Philippines

The Philippines (/ˈfɪlɪpiːnz/ ; Filipino: Pilipinas), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. In the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of 7,641 islands which are broadly categorized in three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the south. It shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. It is the world's twelfth-most-populous country, with diverse ethnicities and cultures. Manila is the country's capital, and its most populated city is Quezon City; both are within Metro Manila.

Negritos, the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by waves of Austronesian peoples. The adoption of Animism, Hinduism, and Islam established island-kingdoms ruled by datus, rajas, and sultans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for Spain, marked the beginning of Spanish colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. Spanish settlement through Mexico, beginning in 1565, led to the Philippines becoming ruled by the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. Catholic Christianity became the dominant religion, and Manila became the western hub of trans-Pacific trade. The Philippine Revolution began in 1896, which became entwined with the 1898 Spanish–American War. Spain ceded the territory to the United States, and Filipino revolutionaries declared the First Philippine Republic. The ensuing Philippine–American War ended with the United States controlling the territory until the Japanese invasion of the islands during World War II. After liberation, the Philippines became independent in 1946. The country has had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a decades-long dictatorship in a nonviolent revolution.

The Philippines is an emerging market and a newly industrialized country, whose economy is transitioning from being agricultural to service- and manufacturing-centered. It is a founding member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, ASEAN, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and the East Asia Summit; it is a major non-NATO ally of the United States. Its location as an island country on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes it prone to earthquakes and typhoons. The Philippines has a variety of natural resources and a globally-significant level of biodiversity.

## Etymology

During his 1542 expedition, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the islands of Leyte and Samar "Felipinas" after Philip II of Spain (then Prince of Asturias). Eventually, the name "Las Islas Filipinas" would be used for the archipelago's Spanish possessions. Other names, such as "Islas del Poniente" (Western Islands), "Islas del Oriente" (Eastern Islands), Ferdinand Magellan's name, and "San Lázaro" (Islands of St. Lazarus), were used by the Spanish to refer to islands in the region before Spanish rule was established.

During the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the República Filipina (the Philippine Republic). American colonial authorities referred to the country as the Philippine Islands (a translation of the Spanish name). The United States began changing its nomenclature from "the Philippine Islands" to "the Philippines" in the Philippine Autonomy Act and the Jones Law. The official title "Republic of the Philippines" was included in the 1935 constitution as the name of the future independent state, and in all succeeding constitutional revisions.

## History

### Prehistory (pre–900)

There is evidence of early hominins living in what is now the Philippines as early as 709,000 years ago. A small number of bones from Callao Cave potentially represent an otherwise unknown species, Homo luzonensis, who lived 50,000 to 67,000 years ago. The oldest modern human remains on the islands are from the Tabon Caves of Palawan, U/Th-dated to 47,000 ± 11–10,000 years ago. Tabon Man is presumably a Negrito, among the archipelago's earliest inhabitants descended from the first human migrations out of Africa via the coastal route along southern Asia to the now-sunken landmasses of Sundaland and Sahul.

The first Austronesians reached the Philippines from Taiwan around 2200 BC, settling the Batanes Islands (where they built stone fortresses known as ijangs) and northern Luzon. Jade artifacts have been dated to 2000 BC, with lingling-o jade items made in Luzon with raw materials from Taiwan. By 1000 BC, the inhabitants of the archipelago had developed into four societies: hunter-gatherer tribes, warrior societies, highland plutocracies, and port principalities.

### Early states (900–1565)

The earliest known surviving written record in the Philippines is the early-10th-century AD Laguna Copperplate Inscription, which was written in Old Malay using the early Kawi script with a number of technical Sanskrit words and Old Javanese or Old Tagalog honorifics. By the 14th century, several large coastal settlements emerged as trading centers and became the focus of societal changes. Some polities had exchanges with other states throughout Asia. Trade with China is believed to have begun during the Tang dynasty, and expanded during the Song dynasty; by the second millennium AD, some polities were part of the tributary system of China. Indian cultural traits such as linguistic terms and religious practices began to spread in the Philippines during the 14th century, probably via the Hindu Majapahit Empire. By the 15th century, Islam was established in the Sulu Archipelago and spread from there.

Polities founded in the Philippines between the 10th and 16th centuries include Maynila, Tondo, Namayan, Pangasinan, Cebu, Butuan, Maguindanao, Lanao, Sulu, and Ma-i. The early polities typically had a three-tier social structure: nobility, freemen, and dependent debtor-bondsmen. Among the nobility were leaders known as datus, who were responsible for ruling autonomous groups (barangays or dulohan). When the barangays banded together to form a larger settlement or a geographically-looser alliance, their more-esteemed members would be recognized as a "paramount datu", rajah or sultan, and would rule the community. Population density is thought to have been low during the 14th to 16th centuries due to the frequency of typhoons and the Philippines' location on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived in 1521, claimed the islands for Spain, and was killed by Lapulapu's men in the Battle of Mactan.

### Spanish and American colonial rule (1565–1946)

Colonization began when Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi arrived from Mexico in 1565. Many Filipinos were brought to New Spain as slaves and forced crew. Spanish Manila became the capital of the Spanish East Indies in 1571, Spanish territories in Asia and the Pacific. The Spanish invaded local states using the principle of divide and conquer, bringing most of what is the present-day Philippines under one unified administration. Disparate barangays were deliberately consolidated into towns, where Catholic missionaries could more easily convert their inhabitants to Christianity. From 1565 to 1821, the Philippines was governed as a territory of the Mexico City-based Viceroyalty of New Spain; it was then administered from Madrid after the Mexican War of Independence. Manila became the western hub of trans-Pacific trade by Manila galleons built in Bicol and Cavite.

During its rule, Spain nearly bankrupted its treasury quelling indigenous revolts and defending against external military attacks, including Moro piracy, 17th century war against the Dutch, 18th century British occupation of Manila, and conflict with Muslims in the south.

Administration of the Philippines was considered a drain on the economy of New Spain, and abandoning it or trading it for other territory was debated. This course of action was opposed because of the islands' economic potential, security, and the desire to continue religious conversion in the region. The colony survived on an annual subsidy from the Spanish crown averaging 250,000 pesos, usually paid as 75 tons of silver bullion from the Americas. British forces occupied Manila from 1762 to 1764 during the Seven Years' War, and Spanish rule was restored with the 1763 Treaty of Paris. The Spanish considered their war with the Muslims in Southeast Asia an extension of the Reconquista. The Spanish–Moro conflict lasted for several hundred years; Spain conquered portions of Mindanao and Jolo during the last quarter of the 19th century, and the Muslim Moro in the Sultanate of Sulu acknowledged Spanish sovereignty.

Philippine ports opened to world trade during the 19th century, and Filipino society began to change. Social identity changed, with the term Filipino encompassing all residents of the archipelago instead of solely referring to Spaniards born in the Philippines.

Revolutionary sentiment grew in 1872 after three activist Catholic priests were executed on questionable grounds. This inspired the Propaganda Movement, organized by Marcelo H. del Pilar, José Rizal, Graciano López Jaena, and Mariano Ponce, which advocated political reform in the Philippines. Rizal was executed on December 30, 1896, for rebellion, and his death radicalized many who had been loyal to Spain. Attempts at reform met with resistance; Andrés Bonifacio founded the Katipunan secret society, which sought independence from Spain through armed revolt, in 1892.

The Katipunan Cry of Pugad Lawin began the Philippine Revolution in 1896. Internal disputes led to the Tejeros Convention, at which Bonifacio lost his position and Emilio Aguinaldo was elected the new leader of the revolution. The 1897 Pact of Biak-na-Bato resulted in the Hong Kong Junta government in exile. The Spanish–American War began the following year, and reached the Philippines; Aguinaldo returned, resumed the revolution, and declared independence from Spain on June 12, 1898. In December 1898, the islands were ceded by Spain to the United States with Puerto Rico and Guam after the Spanish–American War.

The First Philippine Republic was established on January 21, 1899.

