Philippines
Republic of the Philippines
The Philippines is an archipelagic country; that is, it is composed of islands. Lots of 'em. 7,641 of 'em. There is evidence of people (in the very broadest sense of the word) living here for over 700,000 years, but It first came to the attention of Europeans in the early part of the 16th century when the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived in a Spanish fleet. A little bit later, in 1543, Ruy Lopez came back from Spain and named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honour of Philip II of Spain. 1565 saw Spanish settlement and the start of being part of the Spanish Empire.
Some three hundred years later, two things happened. There was a revolution in the Philippines against Spanish rule, and there was a war between the U.S. and Spain. Somehow this all resulted in the U.S. gaining control of the area. Followed by the Japanese. Followed by the U.S. Followed by independence, leading to many years of Dictatormocracy and a strange facination with shoes. In 1986 the Yellow Revolution brought about a true democracy which has been on something of a decline lately under the guidance of the populist president Rodrigo Duterte. The current state of political affairs has been called "Democracy's dystopian future." Let's go check it out.