How The Philippines Manages 7,641 Islands 

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I'm a Filipino yet even I am having a hard time understanding this topic and it's nice to hear a foreigner prounounce most of Filipino terms mentioned in a great way. Thank you for making this, Kamusta from Metro Manila!🇵🇭

9:06 Because the Philippines and Indonesia are brothers, in terms of many things, especially natural disasters😭 We both do experience earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tropical storms, landslides, flash flooding, tsunami, liquefaction, drought, hailstorms, etc.

Located in Pacific Ring of Fire, prone to earthquakes and super typhoons every year, archipelago with hundreds of language. That alone is already much of a hassle for a developing country.

I appreciate that you showed actual pictures and illustrations of Philippine cities and regions, and not the slum areas, which is usually what other youtubers tend to show. Thank you

As someone who's spend a chunk of their life in the Philippines, this video's well done. Hearing someone pronounce the names within the country correctly, or at least semi-correctly, is a breath of fresh air. Shame the country's society is steeped in such low-trust like that of Greece or Mexico, though. But I suppose that's par for the course for countries that's had purely exploitative administrations before and during their existance.

I am Mexican and I am very interested in the geography and history of the Filipinas I love learning more about different countries, I hope to go one day, greetings ❤️🇲🇽🇵🇭❤️

I think you forgot to add the fact that the vast majority of Filipinos are of Austronesian origin. I think that's a factor why the archipelago can be managed with the Hispanic-influenced Austronesian Christian as the dominant culture. It's kinda like an even more diverse Yugoslavia. Also good job on pronouncing the word "barangay". You pronounced it much better than Epimetheus for sure.

Here in Finland, we have 76 000 islands we have to take care of... Our secret is that most of the islands are really small and absolutely nothing in them.

And a very important side note: WE are NOT PACIFIC ISLANDER, we are SOUTH EAST ASIAN XD, If you ever heard some Pinoy called themselves as Pacific islander, they probably did not grew up in The Philippines

I appreciate how respectful and sensitive this video is when compared to the works of other content creators, but I could tell that a lot of this is from Wikipedia. While this video holds some truth, it's still incomplete and misleading. The Spaniards didn't create the colony out of nothing and they highly relied on their local allies. By the way, I would like to apologize in advance because this would be a lengthy comment. By the time of Spanish contact, Manila had monopolized the archipelago’s trade. They managed nearly all inter-island and inter-ethnic exchanges, therefore all of the other polities became highly reliant on Manila. In fact the Spaniards mentioned that the Manila Moros brokered deals with the rules of Cebu to allow them to settle on the island, (The Spaniards didn't conquer Cebu). The Spaniards also mentioned that Manila Moros who were settled in Butuan, in the Southern island of Mindanao, ordered the locals to not deal with the Spaniards if it wasn’t silver that was being traded, and the locals obeyed. The Spaniards also mentioned a Manila Moro paramount ruler who was so well known throughout the islands that he was respected and treated a little less than a king. At first, the Spaniards incorporated themselves into the trading network/colony that Manila had created. The Spaniards were importing silver that they mined in the Americas, which the Manila merchants wanted, because the Chinese mainly accepted silver in exchange for their products. Eventually the Spaniards grew to become very influential due to silver and they gained a lot of local allies. Among these was the Manila Moro merchant whose name is ‘Mahomar’. He had been dealing with the Spaniards in Cebu for years and he had become well acquainted with them, so he decided to bring the Spaniards with him to Manila, to make deals with the ruling family to allow the Spaniards to settle near the city. This would make things more convenient, because silver would flow directly to Manila, which they could easily trade with Chinese and Japanese merchants who were also settled near Manila. Unfortunately Rajah Sulayman refused the offer and ordered them to head back to their settlement in Cebu. During their conversation, fighting broke out. Some sources claim that it was Rajah Sulayman who first fired a (lantaka)/locally made pre-colonial cannon, while other sources claim that it was the Spaniards who first fired a cannon. Manila would fall to the Spaniards and their allies. This is how the Spaniards took over what is now the Philippine archipelago. When Manila fell, the Spaniards basically took control of the trading network/colony that Manila had already woven prior to their arrival. They simply gave it a name and claimed it for themselves. That’s how the Philippines was born. There were several attempts by the local elites to get rid of the Spaniard. First was the Battle of Bangkusay Channel, where relatives and allies of the ruling family came to Manila from the regions of Navotas, Bulacan and Pampanga to aid them against the Spaniards, but this unfortunately failed and some nobles were executed. The next attempt is known as the “Tondo Conspiracy”… this was when the ruling family and nobles attempted to contact their relatives in the Bruneian royal court. Unfortunately this failed again, because a man named ‘Surabao’ revealed their plans. It is uncertain why Surabao snitched on them, but it is speculated that the reason might also have something to do with silver as well, because if they successfully get rid of the Spaniards, the steady flow of silver into the archipelago would stop. After this revelation, many of Manila’s royals and nobles were harshly punished, some were executed, while others were exiled to Latin America or heavily taxed. Those who allied with the Spaniards, we’re able to keep their wealth, properties and social status. The Spaniards gave these people or their descendants the “Principalia status/title” which was basically the “colonial noble class”. I highly recommend the article (Transforming Manila: China, Islam and Spain in a Global Port City - by Ethan Hawkley), it's freely available on the World History Connected website.