The United States would not recognize the First Philippine Republic, beginning the Philippine–American War. The war resulted in the deaths of 250,000 to 1 million civilians, primarily due to famine and disease. Many Filipinos were transported by the Americans to concentration camps, where thousands died. After the fall of the First Philippine Republic in 1902, an American civilian government was established with the Philippine Organic Act. American forces continued to secure and extend their control of the islands, suppressing an attempted extension of the Philippine Republic, securing the Sultanate of Sulu, establishing control of interior mountainous areas which had resisted Spanish conquest, and encouraging large-scale resettlement of Christians in once-predominantly-Muslim Mindanao.Cultural developments strengthened a national identity, and Tagalog began to take precedence over other local languages. Governmental functions were gradually given to Filipinos by the Taft Commission; the 1934 Tydings–McDuffie Act began the creation of the Commonwealth of the Philippines the following year, with Manuel Quezon president and Sergio Osmeña vice president. Quezon's priorities were defence, social justice, inequality, economic diversification, and national character. Filipino (a standardized variety of Tagalog) became the national language, women's suffrage was introduced, and land reform was considered.

The Empire of Japan invaded the Philippines during World War II, and the Second Philippine Republic was established as a puppet state governed by Jose P. Laurel. Beginning in 1942, the Japanese occupation of the Philippines was opposed by large-scale underground guerrilla activity. Atrocities and war crimes were committed during the war, including the Bataan Death March and the Manila massacre. Allied troops defeated the Japanese in 1945, and over one million Filipinos were estimated to have died by the end of the war. On October 11, 1945, the Philippines became a founding member of the United Nations. On July 4, 1946, during the presidency of Manuel Roxas, the country's independence was recognized by the United States with the Treaty of Manila.

### Independence (1946–present)

Efforts at post-war reconstruction and ending the Hukbalahap Rebellion succeeded during Ramon Magsaysay's presidency, but sporadic communist insurgency continued to flare up long afterward. Under Magsaysay's successor, Carlos P. Garcia, the government initiated a Filipino First policy which promoted Filipino-owned businesses. Succeeding Garcia, Diosdado Macapagal moved Independence Day from July 4 to June 12—the date of Emilio Aguinaldo's declaration— and pursued a claim on eastern North Borneo.

In 1965, Macapagal lost the presidential election to Ferdinand Marcos. Early in his presidency, Marcos began infrastructure projects funded mostly by foreign loans; this improved the economy, and contributed to his reelection in 1969. Near the end of his last constitutionally-permitted term, Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972 using the specter of communism and began to rule by decree; the period was characterized by political repression, censorship, and human rights violations. Monopolies controlled by Marcos' cronies were established in key industries, including logging and broadcasting; a sugar monopoly led to a famine on the island of Negros. With his wife, Imelda, Marcos was accused of corruption and embezzling billions of dollars of public funds. Marcos' heavy borrowing early in his presidency resulted in economic crashes, exacerbated by an early 1980s recession where the economy contracted by 7.3 percent annually in 1984 and 1985.

On August 21, 1983, opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. (Marcos' chief rival) was assassinated on the tarmac at Manila International Airport. Marcos called a snap presidential election in 1986 which proclaimed him the winner, but the results were widely regarded as fraudulent. The resulting protests led to the People Power Revolution, which forced Marcos and his allies to flee to Hawaii. Aquino's widow, Corazon, was installed as president.

The return of democracy and government reforms which began in 1986 were hampered by national debt, government corruption, and coup attempts. A communist insurgency and military conflict with Moro separatists persisted; the administration also faced a series of disasters, including the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991. Aquino was succeeded by Fidel V. Ramos, who liberalized the national economy with privatization and deregulation. Ramos' economic gains were overshadowed by the onset of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. His successor, Joseph Estrada, prioritized public housing but faced corruption allegations which led to his overthrow by the 2001 EDSA Revolution and the succession of Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on January 20, 2001. Arroyo's nine-year administration was marked by economic growth, but was tainted by corruption and political scandals. On November 23, 2009, 34 journalists and several civilians were killed in Maguindanao. Economic growth continued during Benigno Aquino III's administration, which advocated good governance and transparency. Aquino III signed a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) resulting in the Bangsamoro Organic Law establishing an autonomous Bangsamoro region, but a shootout with MILF rebels in Mamasapano delayed passage of the law.

Rodrigo Duterte, elected president in 2016, launched an infrastructure program and an anti-drug campaign which reduced drug proliferation but has also led to extrajudicial killings. The Bangsamoro Organic Law was enacted in 2018. In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic reached the Philippines; its gross domestic product shrank by 9.5 percent, the country's worst annual economic performance since 1947. Marcos' son, Bongbong Marcos, won the 2022 presidential election; Duterte's daughter, Sara, became vice president.

## Geography

The Philippines is an archipelago of about 7,641 islands, covering a total area (including inland bodies of water) of about 300,000 square kilometers (115,831 sq mi). Stretching 1,850 kilometres (1,150 mi) north to south, from the South China Sea to the Celebes Sea, the Philippines is bordered by the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Sulu Sea to the southwest. The country's 11 largest islands are Luzon, Mindanao, Samar, Negros, Palawan, Panay, Mindoro, Leyte, Cebu, Bohol and Masbate, about 95 percent of its total land area. The Philippines' coastline measures 36,289 kilometers (22,549 mi), the world's fifth-longest, and the country's exclusive economic zone covers 2,263,816 km2 (874,064 sq mi).

Its highest mountain is Mount Apo on Mindanao, with an altitude of 2,954 meters (9,692 ft) above sea level. The Philippines' longest river is the Cagayan River in northern Luzon, which flows for about 520 kilometers (320 mi). Manila Bay, on which is the capital city of Manila, is connected to Laguna de Bay (the country's largest lake) by the Pasig River.

On the western fringes of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines has frequent seismic and volcanic activity. The region is seismically active, and has been constructed by plates converging towards each other from multiple directions. About five earthquakes are recorded daily, although most are too weak to be felt. The last major earthquakes were in 1976 in the Moro Gulf and in 1990 on Luzon. The Philippines has 23 active volcanoes; of them, Mayon, Taal, Canlaon, and Bulusan have the largest number of recorded eruptions.

The country has valuable mineral deposits as a result of its complex geologic structure and high level of seismic activity. It is thought to have the world's second-largest gold deposits (after South Africa), large copper deposits, and the world's largest deposits of palladium. Other minerals include chromium, nickel, molybdenum, platinum, and zinc. However, poor management and law enforcement, opposition from indigenous communities, and past environmental damage have left these resources largely untapped.

### Biodiversity

The Philippines is a megadiverse country, with some of the world's highest rates of discovery and endemism (67 percent). With an estimated 13,500 plant species in the country (3,500 of which are endemic), Philippine rain forests have an array of flora: about 3,500 species of trees, 8,000 flowering plant species, 1,100 ferns, and 998 orchid species have been identified. The Philippines has 167 terrestrial mammals (102 endemic species), 235 reptiles (160 endemic species), 99 amphibians (74 endemic species), 686 birds (224 endemic species), and over 20,000 insect species.

As an important part of the Coral Triangle ecoregion, Philippine waters have unique, diverse marine life and the world's greatest diversity of shore-fish species. The country has over 3,200 fish species (121 endemic). Philippine waters sustain the cultivation of fish, crustaceans, oysters, and seaweeds.

Eight major types of forests are distributed throughout the Philippines: dipterocarp, beach forest, pine forest, molave forest, lower montane forest, upper montane (or mossy forest), mangroves, and ultrabasic forest. According to official estimates, the Philippines had 7,000,000 hectares (27,000 sq mi) of forest cover in 2023. Logging had been systemized during the American colonial period and deforestation continued after independence, accelerating during the Marcos presidency due to unregulated logging concessions. Forest cover declined from 70 percent of the Philippines' total land area in 1900 to about 18.3 percent in 1999. Rehabilitation efforts have had marginal success.

