"Are Asians Opportunist Or Just A Dreamer?"

Why does everyone assume that when an Asian girl dates a white guy, she is just after him for money (dating, honest)?

Because of the currency of european & western countries.Most asian countries belong to the third world level with low currencies that their money have no value in the world market.

Third World means you belong to the lower class that the majority of its citizens suffers poverty.And if your poor it means you need to survive or escape.Most asian prefer to go to european & western counries for a living this is the primary reason to earn but due to the difficulty to aveil a visa to work or live there some asian decides to marry a white guy.But not all asians would marry for citizenship & for a instant living.

I can say most asian are somehow attracted to the physical features of the european/western men.They have those manly features that all women looked for but not all asians prefer to marry other race.It depends on different individuals.

You can't control the minds of other people , for me the important thing is if any couple compose by a white guy & asian woman really like each other or whatever their reasons are we should respect it.They are old enough to know what is right from wrong & if there are cases some asian marry for money or citizenship,they should learn from experienced but all asians are different individuals so never generalized if you met someone who cheated you.I think that is your luck & just be more careful in choosing your mate.

Is it worth having a relationship with an Asian?

Yes, if the intention is true & pure of both parties...I don't see that there is something wrong dating an asian or black women.It depends regardig the reasons why would ou what to date an asian if your reasons are just bec. they are petite & exotic.I don't think you should pursue your intentions.To have a worthwhile relationship you should have to understand that asian somehow differ in belief of westernized & european countries.You should be ready learn & accept your differences as an individual. Having a relationship with other races like asian is a very good learning experienced that you can exchange different views & learn one another's culture for more exciting relationship.Asian women are much more feminine rather than other women.And because of their culture most asian women are submissive to thier partners.Lastly,I want to say all women are worth having in a relationship it is how you handle your partner that matters.

Do you think Asian woman are opportunists?

Some but not all,to be honest because of the culture here that has been inherited before from our ancestors that only men should bring the bacon & the only duty of an asian wife is to take care of her children & her husband most women became independent with their husband & loosing their breadwinner is something most asian women are not use to bec. of the culture that has been inherited.As years past many asian women learn to earn & have their on careers that makes them more independent in life,this women have more self esteem & confidence in theirselves while others who has been left in the shadow of the past culture are the women who are independent to men who lacks self-trust so all they know to do is use their charm to attract men & white men are the perfect prospect for most asian women bec. we all know that more caucasians like asians.But not all asian women would sell their dignity for money it is up to you to find an asian woman of your desire just be discreet in choosing know their intentions.If they are always asking for money,beware you have found one opportunist asian woman!

What does ultimate opportunist mean?

The ultimate opportunists is not necessarily a user or a bad thing; it just means a person that tat sees an opportunity and regardless of how slight he will use it to his advantage. Every one is opportunistic to a point and will "take advantage" of a deal or give themselves an edge by seeing or discovering something some one else doesn't and then base the actions they take to achieve a goal on that action. It is not necessarily bad because in many cases a person will see and understand something in a situation that some one else doesn't so to be opportunistic can mean you are unusually observant and do nothing wrong. People who "cheat" to get an advantage or use a friend or information they shouldn't to get an advantage are "users" of people in a bad way. The ultimate opportunist is th person that will use any and all information to gain the advantage; most people would use the common or widely known big advantages but he will use even the tiniest in all situations.

It means the type of person who would use anybody and anything to get ahead in life. We all know these types of folks, they are what we call "users".

An opportunist is someone who won't go out of their way to do something, but won't turn it down if it's easy. If you leave your keys in your car, an opportunist would steal it, though they wouldn't break in. Ultimate is one of today's overused adjectives, not really used in the sense it is meant in the dictionary. Ultimate would be the apex of something, something without an equal. In this sense ultimate is just meant to describe someone who is very very opportunistic.Top honors for the ultimate opportunist would be hard to ascribe. We all know one or two.

I think the ultimate opportunist is someone who seizes and acts on every opportunity. This is usually a positive thing because, for instance, parents and students who get the most out of the educational system must be opportunists.It could be negative if it was done in a greedy way.The word "serendipity," in addition to having an interesting origin (look it up), means unexpectedly encountering an opportunity, recognizing it as such, and acting on it. Intelligence, creativity, education, and wisdom would all contribute.

"Myths About Asian Women"

Common Myths About Asian/Western Marriages

Most Asian Women want to escape the poverty and will do anything to leave their country. People who think this, of course have never visited an Asian woman at home.Family is very strong so an Asian woman will only leave home if she is truly in love.But she wants what any woman wants - a happy relationship with a man with whom she can share her love. With women out-numbering men by as much as four to one in many parts of Asia, this can be very difficult.

