounted for 34.1% of GDP, while 57% of the workers involved in the services sector were responsible for 57.8% of GDP.[456][457] The unemployment rate as of October 2019, stands at 4.5%.[458] The inflation rate eased to 1.7% in August 2019.[459] Gross international reserves as of October 2013 are $83.201 billion.[460] The debt-to-GDP ratio continues to decline to 37.6% as of the second quarter of 2019[461][462] from a record high of 78% in 2004.[463] The country is a net importer[464] but is also a creditor nation.[465] Manila hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank.[466] Filipinos planting rice. Agriculture employs 23% of the Filipino workforce as of 2020.[467] The 1997 Asian financial crisis affected the economy, resulting in a lingering decline of the value of the peso and falls in the stock market. The effects on the Philippines was not as severe as other Asian nations because of the fiscal conservatism of the government, partly as a result of decades of monitoring and fiscal supervision from the International Monetary Fund, in comparison to the massive spending of its neighbors on the rapid acceleration of economic growth.[154] Remittances from overseas Filipinos contribute significantly to the Philippine economy.[468] Remittances peaked in 2006 at 10.4% of the national GDP, and were 8.6% and 8.5% in 2012 and in 2014 respectively.[468] In 2014 the total worth of foreign exchange remittances was US$28 billion.[469] Regional development is uneven, with Luzon – Metro Manila in particular – gaining most of the new economic growth at the expense of the other regions.[470][471] Service industries such as tourism[472] and business process outsourcing (BPO) have been identified as areas with some of the best opportunities for growth for the country.[473] The business process outsourcing industry is composed of eight sub-sectors, namely, knowledge process outsourcing and back offices, animation, call centers, software development, game development, engineering design, and medical transcription.[474] In 2010, the Philippines was reported as having eclipsed India as the main center of BPO services in the world.[475][476][477] Science and technology Main articles: Science and technology in the Philippines and Philippine space program Headquarters of the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños, Laguna. The Department of Science and Technology is the governing agency responsible for the development of coordination of science and technology-related projects in the Philippines.[478] Research organizations in the country include the International Rice Research Institute,[479] which focuses on the development of new rice varieties and rice crop management techniques.[480] The Philippines bought its first satellite in 1996.[481] In 2016, the Philippines first micro-satellite, Diwata-1, was launched aboard the United States' Cygnus spacecraft.[482] The Philippines has a high concentration of cellular phone users.[483] Text messaging is a popular form of communication and, in 2007, the nation sent an average of one billion SMS messages per day.[484] The country has a high level of mobile financial services utilization.[485] The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, commonly known as PLDT, is a formerly nationalized telecommunications provider.[483] It is also the largest company in the country.[486] The National Telecommunications Commission is the agency responsible for the supervision, adjudication and control over all telecommunications services throughout the country.[487] Tourism Main article: Tourism in the Philippines Limestone cliffs of El Nido, Palawan. The travel and tourism sector contributed 10.6% of the country's GDP in 2015[488] and providing 1,226,500 jobs in 2013.[489] 8,260,913 international visitors arrived from January to December 2019, up by 15.24% for the same period in 2018.[490] 58.62% (4,842,774) of these came from East Asia, 15.84% (1,308,444) came from North America, and 6.38% (526,832) came from other ASEAN countries.[432] The island of Boracay, popular for its beaches, was named as the best island in the world by Travel + Leisure in 2012.[491] The Philippines is a popular retirement destination for foreigners because of its climate and low cost of living.[492] Infrastructure Transportation An LRT Line 2 train at Santolan station. Transportation in the Philippines is facilitated by road, air, rail and waterways. As of December 2018, there are 210,528 kilometers (130,816 mi) of roads in the Philippines, with only 65,101 kilometers (40,452 mi) of roads paved.[493] The 919-kilometer (571 mi) Strong Republic Nautical Highway, an integrated set of highway segments and ferry routes covering 17 cities, was established in 2003.[494] The Pan-Philippine Highway connects the islands of Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao, forming the backbone of land-based transportation in the country.[495] Roads are the dominant form of transport, carrying 98% of people and 58% of cargo. A network of expressways extends from the capital to other areas of Luzon.[496] The 8.25-kilometer (5.13 mi) Cebu–Cordova Link Expressway in Cebu opened in April 2022.[497] Traffic is a significant issue facing the country, especially within Manila and on arterial roads connecting to the capital.[498] Public transport in the country include buses, jeepneys, UV Express, TNVS, Filcab, taxis, and tricycles.[499][500] Jeepneys are a popular and iconic public utility vehicle.[501] Jeepneys and other public utility vehicles which are older than 15 years are being phased out gradually in favor of a more efficient and environmentally friendly Euro 4 compliant vehicles.[502][503] Despite wider historical use, rail transportation in the Philippines is limited, being confined to transporting passengers within Metro Manila, and the provinces of Laguna and Quezon,[504] with a separate short track in the Bicol Region.[505] There are plans to revive freight transport to reduce road congestion.[506][507] As of 2019, the country had a railway footprint of only 79 kilometers, which it had plans to expand up to 244 kilometers.[508][509] Metro Manila is served by three rapid transit lines: LRT Line 1, LRT Line 2 and MRT Line 3.[510][511][512] The PNR South Commuter Line transports passengers between Metro Manila and Laguna.[513] Railway lines that are under construction include the 22.8-kilometer (14.2 mi) MRT Line 7 (2020),[514] the 35-kilometer (22 mi) Metro Manila Subway (2025),[515] and the 109-kilometer (68 mi) PNR North–South Commuter Railway which is divided into several phases, with partial operations to begin in 2022.[516] The civil airline industry is regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.[517] Philippine Airlines is Asia's oldest commercial airline still operating under its original name.[518][519] Cebu Pacific is the countries leading low-cost carrier.[520] As an archipelago, inter-island travel using watercraft is often necessary.[521] Boats have always been important to societies in the Philippines.[522][523] Most boats are double-outrigger vessels, which can reach up to 30 meters (98 ft) in length, known as banca[524]/bangka,[525] parao, prahu, or balanghay. A variety of boat types are used throughout the islands, such as dugouts (baloto) and house-boats like the lepa-lepa.[523] Terms such as bangka and baroto are also used as general names for a variety of boat types.[525] Modern ships use plywood in place of logs and motor engines in place of sails.[524] These ships are used both for fishing and for inter-island travel.[525] The principal seaports of Manila, Batangas, Subic Bay, Cebu, Iloilo, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, and Zamboanga form part of the ASEAN Transport Network.[526][527] The Pasig River Ferry serves the cities of Manila, Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasig and Marikina in Metro Manila.[528][529] Water supply and sanitation Main article: Water supply and sanitation in the Philippines Ambuklao Dam in Bokod, Benguet. In 2015, it was reported by the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation that 74% of the population had access to improved sanitation, and that "good progress" had been made between 1990 and 2015.[530] As of 2016, 96% of Filipino households have an improved source of drinking water, and 92% of households had sanitary toilet facilities, although connections of these toilet facilities to appropriate sewerage systems remain largely insufficient especially in rural and urban poor communities.[531] Culture Main articles: Culture of the Philippines and Arts in the Philippines A participant of the Ati-Atihan Festival. There is significant cultural diversity across the islands, reinforced by the fragmented geography of the country.[532] The cultures within Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago developed in a particularly distinct manner, since they had very limited Spanish influence and greater influence from nearby Islamic regions.[533] Despite this, a national identity emerged in the 19th century, the development of which is represented by shared national symbols and other cultural and historical touchstones.[532] One of the most visible Hispanic legacies is the prevalence of Spanish names and surnames among Filipinos; a Spanish name and surname, however, does not necessarily denote Spanish ancestry. This peculiarity, unique among the people of Asia, came as a result of a colonial edict by Governor-General Narciso Clavería y Zaldua, which ordered the systematic distribution of family names and implementation of Hispanic nomenclature on the population.[534] The names of many locations are also Spanish or stem from Spanish roots and origins.[535] There is a substantial American influence on modern Filipino culture.[258] The common use of the English language is an example of the American impact on Philippine society. It has contributed to the influence of American pop cultural trends.[536] This affinity is seen in Filipinos' consumption of fast food and American film and music.[537] American global fast-food chain stalwarts have entered the market, but local fast-food chains like Goldilocks[538] and most notably Jollibee, the leading fast-food chain in the country, have emerged and compete successfully against foreign chains.[539] Nationwide festivals include Ati-Atihan, Dinagyang, Moriones and Sinulog.[540][541][542] Values Further information: Filipino values A statue in Iriga City commemorating the mano po gesture As a general description, the distinct value system of Filipinos is rooted primarily in personal alliance systems, especially those based in kinship, obligation, friendship, religion (particularly Christianity), and commercial relationships.[543] Filipino values are, for the most part, centered around maintaining social harmony, motivated primarily by the desire to be accepted within a group. The main sanction against diverging from these values are the concepts of "Hiya", roughly translated as 'a sense of shame',[544] and "Amor propio" or 'self-esteem'.[545] Social approval, acceptance by a group, and belonging to a group are major concerns. Caring about what others will think, say or do, are strong influences on social behavior among Filipinos.[546] Other elements of the Filipino value system are optimism about the future, pessimism about present situations and events, concern and care for other people, the existence of friendship and friendliness, the habit of being hospitable, religious nature, respectfulness to self and others, respect for the female members of society, the fear of God, and abhorrence of acts of cheating and thievery.[547][548] Architecture Main article: Architecture of the Philippines Colonial houses in Vigan. Spanish architecture has left an imprint in the Philippines in the way many towns were designed around a central square or plaza mayor, but many of the buildings bearing its influence were demolished during World War II.[47] Four Philippine baroque churches are included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the San Agustín Church in Manila, Paoay Church in Ilocos Norte, Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Santa María) Church in Ilocos Sur, and Santo Tomás de Villanueva Church in Iloilo.[549] Vigan in Ilocos Sur is known for the many Hispanic-style houses and buildings preserved there.[550] American rule introduced new architectural styles. This led to the construction of government buildings and Art Deco theaters. During the American period, some semblance of city planning using the architectural designs and master plans by Daniel Burnham was done on the portions of the city of Manila. Part of the Burnham plan was the construction of government buildings that resembled Greek or Neoclassical architecture.[551] In Iloilo, structures from both the Spanish and American periods can still be seen, especially in Calle Real.