The Philippines is a priority hotspot for biodiversity conservation; it has more than 200 protected areas, which was expanded to 7,790,000 hectares (30,100 sq mi) as of 2023. Three sites in the Philippines have been included on the UNESCO World Heritage List: the Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea, the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, and the Mount Hamiguitan Wildlife Sanctuary.

### Climate

The Philippines has a tropical maritime climate which is usually hot and humid. There are three seasons: a hot dry season from March to May, a rainy season from June to November, and a cool dry season from December to February. The southwest monsoon (known as the habagat) lasts from May to October, and the northeast monsoon (amihan) lasts from November to April. The coolest month is January, and the warmest is May. Temperatures at sea level across the Philippines tend to be in the same range, regardless of latitude; average annual temperature is around 26.6 °C (79.9 °F) but is 18.3 °C (64.9 °F) in Baguio, 1,500 meters (4,900 ft) above sea level. The country's average humidity is 82 percent. Annual rainfall is as high as 5,000 millimeters (200 in) on the mountainous east coast, but less than 1,000 millimeters (39 in) in some sheltered valleys.

The Philippine Area of Responsibility has 19 typhoons in a typical year, usually from July to October; eight or nine of them make landfall. The wettest recorded typhoon to hit the Philippines dropped 2,210 millimeters (87 in) in Baguio from July 14 to 18, 1911. The country is among the world's ten most vulnerable to climate change.

## Government and politics

The Philippines has a democratic government, a constitutional republic with a presidential system. The president is head of state and head of government, and is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The president is elected by direct election for a six-year term. The president appoints and presides over the cabinet. The bicameral Congress is composed of the Senate (the upper house, with members elected to a six-year term) and the House of Representatives, the lower house, with members elected to a three-year term. Philippine politics tends to be dominated by well-known families, such as political dynasties or celebrities.

Senators are elected at-large, and representatives are elected from legislative districts and party lists. Judicial authority is vested in the Supreme Court, composed of a chief justice and fourteen associate justices, who are appointed by the president from nominations submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council.

Attempts to change the government to a federal, unicameral, or parliamentary government have been made since the Ramos administration. Corruption is significant, attributed by some historians to the Spanish colonial period's padrino system. The Roman Catholic church exerts considerable but waning influence in political affairs, although a constitutional provision for the separation of Church and State exists.

### Foreign relations

A founding and active member of the United Nations, the Philippines has been a non-permanent member of the Security Council. The country participates in peacekeeping missions, particularly in East Timor. The Philippines is a founding and active member of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and a member of the East Asia Summit, the Group of 24, and the Non-Aligned Movement. The country has sought to obtain observer status in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation since 2003, and was a member of SEATO. Over 10 million Filipinos live and work in 200 countries, giving the Philippines soft power.

During the 1990s, the Philippines began to seek economic liberalization and free trade to help spur foreign direct investment. It is a member of the World Trade Organization and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. The Philippines entered into the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement in 2010 and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership free trade agreement (FTA) in 2023. Through ASEAN, the Philippines has signed FTAs with China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The country has bilateral FTAs with Japan and four European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

The Philippines has a long relationship with the United States, involving economics, security, and interpersonal relations. The Philippines' location serves an important role in the United States' island chain strategy in the West Pacific; a Mutual Defense Treaty between the two countries was signed in 1951, and was supplemented with the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement and the 2016 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. The country supported American policies during the Cold War and participated in the Korean and Vietnam wars. In 2003, the Philippines was designated a major non-NATO ally. Under President Duterte, ties with the United States weakened in favor of improved relations with China and Russia. The U.S. promised in 2021 to defend the Philippines, including the South China Sea.

The Philippines has valued its relations with China since 1975, and cooperates significantly with the country. Japan is the biggest bilateral contributor of official development assistance to the Philippines; although some tension exists because of World War II, much animosity has faded. Historical and cultural ties continue to affect relations with Spain. Relations with Middle Eastern countries are shaped by the high number of Filipinos working in those countries, and by issues related to the Muslim minority in the Philippines; concerns have been raised about domestic abuse and war affecting the approximately 2.5 million overseas Filipino workers in the region.

The Philippines has claims in the Spratly Islands which overlap with claims by China, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The largest of its controlled islands is Thitu Island, which contains the Philippines' smallest town. The 2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff, after China seized the shoal from the Philippines, led to an international arbitration case which the Philippines eventually won; China rejected the result, and made the shoal a prominent symbol of the broader dispute.

### Military

The volunteer Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) consist of three branches: the Philippine Air Force, the Philippine Army, and the Philippine Navy. Civilian security is handled by the Philippine National Police under the Department of the Interior and Local Government. The AFP had a total manpower of around 280,000 as of 2022, of which 130,000 were active military personnel, 100,000 were reserves, and 50,000 were paramilitaries.

In 2021, \$4,090,500,000 (1.04 percent of GDP) was spent on the Philippine military. Most of the country's defense spending is on the Philippine Army, which leads operations against internal threats such as communist and Muslim separatist insurgencies; its preoccupation with internal security contributed to the decline of Philippine naval capability which began during the 1970s. A military modernization program began in 1995 and expanded in 2012 to build a more capable defense system.

The Philippines has long struggled against local insurgencies, separatism, and terrorism. Bangsamoro's largest separatist organizations, the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, signed final peace agreements with the government in 1996 and 2014 respectively. Other, more-militant groups such as Abu Sayyaf and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters have kidnapped foreigners for ransom, particularly in the Sulu Archipelago and Maguindanao, but their presence has been reduced. The Communist Party of the Philippines and its military wing, the New People's Army, have been waging guerrilla warfare against the government since the 1970s and, although shrinking militarily and politically after the return of democracy in 1986, have engaged in ambushes, bombings, and assassinations of government officials and security forces.

### Administrative divisions

The Philippines is divided into 17 regions, 82 provinces, 146 cities, 1,488 municipalities, and 42,036 barangays. Regions other than Bangsamoro are divided for administrative convenience. Calabarzon was the region with the greatest population as of 2020, and the National Capital Region (NCR) was the most densely populated.

The Philippines is a unitary state, with the exception of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), although there have been steps towards decentralization; a 1991 law devolved some powers to local governments.

## Demographics

As of May 1, 2020, the Philippines had a population of 109,035,343. In 2020, 54 percent of the country's population lived in urban areas. Manila, its capital, and Quezon City (the country's most populous city) are in Metro Manila. About 13.48 million people (12 percent of the Philippines' population) live in Metro Manila, the country's most populous metropolitan area and the world's fifth most populous. Between 1948 and 2010, the population of the Philippines increased almost fivefold from 19 million to 92 million.

The country's median age is 25.3, and 63.9 percent of its population is between 15 and 64 years old. The Philippines' average annual population growth rate is decreasing, although government attempts to further reduce population growth have been contentious. The country has reduced its poverty rate from 49.2 percent in 1985 to 18.1 percent in 2021, and its income inequality began to decline in 2012.

### Ethnicity

The country has substantial ethnic diversity, due to foreign influence and the archipelago's division by water and topography. According to the 2010 census, the Philippines' largest ethnic groups were Tagalog (24.4 percent), Visayans [excluding the Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Waray] (11.4 percent), Cebuano (9.9 percent), Ilocano (8.8 percent), Hiligaynon (8.4 percent), Bikol (6.8 percent), and Waray (four percent). The country's indigenous peoples consisted of 110 enthnolinguistic groups, with a combined population of 14 to 17 million, in 2010; they include the Igorot, Lumad, Mangyan, and the indigenous peoples of Palawan.