Anyway Your Lady Will Leave You Once She Has Her Citizenship. Because divorce is illegal in many Asian Countries the women are not pre-programmed to think of divorce as a way out. To them family is everything and they will not give it up without giving their all.Inter-racial love affairs, which begin long distance have proved to be much more successful than domestic love affairs. The overall divorce rate in the United States is over 50%, while that for inter-racial marriages is below 20%.

International Travel is Dangerous and Unhealthy.Over one hundred thousand Americans were murdered last year. You are probably safer in most of Asia.As for health, make sure you listen to your doctor regarding innoculations for any specific area and you will be fine.

Only Men With Problems Are Attracted To These WomenWrong again. Many men are tired of the 'emotional baggage' many Western women carry after around thirty years of age. Many men are attracted to the beauty of Asian women. Many men are simply attracted by the fact that age and looks are largely irrelevant to an Asian woman. In fact you will find that most Asian women really do want a considerably older partner.The fact that far more inter-racial marriages are successful than internal marriages speaks for itself.

Most Men Only Want an Asian Women Because They Are More Submissive. Another myth put about by people who have zero knowledge of the Asian personality.Asian women are tolerant, loyal and easy to get along with. This is, to the uneducated, confused with submission. If anything, Asian women are better at getting what they want than many Western women, they are just more subtle and tactful about it. She knows how to make her man happy even while she gets her own way.

"Asian Beauty"

"Don't Underestimate...
The Charm Of An Asian Woman"



1. In Asia, it is more acceptable for an old guy (Westerner) to walk around with a young girl (in her late teens, early twenties). No, it is not more acceptable. It's just more ignored or overlooked by the locals, due to the Asian culture of avoiding embarrassing realities or skirting conflict if possible. Most Asian cultures, and certainly the Filipino culture, are not any more accepting of prostitution in their religion. Any "acceptance" is at the cultural level, among the lower classes and economically impoverished sectors of Asian society. They simply "accept" sex tourists, especially the older, uglier, and fatter ones, due to their desire and often greed for the punter's money. And yes, they do see him as a punter, not as a handsome man, man of the world, white teacher, or good hearted man.

2. There are more "available women" in Asia. No, in all likelihood there is just a slightly higher number of women compared to men, in sync with most of the world, due to women's tendency to live longer...and to to drive men to their graves earlier LOL. There may appear to be more available women, given that Western men have more money due to the exchange rate. However, consider that the women surrounding them are often bargirls, hookers, gold diggers, and most are a combination of damaged good, divorcees, abused women, and prostitutes. Not exactly the type of "available women" most men consider desirable by Western standards.

3. Asian women are better due to their "traditional values". This one is a real joke, given how obviously contradictory the average Westerner propagating it is. One the one hand, he spews his hatred of filipina women as fat cows with no sense of femininity, while on the other hand he moans about greedy Filipina bargirls who lie about their love, playing the "girlfriend", all in order to steal his money. Did it ever occur to the Westerner seeking his "traditional Asian wife", that this would mean supporting her, given her lack of meaningful earning power (she's uneducated, only has skills in prostitution (the bargirls) or domestic skills (the bargirls and non-bargirls), young, and inexperienced in professional work), and dealing with an uneducated person relative to the average Westerner?

Did it ever occur that when you push away that overly competitive filipina girl, you are also pushing away the person who is "truly" your equal (something many men seem to hate in a woman, why?), able to have meaningful intellectual talks with, and able to support herself? Conversely, when you marry or date a "traditional" girl, has it occurred that most filipinas seem to always end up with the poor ones? Unless you actually are attractive and relatively young (i.e. under 40), with some reasonable amount of social skills, the odds are unlikely you'll end up with an educated Asian woman. If you do, she will likely be more Westernized and less traditional too.

There is a natural trade off between a Western girl and a "traditional Asian woman". With one comes having to deal with an equal with full freedom to leave or stay based on her judgement of you as a person, a boyfriend, a lover, and a human being (just like the way guys evaluate their girlfriends, bargirls, hookers, and lovers). On the other hand, you gain sexual, emotional, and domestic complicity at the cost of financial support and a marriage that may border on institutionalized prostitution.

"Misconception About Asians"

Big American Misconceptions about Asians

Asian Americans stand at the crossroads between west and east. We feel the currents swirling together in opposition to form thunderheads with the potential to unleash cataclysmic storms. We know better than most that these storms, past and future, are fueled more by misperceptions than actual inimicability of interests. If we feel helpless to intervene, it is understandable. At times America seems to measure its strength by the arrogant impenetrability of its ignorance about half of humanity.

We have all seen the cataclysms that can occur on our own soil from an arrogant faith in American invulnerability. As an American I will do my part here to perforate that ignorance.

I'll begin with a gross understatement: for four generations Americans have had less reason to understand Asians than Asians have had to understand Americans. Fortunately for America, this state of blissful ignorance was secured by overwhelming superiority in every material respect. But the sustained surge of nations like Japan, Corea, and now China is leveling the transpacific playing field. Add to that the inestimable advantage conferred on Asians by intimate knowledge of the United States, and America's willful, not to say scornful, ignorance begins to border on self-destructive.