[552][better source needed] Certain areas of the country like Batanes have slight differences as both Spanish and Filipino ways of architecture assimilated differently because of the climate. Limestone was used as a building material, with houses being built to withstand typhoons.[553] Music and dance Main articles: Music of the Philippines and Philippine dance Cariñosa, a Hispanic era dance for traditional Filipino courtship. In general, there are two types of Philippine folk dance, stemming from traditional tribal influences and from Spanish influence. Spanish-influenced music are mostly bandurria-based bands that utilizes 14th string guitars. One example of such type is the Cariñosa. A Hispanic Filipino dance, unofficially considered as the "National Dance of the Philippines".[554] Another example is the Tinikling.[555] While native dances had become less popular over time,[556]: 77  a revival of folk dances began in the 1920s.[556]: 82  In the modern and post-modern time periods, dances may vary from the delicate ballet up to the more street-oriented styles of breakdancing.[557][558] During the Spanish era Rondalya music, where traditional string orchestra mandolin type instruments were used, was widespread.[559] Kundiman developed in the 1920s and 1930s[560] and had a renaissance in the postwar period.[561] The American colonial period exposed many Filipinos to U.S. culture and popular forms of music.[560] Rock music was introduced to Filipinos in the 1960s and developed into Filipino rock, or "Pinoy rock", a term encompassing diverse styles such as pop rock, alternative rock, heavy metal, punk, new wave, ska, and reggae. Martial law in the 1970s produced several Filipino folk rock bands and artists who were at the forefront of political demonstrations.[562] The 1970s also saw the birth of Manila Sound[563] and Original Pilipino Music (OPM).[564] Filipino hip-hop traces its origins back to 1979, entering the mainstream in 1990.[565][566] Karaoke is a popular activity in the country.[567] From 2010 to 2020, Philippine pop music or P-pop went through a metamorphosis in its increased quality, budget, investment, and variety, matching the country's rapid economic growth and an accompanying social and cultural resurgence of its Asian identity. This was heard by heavy influence from K-pop and J-pop, growth in Asian style ballads, idol groups, and electronic dance music, and less reliance on Western genres, mirroring the Korean wave and similar Japanese wave popularity among millennial Filipinos and mainstream culture.[citation needed] Locally produced spoken dramas became established in the late 1870s. Around the same time, Spanish influence led to the introduction of zarzuela plays which integrated musical pieces,[568] and of comedia plays which included more significant dance elements. Such performances became popular throughout the country[556]: 69–70  and were written in a number of local languages.[568] American influence led to the introduction of vaudeville and ballet.[556]: 69–70  During the 20th century the realism genre became more dominant, with performances written to focus on contemporary political and societal issues.[568] Literature Main article: Philippine literature José Rizal is a pioneer of Philippine Revolution through his literary works. Philippine literature comprises works usually written in Filipino, Spanish, or English. Some of the most known were created from the 17th to 19th century.[569] Ibong Adarna, for example, is a famous epic about an eponymous magical bird allegedly written by José de la Cruz or "Huseng Sisiw".[570] Francisco Balagtas, the poet and playwright who wrote Florante at Laura, is recognized as a preeminent writer in the Tagalog language.[571] José Rizal wrote the novels Noli Me Tángere (Touch Me Not) and El filibusterismo (The Filibustering, also known as The Reign of Greed).[572] Philippine mythology has been handed down primarily through the traditional oral folk literature of the Filipino people. Some popular figures from Philippine mythologies are Maria Makiling, Lam-Ang, and the Sarimanok.[573] Cinema Main article: Cinema of the Philippines Philippine cinema began at the end of the 19th century[574] and made up around 20% of the domestic market during the second half of the 20th century. During the 21st century however, the industry has struggled to compete with larger budget foreign films.[575] Critically acclaimed Philippines films include Himala (Miracle).[576][577][578] Moving pictures were first shown in the Philippines on January 1, 1897.[579][580] Films were all in Spanish since Philippine cinema was first introduced during the final years of the Spanish era of the country. Antonio Ramos was the first known movie producer.[581][582] Jose Nepomuceno was dubbed as the "Father of Philippine Movies".[583] His work marked the start of the local production of movies. Production companies remained small during the era of silent film, but 1933 saw the emergence of sound films and the arrival of the first significant production company. The postwar 1940s and the 1950s are regarded as a high point for Philippine cinema.[108] The growing dominance of Hollywood films and the cost of production has severely reduced local filmmaking.[584][585] Nonetheless, some local films continue to find success.[586][587] Mass media Main articles: Media in the Philippines, Television in the Philippines, and Radio in the Philippines Philippine media uses mainly Filipino and English, though broadcasting has shifted to Filipino.[390] There are large numbers of both radio stations and newspapers.[588] The top three newspapers by nationwide readership as well as credibility[589] are the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila Bulletin, and The Philippine Star.[590][591] While freedom of the press is protected by the constitution, the country is very dangerous for journalists.[588][592] The dominant television networks were ABS-CBN and GMA, both being free-to-air.[588] ABS-CBN, at the time the largest network[593] was shut down following a cease and desist order issued by the National Telecommunications Commission on May 5, 2020, a day after the expiration of the network's franchise.[594] Prior to this move, Duterte accused ABS-CBN of being biased against his administration and vowed to block the renewal of their franchise. Critics of the Duterte administration, human rights groups, and media unions said the shutdown of ABS-CBN was an attack on press freedom.[593][595] On July 10, 2020, the House of Representatives declined a renewal of ABS-CBN's TV and radio franchise, with a vote of 70–11.[593] TV, the Internet,[596] and social media remain the top source of news and information for the majority of Filipinos as newspaper readership continues to decline.[597][598] English broadsheets are popular among executives, professionals and students.[599] Cheaper Tagalog tabloids, which feature crime, sex, gossips and gore, saw a rise in the 1990s, and tend to be popular among the masses, particularly in Manila.[599][600][601] Estimates for Internet penetration in the Philippines vary widely ranging from a low of 2.5 million to a high of 24 million people.[602][603] Social networking and watching videos are among the most frequent Internet activities.[604] The Philippine population is the world's top internet user.[605] The Philippines was ranked 51st in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, it has increased its ranking considerably since 2014, where it was ranked 100th.[606][607][608][609] Cuisine Main article: Filipino cuisine Regional variations exist throughout the islands, for example rice is a standard starch in Luzon while cassava is more common in Mindanao.[610] Filipino taste buds tend to favor robust flavors,[611] but the cuisine is not as spicy as those of its neighbors.[612][failed verification] Unlike many Asians, most Filipinos do not eat with chopsticks; they use Western cutlery. Since rice is the primary staple food and stews and broths are very common in Filipino cuisine, the main of utensils are spoons and forks, not knife and fork.[613] The traditional way of eating with the hands known as kamayan (using the hand for bringing food to the mouth)[614] was previously more often seen in the less urbanized areas.[610] Introduction of Filipino food to people of other nationalities, as well as to Filipino urbanites, has popularized kamayan.[615][616] This recent trend also sometimes incorporates the "boodle fight" concept (as popularized and coined by the Philippine Army), wherein banana leaves are used as giant plates on top of which rice portions and Filipino viands are placed all together for a filial, friendly or communal kamayan feasting.[617] Sports Main articles: Sports in the Philippines and Traditional games in the Philippines Philippines men's national basketball team celebrating the 2015 Southeast Asian Games championship. Basketball is played at both amateur and professional levels and is considered to be the most popular sport in the Philippines.[618] In 2010, Manny Pacquiao was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 2000s by the Boxing Writers Association of America.[619] The national martial art and sport of the country is Arnis.[620][621] Sabong or cockfighting is another popular entertainment especially among Filipino men and was documented by Magellan's voyage as a pastime in the kingdom of Taytay.[622] The men's national football team has participated in one Asian Cup.[623] In January 2022, the women's national football team qualified in their first FIFA World Cup—the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup—upon defeating Chinese Taipei 4–3 in a penalty shootout after finishing 1–1 in extra time. Beginning in 1924, the Philippines has competed in every Summer Olympic Games, except when they sat out during the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics.[624][625] The Philippines is the first tropical nation to compete at the Winter Olympic Games debuting in the 1972 Olympics.[626][627] In 2021, the country tallied its first ever Olympic gold medal via weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz's victory at the Tokyo Olympics.[628] See also flag Philippines portal icon Asia portal icon Islands portal icon Geography portal Outline of the Philippines Notes  While Manila is designated as the nation's capital, the seat of government is the National Capital Region, commonly known as "Metro Manila", of which the city of Manila is a part.[2][3] Many national government institutions are located on various parts of Metro Manila, aside from Malacañang Palace and other institutions/agencies that are located within the Manila capital city.  As per the 1987 Constitution: "Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis."  Since March 10, 1945[12][13]  In the recognized regional languages of the Philippines: Aklan: Republika it Pilipinas Bikol: Republika kan Filipinas Cebuano: Republika sa Pilipinas Chavacano: República de Filipinas Hiligaynon: Republika sang Filipinas Ibanag: Republika nat Filipinas Ilocano: Republika ti Filipinas Ivatan: Republika nu Filipinas Kapampangan: Republika ning Filipinas Kinaray-a: Republika kang Pilipinas Maguindanaon: Republika nu Pilipinas Maranao: Republika a Pilipinas Pangasinan: Republika na Filipinas Sambal: Republika nin Pilipinas Surigaonon: Republika nan Pilipinas Tagalog: Republika ng Pilipinas Tausug: Republika sin Pilipinas Waray: Republika han Pilipinas Yakan: Republika si Pilipinas In the recognized optional languages of the Philippines: Spanish: República de las Filipinas Arabic: جمهورية الفلبين, romanized: Jumhūriyyat al-Filibbīn