Negritos are thought to be among the islands' earliest inhabitants. These minority aboriginal settlers are an Australoid group, a remnant of the first human migration from Africa to Australia who were probably displaced by later waves of migration. Some Philippine Negritos have a Denisovan admixture in their genome. Ethnic Filipinos generally belong to several Southeast Asian ethnic groups, classified linguistically as Austronesians speaking Malayo-Polynesian languages. The Austronesian population's origin is uncertain, but relatives of Taiwanese aborigines probably brought their language and mixed with the region's existing population. The Lumad and Sama-Bajau ethnic groups have an ancestral affinity with the Austroasiatic- and Mlabri-speaking Htin peoples of mainland Southeast Asia. Westward expansion from Papua New Guinea to eastern Indonesia and Mindanao has been detected in the Blaan people and the Sangir language.

Immigrants arrived in the Philippines from elsewhere in the Spanish Empire, especially from the Spanish Americas. The 2016 National Geographic project concluded that people living in the Philippine archipelago carried genetic markers in the following percentages: 53 percent Southeast Asia and Oceania, 36 percent Eastern Asia, five percent Southern Europe, three percent Southern Asia, and two percent Native American (from Latin America).

Descendants of mixed-race couples are known as Mestizos or tisoy, which during the Spanish colonial times, were mostly composed of Chinese mestizos (Mestizos de Sangley), Spanish mestizos (Mestizos de Español) and the mix thereof (tornatrás). The modern Chinese Filipinos are well-integrated into Filipino society. Primarily the descendants of immigrants from Fujian, the pure ethnic Chinese Filipinos during the American colonial era (early 1900s) purportedly numbered about 1.35 million; while an estimated 22.8 million (around 20 percent) of Filipinos have half or partial Chinese ancestry from precolonial, colonial, and 20th century Chinese migrants. Almost 300,000 American citizens live in the country as of 2023, and up to 250,000 Amerasians are scattered across the cities of Angeles, Manila, and Olongapo. Other significant non-indigenous minorities include Indians and Arabs. Japanese Filipinos include escaped Christians (Kirishitan) who fled persecutions by Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu.

### Languages

Ethnologue lists 186 languages for the Philippines, 182 of which are living languages; the other four no longer have any known speakers. Most native languages are part of the Philippine branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is a branch of the Austronesian language family. Spanish-based creole varieties, collectively known as Chavacano, are also spoken. Many Philippine Negrito languages have unique vocabularies which survived Austronesian acculturation.

Filipino and English are the country's official languages. Filipino, a standardized version of Tagalog, is spoken primarily in Metro Manila. Filipino and English are used in government, education, print, broadcast media, and business, often with a third local language; code-switching between English and other local languages, notably Tagalog, is common. The Philippine constitution provides for Spanish and Arabic on a voluntary, optional basis. Spanish, a widely-used lingua franca during the late nineteenth century, has declined greatly in use, although Spanish loanwords are still present in Philippine languages. Arabic is primarily taught in Mindanao Islamic schools.

Nineteen regional languages are auxiliary official languages as media of instruction:

- Aklanon
- Bikol
- Cebuano
- Chavacano
- Hiligaynon
- Ibanag
- Ilocano
- Ivatan
- Kapampangan
- Kinaray-a
- Maguindanao
- Maranao
- Pangasinan
- Sambal
- Surigaonon
- Tagalog
- Tausug
- Waray
- Yakan

Other indigenous languages, including Cuyonon, Ifugao, Itbayat, Kalinga, Kamayo, Kankanaey, Masbateño, Romblomanon, Manobo, and several Visayan languages, are used in their respective provinces. Filipino Sign Language is the national sign language, and the language of deaf education.

### Religion

Although the Philippines is a secular state with freedom of religion, an overwhelming majority of Filipinos consider religion very important and irreligion is very low. Christianity is the dominant religion, followed by about 89 percent of the population. The country had the world's third-largest Roman Catholic population as of 2013, and was Asia's largest Christian nation. Census data from 2020 found that 78.8 percent of the population professed Roman Catholicism; other Christian denominations include Iglesia ni Cristo, the Philippine Independent Church, and Seventh-day Adventistism. Protestants made up about 5% to 7% of the population in 2010. The Philippines sends many Christian missionaries around the world, and is a training center for foreign priests and nuns.

Islam is the country's second-largest religion, with 6.4 percent of the population in the 2020 census. Most Muslims live in Mindanao and nearby islands, and most adhere to the Shafi'i school of Sunni Islam.

About 0.2 percent of the population follow indigenous religions, whose practices and folk beliefs are often syncretized with Christianity and Islam. Buddhism is practiced by about 0.04% of the population, primarily by Filipinos of Chinese descent.

### Health

Health care in the Philippines is provided by the national and local governments, although private payments account for most healthcare spending. Per-capita health expenditure in 2022 was and health expenditures were 5.5 percent of the country's GDP. The 2023 budget allocation for healthcare was . The 2019 enactment of the Universal Health Care Act by President Duterte facilitated the automatic enrollment of all Filipinos in the national health insurance program. Since 2018, Malasakit Centers (one-stop shops) have been set up in several government-operated hospitals to provide medical and financial assistance to indigent patients.

Average life expectancy in the Philippines as of 2023 is 70.48 years (66.97 years for males, and 74.15 years for females). Access to medicine has improved due to increasing Filipino acceptance of generic drugs. The country's leading causes of death in 2021 were ischaemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, COVID-19, neoplasms, and diabetes. Communicable diseases are correlated with natural disasters, primarily floods.

The Philippines has 1,387 hospitals, 33 percent of which are government-run; 23,281 barangay health stations, 2,592 rural health units, 2,411 birthing homes, and 659 infirmaries provide primary care throughout the country. Since 1967, the Philippines had become the largest global supplier of nurses; seventy percent of nursing graduates go overseas to work, causing problems in retaining skilled practitioners.

### Education

Primary and secondary schooling in the Philippines consists of six years of elementary period, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school. Public education, provided by the government, is free at the elementary and secondary levels and at most public higher-education institutions. Science high schools for talented students were established in 1963. The government provides technical-vocational training and development through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. In 2004, the government began offering alternative education to out-of-school children, youth, and adults to improve literacy; madaris were mainstreamed in 16 regions that year, primarily in Mindanao Muslim areas under the Department of Education.

The Philippines has 1,975 higher education institutions as of 2019, of which 246 are public and 1,729 are private. Public universities are non-sectarian, and are primarily classified as state-administered or local government-funded. The national university is the eight-school University of the Philippines (UP) system. The country's top-ranked universities are the UP, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, and University of Santo Tomas.

In 2019, the Philippines had a basic literacy rate of 93.8 percent of those five years old or older, and a functional literacy rate of 91.6 percent of those aged 10 to 64. Education, a significant proportion of the national budget, was allocated from the 2023 budget. As of 2023, the country has 1,640 public libraries affiliated with the National Library of the Philippines.

## Economy

The Philippine economy is the world's 40th largest, with an estimated 2022 nominal gross domestic product of . As a newly industrialized country, the Philippine economy has been transitioning from an agricultural base to one with more emphasis on services and manufacturing. The country's labor force was around 49 million as of 2022, and its unemployment rate was 4.3 percent. Gross international reserves totaled as of April 2023. Debt-to-GDP ratio decreased to 60.9 percent at the end of 2022 from a 17-year high 63.7 percent at the end of the third quarter of that year, and indicated resiliency during the COVID-19 pandemic. The country's unit of currency is the Philippine peso (₱ or PHP).

The Philippines is a net importer, and a debtor nation. As of 2020, the country's main export markets were China, the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore; primary exports included integrated circuits, office machinery and parts, electrical transformers, insulated wiring, and semiconductors. Its primary import markets that year were China, Japan, South Korea, the United States, and Indonesia. Major export crops include coconuts, bananas, and pineapples; it is the world's largest producer of abaca, and was the world's second biggest exporter of nickel ore in 2022, as well as the biggest exporter of gold-clad metals and the biggest importer of copra in 2020.