Pagbati Filipinos 😄 Namaste from India 🙏 🇮🇳 ❤ 🇵🇭

Indonesia has 17,000 islands. I'd be interested to know about their management too.

While colonialism is the reason why the entire archipelico is united, similar to India, I think even without colonialism the Philippines would have consolidated somewhat. You can't have that many microstates nowadays, so they would have consolidated into two or three countries even if not one.

Finally another non Filipino who was intelligent enough to know that Philippines was not just one homogeneous country. Outsiders especially Hollywood tend to generalize us as just one race, one ethnicity and just all of us speaks Filipino which is dumb. Thank you, atleast outsiders or foreigners will be more aware of whatever happened or happening in Philippines.

I'm happy you are covering the Philippines! My entire family is from Luzon! 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭

Yeah The Philippines sure is unique for a country like it, and I love it for that.

Its important to know that Tagalog and Bisaya, ilokano, Illongo, Bikolano, Waray and some of the other languages is not its seperate Ethnicity however they are languages, still these areas have historically always been culturally similar despite having different languages you can see this in the old and modern times

Thumbnail: "The Philippines Geography Weakness" Title: How The Philippines Manages 7,641 Islands Then talks about mostly History It's all over the place, not saying it's wrong but it's confusing and can be concluded as misleading. It's like lawyers burying you in data by throwing 2 floors of Contracts to prevent you from digging deeper.

Every island you step in feels like a new country. Different language and different culture. The water borders made us feel distant but familiar at the same time.

It's kinda sad that I only gotten out of Luzon once through plane, usually when we go to vacation, it's usually in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, recently in Baguio, although I hope I could get to Visayas some day (I was going to go to Boracay until the pandemic arrived).

Hi @KhAnubis ! I’m a Filipino and I am really dond of watching your videos. Also, being from the Province (Thank you for mentioning my island of Negros, which is actually divided into two provinces based on spoken language, Negros Occidental which are mostly Hiligaynon/Ilonggo speaking, and Negros Oriental, which are mostly Bisaya speaking), I would say the people are not really poor. My province is the “sugar bowl of the country”, the hub of the sugar industry which is also competent in international trade. Also, Metro Cebu (consists of the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu) is also a giant and is the home of some of the groundbreakers in business. How the Philippines is managed. If we speak politically, each province is divided into congressional districts and is represented by a congressman/-woman upon election. They have a three year term and sits at the congress of the Philippines. They are kind of equal to the Senate, the other house. They pass bills that would help in developing their cities they are responsible to. Going down, the provinces are administrated by the Governor and under the governor are the vice governors and board members. The board members are elected representatives of each congressional district of the province. The congressional districts are group of cities and municipalities and each city and municipality is under the leadership of the mayor.

5:48 Nice joke, but the Philippines were not part of Pangaea, the archipelago resulted as a result of volcanic activity caused by tectonic plates. Pangaea was long gone by the time the archipelago started to appear

I would say you did your research very well, way better than other RU-vidrs that cover the Philippines. Your pronunciation of the places is sort of okay for a foreigner standard.

Interesting as an Indian, never expected ancient Indian connect with Philippines! Hope our relationship grows in the future too.