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and north-west of mainland Australia which is part of Oceania.[5] Southeast Asia is bordered to the north by East Asia, to the west by South Asia and the Bay of Bengal, to the east by Oceania and the Pacific Ocean, and to the south by Australia and the Indian Ocean. Apart from the British Indian Ocean Territory and two out of 26 atolls of Maldives in South Asia, Maritime Southeast Asia is the only other subregion of Asia that lies partly within the Southern Hemisphere. Mainland Southeast Asia is completely in the Northern Hemisphere. East Timor and the southern portion of Indonesia are the parts of Southeast Asia that lie south of the Equator. The region lies near the intersection of geological plates, with both heavy seismic and volcanic activities.[6] The Sunda Plate is the main plate of the region, featuring almost all Southeast Asian countries except Myanmar, northern Thailand, northern Laos, northern Vietnam, and northern Luzon of the Philippines, while the Sunda Plate only includes western Indonesia to as far east as the Indonesian province of Bali. The mountain ranges in Myanmar, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia and the Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lesser Sunda Islands, and Timor are part of the Alpide belt, while the islands of the Philippines and Indonesia as well as East Timor are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Both seismic belts meet in Indonesia, causing the region to have relatively high occurrences of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, particularly in the Philippines and Indonesia.[7] It covers about 4,500,000 km2 (1,700,000 sq mi), which is 8% of Eurasia and 3% of Earth's total land area. Its total population is more than 675 million, about 8.5% of the world's population. It is the third most populous geographical region in Asia after South Asia and East Asia.[8] The region is culturally and ethnically diverse, with hundreds of languages spoken by different ethnic groups.[9] Ten countries in the region are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional organisation established for economic, political, military, educational, and cultural integration amongst its members.[10] Southeast Asia is one of the most culturally diverse regions of the world. There are many different languages and ethnicities in the region. Historically, Southeast Asia was significantly influenced by Indian, Chinese, Muslim, and colonial cultures, which became core components of the region's cultural and political institutions. Most modern Southeast Asian countries were colonized by European powers. European colonisation exploited natural resources and labour from the lands they conquered, and attempted to spread European institutions to the region.[11] Several Southeast Asian countries were also briefly occupied by the Japanese Empire during World War II. The aftermath of World War II saw most of the region decolonised. Today, Southeast Asia is predominantly governed by independent states.[12] Definition States and regions of Southeast Asia The region, together with part of South Asia, was well known by Europeans as the East Indies or simply the Indies until the 20th century. Chinese sources referred the region as Nanyang ("南洋"), which literally means the "Southern Ocean". The mainland section of Southeast Asia was referred to as Indochina by European geographers due to its location between China and the Indian subcontinent and its having cultural influences from both neighbouring regions. In the 20th century, however, the term became more restricted to territories of the former French Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam). The maritime section of Southeast Asia is also known as the Malay Archipelago, a term derived from the European concept of a Malay race.[13] Another term for Maritime Southeast Asia is Insulindia (Indian Islands), used to describe the region between Indochina and Australasia.[14] The term "Southeast Asia" was first used in 1839 by American pastor Howard Malcolm in his book Travels in South-Eastern Asia. Malcolm only included the Mainland section and excluded the Maritime section in his definition of Southeast Asia.[15] The term was officially used in the midst of World War II by the Allies, through the formation of South East Asia Command (SEAC) in 1943.[16] SEAC popularised the use of the term "Southeast Asia", although what constituted Southeast Asia was not fixed; for example, SEAC excluded the Philippines and a large part of Indonesia while including Ceylon. However, by the late 1970s, a roughly standard usage of the term "Southeast Asia" and the territories it encompasses had emerged.[17] Although from a cultural or linguistic perspective the definitions of "Southeast Asia" may vary, the most common definitions nowadays include the area represented by the countries (sovereign states and dependent territories) listed below. Ten of the eleven states of Southeast Asia are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), while East Timor is an observer state. Papua New Guinea has stated that it might join ASEAN, and is currently an observer. Sovereignty issues exist over some islands in the South China Sea. Political divisions Sovereign states State Area (km2) Population (2020)[18] Density (/km2) GDP (nominal), billion USD (2022)[4] GDP (PPP), billion Int$ (2022)[4] GDP (nominal) per capita, USD (2022)[4] GDP (PPP) per capita, Int$ (2022)[4] HDI (2021)[19] Capital  Brunei 5,765[20] 449,002 77 16.639 31.142 $37,667 $70,500 0.829 Bandar Seri Begawan  Cambodia 181,035[21] 16,718,965 92 28.544 89.570 $1,784 $5,600 0.593 Phnom Penh  East Timor 14,874[22] 1,320,942 89 3.659 7.502 $2,671 $5,478 0.607 Dili  Indonesia 1,904,569[23] 273,753,191 144 1,318.807 4,036.878 $4,798 $14,687 0.705 Jakarta  Laos 236,800[24] 7,425,057 31 15.304 68.843 $2,046 $9,207 0.607 Vientiane  Malaysia 329,847[25] 33,573,874 102 407.923 1,134.671 $12,364 $34,391 0.803 Kuala Lumpur *  Myanmar 676,578[26] 53,798,084 80 56.757 261.170 $1,053 $4,846 0.585 Nay Pyi Taw  Philippines 300,000[27] 115,559,009 380 404.261 1,171.162 $3,623 $10,497 0.699 Manila  Singapore 719.2[28] 5,921,231 8,261 466.789 719.080 $82,807 $127,563 0.939 Singapore  Thailand 513,120[29] 71,601,103 140 536.160 1,482.347 $7,650 $21,152 0.800 Bangkok  Vietnam 331,210[30] 97,468,029 294 406.452 1,321.249 $4,086 $13,283 0.703 Hanoi * Administrative centre in Putrajaya. The UN Statistics Division for Asia are based on convenience rather than implying any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories:[31]   Central Asia   Eastern Asia   Northern Asia   South-eastern Asia   Southern Asia   Western Asia A political map of Southeast Asia Geographical divisions Southeast Asia is geographically divided into two subregions, namely Mainland Southeast Asia (or the Indochinese Peninsula) and Maritime Southeast Asia. Mainland Southeast Asia includes: Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam: Cambodia Laos Vietnam Myanmar, Thailand and West Malaysia: Myanmar Thailand West Malaysia Maritime Southeast Asia includes: Brunei East Malaysia East Timor Indonesia Philippines Singapore[32] While Peninsular Malaysia is geographically situated in Mainland Southeast Asia, it shares many similar cultural and ecological affinities with surrounding islands, thus it is often grouped with them as part of Maritime Southeast Asia.[33] Geographically, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India is also considered a part of Maritime Southeast Asia. Eastern Bangladesh and Northeast India have strong cultural ties with Mainland Southeast Asia and are sometimes considered transregional areas between South Asia and Southeast Asia.[34] To the east, Hong Kong is sometimes regarded as part of Southeast Asia.[35][36][37][38][39][40][41] Similarly, Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands have strong cultural ties with Maritime Southeast Asia and are sometimes considered transregional areas between Southeast Asia and Australia/Oceania. On some occasions, Sri Lanka has been considered a part of Southeast Asia because of its cultural and religious ties to Mainland Southeast Asia.[17][42] The eastern half of the island of New Guinea, which is not a part of Indonesia, namely, Papua New Guinea, is sometimes included as a part of Maritime Southeast Asia, and so are Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau, which were all parts of the Spanish East Indies with strong cultural and linguistic ties to the region, specifically, the Philippines.[43] East Timor and the eastern half of Indonesia (east of the Wallace Line in the region of Wallacea) are considered to be geographically associated with Oceania due to their distinctive faunal features. Geologically, the island of New Guinea and its surrounding islands are considered as parts of the Australian continent, connected via the Sahul Shelf. Both Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands are located on the Australian Plate, south of the Sunda Trench. Even though they are geographically closer to Maritime Southeast Asia than mainland Australia, these two Australian external territories are not geologically associated with Asia as none of them is actually on the Sunda Plate. The United Nations geoscheme has classified both island territories as parts of Oceania, under the Australia and New Zealand (Australasia) subregion. Some definitions of Southeast Asia may include Taiwan. Taiwan has sometimes been included in Southeast Asia as well as East Asia but is not a member of ASEAN.[44] Likewise, a similar argument could be applied to some southern parts of Mainland China, as well as Hong Kong and Macau, may also considered as part of Southeast Asia as well as East Asia but are not members of ASEAN.[35] Location map of oceans, seas, major gulfs and straits in Southeast AsiaAndaman SeaAndaman SeaArafura SeaArafura SeaBali SeaBali SeaBanda SeaBanda SeaCeram SeaCeram SeaFlores SeaFlores SeaJava SeaJava SeaMolucca SeaMolucca SeaSavu SeaSavu SeaSouth China SeaSouth China SeaTimor SeaTimor SeaBohol SeaBohol SeaCamotes SeaCamotes SeaPhilippine Sea (Pacific Ocean)Philippine Sea (Pacific Ocean)Samar SeaSamar SeaSibuyan SeaSibuyan SeaSulu SeaSulu SeaVisayan SeaVisayan SeaCelebes SeaCelebes SeaBismarck SeaBismarck SeaCoral SeaCoral SeaSolomon SeaSolomon SeaGulf of ThailandGulf of ThailandGulf of TonkinGulf of TonkinBay of BengalBay of BengalIndian OceanIndian OceanStrait of MalaccaStrait of MalaccaMakassar StraitMakassar StraitGulf of CarpentariaGulf of CarpentariaKarimata StraitKarimata StraitLuzon StraitLuzon StraitGulf of TominiGulf of TominiSunda StraitSunda StraitMoro GulfMoro GulfMadura StraitMadura Strait Oceans and Seas in Southeast Asia History Main article: History of Southeast Asia Prehistory Megalithic statue found in Tegurwangi, Sumatra, Indonesia 1500 CE The region was already inhabited by Homo erectus from approximately 1,500,000 years ago during the Middle Pleistocene age.[45] Distinct Homo sapiens groups, ancestral to Eastern non-African (related to East Asians as well as Papuans) populations, reached the region by between 50,000BC to 70,000BC, with some arguing earlier.[46][47] Rock art (parietal art) dating from 40,000 years ago (which is currently the world's oldest) has been discovered in the caves of Borneo.[48] Homo floresiensis also lived in the area up until at least 50,000 years ago, after which they became extinct.[49] During much of this time the present-day islands of western Indonesia were joined into a single landmass known as Sundaland due to lower sea levels. Ancient remains of hunter-gatherers in Maritime Southeast Asia, such as one Holocene hunter-gatherer from South Sulawesi, had ancestry from both the Papuan-related and East Asian-related branches of the Eastern non-African lineage. The hunter-gatherer individual had approximately ~50% "Basal-East Asian" ancestry, and was positioned in between modern East Asians and Papuans of Oceania. The authors concluded that East Asian-related ancestry expanded from Mainland Southeast Asia into Maritime Southeast Asia much earlier than previously suggested, as early as 25,000BC, long before the expansion of Austroasiatic and Austronesian groups.[50] Distinctive Basal-East Asian (East-Eurasian) ancestry was recently found to have originated in Mainland Southeast Asia at ~50,000BC, and expanded through multiple migration waves southwards and northwards respectively. Geneflow of East Asian-related ancestry into Maritime Southeast Asia and Oceania could be estimated to ~25,000BC (possibly also earlier). The pre-Neolithic Papuan-related populations of Maritime Southeast Asia were largely replaced by the expansion of various East Asian-related populations, beginning about 50,000BC to 25,000BC years ago from Mainland Southeast Asia. The remainders, known as Negritos, form small minority groups in geographically isolated regions. Southeast Asia was dominated by East Asian-related ancestry already in 15,000BC, predating the expansion of Austroasiatic and Austronesian peoples.[47] The Austroasiatic and Austronesian expansions into Maritime Southeast Asia. In the late Neolithic, the Austronesian peoples, who form the majority of the modern population in Brunei, Indonesia, East Timor, Malaysia, and the Philippines, migrated to Southeast Asia from Taiwan in the first seaborne human migration known as the Austronesian Expansion. They arrived in the northern Philippines between 7,000 BC to 2,200 BC and rapidly spread further into the Northern Mariana Islands and Borneo by 1500 BC; Island Melanesia by 1300 BC; and to the rest of Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Vietnam, and Palau by 1000 BC.[51][52] They often settled along coastal areas, replacing and assimilating the diverse preexisting peoples.[53][54][47] The Austronesian peoples of Southeast Asia have been seafarers for thousands of years. They spread eastwards to Micronesia and Polynesia, as well as westwards to Madagascar, becoming the ancestors of modern-day Malagasy people, Micronesians, Melanesians, and Polynesians.[55] Passage through the Indian Ocean aided the colonisation of Madagascar, as well as commerce between Western Asia, eastern coast of India and Chinese southern coast.