With an average annual growth rate of six to seven percent since around 2010, the Philippines has emerged as one of the world's fastest-growing economies, driven primarily by its increasing reliance on the service sector. Regional development is uneven, however, with Manila (in particular) gaining most of the new economic growth. Remittances from overseas Filipinos contribute significantly to the country's economy; they reached a record in 2022, accounting for 8.9 percent of GDP. The Philippines is the world's primary business process outsourcing (BPO) center. About 1.3 million Filipinos work in the BPO sector, primarily in customer service.

### Science and technology

The Philippines has one of the largest agricultural-research systems in Asia, despite relatively low spending on agricultural research and development. The country has developed new varieties of crops, including rice, coconuts, and bananas. Research organizations include the Philippine Rice Research Institute and the International Rice Research Institute.

The Philippine Space Agency maintains the country's space program, and the country bought its first satellite in 1996. Diwata-1, its first micro-satellite, was launched on the United States' Cygnus spacecraft in 2016.

The Philippines has a high concentration of cellular-phone users, and a high level of mobile commerce. Text messaging is a popular form of communication, and the nation sent an average of one billion SMS messages per day in 2007. The Philippine telecommunications industry had been dominated by the PLDT-Globe Telecom duopoly for more than two decades, and the 2021 entry of Dito Telecommunity improved the country's telecommunications service.

### Tourism

The Philippines is a popular retirement destination for foreigners because of its climate and low cost of living; the country is also a top destination for diving enthusiasts. Tourist spots include Boracay, called the best island in the world by Travel + Leisure in 2012; El Nido in Palawan; Cebu; Siargao, and Bohol.

Tourism contributed 5.2 percent to the Philippine GDP in 2021 (lower than 12.7 percent in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic), and provided 5.7 million jobs in 2019. The Philippines attracted 8.2 million international visitors in 2019, 15.24 percent higher than the previous year; most tourists came from East Asia (59 percent), North America (15.8 percent), and ASEAN countries (6.4 percent).

## Infrastructure

### Transportation

Transportation in the Philippines is by road, air, rail and water. Roads are the dominant form of transport, carrying 98 percent of people and 58 percent of cargo. In December 2018, there were 210,528 kilometers (130,816 mi) of roads in the country. The backbone of land-based transportation in the country is the Pan-Philippine Highway, which connects the islands of Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao. Inter-island transport is by the 919-kilometer (571 mi) Strong Republic Nautical Highway, an integrated set of highways and ferry routes linking 17 cities. Jeepneys are a popular, iconic public utility vehicle; other public land transport includes buses, UV Express, TNVS, Filcab, taxis, and tricycles. Traffic is a significant issue in Manila and on arterial roads to the capital.

Despite wider historical use, rail transportation in the Philippines is limited to transporting passengers within Metro Manila and the provinces of Laguna and Quezon, with a short track in the Bicol Region. The country had a railway footprint of only 79 kilometres (49 mi) as of 2019, which it planned to expand to 244 kilometres (152 mi). A revival of freight rail is planned to reduce road congestion.

The Philippines had 90 national government-owned airports as of 2022, of which eight are international. Ninoy Aquino International Airport, formerly known as Manila International Airport, has the greatest number of passengers. The 2017 air domestic market was dominated by Philippine Airlines, the country's flag carrier and Asia's oldest commercial airline, and Cebu Pacific (the country's leading low-cost carrier).

A variety of boats are used throughout the Philippines; most are double-outrigger vessels known as banca or bangka. Modern ships use plywood instead of logs, and motor engines instead of sails; they are used for fishing and inter-island travel. The Philippines has over 1,800 seaports; of these, the principal seaports of Manila (the country's chief, and busiest, port), Batangas, Subic Bay, Cebu, Iloilo, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, and Zamboanga are part of the ASEAN Transport Network.

### Energy

The Philippines had a total installed power capacity of 26,882 MW in 2021; 43 percent was generated from coal, 14 percent from oil, 14 percent hydropower, 12 percent from natural gas, and seven percent from geothermal sources. It is the world's third-biggest geothermal-energy producer, behind the United States and Indonesia. The country's largest dam is the 1.2-kilometre-long (0.75 mi) San Roque Dam on the Agno River in Pangasinan. The Malampaya gas field, discovered in the early 1990s off the coast of Palawan, reduced the Philippines' reliance on imported oil; it provides about 40 percent of Luzon's energy requirements, and 30 percent of the country's energy needs.

The Philippines has three electrical grids, one each for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines manages the country's power grid since 2009 and provides overhead transmission lines across the country's islands. Electric distribution to consumers is provided by privately-owned distribution utilities and government-owned electric cooperatives. As of end-2021, the Philippines' household electrification level was about 95.41%.

Plans to harness nuclear energy began during the early 1970s during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos in response to the 1973 oil crisis. The Philippines completed Southeast Asia's first nuclear power plant in Bataan in 1984. Political issues following Marcos' ouster and safety concerns after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster prevented the plant from being commissioned, and plans to operate it remain controversial.

### Water supply and sanitation

Water supply and sanitation outside Metro Manila is provided by the government through local water districts in cities or towns. Metro Manila is served by Manila Water and Maynilad Water Services. Except for shallow wells for domestic use, groundwater users are required to obtain a permit from the National Water Resources Board.

Most sewage in the Philippines flows into septic tanks. In 2015, the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation noted that 74 percent of the Philippine population had access to improved sanitation and "good progress" had been made between 1990 and 2015. Ninety-six percent of Filipino households had an improved source of drinking water and 92 percent of households had sanitary toilet facilities as of 2016; connections of toilet facilities to appropriate sewerage systems remain largely insufficient, however, especially in rural and urban poor communities.

## Culture

The Philippines has significant cultural diversity, reinforced by the country's fragmented geography. Spanish and American cultures profoundly influenced Filipino culture as a result of long colonization. The cultures of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago developed distinctly, since they had limited Spanish influence and more influence from nearby Islamic regions. Indigenous groups such as the Igorots have preserved their precolonial customs and traditions by resisting the Spanish. A national identity emerged during the 19th century, however, with shared national symbols and cultural and historical touchstones.

Hispanic legacies include the dominance of Catholicism and the prevalence of Spanish names and surnames, which resulted from an 1849 edict ordering the systematic distribution of family names and the implementation of Spanish naming customs; the names of many locations also have Spanish origins. American influence on modern Filipino culture is evident in the use of English and Filipino consumption of fast food and American films and music.

Public holidays in the Philippines are classified as regular or special. Festivals are primarily religious, and most towns and villages have such a festival (usually to honor a patron saint). Better-known festivals include Ati-Atihan, Dinagyang, Moriones, Sinulog, and Flores de Mayo—a month-long devotion to the Virgin Mary held in May. The country's Christmas season begins as early as September 1, and Holy Week is a solemn religious observance for its Christian population.

### Values

Filipino values are rooted primarily in personal alliances based in kinship, obligation, friendship, religion (particularly Christianity), and commerce. They center around social harmony through pakikisama, motivated primarily by the desire for acceptance by a group. Reciprocity through utang na loob (a debt of gratitude) is a significant Filipino cultural trait, and an internalized debt can never be fully repaid. The main sanction for divergence from these values are the concepts of hiya (shame) and loss of amor propio (self-esteem).

The family is central to Philippine society; norms such as loyalty, maintaining close relationships, care for elderly parents, and remittances from family members working abroad are ingrained in Philippine society. Respect for authority and the elderly is valued, and is shown with gestures such as mano and the honorifics po and opo and kuya (older brother) or ate (older sister). Other Filipino values are optimism about the future, pessimism about the present, concern about other people, friendship and friendliness, hospitality, religiosity, respect for oneself and others (particularly women), and integrity.

### Art and architecture

Philippine art combines indigenous folk art and foreign influences, primarily Spain and the United States. During the Spanish colonial period, art was used to spread Catholicism and support the concept of racially-superior groups. Classical paintings were mainly religious; prominent artists during Spanish colonial rule included Juan Luna and Félix Resurrección Hidalgo, whose works drew attention to the Philippines. Modernism was introduced to the Philippines during the 1920s and 1930s by Victorio Edades and popular pastoral scenes by Fernando Amorsolo.