2:15 Mindanao is not predominantly Muslim. Only the Western part of it. Remember that the Muslim population in the Philippines only accounts for 5% (roughly 5 to 5.2 million Muslims) and that is scattered all throughout the archipelago

“I have observed that the prosperity or misery of each people is in direct proportion to its liberties or its prejudices and, accordingly, to the sacrifices or the selfishness of its forefathers. -Juan Crisostomo Ibarra” ― José Rizal, Noli Me Tángere

Sanskrit in Philippines?! It's crazy how I fail to realise how far did Sanskrit spread to. "Rajah" sounds like Hindi "Raja" meaning king (from "Rajan" Sanskrit for king). History is so Interesting

Finally, been waiting for this episode to come

Finally, a content about the Philippines. Thanks Khanubis. Looking forward for more. Philippines has a lot of interesting stories to offer.

Fantastic video about a country that doesn’t get the coverage it deserves. Thanks 🎉

I asked this one a long time ago and finally glad you made it. I love your videos!

This is so well researched, kudos to you man!

Most of us in the west never realise how freaking huge countries outside the west actually are.

I found this video to be quite informative! Thanks! Also, nice joke with the "New Zealand Effect"!

Thankyou for this video KhAnubis🙏 My wife is from Philly, cant wait to show her 🤍💛🇵🇭💙❤

2:03 closely related languages* the Visayan islands have a lot of closely-related languages. Panay island alone has several, while some linguists are still studying if the Capiznon is a dialect or a separate language already

You did something great, you just pronounced the names of our places quite properly. WELL DONE! In research GOOD JOB!!

Pretty spot-on pronunciations. Kudos to you. Many have failed in this aspect.

This is one of the better content when it comes to review/summary/analysis of the Philippines

As a Cebuano we travel from islands by Ferry's even Vehicles can come too. If you're rich go for a Plane. We pretty chill

Actually now I realized that the philippines are sometimes forgotten in map drawings I think its because Other than Luzon and Mindanao Island the islands are too small

The Philippines is ideally located in the Pacific Ocean. Its halfway between Japan, the Koreas, and China and Austrailia and New Zealand, all major trade countries. Which other than the aforementioned undeveloped ports makes it an idea location both economically and militarily. The location, in the event of a conflict, would be a place to control routes in the enter Asian region. For the Philippines, access from the Pacific to Indian Oceans can be restricted and ships can be stopped, whether for economic or military reasons, although these reasons blur really fast. A lot of flight routes go over or near the Philippines as well. As for economic trade, the realitively short trips between there and Oceana and there and mainland Asia eases the ability to buy from one location and sell to another. As said above, the Philippines proximity to other Asian countries makes it an ideal hub for industry and commerce. Goods and commodities can be easily delivered via air and sea. Add the low cost of labor and what you got is a highly skilled workforce that attracts many investors across the world. As a strategic military outpost. The Philippines is a very important and strategic gateway to Asia from the Pacific. If you look at the world map, there is basically nothing between the Philippines and the American continent (save Pearl Harbor) other than the vast ocean. A forward base in the Philippines can easily refuel and resupply military ships, and its proximity to Asia means that it can send in troops and reinforcements very quickly into the said continent. That is why MacArthur returned to the Philippines. He knew that a foothold in the Philippines will mean victory in the Pacific. Japan knew it, too, so they aggressively defended their positions during the war, resulting in one of the largest naval battles in history (Battle of Leyte Gulf). Strategic because you can invade other countries using philippines as gateway They are the center of most populate countries They are also the center of trade Most ship go to stop by at philippines before travelling to other countries same for planes If america is in control of the philippines then they’ll just tax the sea then you’ll have To turn to the pacific before you can reach other countries Unless you like to enter the disputed areas A pity philippines have large advantages too but, Too bad they can’t see it and if they ever see it the american masters will repremand them for seeing it . If they disobey, well… they’ll have many problems on the way cause by the US

I've been waiting for this for the longest timeeeee

You might want to include the West Philippine Sea (former South China Sea) where Bajo de Masinloc or Panatag Shoal lies. This area area is claimed by neighboring countries but mainly China. This place is both politically and economically essential to our country.

Coming from a Half-Filipino, I'd say this is very well researched, good job! Though I do have to point out that Mindanao is still primarily Christian, and calling it Muslim is like calling the Rockies a Mormon region just because Utah is Mormon. Also, it's a shame that fairly large cities like Cebu, Bacolod, and Iloilo are close to each other but so difficult to travel between.