From my years as a dismayed and frustrated observer of American dealings with Asians, I have verbalized the biggest misconceptions. Yes, this is a criticism of American complacency. But more, it is an effort at spreading necessary truths in the hope they may help avert unnecessary conflict and suffering.

1. Asians devalue dignity and human life. It is better to be the head of a rooster than the tail of an ox, goes one formulation of a universal Asian sentiment. American misperception has it that life is cheap in Asia, ergo, Asians have little dignity. The source of this misconception? Americans visiting Asian nations while they were devastated by generations of wars and colonial exploitation saw that labor and goods could be had dirt-cheap and concluded that life and dignity too must be cheap.

More astute observers have noted that life is cheap in Asia only when measured against dignity. Remember that the great Asian movements of the past century for the dignity of self-determination have succeeded, albeit at a cost of many millions of lives. Even the antics of Pyongyang's Kim family have, at bottom, the determination to resist American domination. And as incredible as the scenario might have seemed a few years ago, the December 2002 Corean presidential election suggests that sentiment may be shifting toward sympathy with Pyongyang, once again showing that Asians value dignity above security and expedience.

When I see Uncle Sam lecturing China on human rights, I cringe. Does China lecture the U.S. about economic disparities or race relations? Asians don't like being patronized and condescended to any more than anyone and perhaps harbor more intense resentment at the indignity. Many Asian nations are willing to go to extreme lengths to ensure that they aren't subjected to such indignities in the future.

Bringing the discussion closer to home, Asian American entrepreneurs proliferate at a rate greatly exceeding that of any other ethnic group because so many of the most capable Asians would rather be the head of a rooster than the tail of an ox. It is this overwhelming value placed on dignity that also best explains the remarkable sacrifices made by Asian Americans to obtain higher education for their children.

2. Asians are wannabe Americans. Stories of Asians risking death for a chance to come to America have fed the insulting notion that Asians are wannabe Americans. The reality is that only the most desperate or undervalued Asians, representing a miniscule fraction of the populations of their respective nations, would consider leaving their homelands. U.S. immigration quotas for Japan and Corea, for example, have gone unfilled for some years. Some Asians may envy American opportunities or lifestyles, but more are repelled by what they see as a crassly materialistic society that breeds alienation, drug-dependence, pointless violence and lonely old age. The bland American assumption that Asia would be better off if it would wholesale adopt the American social model finds little support in statistics on crime, homelessness, divorce and seniors in retirement homes.

Asians who have the opportunity and the means go out of their way to retain their ancestral culture. Asian American families devote thousands a year and much of their leisure time to preserving ties to their Asian heritage. The proliferation of Asian food markets and shopping areas, Saturday Asian-language classes and college Asian American studies courses are among the more visible signs of Asian devotion to their own cultural heritages. Some might even argue that in many large cities Asian culture is actually expanding its influence to non-Asians.

3. Asians are hitchikers on modernity. Americans have only to look around to see compelling proof of Asian ingenuity, industry and social organization. Computers, cars, cellphones, video games, flat-panel displays and every manner of consumer goods are more likely to have originated in Asia than any other continent.

The notion that Asians are primitives who recently stumbled onto modernity by grasping western coattails is grounded on hoary faith on the seminal importance of western inventions like the light bulb or the transistor. That's like saying that the NASA moon landings should be credited to An Wang's invention of the magnetic-core memory which enabled computers, an essential component of space launches. Progress may be facilitated by certain technological advances, but advances have never been dependent on any single society or race.

Those fixated on invention as the apex of human achievement might note that the U.S. Patent Office gets more submissions each year from Asian than non-Asian applicants. Collectively, Japan, Corea and Taiwan register more patents in the U.S. than does the U.S. itself. And that doesn't even count the large percentage of U.S. patents filed by Asian Americans. Then there are those who accept on faith that the progress leading to modern civilization was enabled by western social systems.

They forget that commerce and capitalism had been thriving in Asia for a thousand years before they began taking root in Europe. Democracy is a political innovation of indisputable value, but it is hardly the foundation of social progress. Corea, Taiwan and Singapore attained industrialized status without it. China didn't need it to pull off history's greatest social engineering project -- raising a billion souls from post-colonial destitution while building a middle class larger than Britain's in the span of 50 years.

4. Asians disrespect women. The western myth that Asian culture accords little respect to women appears founded on works like Madame Butterfly that pander to chauvinistic fantasies and the hunger for exotic grotesqueries. Such depictions of Asian women are typically drawn from the practices of the lower classes or anomalies created by extreme economic hardships. Images of devalued Asian women are kept alive by bargirl stories of generations of G.I.s who served tours of duty in impoverished, wartorn nations.