[55] Gold from Sumatra is thought to have reached as far west as Rome. Pliny the Elder wrote in his Natural History about Chryse and Argyre, two legendary islands rich in gold and silver, located in the Indian Ocean. Their vessels, such as the vinta, were capable to sail across the ocean. Magellan's voyage records how much more manoeuvrable their vessels were, as compared to the European ships.[56] A slave from the Sulu Sea was believed to have been used in Magellan's voyage as a translator. Studies presented by the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) through genetic studies of the various peoples of Asia show empirically that there was a single migration event from Africa, whereby the early people travelled along the south coast of Asia, first entered the Malay peninsula 50,000–90,000 years ago. The Orang Asli, in particular the Semang who show Negrito characteristics, are the direct descendants of these earliest settlers of Southeast Asia. These early people diversified and travelled slowly northwards to China, and the populations of Southeast Asia show greater genetic diversity than the younger population of China.[57][58] Solheim and others have shown evidence for a Nusantao maritime trading network ranging from Vietnam to the rest of the archipelago as early as 5000 BC to 1 AD.[59] The Bronze Age Dong Son culture flourished in Northern Vietnam from about 1000 BC to 1 BC. Its influence spread to other parts Southeast Asia.[60][61][62] The region entered the Iron Age era in 500 BC, when iron was forged also in northern Vietnam still under Dong Son, due to its frequent interactions with neighbouring China.[45] Bronze drum from Sông Đà, northern Vietnam. Mid-1st millennium BC Most Southeast Asian people were originally animist, engaged in ancestors, nature, and spirits worship. These belief systems were later supplanted by Hinduism and Buddhism after the region, especially coastal areas, came under contact with Indian subcontinent during the first century.[63] Indian Brahmins and traders brought Hinduism to the region and made contacts with local courts.[64] Local rulers converted to Hinduism or Buddhism and adopted Indian religious traditions to reinforce their legitimacy, elevate ritual status above their fellow chief counterparts and facilitate trade with South Asian states. They periodically invited Indian Brahmins into their realms and began a gradual process of Indianisation in the region.[65][66][67] Shaivism was the dominant religious tradition of many southern Indian Hindu kingdoms during the first century. It then spread into Southeast Asia via Bay of Bengal, Indochina, then Malay Archipelago, leading to thousands of Shiva temples on the islands of Indonesia as well as Cambodia and Vietnam, co-evolving with Buddhism in the region.[68][69] Theravada Buddhism entered the region during the third century, via maritime trade routes between the region and Sri Lanka.[70] Buddhism later established a strong presence in Funan region in the fifth century. In present-day mainland Southeast Asia, Theravada is still the dominant branch of Buddhism, practised by the Thai, Burmese, and Cambodian Buddhists. This branch was fused with the Hindu-influenced Khmer culture. Mahayana Buddhism established presence in Maritime Southeast Asia, brought by Chinese monks during their transit in the region en route to Nalanda.[65] It is still the dominant branch of Buddhism practised by Indonesian and Malaysian Buddhists. The spread of these two Indian religions confined the adherents of Southeast Asian indigenous beliefs into remote inland areas. The Maluku Islands and New Guinea were never Indianised and its native people were predominantly animists until the 15th century when Islam began to spread in those areas.[71] While in Vietnam, Buddhism never managed to develop strong institutional networks due to strong Chinese influence.[72] In present-day Southeast Asia, Vietnam is the only country where its folk religion makes up the plurality.[73][74] Recently, Vietnamese folk religion is undergoing a revival with the support of the government.[75] Elsewhere, there are ethnic groups in Southeast Asia that resisted conversion and still retain their original animist beliefs, such as the Dayaks in Kalimantan, the Igorots in Luzon, and the Shans in eastern Myanmar.[76] Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms era Main articles: Greater India and History of Indian influence on Southeast Asia Spread of Hinduism from South Asia to Southeast Asia After the region came under contact with the Indian subcontinent c. 400 BCE, it began a gradual process of Indianisation where Indian ideas such as religions, cultures, architectures, and political administrations were brought by traders and religious figures and adopted by local rulers. In turn, Indian Brahmins and monks were invited by local rulers to live in their realms and help transforming local polities to become more Indianised, blending Indian and indigenous traditions.[77][66][67] Sanskrit and Pali became the elite language of the region, which effectively made Southeast Asia part of the Indosphere.[78] Most of the region had been Indianised during the first centuries, while the Philippines later Indianised c. ninth century when Kingdom of Tondo was established in Luzon.[79] Vietnam, especially its northern part, was never fully Indianised due to the many periods of Chinese domination it experienced.[80] The first Indian-influenced polities established in the region were the Pyu city-states that already existed circa second century BCE, located in inland Myanmar. It served as an overland trading hub between India and China.[81] Theravada Buddhism was the predominant religion of these city states, while the presence of other Indian religions such as Mahayana Buddhism and Hinduism were also widespread.[82][83] In the first century, the Funan states centered in Mekong Delta were established, encompassed modern-day Cambodia, southern Vietnam, Laos, and eastern Thailand. It became the dominant trading power in mainland Southeast Asia for about five centuries, provided passage for Indian and Chinese goods and assumed authority over the flow of commerce through Southeast Asia.[55] In maritime Southeast Asia, the first recorded Indianised kingdom was Salakanagara, established in western Java circa second century CE. This Hindu kingdom was known by the Greeks as Argyre (Land of Silver).[84] Borobudur temple in Central Java, Indonesia By the fifth century CE, trade networking between East and West was concentrated in the maritime route. Foreign traders were starting to use new routes such as Malacca and Sunda Strait due to the development of maritime Southeast Asia. This change resulted in the decline of Funan, while new maritime powers such as Srivijaya, Tarumanagara, and Mataram emerged. Srivijaya especially became the dominant maritime power for more than 5 centuries, controlling both Strait of Malacca and Sunda Strait.[55] This dominance started to decline when Srivijaya were invaded by Chola Empire, a dominant maritime power of Indian subcontinent, in 1025.[85] The invasion reshaped power and trade in the region, resulted in the rise of new regional powers such as the Khmer Empire and Kahuripan.[86] Continued commercial contacts with the Chinese Empire enabled the Cholas to influence the local cultures. Many of the surviving examples of the Hindu cultural influence found today throughout Southeast Asia are the result of the Chola expeditions.[note 2] Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia As Srivijaya influence in the region declined, The Hindu Khmer Empire experienced a golden age during the 11th to 13th century CE. The empire's capital Angkor hosts majestic monuments—such as Angkor Wat and Bayon. Satellite imaging has revealed that Angkor, during its peak, was the largest pre-industrial urban centre in the world.[88] The Champa civilisation was located in what is today central Vietnam, and was a highly Indianised Hindu Kingdom. The Vietnamese launched a massive conquest against the Cham people during the 1471 Vietnamese invasion of Champa, ransacking and burning Champa, slaughtering thousands of Cham people, and forcibly assimilating them into Vietnamese culture.[89] During the 13th century CE, the region experienced Mongol invasions, affected areas such as Vietnamese coast, inland Burma and Java. In 1258, 1285 and 1287, the Mongols tried to invade Đại Việt and Champa.[90] The invasions were unsuccessful, yet both Dai Viet and Champa agreed to become tributary states to Yuan dynasty to avoid further conflicts.[91] The Mongols also invaded Pagan Kingdom in Burma from 1277 to 1287, resulted in fragmentation of the Kingdom and rise of smaller Shan States ruled by local chieftains nominally submitted to Yuan dynasty.[92][93] However, in 1297, a new local power emerged. Myinsaing Kingdom became the real ruler of Central Burma and challenged the Mongol rule. This resulted in the second Mongol invasion of Burma in 1300, which was repulsed by Myinsaing.[94][95] The Mongols would later in 1303 withdrawn from Burma.[96] In 1292, The Mongols sent envoys to Singhasari Kingdom in Java to ask for submission to Mongol rule. Singhasari rejected the proposal and injured the envoys, enraged the Mongols and made them sent a large invasion fleet to Java. Unbeknownst to them, Singhasari collapsed in 1293 due to a revolt by Kadiri, one of its vassals. When the Mongols arrived in Java, a local prince named Raden Wijaya offered his service to assist the Mongols in punishing Kadiri. After Kadiri was defeated, Wijaya turned on his Mongol allies, ambushed their invasion fleet and forced them to immediately leave Java.[97][98] After the departure of the Mongols, Wijaya established the Majapahit Empire in eastern Java in 1293. Majapahit would soon grow into a regional power. Its greatest ruler was Hayam Wuruk, whose reign from 1350 to 1389 marked the empire's peak when other kingdoms in the southern Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, and Bali came under its influence. Various sources such as the Nagarakertagama also mention that its influence spanned over parts of Sulawesi, Maluku, and some areas of western New Guinea and southern Philippines, making it one of the largest empire to ever exist in Southeast Asian history.[99]: 107  By the 15th century CE however, Majapahit's influence began to wane due to many war of successions it experienced and the rise of new Islamic states such as Samudera Pasai and Malacca Sultanate around the strategic Strait of Malacca. Majapahit then collapsed around 1500. It was the last major Hindu kingdom and the last regional power in the region before the arrival of the Europeans.[100][101] Spread of Islam Main articles: Spread of Islam in Southeast Asia and Islam in Southeast Asia Wapauwe Old Mosque is the oldest surviving mosque in Indonesia, and the second oldest in Southeast Asia, built in 1414 Islam began to make contacts with Southeast Asia in the eighth-century CE, when the Umayyads established trade with the region via sea routes.[102][103][104] However its spread into the region happened centuries later. In the 11th century, a turbulent period occurred in the history of Maritime Southeast Asia. The Indian Chola navy crossed the ocean and attacked the Srivijaya kingdom of Sangrama Vijayatungavarman in Kadaram (Kedah); the capital of the powerful maritime kingdom was sacked and the king was taken captive. Along with Kadaram, Pannai in present-day Sumatra and Malaiyur and the Malayan peninsula were attacked too. Soon after that, the king of Kedah Phra Ong Mahawangsa became the first ruler to abandon the traditional Hindu faith, and converted to Islam with the Sultanate of Kedah established in 1136. Samudera Pasai converted to Islam in 1267, the King of Malacca Parameswara married the princess of Pasai, and the son became the first sultan of Malacca. Soon, Malacca became the center of Islamic study and maritime trade, and other rulers followed suit. Indonesian religious leader and Islamic scholar Hamka (1908–1981) wrote in 1961: "The development of Islam in Indonesia and Malaya is intimately related to a Chinese Muslim, Admiral Zheng He."[105] There are several theories to the Islamization process in Southeast Asia. Another theory is trade. The expansion of trade among West Asia, India and Southeast Asia helped the spread of the religion as Muslim traders from Southern Yemen (Hadramout) brought Islam to the region with their large volume of trade. Many settled in Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. This is evident in the Arab-Indonesian, Arab-Singaporean, and Arab-Malay populations who were at one time very prominent in each of their countries. Finally, the ruling classes embraced Islam and that further aided the permeation of the religion throughout the region. The ruler of the region's most important port, Malacca Sultanate, embraced Islam in the 15th century, heralding a period of accelerated conversion of Islam throughout the region as Islam provided a positive force among the ruling and trading classes. Gujarati Muslims played a pivotal role in establishing Islam in Southeast Asia.