Hello KhAnubis thank you for mentioning our country and it's problems I'm Bisaya/Visayan which lives in Cebu also thank you for mentioning my province, thank you for pronouncing some of our provinces right, let me get straight to the point then. I have watched your videos for the past year not all of them but some of your recognizable videos out there, but I have not seen one that has been covering the Philippines (at least what I have found for now), and I am amazed at what effort you put to it especially nowadays and in this video, the Visayan islands is a pretty underrated province of the Philippines except for tourism, which you might know the best beach in the country or in fact the whole world which is Boracay, Iloilo, Philippines and parts of Palawan (which I consider is Visayan, it's so underrated exactly that even some Tagalogs or Filipino speakers I speak with in games don't even recognize Visayas by word. So I am so glad that you mentioned my province and my country in this video, it feels like we have the New Zealand effect in our own country nowadays.

I remembered my childhood years of going back home to Laguna from a family trip to our old house and getting stuck in 8 hour traffic JUST to leave Metro Manila. We left pretty early to which the sun was yet to start setting, and we were not even that far from the edge of the NCR, yet still came home at around midnight. Good times. Now all I have to deal with are potholes and Jaywalkers in getto-ass New Jersey.

9:05 On your point there, no. My geography teacher said that the phillipines is just indonesia except its vertical and pocket sized

I had no idea Manila was so densely populated! That's crazy. Thank you for another interesting and informative video! Stay well out there everybody, and God be with you, friends! :)

Good video!

this is probably the most accurate video about the country's history and geography that an american youtuber ever made. i love this video amongst others lmao there might be some missing pieces of information and/or fun facts, but, it's still the best explanation video about the country for me. also, it's so nice to hear you pronounce every filipino/tagalog word correctly, you did such a great job trying to pronounce words from a language you're not 100% fluent.

Made my day when I saw this. Being an archipelago is an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time (I mean ask Typhoon Rai or Odette as it is called here whacked us so hard that it's just been a week ago that we got electricity back). Hopefully we can make use of those advantages more to become a true power. Also P.S. in that article where cities are ranked based on worst traffic, is Metro Cebu there? Everytime I go there, it's a slugfest to ride XD

What would a good name be for a group of islands be, oh yeah, Philip!

OMG, I'm a fan of you, this is like the first time you talk about my country.

Fascinating crash course in the history and geography of the Philippines. Even better, no adverts!

8:32 to add to that we have a saying here "filipino time" which whenever we are late it is often related to traffic

Of course you saw a lot of parallel between PH and ID, we are basically brothers that was 'adopted' by different parents. But yeah, hi PH bros!

0:35 dannm you're the only Chanel so far who actually pronounced it perfectly 🎉

Keep up the good work

🇮🇩 Salam hangat kepada Suadara Serumpun kami di utara 🇵🇭 ........... Bersatu Untuk Nusantara 🙌 🇮🇩🇲🇾🇧🇳🇵🇭

Interesting. Some name pronunciations were off, but most of them fit into my "this is how I'd pronounce the names in an American accent" and the rest were at least way closer than how most people do it (with the only real issues usually being where you put the stress on the words, which honestly is forgivable compared to other butcherings). Also, thankfully the facts are (as far as I know) up to date and accurate enough. The original 7,107 count for the islands has been so ingrained to students, that even tho the survey that updated the count to 7,641 was conducted in 2016, a lot of people here in the Philippines still don't know (or have a hard time remembering) the new count lol.

As i Filipino, I will say this video is very informative good job on making this!

Really Informational, nice

I love how you pronounce the islands properly

Bantayan Island is my favorite island of the Philippines

well done. in fact i’ve learned more about my own country in 10 minutes than my whole primary and secondary school back there. they tend to skip the Spanish occupation and go straight to Jose Rizal and Corazon Aquino (also maybe because i wasn’t paying attention in class oop)

excelent video :)

tips if you're planning on traveling here, don't go knee deep into the city there's just alot of crap in some places specially some densely packed and poor parts of the city not all but some (people are still going to be very friendly and curious though specially if you're a foreigner), if i have to recommend somewhere to go, go near the country side trust me the greenery here is beautiful and compared to the densely packed city it's a nice change.

You pronounced Baybayin so well I'm impressed

Finally, a video about my country. Thanks!