Traditional Philippine architecture has two main models: the indigenous bahay kubo and the bahay na bato, which developed under Spanish rule. Some regions, such as Batanes, differ slightly due to climate; limestone was used as a building material, and houses were built to withstand typhoons.

Spanish architecture left an imprint in town designs around a central square or plaza mayor, but many of its buildings were demolished during World War II. Several Philippine churches adapted baroque architecture to withstand earthquakes, leading to the development of Earthquake Baroque; four baroque churches have been listed as a collective UNESCO World Heritage Site. Spanish colonial fortifications (fuerzas) in several parts of the Philippines were primarily designed by missionary architects and built by Filipino stone masons. Vigan, in Ilocos Sur, is known for its Hispanic-style houses and buildings.

American rule introduced new architectural styles in the construction of government buildings and Art Deco theaters. During the American period, some city planning using architectural designs and master plans by Daniel Burnham was done in portions of Manila and Baguio. Part of the Burnham plan was the construction of government buildings reminiscent of Greek or Neoclassical architecture. Buildings from the Spanish and American periods can be seen in Iloilo, especially in Calle Real.

### Music and dance

There are two types of Philippine folk dance, stemming from traditional indigenous influences and Spanish influence. Although native dances had become less popular, folk dancing began to revive during the 1920s. The Cariñosa, a Hispanic Filipino dance, is unofficially considered the country's national dance. Popular indigenous dances include the Tinikling and Singkil, which include the rhythmic clapping of bamboo poles. Present-day dances vary from delicate ballet to street-oriented breakdancing.

Rondalya music, with traditional mandolin-type instruments, was popular during the Spanish era. Spanish-influenced musicians are primarily bandurria-based bands with 14-string guitars. Kundiman developed during the 1920s and 1930s. The American colonial period exposed many Filipinos to U.S. culture and popular music. Rock music was introduced to Filipinos during the 1960s and developed into Filipino rock (or Pinoy rock), a term encompassing pop rock, alternative rock, heavy metal, punk, new wave, ska, and reggae. Martial law in the 1970s produced Filipino folk rock bands and artists who were at the forefront of political demonstrations. The decade also saw the birth of the Manila sound and Original Pilipino Music (OPM). Filipino hip-hop, which originated in 1979, entered the mainstream in 1990. Karaoke is also popular. From 2010 to 2020, Pinoy pop (P-pop) was influenced by K-pop and J-pop.

Locally-produced theatrical drama became established during the late 1870s. Spanish influence around that time introduced zarzuela plays (with music) and comedias, with dance. The plays became popular throughout the country, and were written in a number of local languages. American influence introduced vaudeville and ballet. Realistic theatre became dominant during the 20th century, with plays focusing on contemporary political and social issues.

### Literature

Philippine literature consists of works usually written in Filipino, Spanish, or English. Some of the earliest well-known works were created from the 17th to the 19th centuries. They include Ibong Adarna, an epic about an eponymous magical bird, and Florante at Laura by Tagalog author Francisco Balagtas. José Rizal wrote the novels Noli Me Tángere (Social Cancer) and El filibusterismo (The Reign of Greed), both of which depict the injustices of Spanish colonial rule.

Folk literature was relatively unaffected by colonial influence until the 19th century due to Spanish indifference. Most printed literary works during Spanish colonial rule were religious in nature, although Filipino elites who later learned Spanish wrote nationalistic literature. The American arrival began Filipino literary use of English. In the late 1960s, during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, Philippine literature was influenced by political activism; many poets began using Tagalog, in keeping with the country's oral traditions.

Philippine mythology has been handed down primarily through oral tradition; popular figures are Maria Makiling, Lam-ang, and the Sarimanok. The country has a number of folk epics. Wealthy families could preserve transcriptions of the epics as family heirlooms, particularly in Mindanao; the Maranao-language Darangen is an example.

### Media

Philippine media primarily uses Filipino and English, although broadcasting has shifted to Filipino. Television shows, commercials, and films are regulated by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board. Most Filipinos obtain news and information from television, the Internet, and social media. The country's flagship state-owned broadcast-television network is the People's Television Network (PTV). ABS-CBN and GMA, both free-to-air, were the dominant TV networks; before the May 2020 expiration of ABS-CBN's franchise, it was the country's largest network. Philippine television dramas, known as teleseryes and mainly produced by ABS-CBN and GMA, are also seen in several other countries.

Local film-making began in 1919 with the release of the first Filipino-produced feature film: Dalagang Bukid (A Girl from the Country), directed by Jose Nepomuceno. Production companies remained small during the silent film era, but sound films and larger productions emerged in 1933. The postwar 1940s to the early 1960s are considered a high point for Philippine cinema. The 1962–1971 decade saw a decline in quality films, although the commercial film industry expanded until the 1980s. Critically-acclaimed Philippine films include Himala (Miracle) and Oro, Plata, Mata (Gold, Silver, Death), both released in 1982. Since the turn of the 21st century, the country's film industry has struggled to compete with larger-budget foreign films (particularly Hollywood films). Art films have thrived, however, and several indie films have been successful domestically and abroad.

The Philippines has a large number of radio stations and newspapers. English broadsheets are popular among executives, professionals and students. Less-expensive Tagalog tabloids, which grew during the 1990s, are popular (particularly in Manila); however, overall newspaper readership is declining. The top three newspapers, by nationwide readership and credibility, are the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila Bulletin, and The Philippine Star. Although freedom of the press is protected by the constitution, the country was listed as the seventh-most-dangerous country for journalists in 2022 by the Committee to Protect Journalists due to 13 unsolved murders of journalists.

The Philippine population are the world's top Internet users. In early 2021, 67 percent of Filipinos (73.91 million) had Internet access; the overwhelming majority used smartphones. The Philippines ranked 59th on the Global Innovation Index in 2022, up from its 2014 ranking of 100th.

### Cuisine

From its Malayo-Polynesian origins, traditional Philippine cuisine has evolved since the 16th century. It was primarily influenced by Hispanic, Chinese, and American cuisines, which were adapted to the Filipino palate. Filipinos tend to prefer robust flavors, centered on sweet, salty, and sour combinations. Regional variations exist throughout the country; rice is the general staple starch but cassava is more common in parts of Mindanao. Adobo is the unofficial national dish. Other popular dishes include lechón, kare-kare, sinigang, pancit, lumpia, and arroz caldo. Traditional desserts are kakanin (rice cakes), which include puto, suman, and bibingka. Ingredients such as calamansi, ube, and pili are used in Filipino desserts. The generous use of condiments such as patis, bagoong, and toyo impart a distinctive Philippine flavor.

Unlike other East or Southeast Asian countries, most Filipinos do not eat with chopsticks; they use spoons and forks. Traditional eating with the fingers (known as kamayan) had been used in less urbanized areas, but has been popularized with the introduction of Filipino food to foreigners and city residents.

### Sports and recreation

Basketball, played at the amateur and professional levels, is considered the country's most popular sport. Other popular sports include boxing and billiards, boosted by the achievements of Manny Pacquiao and Efren Reyes. The national martial art is Arnis. Sabong (cockfighting) is popular entertainment, especially among Filipino men, and was documented by the Magellan expedition. Video gaming and esports are emerging pastimes, with the popularity of indigenous games such as patintero, tumbang preso, luksong tinik, and piko declining among young people; several bills have been filed to preserve and promote traditional games.

The men's national football team has participated in one Asian Cup. The women's national football team qualified for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, their first World Cup, in January 2022. The Philippines has participated in every Summer Olympic Games since 1924, except when they supported the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics. It was the first tropical nation to compete at the Winter Olympic Games, debuting in 1972. In 2021, the Philippines received its first-ever Olympic gold medal with weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz's victory in Tokyo.