Add to that the countless books and articles published each year about Asian women sold into sexual slavery or wealthy Asian men with numerous concubines and mistresses. The truth is, such practices have occurred (and continue to occur to this day) in Europe and even the United States as well. Regardless of time and place, women in the lower classes tend to be victimized to a greater degree.

Comparing apples to apples, middle and upper class Asian families have traditionally placed women on an equal footing with men, albeit in differing roles. "Women hold up half the heavens" is a well-known Asian saying. Western women are expected to take their husband's surnames at marriage. Asian women traditionally keep theirs. In western households women are often placed on an allowance. In Asian households women typically control the finances. Asian women are traditionally expected to observe outward signs of deference to husbands, but in private they are allowed to be as outspoken or even as domineering as their personalities allow.

In ironic contrast, western societies expect men to show signs of deference to women in public but are often allowed to be petty tyrants at home. "A man's home is his castle," isn't an Asian saying. Social constraints of duty and respect toward wives have always reached into the Asian home. The truth is that until the past half century western societies have rarely given women the level of value and dignity enjoyed for milennia in Asia.

5. Asian's don't value children. Among the most damaging of misconceptions is the notion that Asians devalue their children. This belief seems to have originated from the availability of Asian children for adoption. This sad state of affairs resulted from the fact that until recently most Asian nations didn't have American- or European-style welfare systems that pay mothers for the support of illegitimate children. Rather than raising kids in extreme poverty and with the stigma of illegitimacy, some Asian mothers have chosen to put infants up for adoption, especially in poor nations.

Today the number of babies available for overseas adoption is decreasing steadily due to the growing prosperity of Asian nations and dramatically lower birth rates. In fact, advanced nations like Japan and Corea are experiencing birthrates too low to sustain current population levels, expanding the domestic pool of couples looking to adopt.

A more telling measure of the high value Asians place on offspring is the high level of sacrifice made by Asian and Asian American parents to give kids optimal home environments and the best possible educational and social opportunities. The remarkable success of young Asian

Americans in elite colleges is compelling evidence of the value Asians place on their offspring relative to other American groups.

"To All Filipinos"

My Fellow Filipinos,

When I was small, the Philippine peso was P2 to the $dollar . The president was Diosdado Macapagal . Life was simple. Life was easy. My father was a farmer. My mother kept a small sari-sari store where our neighbors bought sang-perang asin, sang-perang bagoong, sang-perang suka, sang-perang toyo at pahinging isang butil na bawang. Our backyard had kamatis, kalabasa, talong, ampalaya, upo, batao, and okra. Our silong had chicken. We had a pig, dog & cat. And of course, we lived on the farm. During rainy season, my father caught frogs at night which my mother made into batute (stuffed frog), or just plain fried. During the day, he caught hito and dalag from his rice paddies, which he would usually inihaw. During dry season, we relied on the chickens, vegetables, bangus, tuyo, and tinapa. Every now and then, there was pork and beef from the town market. Life was so peaceful , so quiet, no electricity, no TV. Just the radio for Tia Dely, Roman Rapido, Tawag ng Tanghalan and Tang-tarang-tang. And who can forget Leila Benitez on Darigold Jamboree? On weekends, I played with my neighbours (who were all my cousins). Tumbang-preso, taguan, piko, luksong lubid, patintero, at iba pa. I don't know about you, but I miss those days.
These days, we face the TV, Internet, e-mail, newspaper, magazine,grocery catalog, or drive around. The peso is a staggering and incredible P40 to the $dollar. Most people can't have fun anymore. Life has become a battle. We live to work. Work to live. Life is not easy. I was in Saudi Arabia in 1983. It was lonely, difficult, & scary . It didn't matter if you were a man or a woman. You were a target for rape. The salary was cheap & the vacation far between. If the boss didn't want you to go on holiday, you didn't. They had your passport. Oh, and the agency charged you almost 4months of your salary (which, if you had to borrow on a "20% per month arrangement" meant your first year's pay was all gone before you even earned it). The Philippines used to be one of the most important countries in Asia . Before & during my college days, many students from neighboring Asian countries like Malaysia , Indonesia , Japan and China went to the Philippines to get their diplomas. Like Thailand , they went to study agricultures in UP Los Banos and earned their bachelors in the Phils and now we imports rice from them. It's opposite now. Philippines used to be the exporter of any agriculture products but now it's different. We imports because not much land (farms) they can cultivate due to private sectors who focused on developing houses, buildings, supermarkets, mall and others. What happened now? What's the government doing? Checking their own pocket, their own personal interest and pork barrels. Wow!

Until 1972,like President Macapagal, President Marcos was one of the most admired presidents of the world. The Peso had kept its value of P7 to the $dollar until I finished college . Today, the Philippines is famous as the "housemaid" capital of the world. It ranks very high as the "cheapest labor" capital of the world, too. We have maids in Hong Kong , laborers in Saudi Arabia , dancers in Japan ,migrants and TNTs in Australia and the US , and all sorts of other "tricky" jobs in other parts of the globe. Quo Vadis, Pinoy? Is that a wonder or a worry? Are you proud to be a Filipino, or does it even matter anymore? When you see the Filipino flag and hear the Pambansang Awit, do you feel a sense of pride or a sense of defeat & uncertainty? If only things could change for the better....... Hang on for this is a job for Superman. Or whom do you call? Ghostbusters. Joke. Right?

