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manila: general info
· city links
· history
· hostels
· things to do
· read reviews
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By the time the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, Manila was a busy port, trading
with China, Hindu empires in Sumatra
and Java, and powerful Arabs. The first wave of Spaniards receded
quickly when when indigenous people killed explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521.
Led by Miguel de Legaspi, the Spaniards returned in 1565, and upon their arrival, a local trade leader burned the port settlement and
fled. Legaspi met with fierce resistance from the indigenous people, but managed to establish a base, which he later shifted to Manila.
Under Legaspi, the Spanish built a fortified settlement on top of the burned town and spread out, using the Philippines as an important
stop on their trade route.
By the 19th century, Spain's power had waned, and a violent revolt in 1896 weakened her even further. Two years later, Spain went to
war with the United States, which ultimately ended Spanish rule in the Philippines. The
American occupiers set about to remake the Philippines as an American cultural and military base.
During World War II, the Japanese occupied the Philippines, and Manila suffered worse damage than any
other city except Warsaw, Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. When the war ended, American presence was re-established, and the Philippines was granted a limited
independence.
The dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in the the 1970s and 1980s ushered in decades of political corruption and civil unrest. Today,
the Philippines remains unstable, as evinced by a military coup attempt in July 2003.
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