MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Philippines

ONE LAND · 5 ATLASES

Philippines, on the map of history

What was Philippines before it was Philippines? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

The Philippines (American) · China in Revolution, 1911–1949

The American colony across the sea: promised independence on a schedule (1935 commonwealth, 1946 republic) that made it the era’s test of whether empires could exit gracefully. Japan’s 1941–45 occupation interrupts with a brutality Manila shares with China’s cities; the guerrilla war that answers it includes the Hukbalahap — peasant, communist-led, schooled in the same doctrines circulating from Yan’an. Independence arrives in 1946 with the Huks excluded from its politics; their rebellion into the 1950s is the Chinese revolution’s echo offshore.

OPEN CHINA IN REVOLUTION ON THE LIVING MAP →

Philippines · The Great War, 1914–1918

OPEN WWI ON THE LIVING MAP →

The Philippines (US Commonwealth) · The Road to War, 1931–1941

OPEN THE ROAD TO WAR ON THE LIVING MAP →

Philippines · The War Room — WW2, 1936–1945

American colony promised independence; overrun by Japan in 1942 (Bataan death march), site of MacArthur’s promised return at Leyte (1944) and the devastating Battle of Manila. Independent 1946 — the first domino of postwar decolonization.

OPEN WW2 ON THE LIVING MAP →

Philippines · The Cold War, 1945–1991

OPEN THE COLD WAR ON THE LIVING MAP →