This is one of our problems.

We say "I love the Philippines ... I am proud to be a Filipino."

When I send you a joke, you send it to everyone in your address book even if it kills the Internet. But when I send you a note on how to save our country & ask you to forward it, what do you do?

You chuck it in the bin.

I want to help the maids in Hong Kong .. I want to help the laborers in Saudi Arabia ... I want to help the dancers in Japan ... I want to help the TNTs in America and Australia ...

I want to save the people of the Philippines ... But I cannot do it alone. I need your help and everyone else's.

So please forward this e-mail to your friends. If you say you love the Philippines , prove it. And if you don't agree with me, say something anyway. Indifference is a crime on its own .

Juan Delacruz

"About INDIA"

INDIA,,,,,,,IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO ALL INDIANS,ISN'T THAT,,,,,,,

INDIA IS A HEAVEN IN ITS OWN WAY ,,IT HAS BEEN CREATED BY GOD IN HI VERY FREE TIME ,,AND GOD MADE IT EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN HEAVEN,,,,,,,,.US ,UK,AUSTRALIA,AND MANY EUROPEAN COUNTRIES RESEMBLE EACH OTHER IN MANY WAYS,,,SAME KINDA PEOPLE TALL BUILDINGS,,,AND SO OS ,,BUT IN THE ENTIRE WORLD THERE IS NO COUNTRY WHICH CAN RESEMBLE INDIA.....

IN INDIA IF UR PASSING FROM ONE STATE TO ANOTHER ,U WILL FEEL THAT UR PASSING FROM ONE COUNTRY TO ANOTHER,,,CAUSE A LOT OF CHANGE IN PEOPLES ,RELIGION ,,COLOR ,THEIR LANGUAGES,ART ,,,CULTURE,,,,HERITAGE,,,,,LIFESTYLE,,,,,,,,,NATURE AND STILL MORE,,,,,,,,,,,,

IN INDIA PEOPLES ARE VERY FRIENDLY,,,,,,UNLIKE IN OTHER COUNTRIES WE CALL OUR ELDERS AS UNCLE ,AUNTIE ,BROTHERS AND SISTERS ,,,,,,,,,,,INSTEAD OF CALLING THEM BY THEIR NAMES,,,,,,,,TO CREATE A KINDA RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EACH OTHER,,,,,,,, SIMILARLY WE CALL OUR TEACHERS AS SIR OR MADAM TO SHOW RESPECT TOWARDS THEM ...INDIA IS A DEVELOPING COUNTRY AND ITS RISING UP N UP DAY BY DAY,,,,,,,ITS RISING UP IN IT SECTOR MOSTLY,,,,,,,,,,,,

INDIA IS RICH IN ITS NATURAL RESOURCES ALSO ,,IN ITS NORTH ITS HAVING HIMALAYAN RANGE,,,,IN SOUTH INDIAN OCEAN ,IN WEST THAR DESERT,IN EAST,,,,,FORESTS AND WORLDS LARGEST SUNDERVAN DELTA,,, IN CENTRE MIXTURE OF ALL NATURE'S BEAUTY,,,

INDIA IS NOT A COUNTRY OF ONE LANGUAGE OR ONE RELIGION,,,,,,,,,HERE PEOPLE SPEAKS MORE THAN THOUSANDS OF LANGUAGE,,,,,,,,,OUT OF THEM MAIN 22 LANGUAGES HAVE GIVEN IMPORTANCE IN CONSTITUENT,,IN INDIA PEOPLE OF ANY RELIGION CAN LIVE LET IT BE HINDU ,,,BUDDHISM,,MUSLIM,,,SIKH,,CHRISTIAN,,JEWS OR ETC,,,,,,,,,,

THERE'S EVEN LOTS MORE TO TELL BOUT ITS GR8NESS BUT IT WOULD NEVER COME TO AN END TILL THE DESTRUCTION OF EARTH,,,,,,,,,SO ,,,,,,,,,,,FIND MORE ABOUT INDIA

"the Philippine History"

"Philippine History"

Early History -The Negritos are believed to have migrated to the Philippines some 30,000 years ago from Borneo, Sumatra, and Malaya. The Malayans followed in successive waves. These people belonged to a primitive epoch of Malayan culture, which has apparently survived to this day among certain groups such as the Igorots. The Malayan tribes that came later had more highly developed material cultures.