[106] Trade and colonisation Strait of Malacca Trade among Southeast Asian countries has a long tradition. The consequences of colonial rule, struggle for independence, and in some cases war influenced the economic attitudes and policies of each country.[107] Chinese See also: List of tributaries of Imperial China, Bamboo network, and Chinese Empire From 111 BC to 938 AD northern Vietnam was under Chinese rule. Vietnam was successfully governed by a series of Chinese dynasties including the Han, Eastern Han, Eastern Wu, Cao Wei, Jin, Liu Song, Southern Qi, Liang, Sui, Tang, and Southern Han. Records from Magellan's voyage show that Brunei possessed more cannon than European ships, so the Chinese must have been trading with them.[56] Malaysian legend has it that a Chinese Ming emperor sent a princess, Hang Li Po, to Malacca, with a retinue of 500, to marry Sultan Mansur Shah after the emperor was impressed by the wisdom of the sultan. Hang Li Poh's Well (constructed 1459) is now a tourist attraction there, as is Bukit Cina, where her retinue settled. The strategic value of the Strait of Malacca, which was controlled by Sultanate of Malacca in the 15th and early 16th century, did not go unnoticed by Portuguese writer Duarte Barbosa, who in 1500 wrote: "He who is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice."[This quote needs a citation] (Venice was a major European trading partner, and goods were transported there via the Straight.) Portuguese presence in Southeast Asia - 1511 -1975 Colonial boundaries in Southeast Asia - East Timor its not Spanish sphere , but Portuguese. European See also: European colonisation of Southeast Asia Fort Cornwallis in George Town marks the spot where the British East India Company first landed in Penang in 1786, thus heralding the British colonisation of Malaya Western influence started to enter in the 16th century, with the arrival of the Portuguese in Malacca, Maluku and the Philippines, the latter being settled by the Spanish years later, which they used to trade between Asia and Latin America. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the Dutch established the Dutch East Indies; the French Indochina; and the British Strait Settlements. By the 19th century, all Southeast Asian countries were colonised except for Thailand. Duit, a coin minted by the VOC, 1646–1667. 2 kas, 2 duit European explorers were reaching Southeast Asia from the west and from the east. Regular trade between the ships sailing east from the Indian Ocean and south from mainland Asia provided goods in return for natural products, such as honey and hornbill beaks from the islands of the archipelago. Before the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the Europeans mostly were interested in expanding trade links. For the majority of the populations in each country, there was comparatively little interaction with Europeans and traditional social routines and relationships continued. For most, a life with subsistence-level agriculture, fishing and, in less developed civilisations, hunting and gathering was still hard.[108] Europeans brought Christianity allowing Christian missionaries to become widespread. Thailand also allowed Western scientists to enter its country to develop its own education system as well as start sending Royal members and Thai scholars to get higher education from Europe and Russia. Japanese See also: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Empire of Japan, and Japanese war crimes During World War II, Imperial Japan invaded most of the former western colonies under the concept of "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere". However, the Shōwa occupation regime committed violent actions against civilians such as live human experimentation,[109][110][111][112][113][114][115] sexual slavery under the brutal "comfort women" system,[116] [117] [118][119][120] the Manila massacre and the implementation of a system of forced labour, such as the one involving four to ten million romusha in Indonesia.[121] A later UN report stated that four million people died in Indonesia as a result of famine and forced labour during the Japanese occupation.[122] The Allied powers who then defeated Japan (and other allies of Axis) in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II then contended with nationalists to whom the occupation authorities had granted independence. Indian Gujarat, India had a flourishing trade relationship with Southeast Asia in the 15th and 16th centuries.[106] The trade relationship with Gujarat declined after the Portuguese invasion of Southeast Asia in the 17th century.[106] American See also: American Philippines The United States took the Philippines from Spain in 1898. Internal autonomy was granted in 1934, and independence in 1946.[123] Contemporary history Most countries in the region maintain national autonomy. Democratic forms of government are practised in most Southeast Asian countries and human rights is recognised but dependent on each nation state. Socialist or communist countries in Southeast Asia include Vietnam, Laos. ASEAN provides a framework for the integration of commerce and regional responses to international concerns. China has asserted broad claims over the South China Sea, based on its nine-dash line, and has built artificial islands in an attempt to bolster its claims. China also has asserted an exclusive economic zone based on the Spratly Islands. The Philippines challenged China in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 2013, and in Philippines v. China (2016), the Court ruled in favour of the Philippines and rejected China's claims.[124][125] Geography See also: Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia), List of Southeast Asian mountains, and Southeast Asian Massif Relief map of Southeast Asia Indonesia is the largest country in Southeast Asia and is also the largest archipelago in the world by size (according to the CIA World Factbook). Geologically, the Indonesian Archipelago is one of the most volcanically active regions in the world. Geological uplifts in the region have also produced some impressive mountains, culminating in Puncak Jaya in Papua, Indonesia at 5,030 metres (16,503 feet), on the island of New Guinea; it is the only place where ice glaciers can be found in Southeast Asia. The highest mountain in Southeast Asia is Hkakabo Razi at 5,967 metres (19,577 feet) and can be found in northern Burma sharing the same range of its parent peak, Mount Everest. The South China Sea is the major body of water within Southeast Asia. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, and Singapore, have integral rivers that flow into the South China Sea. Mayon Volcano, despite being dangerously active, holds the record of the world's most perfect cone which is built from past and continuous eruption.[126] Boundaries Further information: Boundaries between the continents of Earth Geographically, Southeast Asia is bounded to the southeast by the Australian continent, the boundary between these two regions is most often considered to run through Wallacea. Geopolitically, the boundary lies between Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian region of Western New Guinea (Papua and West Papua). Both countries share the island of New Guinea. Islands to the east of the Philippines make up the region of Micronesia. These islands are not biogeographically, geologically or historically linked to mainland Asia, and are considered part of Oceania by the United Nations, The World Factbook and other organisations.[127] The Oceania region is politically represented through the Pacific Islands Forum, a governing body which, up until 2022, included Australia, New Zealand and all independent territories in Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Several countries of Maritime Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, are dialogue partners of the Pacific Islands Forum, but none have full membership.[128] Maritime Southeast Asia was often grouped with Australia and Oceania in the mid to late 1800s, rather than with mainland Asia.[129] The term Oceania came into usage at the beginning of the 1800s, and the earlier definitions predated the advent of concepts such as Wallacea. The non-continental Australian external territories of Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands are sometimes considered part of Maritime Southeast Asia, as they lie in much closer proximity to western Indonesia than they do to mainland Australia.[130][131][132] They have a multicultural mix of inhabitants with Asian and European Australian ancestry, and were uninhabited when discovered by the British during the 17th century.[133][134] The islands lie within the bounds of the Australian Plate, and are defined by the World Factbook as the westernmost extent of Oceania.[135][136] The United Nations also include these islands in their definition of Oceania, under the same subregion as Australia and New Zealand.[127] Climate Southeast Asia map of Köppen climate classification Most of Southeast Asia have climate being tropical with being hot and humid all year round with plentiful rainfall. Northern Vietnam (including Hanoi) has subtropical climate and times to be influenced by cold waves which move from the Northeast, northern part of Central Vietnam also has times to be influenced by cold waves; in general, not all of the region is tropical and hot around year. The majority of Southeast Asia has a wet and dry season caused by seasonal shifts in winds or monsoon. The tropical rain belt causes additional rainfall during the monsoon season. The rainforest is the second largest on Earth (with the Amazon rainforest being the largest). Exceptions to this rainforest climate and vegetation are: mountain areas in the northern region and the higher islands, where high altitudes lead to milder temperatures the "dry zone" of central Myanmar in the rain shadow of the Arakan Mountains, where annual rainfall can be as low as 600 millimetres or 24 inches, which under the hot temperatures that prevail is dry enough to qualify as semi-arid. Climate change See also: Climate change in Indonesia, Climate change in Malaysia, Climate change in Cambodia, Climate change in Thailand, Climate change in Vietnam, Climate change in Myanmar, and Climate change in the Philippines Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change in the world.[137][138] Climate change will have a big effect on agriculture in Southeast Asia such as irrigation systems will be affected by changes in rainfall and runoff, and subsequently, water quality and supply.[139] Climate change is impacting agriculture, threatening food security, and is compounded by the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[140] Climate change is also likely to pose a serious threat to the fisheries industry in Southeast Asia.[137] Despite being one of the most vulnerable regions to the effects of climate change in the world, Southeast Asian countries are lagging behind in terms of their climate mitigation measures.[138] Map showing the divergent plate boundaries (oceanic spreading ridges) and recent sub-aerial volcanoes (mostly at convergent boundaries), with a high density of volcanoes situated in Indonesia and the Philippines. Environment See also: Southeast Asian coral reefs and Wallace Line Komodo dragon in Komodo National Park, Indonesia The vast majority of Southeast Asia falls within the warm, humid tropics, and its climate generally can be characterised as monsoonal. The animals of Southeast Asia are diverse; on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, the orangutan, the Asian elephant, the Malayan tapir, the Sumatran rhinoceros and the Bornean clouded leopard can also be found. Six subspecies of the binturong or bearcat exist in the region, though the one endemic to the island of Palawan is now classed as vulnerable. The Mayon Volcano, Philippines Tigers of three different subspecies are found on the island of Sumatra (the Sumatran tiger), in peninsular Malaysia (the Malayan tiger), and in Indochina (the Indochinese tiger); all of which are endangered species. The Komodo dragon is the largest living species of lizard and inhabits the islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang in Indonesia. The Philippine eagle The Philippine eagle is the national bird of the Philippines. It is considered by scientists as the largest eagle in the world,[141] and is endemic to the Philippines' forests. The wild Asian water buffalo, and on various islands related dwarf species of Bubalus such as anoa were once widespread in Southeast Asia; nowadays the domestic Asian water buffalo is common across the region, but its remaining relatives are rare and endangered. The mouse deer, a small tusked deer as large as a toy dog or cat, mostly can be found on Sumatra, Borneo (Indonesia), and in Palawan Islands (Philippines). The gaur, a gigantic wild ox larger than even wild water buffalo, is found mainly in Indochina. There is very little scientific information available regarding Southeast Asian amphibians.