The desire to self-identify can likely be attributed to the diverse and independent history of the archipelagic country – comprising 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean – which trace back 30,000 years before being colonized by Spain in the 16th century and later occupied by the United States, which led to the outbreak of the Philippine–American War (1899–1902). The Commonwealth of the Philippines was established in 1935 with the country gaining its independence in 1946 after hostilities in the Pacific Theatre of the Second World War had ended. The Philippines have over 170 languages indigenous to the area, most of which belong to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family. In 1939, then-president Manuel L. Quezon renamed the Tagalog language as the "Wikang Pambansa" ("national language"). The language was further renamed in 1959 as "Filipino" by Secretary of Education Jose Romero. The 1973 constitution declared the Filipino language to be co-official, along with English, and mandated the development of a national language to be known as Filipino. Since then, the two official languages are Filipino and English.