In the 14th cent. Arab traders from Malay and Borneo introduced Islam into the southern islands and extended their influence as far north as Luzon. The first Europeans to visit (1521) the Philippines were those in the Spanish expedition around the world led by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Other Spanish expeditions followed, including one from New Spain (Mexico) under López de Villalobos, who in 1542 named the islands for the infante Philip, later Philip II.
Spanish Control - The conquest of the Filipinos by Spain did not begin in earnest until 1564, when another expedition from New Spain, commanded by Miguel López de Legaspi, arrived. Spanish leadership was soon established over many small independent communities that previously had known no central rule. By 1571, when López de Legaspi established the Spanish city of Manila on the site of a Moro town he had conquered the year before, the Spanish foothold in the Philippines was secure, despite the opposition of the Portuguese, who were eager to maintain their monopoly on the trade of East Asia.

Manila repulsed the attack of the Chinese pirate Limahong in 1574. For centuries before the Spanish arrived the Chinese had traded with the Filipinos, but evidently none had settled permanently in the islands until after the conquest. Chinese trade and labor were of great importance in the early development of the Spanish colony, but the Chinese came to be feared and hated because of their increasing numbers, and in 1603 the Spanish murdered thousands of them (later, there were lesser massacres of the Chinese).

The Spanish governor, made a viceroy in 1589, ruled with the advice of the powerful royal audiencia. There were frequent uprisings by the Filipinos, who resented the encomienda system. By the end of the 16th cent. Manila had become a leading commercial center of East Asia, carrying on a flourishing trade with China, India, and the East Indies. The Philippines supplied some wealth (including gold) to Spain, and the richly laden galleons plying between the islands and New Spain were often attacked by English freebooters. There was also trouble from other quarters, and the period from 1600 to 1663 was marked by continual wars with the Dutch, who were laying the foundations of their rich empire in the East Indies, and with Moro pirates.

One of the most difficult problems the Spanish faced was the subjugation of the Moros. Intermittent campaigns were conducted against them but without conclusive results until the middle of the 19th cent. As the power of the Spanish Empire waned, the Jesuit orders became more influential in the Philippines and acquired great amounts of property.

Revolution, War, and U.S. Control - It was the opposition to the power of the clergy that in large measure brought about the rising sentiment for independence. Spanish injustices, bigotry, and economic oppressions fed the movement, which was greatly inspired by the brilliant writings of José Rizal. In 1896 revolution began in the province of Cavite, and after the execution of Rizal that December, it spread throughout the major islands. The Filipino leader, Emilio Aguinaldo, achieved considerable success before a peace was patched up with Spain. The peace was short-lived, however, for neither side honored its agreements, and a new revolution was brewing when the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898.

After the U.S. naval victory in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898, Commodore George Dewey supplied Aguinaldo with arms and urged him to rally the Filipinos against the Spanish. By the time U.S. land forces had arrived, the Filipinos had taken the entire island of Luzon, except for the old walled city of Manila, which they were besieging. The Filipinos had also declared their independence and established a republic under the first democratic constitution ever known in Asia. Their dreams of independence were crushed when the Philippines were transferred from Spain to the United States in the Treaty of Paris (1898), which closed the Spanish-American War.

In Feb., 1899, Aguinaldo led a new revolt, this time against U.S. rule. Defeated on the battlefield, the Filipinos turned to guerrilla warfare, and their subjugation became a mammoth project for the United States—one that cost far more money and took far more lives than the Spanish-American War. The insurrection was effectively ended with the capture (1901) of Aguinaldo by Gen. Frederick Funston, but the question of Philippine independence remained a burning issue in the politics of both the United States and the islands. The matter was complicated by the growing economic ties between the two countries. Although comparatively little American capital was invested in island industries, U.S. trade bulked larger and larger until the Philippines became almost entirely dependent upon the American market. Free trade, established by an act of 1909, was expanded in 1913.

When the Democrats came into power in 1913, measures were taken to effect a smooth transition to self-rule. The Philippine assembly already had a popularly elected lower house, and the Jones Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1916, provided for a popularly elected upper house as well, with power to approve all appointments made by the governor-general. It also gave the islands their first definite pledge of independence, although no specific date was set.

When the Republicans regained power in 1921, the trend toward bringing Filipinos into the government was reversed. Gen. Leonard Wood, who was appointed governor-general, largely supplanted Filipino activities with a semimilitary rule. However, the advent of the Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s and the first aggressive moves by Japan in Asia (1931) shifted U.S. sentiment sharply toward the granting of immediate independence to the Philippines.

The Commonwealth - The Hare-Hawes Cutting Act, passed by Congress in 1932, provided for complete independence of the islands in 1945 after 10 years of self-government under U.S. supervision. The bill had been drawn up with the aid of a commission from the Philippines, but Manuel L. Quezon, the leader of the dominant Nationalist party, opposed it, partially because of its threat of American tariffs against Philippine products but principally because of the provisions leaving naval bases in U.S. hands. Under his influence, the Philippine legislature rejected the bill. The Tydings-McDuffie Independence Act (1934) closely resembled the Hare-Hawes Cutting Act, but struck the provisions for American bases and carried a promise of further study to correct “imperfections or inequalities.”