## See also

- Outline of the Philippines

Archipelagic country in Southeast Asia

Countries and territories where English is an official language

States and territories established in 1565

States and territories established in 1898

States and territories established in 1946


Archaeoraptor

"Archaeoraptor" is the informal generic name for a fossil chimera from China in an article published in National Geographic magazine in 1999. The magazine claimed that the fossil was a "missing link" between birds and terrestrial theropod dinosaurs. Even before this publication, there had been severe doubts about the fossil's authenticity. A further scientific study showed it to be a forgery constructed from rearranged pieces of real fossils from different species. Zhou et al. found that the head and upper body belong to a specimen of the primitive fossil bird Yanornis. A 2002 study found that the tail belongs to a small winged dromaeosaur, Microraptor, named in 2000. The legs and feet belong to an as-yet-unknown-animal.

The scandal brought attention to illegal fossil deals conducted in China. Although "Archaeoraptor" was a forgery, many true examples of feathered dinosaurs have been found and demonstrate the evolutionary connection between birds and other theropods.

## Scandal

"Archaeoraptor" was unveiled at a press conference held by National Geographic magazine in October 1999. At the same press conference, plans were announced to return the fossil to Chinese authorities, as it was illegally exported. In November 1999 National Geographic featured the fossil in an article written by art editor Christopher Sloan. The article in general discussed feathered dinosaurs and the origin of birds. It claimed the fossil was "a missing link between terrestrial dinosaurs and birds that could fly" and informally referred to it as "Archaeoraptor liaoningensis", announcing it would later be formally named as such. This name means "ancient robber of Liaoning". This drew immediate criticism from Storrs L. Olson, Curator of Birds at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Writing in Backbone, the newsletter of his museum, he denounced the publication of a scientific name in a popular journal, without peer review, as a "nightmare".

On February 3, 2000, National Geographic issued a press release stating that the fossil could be a composite and that an internal investigation had begun. In that same month Bill Allen, National Geographic editor, told Nature that he was "furious" to learn that the fossil might have been faked. In the March issue, in the forum section, a letter from Dr. Xu Xing pointed out that the tail section probably did not match the upper body. In October 2000 National Geographic published the results of their investigation, in an article written by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Lewis M. Simons. Simons concluded that the fossil was a composite and that virtually everyone involved in the project had made some mistakes.

### Chronology

According to National Geographic'''s report, the story of "Archaeoraptor" begins in July 1997 in Xiasanjiazi, China, where farmers routinely dug in the shale pits with picks and sold fossils to dealers for a few dollars. This was an illegal practice, but it was common then. In this case, one farmer found a rare fossil of a toothed bird, complete with feather impressions. The fossil broke into pieces during collection. Nearby, in the same pit, he found pieces including a feathered tail and legs. He cemented several of these pieces together in a manner that he believed was correct. He knew that it would make a more complete-looking and, thus, more expensive fossil. It was sold in June 1998 to an anonymous dealer and smuggled to the United States. According to authorities in Beijing, no fossils may leave China legally.

By the fall 1998 annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, held in Utah, United States, rumors were circulating about a striking fossil of a primitive bird that was in private hands. This fossil was presented by an anonymous dealer at a gem show in Tucson, Arizona. The Dinosaur Museum in Blanding, Utah, purchased it in February 1999. The museum was run by the late Stephen A. Czerkas (d. 2015) and his wife, Sylvia Czerkas. Mr. Czerkas did not hold a university degree, but he was a dinosaur enthusiast and artist. He arranged for patrons of his museum, including trustee Dale Slade, to provide \$80,000 for the purchase of the fossil, to study it scientifically, and prevent it from disappearing into an anonymous private collection.

The Czerkases contacted paleontologist Phil Currie, who contacted the National Geographic Society. Currie agreed to study the fossil on condition that it was eventually returned to China. The National Geographic Society intended to get the fossil formally published in the peer-reviewed science journal Nature, and then follow up immediately with a press conference and an issue of National Geographic. Editor Bill Allen asked that all members of the project keep the fossil secret so that the magazine would have a scoop on the story.

Slade and the Czerkases intended the fossil to be the "crown jewel" of the Dinosaur Museum and planned to keep it on display there for five years. Sloan says that he flew to Utah in the spring of 1999 to convince Stephen Czerkas to return the fossil to China immediately after publication, or he would not write about it for National Geographic and Currie would not work on it. Czerkas then agreed. Currie then contacted the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, and National Geographic flew the IVPP's Xu Xing to Utah to be part of the "Archaeoraptor" team.

During the initial examination of the fossil on March 6, 1999, it had already become clear to Currie that the left and right feet mirrored each other perfectly and that the fossil had been completed by using both slab and counter slab. He also noticed no connection could be seen between the tail and the body. In July 1999, Currie and the Czerkases brought the fossil to the High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility of the University of Texas (Austin) founded and operated by Dr. Timothy Rowe to make CT scans. Rowe, having made the scans on July 29, determined that they indicated that the bottom fragments, showing the tail and the lower legs, were not part of the larger fossil. He informed the Czerkases on August 2 that there was a chance of the whole being a fraud. During a subsequent discussion, Rowe and Currie were pressured by the Czerkases to keep their reservations private.

Currie in the first week of September sent his preparator, Kevin Aulenback, to the Dinosaur Museum in Blanding to prepare the fossil for better study. Aulenback concluded that the fossil was "a composite specimen of at least 3 specimens...with a maximum...of five...separate specimens", but the Czerkases angrily denied this and Aulenbeck only reported this to Currie. Currie did not inform National Geographic of these problems.

On August 13, 1999, the team submitted a manuscript titled "A New Toothed Bird With a Dromaeosaur-like Tail" under the names of Stephen Czerkas, Currie, Rowe, and Xu, to the journal Nature in London. The paper mentions two places and includes a figure illustrating the point that one of the legs and the tail are counterparts that were composited into the main slab.

On August 20 Nature rejected the paper, indicating to the Czerkases that National Geographic had refused to delay publication, leaving too little time for peer review. The authors then submitted the paper to Science, which sent it out for peer review. Two reviewers informed Science that "the specimen was smuggled out of China and illegally purchased" and that the fossil had been "doctored" in China "to enhance its value." Science then rejected the paper. According to Sloan, the Czerkases did not inform National Geographic about the details of the two rejections.

By that time the November issue of National Geographic was already in preparation for printing, but "Archaeoraptor" was never formally published in any peer-reviewed journal.

National Geographic went ahead and published without peer review. The fossil was unveiled in a press conference on October 15, 1999, and in November 1999 National Geographic contained an article by Christopher P. Sloan—a National Geographic art editor. Sloan described it as a missing link that helped elucidate the connection between dinosaurs and birds. The original fossil was put on display at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., pending return to China. In the article Sloan used the name "Archaeoraptor liaoningensis" but with a disclaimer (so that it would not count as a nomenclatural act for scientific classification) in anticipation of Czerkas being able to publish a peer-reviewed description at some point in the future.

After the November National Geographic came out, Storrs L. Olson, curator of birds in the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution published an open letter on 1 November 1999, pointing out that "the specimen in question is known to have been illegally exported" and protesting the "prevailing dogma that birds evolved from dinosaurs." Olson complained that Sloan, a journalist, had usurped the process of scientific nomenclature by publishing a name first in the popular press: "This is the worst nightmare of many zoologists—that their chance to name a new organism will be inadvertently scooped by some witless journalist."

In October 1999, after having been informed by Currie of the problems and seeing the specimen for the first time, Xu noticed that the tail of "Archaeoraptor" strongly resembled an unnamed maniraptoran dinosaur that he was studying—later to be named Microraptor zhaoianus. He returned to China and traveled to Liaoning Province where he inspected the fossil site and contacted several fossil dealers. He eventually found a fairly complete fossil of a tiny dromaeosaur, and the tail of this new fossil corresponded so exactly to the tail on the "Archaeoraptor" fossil that it had to be the counter slab— it even had two matching yellow oxide stains. On December 20, 1999, Xu Xing sent e-mails to the authors and Sloan, announcing that the fossil was a fake.