Woaaah that 10 -16 seconds of frame was my town here in the Philippines. The name of my town is Anda located in Bohol, Philippines 🇵🇭

Thank you for mentioning Sultanate of Maguindanao (Mindanao) and Sulu.💚💚

Here in Latin America, we like to think of the Filipinos as our distant cousins

Am a filipino as will and happy that someone explained i country very will.MABUHAY PILIPINAS!🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭

It's interesting how much the Spanish and the Americans left their footprints here in the Philippines in terms of culture, and by extension, their language. This fact made me think: How would the languages here sound like if the American and Spanish influences were removed? How would Tagalog sound like in that scenario? How would Cebuano sound like in that scenario? I was thinking of a similar concept to what some folks are doing in the Shetland and Orkney islands with the language of NyNorn where they attempt to revive the lost language of Norn: a variety of the old North Germanic Languages and is probably a descendant of Old Norse. Cheers from the Philippines!

Just a heads-up lol, the Sulu Archipelago is not marked in this map at 2:25.

My Friend once told me that there was a Filipino Word that translated to "Living in an Island where Geography Constantly Punches you in The Face and Most of the Government Spending goes to Repairing Infrastructure and Corruption" He called it "Putanginangbuhayto"

Due to us being an archipelago, a form of federalism is not an option but a very clear remedy if we don’t want secession movements to happen. Great vid man

this might be old info but it is taught in school to originally have 7,107 islands idk where that 400 + islands came from but i am interested in learning more about them

Philippines is a really wonderful country🦋

7:35 I wish to travel the Philippines by the Rocinante. By the way, great Expanse namedrop. Love Philippines from India.

Love the Expanse reference. With traffic that long doesnt hurt to travel via Rocinante😄

This is more entertaining than our history teacher, its the same topic but better

Interesting how you left out events from World War 2 when covering the history of the Philippines. Two significant events. The Bataan death march where both American and Filipino soldiers were brutalised upon mass surrender. The battle of Manila, which is the Pacific War's equivalent of Stalingrad. The Japanese navy marines occupying the city refused to surrender, even though the army under General Yamashita had left the city. The Americans shelled the city to ruin to dislodge the stubborn defenders and avoid bloody urban combat.

Federalism is the key!!! 💖 #LabanPH

5:48 nice reference you got there

Woah good video. You really taught me new things hahahaha 😭

dude your pronunciations are spot on, kuddos

Before the Spanish arrived in our country hundreds of years ago. You can imagine us as somewhat being like the islanders in Moana. Each island has its own tribe and the population was small.

Love Philippina from indonesia 🇲🇨😍🇵🇭

I truly truly TRULY APPRECIATE that you included the history before that magellan guy. Learning history subject in the Philippines always starts there as if the spaniards magically mold these islands with their hands leik dude?? As a kid, when i learned of my country's history on my own, it clears out so much questions i had of how things go this and that rather than what youre taught at school. So i really think the gov should work on how they want to teach the younger gens about their country's history because as it is today?? Theyd developed the thought that colonialism is a biyaya(blessing) rather than sumpa(curse). Jusko.

3:15 Baybayin isn't the only indigenous Filipino script. Tagbanwa, Kulitan, Hanuno'o, and Buhid are some non-tagaloh indigenous writing systems in the archipelago. It's important to not conflate Filipino with Tagalog. We need to take pride in our local communities, not try to assimilate into Tagalog hegemony.

If I am not mistaken, Palawan now is part of the Visayas group of islands, formerly of Luzon.

magellan named the islands archipelago of st. lazarus. it was thru villalobos, who headed a later expedition, that the islands got the name las islas pilipinas, in honor of philip 2 of spain

Interesting video. Was an LDS missionary in the Philippines way back in the day and it was nice to hear somebody actually pronounce most the stuff fairly correctly. After having lived there I've studied a lot about their history amd culture. The Philippines could honestly become a regional power and use their strategic positioning of maritime trade routes to their great advantage if they could all learn a little self discipline and get their crap together. Great to see this extremely overlooked country get a little attention.

Can someone, maybe Khanubis, explain to me just how it is that a country that has its own religion can be converted? What is actually happening when conversion occurs? What’s the process? Why do they abandon their original ways? I’ve always wanted to know just what it is that people find so appealing that they would change their fundamental beliefs just from some words in a book.

@5:49 I believe that the Philippine islands were never part of the supercontinent Pangea.

very interesting video.

superb video. nowi am waiting another island nation form SEA