[142] Birds such as the green peafowl and drongo live in this subregion as far east as Indonesia. The babirusa, a four-tusked pig, can be found in Indonesia as well. The hornbill was prized for its beak and used in trade with China. The horn of the rhinoceros, not part of its skull, was prized in China as well. The Indonesian Archipelago is split by the Wallace Line. This line runs along what is now known to be a tectonic plate boundary, and separates Asian (Western) species from Australasian (Eastern) species. The islands between Java/Borneo and Papua form a mixed zone, where both types occur, known as Wallacea. As the pace of development accelerates and populations continue to expand in Southeast Asia, concern has increased regarding the impact of human activity on the region's environment. A significant portion of Southeast Asia, however, has not changed greatly and remains an unaltered home to wildlife. The nations of the region, with only a few exceptions, have become aware of the need to maintain forest cover not only to prevent soil erosion but to preserve the diversity of flora and fauna. Indonesia, for example, has created an extensive system of national parks and preserves for this purpose. Even so, such species as the Javan rhinoceros face extinction, with only a handful of the animals remaining in western Java. Wallace's hypothetical line divides Indonesian Archipelago into 2 types of fauna, Australasian and Southeast Asian fauna. The deepwater of the Lombok Strait between the islands of Bali and Lombok formed a water barrier even when lower sea levels linked the now-separated islands and landmasses on either side The shallow waters of the Southeast Asian coral reefs have the highest levels of biodiversity for the world's marine ecosystems, where coral, fish, and molluscs abound. According to Conservation International, marine surveys suggest that the marine life diversity in the Raja Ampat (Indonesia) is the highest recorded on Earth. Diversity is considerably greater than any other area sampled in the Coral Triangle composed of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. The Coral Triangle is the heart of the world's coral reef biodiversity, the Verde Passage is dubbed by Conservation International as the world's "center of the center of marine shore fish biodiversity". The whale shark, the world's largest species of fish and 6 species of sea turtles can also be found in the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean territories of the Philippines. The trees and other plants of the region are tropical; in some countries where the mountains are tall enough, temperate-climate vegetation can be found. These rainforest areas are currently being logged-over, especially in Borneo. While Southeast Asia is rich in flora and fauna, Southeast Asia is facing severe deforestation which causes habitat loss for various endangered species such as orangutan and the Sumatran tiger. Predictions have been made that more than 40% of the animal and plant species in Southeast Asia could be wiped out in the 21st century.[143] At the same time, haze has been a regular occurrence. The two worst regional hazes were in 1997 and 2006 in which multiple countries were covered with thick haze, mostly caused by "slash and burn" activities in Sumatra and Borneo. In reaction, several countries in Southeast Asia signed the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution to combat haze pollution. The 2013 Southeast Asian Haze saw API levels reach a hazardous level in some countries. Muar experienced the highest API level of 746 on 23 June 2013 at around 7 am.[144] Economy The Port of Singapore is the busiest transshipment and container port in the world, and is an important transportation and shipping hub in Southeast Asia Even prior to the penetration of European interests, Southeast Asia was a critical part of the world trading system. A wide range of commodities originated in the region, but especially important were spices such as pepper, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. The spice trade initially was developed by Indian and Arab merchants, but it also brought Europeans to the region. First, Spaniards (Manila galleon) who sailed from the Americas and Kingdom of Portugal, then the Dutch, and finally the British and French became involved in this enterprise in various countries. The penetration of European commercial interests gradually evolved into annexation of territories, as traders lobbied for an extension of control to protect and expand their activities. As a result, the Dutch moved into Indonesia, the British into Malaya and parts of Borneo, the French into Indochina, and the Spanish and the US into the Philippines. An economic effect of this imperialism was the shift in the production of commodities. For example, the rubber plantations of Malaysia, Java, Vietnam, and Cambodia, the tin mining of Malaya, the rice fields of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, and the Irrawaddy River delta in Burma, were a response to the powerful market demands.[145] The overseas Chinese community has played a large role in the development of the economies in the region. The origins of Chinese influence can be traced to the 16th century, when Chinese migrants from southern China settled in Indonesia, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries.[146] Chinese populations in the region saw a rapid increase following the Communist Revolution in 1949, which forced many refugees to emigrate outside of China.[147] In 2022, Malaysian petroleum industry through its oil and gas company, Petronas, was ranked eighth in the world by the Brandirectory.[148] Seventeen telecommunications companies contracted to build the Asia-America Gateway submarine cable to connect Southeast Asia to the US[149] This is to avoid disruption of the kind caused by the cutting of the undersea cable from Taiwan to the US in the 2006 Hengchun earthquakes. Proton Persona is one of the indigenously developed car model by Malaysian automobile manufacturer Proton Tourism has been a key factor in economic development for many Southeast Asian countries, especially Cambodia. According to UNESCO, "tourism, if correctly conceived, can be a tremendous development tool and an effective means of preserving the cultural diversity of our planet."[150] Since the early 1990s, "even the non-ASEAN nations such as Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Burma, where the income derived from tourism is low, are attempting to expand their own tourism industries."[151] In 1995, Singapore was the regional leader in tourism receipts relative to GDP at over 8%. By 1998, those receipts had dropped to less than 6% of GDP while Thailand and Lao PDR increased receipts to over 7%. Since 2000, Cambodia has surpassed all other ASEAN countries and generated almost 15% of its GDP from tourism in 2006.[152] Furthermore, Vietnam is considered as a growing power in Southeast Asia due to its large foreign investment opportunities and the booming tourism sector. By the early 21st century, Indonesia had grown to an emerging market economy, becoming the largest economy in the region. It was classified a newly industrialised country and is the region's singular member of the G-20 major economies.[153] Indonesia's estimated gross domestic product (GDP) for 2020 was US$1,088.8 billion (nominal) or $3,328.3 billion (PPP) with per capita GDP of US$4,038 (nominal) or $12,345 (PPP).[154] By GDP per capita in 2023, Singapore is the leading nation in the region with US$ 84,500 (nominal) or US$140,280 (PPP), followed by Brunei with US$ 41,713 (nominal) or US$ 79,408 (PPP) and Malaysia with US$ 13,942 (nominal) or US$ 33,353 (PPP). [155] Besides that, Malaysia has the lowest cost of living in the region, followed by Brunei and Vietnam.[156] On the contrary, Singapore is the costliest country in the region, followed by Thailand and the Philippines.[156] Stock markets in Southeast Asia have performed better than other bourses in the Asia-Pacific region in 2010, with the Philippines' PSE leading the way with 22 per cent growth, followed by Thailand's SET with 21 per cent and Indonesia's JKSE with 19 per cent.[157][158] Southeast Asia's GDP per capita is US$4,685 according to a 2020 International Monetary Fund estimates, which is comparable to South Africa, Iraq, and Georgia.[159] Country Currency Population (2020)[18][160] Nominal GDP (2020) $ billion[161] GDP per capita (2020)[159] GDP growth (2020)[162] Inflation (2020)[163] Main industries  Brunei B$ Brunei dollar 437,479 $10.647 $23,117 0.1% 0.3% Petroleum, Petrochemicals, Fishing  Cambodia ៛ Riel US$ US Dollar 16,718,965 $26.316 $1,572 -2.8% 2.5% Clothing, Gold, Agriculture  East Timor US$ US dollar 1,318,445 $1.920 $1,456 -6.8% 0.9% Petroleum, Coffee, Electronics  Indonesia Rp Rupiah 270,203,917[160] $1,088.768 $4,038 -1.5% 2.1% Coal, Petroleum, Palm oil  Laos ₭ Kip 7,275,560 $18.653 $2,567 0.2% 6.5% Copper, Electronics, Tin  Malaysia RM Ringgit 32,365,999 $336.330 $10,192 -6% -1.1% Electronics, Petroleum, Petrochemicals, Palm oil, Automotive  Myanmar K Kyat 54,409,800 $70.890 $1,333 2% 6.1% Natural gas, Agriculture, Clothing  Philippines ₱ Peso 109,581,078 $367.362 $3,373 -8.3% 2.4% Electronics, Timber, Automotive  Singapore S$ Singapore dollar 5,850,342 $337.451 $58,484 -6% -0.4% Electronics, Petroleum, Chemicals  Thailand ฿ Baht 69,799,978 $509.200 $7,295 -7.1% -0.4% Electronics, Automotive, Rubber  Vietnam ₫ Đồng 97,338,579 $340.602 $3,498 2.9% 3.8% Electronics, Clothing, Petroleum Demographics Population pyramid of South East Asia in 2023 Population distribution of the countries of Southeast Asia (with Indonesia split into its major islands). Southeast Asia has an area of approximately 4,500,000 square kilometres (1,700,000 sq mi). As of 2021, around 676 million people live in the region, more than a fifth live (143 million) on the Indonesian island of Java, the most densely populated large island in the world. Indonesia is the most populous country with 274 million people, and also the fourth most populous country in the world. The distribution of the religions and people is diverse in Southeast Asia and varies by country. Some 30 million overseas Chinese also live in Southeast Asia, most prominently in Christmas Island, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, and also as the Hoa in Vietnam. People of Southeast Asian origins are known as Southeast Asians or Aseanites. Ethnic groups Main article: Ethnic groups of Southeast Asia Ati woman in Aklan – the Negritos were the earliest inhabitants of Southeast Asia. Balinese people of Indonesia The peoples of Southeast Asia are mainly divided into four major ethnolinguistic groups: the Austronesian, Austroasiatic (or Mon-Khmers), Tai (part of the wider Kra-Dai family) and Tibeto-Burman (part of greater Sino-Tibetan language family) peoples. There is also a smaller but significant number of Hmong-Mien, Chinese, Dravidians, Indo-Aryans, Eurasians and Papuans, which also contributes to the diversity of peoples in the region. The Aslians and Negritos were believed to be one of the earliest inhabitants in the region. They are genetically related to Papuans in Eastern Indonesia, East Timor and Australian Aborigines. In modern times, the Javanese are the largest ethnic group in Southeast Asia, with more than 100 million people, mostly concentrated in Java, Indonesia. The second-largest ethnic group in Southeast Asia are the Vietnamese (Kinh people) with around 86 million people, mainly inhabiting Vietnam but also forming a significant minority in neighbouring Cambodia and Laos. The Thais are the third largest with around 59 million people, forming the majority in Thailand. Indonesia is politically and culturally dominated by the Javanese and Sundanese ethnic groups (both native to Java), but the country also has hundreds of ethnic groups scattered throughout the archipelago, such as the Madurese, Minangkabau, Bugis, Balinese, Dayak, Batak, Malay and Ambonese peoples. In Malaysia, the country is demographically divided into Malays, who make up more than half of the country's population; the Chinese, at around 22%; other Bumiputeras, at 12%; and Indians, at around 6%. In East Malaysia, the Dayaks (mainly Ibans and Bidayuhs) make up the majority in the state of Sarawak, while the Kadazan-Dusuns make up the majority in Sabah. In Labuan, the Bruneian Malays and Kedayans are the largest groups. Overall, the Malays are the majority in Malaysia and Brunei and form a significant minority in Indonesia, Southern Thailand, Myanmar, and Singapore. In Singapore, the demographics of the country is similar to that of its West Malaysian counterparts but instead of Malays, it is the Chinese that are the majority, while