The Philippine legislature ratified the bill; a constitution, approved by President Roosevelt (Mar., 1935) was accepted by the Philippine people in a plebiscite (May); and Quezon was elected the first president (Sept.). When Quezon was inaugurated on Nov. 15, 1935, the Commonwealth of the Philippines was formally established. Quezon was reelected in Nov., 1941. To develop defensive forces against possible aggression, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was brought to the islands as military adviser in 1935, and the following year he became field marshal of the Commonwealth army.

World War II - War came suddenly to the Philippines on Dec. 8 (Dec. 7, U.S. time), 1941, when Japan attacked without warning. Japanese troops invaded the islands in many places and launched a pincer drive on Manila. MacArthur’s scattered defending forces (about 80,000 troops, four fifths of them Filipinos) were forced to withdraw to Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island, where they entrenched and tried to hold until the arrival of reinforcements, meanwhile guarding the entrance to Manila Bay and denying that important harbor to the Japanese. But no reinforcements were forthcoming. The Japanese occupied Manila on Jan. 2, 1942. MacArthur was ordered out by President Roosevelt and left for Australia on Mar. 11; Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright assumed command.

The besieged U.S.-Filipino army on Bataan finally crumbled on Apr. 9, 1942. Wainwright fought on from Corregidor with a garrison of about 11,000 men; he was overwhelmed on May 6, 1942. After his capitulation, the Japanese forced the surrender of all remaining defending units in the islands by threatening to use the captured Bataan and Corregidor troops as hostages. Many individual soldiers refused to surrender, however, and guerrilla resistance, organized and coordinated by U.S. and Philippine army officers, continued throughout the Japanese occupation.

Japan’s efforts to win Filipino loyalty found expression in the establishment (Oct. 14, 1943) of a “Philippine Republic,” with José P. Laurel, former supreme court justice, as president.

But the people suffered greatly from Japanese brutality, and the puppet government gained little support. Meanwhile, President Quezon, who had escaped with other high officials before the country fell, set up a government-in-exile in Washington. When he died (Aug., 1944), Vice President Sergio Osmeña became president. Osmeña returned to the Philippines with the first liberation forces, which surprised the Japanese by landing (Oct. 20, 1944) at Leyte, in the heart of the islands, after months of U.S. air strikes against Mindanao. The Philippine government was established at Tacloban, Leyte, on Oct. 23.

The landing was followed (Oct. 23–26) by the greatest naval engagement in history, called variously the battle of Leyte Gulf and the second battle of the Philippine Sea. A great U.S. victory, it effectively destroyed the Japanese fleet and opened the way for the recovery of all the islands. Luzon was invaded (Jan., 1945), and Manila was taken in February. On July 5, 1945, MacArthur announced “All the Philippines are now liberated.” The Japanese had suffered over 425,000 dead in the Philippines.

The Philippine congress met on June 9, 1945, for the first time since its election in 1941. It faced enormous problems. The land was devastated by war, the economy destroyed, the country torn by political warfare and guerrilla violence. Osmeña’s leadership was challenged (Jan., 1946) when one wing (now the Liberal party) of the Nationalist party nominated for president Manuel Roxas, who defeated Osmeña in April.

The Republic of the Philippines - Manuel Roxas became the first president of the Republic of the Philippines when independence was granted, as scheduled, on July 4, 1946. In Mar., 1947, the Philippines and the United States signed a military assistance pact (since renewed) and the Philippines gave the United States a 99-year lease on designated military, naval, and air bases (a later agreement reduced the period to 25 years beginning 1967). The sudden death of President Roxas in Apr., 1948, elevated the vice president, Elpidio Quirino, to the presidency, and in a bitterly contested election in Nov., 1949, Quirino defeated José Laurel to win a four-year term of his own.

The enormous task of reconstructing the war-torn country was complicated by the activities in central Luzon of the Communist-dominated Hukbalahap guerrillas (Huks), who resorted to terror and violence in their efforts to achieve land reform and gain political power. They were finally brought under control (1954) after a vigorous attack launched by the minister of national defense, Ramón Magsaysay. By that time Magsaysay was president of the country, having defeated Quirino in Nov., 1953. He had promised sweeping economic changes, and he did make progress in land reform, opening new settlements outside crowded Luzon island. His death in an airplane crash in Mar., 1957, was a serious blow to national morale. Vice President Carlos P. García succeeded him and won a full term as president in the elections of Nov., 1957.
In foreign affairs, the Philippines maintained a firm anti-Communist policy and joined the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization in 1954. There were difficulties with the United States over American military installations in the islands, and, despite formal recognition (1956) of full Philippine sovereignty over these bases, tensions increased until some of the bases were dismantled (1959) and the 99-year lease period was reduced. The United States rejected Philippine financial claims and proposed trade revisions.

