Ferdinand Magellan arrived in 1521 and claimed the archipelago for Spain. Magellan was killed by local chiefs who quite naturally disapproved of this notion. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos followed in 1543 and named the territory Filipinas after King Philip II of Spain. Permanent Spanish occupation began in 1565, and by 1571 the entire country, except for the strictly Islamic Sulu archipelago, was under Spanish control.
A Filipino independence movement grew in the 19th century and Filipinos fought on the side of the Americans in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. When the Spanish were defeated, General Aguinaldo declared the Philippines independent. The USA, however, had other plans, and promptly purchased the islands from the Spanish for US$20 million.
Modern History
The USA eventually recognised the Filipinos’ desire for independence and Manuel L Quezon was sworn in as President of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1935 as part of a transitional phase pending full independence. Japan invaded the Philippines in 1942, brutally interrupting this process and ruled until the USA re-invaded two years later. The Philippines received full independence in 1946.
Ferdinand Marcos was elected president in 1965, declared martial law in 1972 and ruled virtually as a dictator until 1986. The assassination of prominent opposition figure Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino Jr in 1983 sparked massive anti-government protests. A snap election in 1986 saw the opposition parties rally around Aquino’s widow, Cory. Though Marcos claimed a doubtful win, Aquino initiated a programme of non-violent civil unrest which resulted in Marcos fleeing the country.
Aquino re-established the democratic institutions of the country, but failed to tackle economic problems or win over the military and the Filipino elite. Aquino survived seven coups in six years and was succeeded by her defence minister, Fidel Ramos, in 1992.
The government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) signed a peace accord in 1996 ending the MNLF’s 24-year struggle for autonomy in Mindanao. Peace in the area remains elusive, however, following the the militant Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which opposes the agreement. The government continues to conduct military operations in MILF-held areas in Basilan and Sulu.
In 1998, Ramos was replaced as president by the Philippines’ answer to Bruce Willis, Joseph Estrada. Estrada, a former movie star elected more because of the popularity of his on-screen persona than because of any political experience. He was impeached and brought to trial in late 2000 on corruption charges. When Estrada and his political allies tried to derail the trial by blocking prosecutors’ access to his financial accounts, the people decided they’d had enough and staged mass demonstrations in the streets of Manila.
Recent History
In January 2001 Estrada’s former vice-president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was sworn in as the new president of the Philippines. In an inauguration speech which must have sounded eerily familiar to Filipinos, Arroyo promised to wipe out poverty and corruption. Arroyo is far from popular, barely surviving coup attempts and street protests in 2005 and 2006, but she has at least given the country a semblance of stability.
The separatist movement in the south continues to be a thorn in the government’s side, with occasional flare ups of heavy fighting. Another bugbear is the communist New People’s Army, which has been fighting the government for years from remote bases in Luzon, Mindanao, Samar and elsewhere. In 2006 there were dozens of unsolved ‘extrajudicial’ killings of left-leaning activists, journalists and priests with alleged links to the NPA; human rights groups have pressured the administration about the killings, but little had been done to address the problem thus far.
all info taken from www.lonelyplanet.com