the Malays are the second largest group and Indians third largest. Within the Philippines, the country has no majority ethnic groups; but the four largest ethnolinguistic groups in the country are the Visayans (mainly Cebuanos, Warays and Hiligaynons), Tagalogs, Ilocanos and Bicolanos. Besides the major four, there are also the Moro peoples of Mindanao, consisting of the Tausug, Maranao, Yakan and Maguindanao. Other regional groups in the country are the Kapampangans, Pangasinans, Surigaonons, Ifugao, Kalinga, Kamayo, Cuyonon and Ivatan. In mainland Southeast Asia, the Burmese accounts for more than two-thirds of the population in Myanmar, but the country also has several regional ethnic groups which mainly live in states that are specifically formed for ethnic minorities. The major regional ethnic groups in Myanmar are the Tai-speaking Shan people, Karen people, Rakhine people, Chin people, Kayah people and Indo-Aryan-speaking Rohingya people living on the westernmost part of the country near the border with Bangladesh. In neighbouring Thailand, the Thais are the largest ethnic group in the country but is divided into several regional Tai groups such as Central Thais, Northern Thais or Lanna, Southern Thais or Pak Thai, and Northeastern Thai or Isan people (which is ethnically more closely related to Lao people than to Central Thais), each have their own unique dialects, history and culture. Besides the Thais, Thailand is also home to more than 70 ethnolinguistic groups of which the largest being Patani Malays, Northern Khmers, Karen, Hmongs and Chinese. Cambodia is one of the most homogeneous countries in the area, with Khmers forming more than 90% of the population but the country also has a large number of ethnic Chams, Vietnamese and various inland tribes categorised under the term Khmer Loeu (Hill Khmers). Religion See also: Buddhism in Southeast Asia, Hinduism in Southeast Asia, Islam in Southeast Asia, Shenism in Southeast Asia, Muslim Southeast Asia, and Christianity in Asia Spirit houses are common in areas of Southeast Asia where Animism is a held belief. Spirit houses are common in areas of Southeast Asia where Animism is a held belief.   The Mother Temple of Besakih, one of Bali's most significant Balinese Hindu temples. The Mother Temple of Besakih, one of Bali's most significant Balinese Hindu temples.   Thai Theravada Buddhists in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Thai Theravada Buddhists in Chiang Mai, Thailand.   The prayer hall of the Goddess of Mercy Temple, the oldest Taoist temple in Penang, Malaysia. The prayer hall of the Goddess of Mercy Temple, the oldest Taoist temple in Penang, Malaysia.   Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque in Brunei, an Islamic country with Sharia rule. Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque in Brunei, an Islamic country with Sharia rule.   Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral in Cebu City, Philippines, the ecclesiastical seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cebu Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral in Cebu City, Philippines, the ecclesiastical seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cebu   A Protestant church in Indonesia. Indonesia has the largest Protestant population in Southeast Asia. A Protestant church in Indonesia. Indonesia has the largest Protestant population in Southeast Asia. Religion in Southeast Asia (2020)[164]   Islam (40.08%)   Buddhism (28.41%)   Christianity (21.33%)   Folk Religion (4.16%)   No Religion (4.70%)   Hinduism (1.09%)   Other (0.23%) Countries in Southeast Asia practice many different religions and the region becomes home to many world religions including Abrahamic religions, Indian religions, East Asian religions and Iranian religion. By population, Islam is the most practised faith, numbering approximately 240 million adherents, or about 40% of the entire population, concentrated in Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Southern Thailand and in the Southern Philippines. Indonesia is the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world. Meanwhile, Islam becomes the official religion in Malaysia and Brunei by constitution.[165][166] Majority of the Muslim population is Sunni adherence, meanwhile there is also significant Shia Muslim such as in Thailand and Indonesia. The minority of the Muslim population may include Sufi Muslim or Ahmadiyya Muslim community. There are approximately 190-205 million Buddhists in Southeast Asia, making it the second-largest religion in the region, after Islam. Approximately 28 to 35% of Buddhists resides in Southeast Asia. Buddhism is predominant in Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Singapore. They may come from Theravada or Mahayana school. Ancestor worship and Confucianism are also widely practised in Vietnam and Singapore. Taoism is also widely practised by the overseas Chinese community in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Chinese folk religions are also widely practised by the overseas Chinese community such as Mazuism. In certain cases, they may include Chinese or local deities in their worshipping practises such as Tua Pek Kong, Datuk Keramat and many more. Christianity is predominant in the Philippines, eastern Indonesia, East Malaysia, and East Timor. The Philippines has the largest Roman Catholic population in Asia.[167] East Timor is also predominantly Roman Catholic due to a history of Indonesian[168] and Portuguese rule. In October 2019, the number of Christians, both Catholic and Protestant in Southeast Asia, reached 156 million, of which 97 million came from the Philippines, 29 million came from Indonesia, 11 million came from Vietnam, and the rest came from Malaysia, Myanmar, East Timor, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia and Brunei. In addition, Eastern Orthodox Christianity can also be found in the region. Besides that, the practice of Judaism can be observed in certain countries such as in the Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia due to the presence of Jewish diaspora. Additionally, there is also a small population of Parsis in Singapore who practised Zoroastrianism. Baha`i is also practised by very small population in Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand. No individual Southeast Asian country is religiously homogeneous. Some groups are protected de facto by their isolation from the rest of the world.[169] In the world's most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia, Hinduism is dominant on islands such as Bali. Christianity also predominates in the rest of the part of the Philippines, New Guinea, Flores and Timor. Pockets of Hindu population can also be found around Southeast Asia in Singapore, Malaysia, etc. Garuda, the phoenix who is the mount (vahanam) of Vishnu, is a national symbol in both Thailand and Indonesia; in the Philippines, gold images of Garuda have been found on Palawan; gold images of other Hindu gods and goddesses have also been found on Mindanao. Balinese Hinduism is somewhat different from Hinduism practised elsewhere, as animism and local culture is incorporated into it. Meanwhile, Hindu community in Malaysia and Singapore are mostly South Indian diaspora, hence the practices are closely related to the Indian Hinduism. Additionally, Sikhism is also practised by significant population especially in Malaysia and Singapore by North Indian diaspora specifically from Punjab region. Small population of the Indian diaspora in the region are Jains and can be found in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. Christians can also be found throughout Southeast Asia; they are in the majority in East Timor and the Philippines, Asia's largest Christian nation. In addition, there are also older tribal religious practices in remote areas of Sarawak in East Malaysia, Highland Philippines, and Papua in eastern Indonesia. In Burma, Sakka (Indra) is revered as a Nat. In Vietnam, Mahayana Buddhism is practised, which is influenced by native animism but with a strong emphasis on ancestor worship. Vietnamese folk religions are practised by majority of population in Vietnam. Caodaism, a monotheistic syncretic new religious movement, is also practised by less than one percent of the population in Vietnam. Due to the presence of Japanese diaspora in the region, the practice of Shinto has growingly made appearance in certain countries such as in Thailand. The religious composition for each country is as follows: Some values are taken from the CIA World Factbook:[170] Country Religions  Brunei Islam (81%), Buddhism, Christianity, others (indigenous beliefs, etc.)  Cambodia Buddhism (97%), Islam, Christianity, Animism, others  East Timor Roman Catholicism (97%), Protestantism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism  Indonesia Islam (86.7%), Protestantism (7.6%), Roman Catholicism (3.12%), Hinduism (1.74%), Buddhism (0.77%), Confucianism (0.03%), others (0.4%)[171][172]  Laos Buddhism (67%), Animism, Christianity, others  Malaysia Islam (61.3%), Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Animism  Myanmar (Burma) Buddhism (89%), Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Animism, others  Philippines Roman Catholicism (80.6%), Islam (6.9%-11%),[173] Evangelicals (2.7%), Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) (2.4%), Members Church of God International (1.0%), Other Protestants (2.8%), Buddhism (0.05%-2%),[174] Animism (0.2%-1.25%), others (1.9%)[175]  Singapore Buddhism (31.1%), Christianity (18.9%), Islam (15.6%), Taoism (8.8%), Hinduism (5%), others (20.6%)  Thailand Buddhism (93.5%), Islam (5.4%), Christianity (1.13%), Hinduism (0.02%), others (0.003%)  Vietnam Vietnamese folk religion (45.3%), Buddhism (16.4%), Christianity (8.2%), Other (0.4%), Unaffiliated (29.6%)[176] Languages See also: Classification schemes for Southeast Asian languages, Sino-Tibetan languages, Austroasiatic languages, Austronesian languages, Hmong–Mien languages, and Tai–Kadai languages Each of the languages has been influenced by cultural pressures due to trade, immigration, and historical colonisation as well. There are nearly 800 native languages in the region. The language composition for each country is as follows (with official languages in bold): Country/Region Languages  Brunei Malay, English, Chinese, Tamil, Indonesian and indigenous Bornean dialects (Iban, Murutic language, Lun Bawang.)[177]  Cambodia Khmer, English, French, Teochew, Vietnamese, Cham, Mandarin, others[178]  East Timor Portuguese, Tetum, Mambae, Makasae, Tukudede, Bunak, Galoli, Kemak, Fataluku, Baikeno, others[179]  Indonesia Indonesian, Javanese, Sundanese, Batak, Minangkabau, Buginese, Banjar, Papuan, Dayak, Acehnese, Ambonese, Balinese, Betawi, Madurese, Musi, Manado, Sasak, Makassarese, Batak Dairi, Karo, Mandailing, Jambi Malay, Mongondow, Gorontalo, Ngaju, Kenyah, Nias, North Moluccan, Uab Meto, Bima, Manggarai, Toraja-Sa'dan, Komering, Tetum, Rejang, Muna, Sumbawa, Bangka Malay, Osing, Gayo, Bungku-Tolaki languages, Moronene, Bungku, Bahonsuai, Kulisusu, Wawonii, Mori Bawah, Mori Atas, Padoe, Tomadino, Lewotobi, Tae', Mongondow, Lampung, Tolaki, Ma'anyan, Simeulue, Gayo, Buginese, Mandar, Minahasan, Enggano, Ternate, Tidore, Mairasi, East Cenderawasih Language, Lakes Plain Languages, Tor-Kwerba, Nimboran, Skou/Sko, Border languages, Senagi, Pauwasi, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew, Tamil, Punjabi, and Arabic. Indonesia has over 700 languages in over 17,000 islands across the archipelago, making Indonesia the second most linguistically diverse country on the planet,[180] slightly behind Papua New Guinea. The official language of Indonesia is Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), widely used in educational, political, economic, and other formal situations. In daily activities and informal situations, most Indonesians speak in their local language(s). For more details, see: Languages of Indonesia.  Laos Lao, French, Thai, Vietnamese, Hmong, Miao, Mien, Dao, Shan and others[181]  Malaysia Malaysian, English, Mandarin, Tamil, Indonesian, Kedah Malay, Sabah Malay, Brunei Malay, Kelantan Malay, Pahang Malay, Acehnese, Javanese, Minangkabau, Banjar, Buginese, Tagalog, Hakka, Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Fuzhounese, Telugu, Bengali, Punjabi, Sinhala, Malayalam, Arabic, Brunei Bisaya, Okolod, Kota Marudu Talantang, Kelabit, Lotud, Terengganu Malay, Semelai, Thai, Iban, Kadazan, Dusun, Kristang, Bajau, Jakun, Mah Meri, Batek, Melanau, Semai, Temuan, Lun Bawang, Temiar, Penan, Tausug, Iranun, Lundayeh/Lun Bawang, and others[182] see: Languages of Malaysia  Myanmar (Burma) Burmese, Shan, Kayin(Karen), Rakhine, Kachin, Chin, Mon, Kayah, Chinese and other ethnic languages.