Philippine opposition to García on issues of government corruption and anti-Americanism led, in June, 1959, to the union of the Liberal and Progressive parties, led by Vice President Diosdado Macapagal, the Liberal party leader, who succeeded García as president in the 1961 elections. Macapagal’s administration was marked by efforts to combat the mounting inflation that had plagued the republic since its birth; by attempted alliances with neighboring countries; and by a territorial dispute with Britain over North Borneo (later Sabah), which Macapagal claimed had been leased and not sold to the British North Borneo Company in 1878.

Marcos and After - Ferdinand E. Marcos, who succeeded to the presidency after defeating Macapagal in the 1965 elections, inherited the territorial dispute over Sabah; in 1968 he approved a congressional bill annexing Sabah to the Philippines. Malaysia suspended diplomatic relations (Sabah had joined the Federation of Malaysia in 1963), and the matter was referred to the United Nations. (The Philippines dropped its claim to Sabah in 1978.) The Philippines became one of the founding countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967. The continuing need for land reform fostered a new Huk uprising in central Luzon, accompanied by mounting assassinations and acts of terror, and in 1969, Marcos began a major military campaign to subdue them. Civil war also threatened on Mindanao, where groups of Moros opposed Christian settlement. In Nov., 1969, Marcos won an unprecedented reelection, easily defeating Sergio Osmeña, Jr., but the election was accompanied by violence and charges of fraud, and Marcos’s second term began with increasing civil disorder.

In Jan., 1970, some 2,000 demonstrators tried to storm Malacañang Palace, the presidential residence; riots erupted against the U.S. embassy. When Pope Paul VI visited Manila in Nov., 1970, an attempt was made on his life. In 1971, at a Liberal party rally, hand grenades were thrown at the speakers’ platform, and several people were killed. President Marcos declared martial law in Sept., 1972, charging that a Communist rebellion threatened. The 1935 constitution was replaced (1973) by a new one that provided the president with direct powers. A plebiscite (July, 1973) gave Marcos the right to remain in office beyond the expiration (Dec., 1973) of his term. Meanwhile the fighting on Mindanao had spread to the Sulu Archipelago. By 1973 some 3,000 people had been killed and hundreds of villages burned. Throughout the 1970s poverty and governmental corruption increased, and Imelda Marcos, Ferdinand’s wife, became more influential.

Martial law remained in force until 1981, when Marcos was reelected, amid accusations of electoral fraud. On Aug. 21, 1983, opposition leader Benigno Aquino was assassinated at Manila airport, which incited a new, more powerful wave of anti-Marcos dissent. After the Feb., 1986, presidential election, both Marcos and his opponent, Corazon Aquino (the widow of Benigno), declared themselves the winner, and charges of massive fraud and violence were leveled against the Marcos faction. Marcos’s domestic and international support eroded, and he fled the country on Feb. 25, 1986, eventually obtaining asylum in the United States.

Aquino’s government faced mounting problems, including coup attempts, significant economic difficulties, and pressure to rid the Philippines of the U.S. military presence (the last U.S. bases were evacuated in 1992). In 1990, in response to the demands of the Moros, a partially autonomous Muslim region was created in the far south. In 1992, Aquino declined to run for reelection and was succeeded by her former army chief of staff Fidel Ramos. He immediately launched an economic revitalization plan premised on three policies: government deregulation, increased private investment, and political solutions to the continuing insurgencies within the country. His political program was somewhat successful, opening dialogues with the Marxist and Muslim guerillas. However, Muslim discontent with partial rule persisted, and unrest and violence continued throughout the 1990s. In 1999, Marxist rebels and Muslim separatists formed an alliance to fight the government.

Several natural disasters, including the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo on Luzon and a succession of severe typhoons, slowed the country’s economic progress. However, the Philippines escaped much of the economic turmoil seen in other East Asian nations in 1997 and 1998, in part by following a slower pace of development imposed by the International Monetary Fund. Joseph Marcelo Estrada, a former movie actor, was elected president in 1998, pledging to help the poor and develop the country’s agricultural sector. In 1999 he announced plans to amend the constitution in order to remove protectionist provisions and attract more foreign investment.

Late in 2000, Estrada’s presidency was buffeted by charges that he accepted millions of dollars in payoffs from illegal gambling operations. Although his support among the poor Filipino majority remained strong, many political, business, and church leaders called for him to resign. In Nov., 2000, Estrada was impeached by the house of representatives on charges of graft, but the senate, controlled by Estrada’s allies, provoked a crisis (Jan., 2001) when it rejected examining the president’s bank records. As demonstrations against Estrada mounted and members of his cabinet resigned, the supreme court stripped him of the presidency, and Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was sworn in as Estrada’s successor.

Macapagal-Arroyo was elected president in her own right in May, 2004, but the balloting was marred by violence and irregularities as well as a tedious vote-counting process that was completed six weeks after the election.