[183]  Philippines Filipino (Tagalog), English, Bisayan languages (Aklanon, Cebuano, Kinaray-a, Capiznon, Hiligaynon, Waray, Masbateño, Romblomanon, Cuyonon, Surigaonon, Butuanon, Tausug), Ivatan, Ilocano, Ibanag, Pangasinan, Kapampangan, Bikol, Sama-Bajaw, Maguindanao, Maranao, Spanish, Chavacano and others see: Languages of the Philippines  Singapore English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil, Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Filipino, Indonesian, Javanese, Balinese, Singlish creole and others  Thailand Thai, Isan, Northern Khmer, Malay, Karen, Hmong, Teochew, Minnan, Hakka, Yuehai, Burmese, Mien, Tamil, Bengali, Urdu, Arabic, Shan, Lue, Phutai, Mon and others[184]  Vietnam Vietnamese, Cantonese, Khmer, Hmong, Tai, Cham and others[185] Cities See also: List of cities in ASEAN by population Jabodetabek (Jakarta/Bogor/Depok/Tangerang/South Tangerang/Bekasi),  Indonesia Metro Manila (Manila/Quezon City/Makati/Taguig/Pasay/Caloocan and 11 others),  Philippines Bangkok Metropolitan Region (Bangkok/Nonthaburi/Samut Prakan/Pathum Thani/Samut Sakhon/Nakhon Pathom),  Thailand Ho Chi Minh City Metropolitan Area (Ho Chi Minh City/Vũng Tàu/Bình Dương/Đồng Nai),  Vietnam Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley (Kuala Lumpur/Selangor),  Malaysia Gerbangkertosusila (Surabaya/Sidoarjo/Gresik/Mojokerto/Lamongan/Bangkalan),  Indonesia Hanoi Capital Region (Hà Nội/Hải Phòng/Hạ Long),  Vietnam Bandung metropolitan area (Bandung/Cimahi/Sumedang/West Bandung),  Indonesia Sijori Triangle (Singapore/Johor Bahru/Batam),  Singapore  Malaysia  Indonesia Semarang metropolitan area (Semarang/Salatiga/Demak/Grobogan/Kendal ),  Indonesia Yangon Region (Yangon/Thanlyin),  Myanmar Medan metropolitan area (Medan/Binjai/Deli Serdang/Karo),  Indonesia Eastern Economic Corridor (Chachoengsao/Chonburi/Rayong),  Thailand Greater Penang (Penang/Kedah/Perak),  Malaysia Metro Cebu (Cebu City/Mandaue/Lapu-Lapu City/Talisay City and 11 others),  Philippines Palembang metropolitan area (Palembang/Banyuasin/Ogan Komering Ilir),  Indonesia Da Nang City (Đà Nẵng/Hội An/Huế),  Vietnam Phnom Penh City (Phnom Penh/Kandal),  Cambodia Metro Davao (Davao City/Digos/Tagum/Island Garden City of Samal),  Philippines Vientiane Prefecture (Vientiane/Tha Ngon),  Laos Metro Iloilo-Guimaras (Iloilo City/Pavia/Oton/Leganes/Zarraga/San Miguel/Guimaras) ,  Philippines Manado metropolitan area (Manado/Bitung/Tomohon),  Indonesia Metro Cagayan de Oro (Cagayan de Oro/El Salvador and 13 others)  Philippines Brunei-Muara (Bandar Seri Begawan/Muara),  Brunei Dili (Dili),  East Timor Night skylines Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia   Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok, Thailand   Singapore Singapore   Manila, Philippines Manila, Philippines   Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam   Jakarta, Indonesia Jakarta, Indonesia Map of Southeast Asia showing the most populated cities. Capital cities are in bold.JakartaJakartaBangkokBangkokHồ Chí Minh CityHồ Chí Minh CityHà NộiHà NộiSingaporeSingaporeYangonYangonSurabayaSurabayaQuezon CityQuezon CityBandungBandungSoutheast AsiaMedanMedanSoutheast AsiaHải PhòngHải PhòngSoutheast AsiaManilaManilaDavao CityDavao CitySoutheast AsiaSemarangSemarangPalembangPalembangKuala LumpurKuala LumpurSoutheast AsiaMakassarMakassarPhnom PenhPhnom PenhCần ThơCần ThơMandalayMandalayBatamBatamPekanbaruPekanbaruSoutheast AsiaSoutheast AsiaĐà NẵngĐà NẵngBandar LampungBandar LampungCebu CityCebu CityPadangPadangZamboanga CityZamboanga CityDenpasarDenpasarMalangMalangSamarindaSamarindaSoutheast AsiaSoutheast AsiaSoutheast AsiaGeorge Town, PenangGeorge Town, PenangTasikmalayaTasikmalayaCagayan de OroCagayan de OroBanjarmasinBanjarmasinSoutheast AsiaSoutheast AsiaIpohIpohBalikpapanBalikpapanSoutheast AsiaSoutheast AsiaSoutheast AsiaSoutheast AsiaGeneral SantosGeneral SantosSoutheast AsiaSoutheast AsiaSoutheast AsiaBacolodBacolodSoutheast AsiaNay Pyi TawNay Pyi TawVientianeVientianeNha TrangNha TrangChiang MaiChiang MaiSoutheast AsiaSoutheast AsiaSoutheast AsiaJambiJambiPontianakPontianakSoutheast AsiaSoutheast AsiaSoutheast AsiaYogyakartaYogyakarta Most populous cities in Southeast Asia (500,000+ inhabitants) Culture See also: Southeast Asian cinema, Southeast Asian Games, and Southeast Asian music Burmese puppet performance The culture in Southeast Asia is diverse: on mainland Southeast Asia, the culture is a mix of Burmese, Cambodian, Laotian, and Thai (Indian) and Vietnamese (Chinese) cultures. While in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia the culture is a mix of indigenous Austronesian, Indian, Islamic, Western, and Chinese cultures. In addition, Brunei shows a strong influence from Arabia. Vietnam and Singapore show more Chinese influence[186] in that Singapore, although being geographically a Southeast Asian nation, is home to a large Chinese majority and Vietnam was in China's sphere of influence for much of its history. Indian influence in Singapore is only evident through the Tamil migrants,[187] which influenced, to some extent, the cuisine of Singapore. Throughout Vietnam's history, it has had no direct influence from India – only through contact with the Thai, Khmer and Cham peoples. Moreover, Vietnam is also categorised under the East Asian cultural sphere along with China, Korea, and Japan due to a large amount of Chinese influence embedded in their culture and lifestyle. Paddy field in Vietnam Rice paddy agriculture has existed in Southeast Asia for millennia, ranging across the subregion. Some dramatic examples of these rice paddies populate the Banaue Rice Terraces in the mountains of Luzon in the Philippines. Maintenance of these paddies is very labour-intensive. The rice paddies are well-suited to the monsoon climate of the region. Stilt houses can be found all over Southeast Asia, from Thailand and Vietnam to Borneo, to Luzon in the Philippines, to Papua New Guinea. The region has diverse metalworking, especially in Indonesia. This includes weaponry, such as the distinctive kris, and musical instruments, such as the gamelan. Influences The region's chief cultural influences have been from some combination of Islam, India, and China. Diverse cultural influence is pronounced in the Philippines, derived particularly from the period of Spanish and American rule, contact with Indian-influenced cultures, and the Chinese and Japanese trading era. As a rule, the peoples who ate with their fingers were more likely influenced by the culture of India, for example, than the culture of China, where the peoples ate with chopsticks; tea, as a beverage, can be found across the region. The fish sauces distinctive to the region tend to vary. Arts The Royal Ballet of Cambodia (Paris, France 2010) The arts of Southeast Asia have an affinity with the arts of other areas. Dance in much of Southeast Asia includes movement of the hands as well as the feet, to express the dance's emotion and meaning of the story that the ballerina is going to tell the audience. Most of Southeast Asia introduced dance into their court; in particular, Cambodian royal ballet represented them in the early seventh century before the Khmer Empire, which was highly influenced by Indian Hinduism. The Apsara Dance, famous for strong hand and feet movement, is a great example of Hindu symbolic dance. Puppetry and shadow plays were also a favoured form of entertainment in past centuries, a famous one being the wayang from Indonesia. The arts and literature in some of Southeast Asia are quite influenced by Hinduism, which was brought to them centuries ago. Indonesia, despite large-scale conversion to Islam which opposes certain forms of art, has retained many forms of Hindu-influenced practices, culture, art, and literature. An example is the wayang kulit (shadow puppet) and literature like the Ramayana. The wayang kulit show has been recognised by UNESCO on 7 November 2003 as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It has been pointed out that Khmer and Indonesian classical arts were concerned with depicting the life of the gods, but to the Southeast Asian mind, the life of the gods was the life of the peoples themselves—joyous, earthy, yet divine. The Tai, coming late into Southeast Asia, brought with them some Chinese artistic traditions, but they soon shed them in favour of the Khmer and Mon traditions, and the only indications of their earlier contact with Chinese arts were in the style of their temples, especially the tapering roof, and in their lacquerware. Music Main article: Music of Southeast Asia The angklung, designated as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity Traditional music in Southeast Asia is as varied as its many ethnic and cultural divisions. The main styles of traditional music include court music, folk music, music styles of smaller ethnic groups, and music influenced by genres outside the geographic region. Of the court and folk genres, gong chime ensembles and orchestras make up the majority (the exception being lowland areas of Vietnam). Gamelan and angklung orchestras from Indonesia; piphat and pinpeat ensembles of Thailand and Cambodia; and the kulintang ensembles of the southern Philippines, Borneo, Sulawesi and Timor are the three main distinct styles of musical genres that have influenced other traditional musical styles in the region. String instruments are also popular in the region. On 18 November 2010, UNESCO officially recognised the angklung as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, and encouraged the Indonesian people and government to safeguard, transmit, promote performances and to encourage the craftsmanship of angklung making. Writing Main articles: Writing systems of Southeast Asia, Baybayin, Jawi script, S.E.A. Write Award, and Thai alphabet Thai manuscript from before the 19th-century writing system The history of Southeast Asia has led to a wealth of different authors, from both within and without writing about the region. Originally, Indians were the ones who taught the native inhabitants about writing. This is shown through Brahmic forms of writing present in the region, such as the Balinese script shown on split palm leaves called lontar (see image to the left – magnify the image to see the writing on the flat side, and the decoration on the reverse side). Sign in Balinese and Latin script at a Hindu temple in Bali The antiquity of this form of writing extends before the invention of paper around the year 100 in China. Note each palm leaf section was only several lines, written longitudinally across the leaf, and bound by twine to the other sections. The outer portion was decorated. The alphabets of Southeast Asia tended to be abugidas, until the arrival of the Europeans, who used words that also ended in consonants, not just vowels. Other forms of official documents, which did not use paper, included Javanese copperplate scrolls. This material would have been more durable than paper in the tropical climate of Southeast Asia. In Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore, the Malay language is now generally written in the Latin script. The same phenomenon is present in Indonesian, although different spelling standards are utilised (e.g. 'Teksi' in Malay and 'Taksi' in Indonesian for the word 'Taxi'). The use of Chinese characters, in the past and present, is only evident in Vietnam and more recently, Singapore and Malaysia. The adoption of chữ Hán in Vietnam dates back to around 111 BC when it was occupied by the Chinese. A Vietnamese script called chữ Nôm used modified chữ Hán to express the Vietnamese language. Both chữ Hán and chữ Nôm were used up until the early 20th century. Sports Association football is the most popular sport in the region, with the ASEAN Football Federation, the region's primary regulatory body, formed on 31 January 1984, in Jakarta, Indonesia. The AFF Championship is the largest football competition in the region since its inaugural in 1996, with Thailand holding the most titles in the competition with seven titles. The reigning winner is Thailand, who defeated Vietnam in the 2022 final. Thailand has had the most numerous appearances in the AFC Asian Cup with 7 while the highest-ranked result in the Asian Cup for a Southeast Asian team is second place in the 1968 by Myanmar in Iran. Indonesia is the only Southeast Asian team to have played in the 1938 FIFA World Cup as the Dutch East Indies. See also icon Geography portal icon Asia portal flag Cambodia portal flag Indonesia portal flag Laos portal flag Malaysia portal flag Myanmar portal flag Philippines portal flag Singapore portal flag Thailand portal flag Vietnam portal Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Indian subcontinent List of current heads of state and government List of firsts in Southeast Asia Military build-up in Southeast Asia Northeast Asia Southeast Asia Treaty Organization Southeast Asian Games Tiger Cub Economies Notes  A transcontinental country.  The great temple complex at Prambanan in Indonesia exhibit a number of similarities with the South Indian architecture.[87] References

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