On February 3, 2000, The National Geographic News issued a press release stating that the "Archaeoraptor" fossil might be a composite and that an internal investigation had begun. In the March issue of National Geographic Xu's letter ran in the Forum section of the magazine, and Bill Allen had Xu change the word "fake" to "composite".

On April 4, 2000, Stephen Czerkas told a group of paleontologists in Washington that he and Sylvia had made "an idiot, bone-stupid mistake". Currie, Allen, and Sloan all expressed regret. Rowe felt vindicated, claiming the affair as evidence that his scans were correct. Rowe published a Brief Communication in Nature in 2001 describing his findings. He concluded that, apart from the top part, several specimens had been used to complete the fossil: a first for the left femur, a second for the tibiae, a third for both feet, and at least one more for the tail, which alone consisted of five separate parts.

In June 2000 the fossil was returned to China. In the October 2000 issue, National Geographic published the results of their investigation.

## Ongoing confusion

The fossils involved in the "Archaeoraptor" scandal have led to ongoing confusion over taxon names. In December 2000, Microraptor was described in Nature. Zhou et al. (2002) examined the upper body of the "Archaeoraptor" fossil and reported that it belonged to the previously-named genus Yanornis.

### Dinosaur Museum Journal

In 2002 the Czerkases published a volume through their Dinosaur Museum titled Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Flight. In this journal, they described and named several species. Of the six species named in the book, five are disputed.

Despite the work of Zhou et al. (2002), Czerkas and co-author Xu Xing described the upper portion of the "Archaeoraptor" fossil as a new bird genus, Archaeovolans, in the Dinosaur Museum Journal. The article does include the caveat that it might be a specimen of Yanornis. Thus, this same fossil specimen has been named "Archaeoraptor", Archeovolans, and Yanornis, in different places.

Across the monographs in the Dinosaur Museum Journal, Stephen Czerkas built a case for his controversial view that maniraptoran dinosaurs are secondarily flightless birds. In so doing, he criticized prominent paleontologists. In the text on Cryptovolans, Czerkas accused Dr. Mark Norell of misinterpreting the fossil BPM 1 3-13 as having long leg feathers due to the "blinding influences of preconceived ideas." Though Norell's interpretation was correct, Czerkas added leg feathers to his reconstruction of the fossil in the art that promotes the traveling exhibit.

Two other taxa that Czerkas and his co-authors named were later treated as junior synonyms by other authors. Czerkas' Cryptovolans was treated as Microraptor, and his Scansoriopteryx was treated as Epidendrosaurus. Czerkas described Omnivoropteryx, noting that it was similar to Sapeornis. Later specimens of Sapeornis with skulls demonstrated that the two were probably synonymous.

Another taxon that Czerkas assigned to the Pterosauria and named Utahdactylus was reviewed by Dr. Chris Bennett. Bennett found multiple misidentifications of bones and inconsistencies between Czerkas' diagrams and the actual fossils. Bennett found the specimen to be an indeterminate diapsid and criticized the previous authors for publishing a species name when no diagnostic characters below the class level could be verified. He made Utahdactylus a nomen dubium.

### Traveling exhibit

In 2001 Stephen and Sylvia Czerkas compiled a traveling exhibit containing 34 other Chinese fossils. The show is titled Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Flight. The San Diego Natural History Museum paid a set fee to the Dinosaur Museum to display this show in 2004. When the show opened, Dr. Ji Qiang told reporters from Nature that about a dozen of the fossils had left China illegally. Ji arranged with the Czerkases to assign accession numbers to three of the most valuable specimens, thus formally adding them to the collection of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing, although they remain in the possession of the Czerkases. Stephen Czerkas denied Ji's assertion that the fossils were illegal. Sylvia Czerkas told the journal Nature that she had worked out an agreement with officials of Liaoning Province in 2001 to borrow the fossils and that they were to be repatriated in 2007. Through March 2009, however, the show was scheduled for the Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art and Science in California. According to Nature, the Czerkases refused requests to make the officials from Liaoning available for an interview.

Many scientists consider it unethical to work on fossils if there is any chance that they have been smuggled, and many disregard privately owned fossils altogether. Some professionals feel that private collectors put fossils in private hands where science may not be able to access or study them. Some believe that private collectors may damage important fossils, subject them to forgery, and obscure their origins or evidence about their ages. Illegal dealers have also participated in and may encourage, governmental corruption. Another philosophy argues that if scientists could bend their ethics and agree to publish on important private fossils, this would encourage private holders to make them available for study.

The fossil most recently appeared in an exhibition in Wollaton Hall, near Nottingham, titled Dinosaurs of China: Ground Shakers to Feathered Flyers, where it was exhibited along with fossils of Yanoris and Microraptor, its main components.

### Taxonomic history

In April 2000 Olson published an article in Backbone, the newsletter of the National Museum of Natural History. In this article, he justified his views on the evolution of birds, but also revised and redescribed the species "Archaeoraptor liaoningensis" by designating just the tail of the original fraudulent specimen as the type specimen. To prevent the tainted name "Archaeoraptor" from entering paleornithological literature, this redescription assigned the name to that part of the chimeric specimen least likely to be classified under Aves, rather than to the portion which was later shown to represent a true bird species. Olson presumed that the National Geographic article had already validly named the fossil, and he, therefore, failed to explicitly indicate the name was new, as demanded by article 16 of the ICZN as a condition for a name to be valid. Several months afterward Xu, Zhou, and Wang published their description of Microraptor zhaoianus in Nature.

### Creationism

The scandal is sometimes used by creationists like Kent Hovind, Kirk Cameron, and Ray Comfort to cast doubt on the hypothesis that birds evolved from dinosaurs. Many creationists insist that no missing links between birds and dinosaurs have been found, and commonly point to "Archaeoraptor" as evidence of misconduct performed to support the evolutionary theory. They see "Archaeoraptor" as a "Piltdown Bird". However, contrary to the Piltdown Man, "Archaeoraptor" was not deliberately fabricated to support some evolutionary claim. Furthermore, the authenticity of "Archaeoraptor" would not have been essential proof for the hypothesis that birds are theropods, as this is sufficiently corroborated by other data; paleontologist Christopher Brochu concluded in November 2001: "That birds are derived from theropod dinosaurs is no longer the subject of scholarly dispute." Though playing the role of "terrestrial dinosaur" in the "Archaeoraptor" affair, the Microraptor'', showing wings and clear traces of rectrices, is generally assumed to have had at least a gliding capacity and is itself an excellent example of a transitional fossil.

Faked dinosaur discovery in China


SMS Westfalen

SMS Westfalen was one of the Nassau-class battleships, the first four dreadnoughts built for the German Imperial Navy. Westfalen was laid down at AG Weser in Bremen on 12 August 1907, launched nearly a year later on 1 July 1908, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 16 November 1909. The ship was equipped with a main battery of twelve 28 cm (11 in) guns in six twin turrets in an unusual hexagonal arrangement.

The ship served with her sister ships for the majority of World War I, seeing extensive service in the North Sea, where she took part in several fleet sorties. These culminated in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, where Westfalen was heavily engaged in night-fighting against British light forces. Westfalen led the German line for much of the evening and into the following day, until the fleet reached Wilhelmshaven. On another fleet advance in August 1916, the ship was damaged by a torpedo from a British submarine.

Westfalen also conducted several deployments to the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy. The first of these was during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga, where Westfalen supported a German naval assault on the gulf. Westfalen was sent back to the Baltic in 1918 to support the White Finns in the Finnish Civil War. The ship remained in Germany while the majority of the fleet was interned in Scapa Flow after the end of the war. In 1919, following the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Westfalen was ceded to the Allies as a replacement for the ships that had been sunk. She was then sent to ship-breakers in England, who broke the ship up for scrap by 1924.

## Description

Design work on the Nassau class began in late 1903 in the context of the Anglo-German naval arms race; at the time, battleships of foreign navies had begun to carry increasingly heavy secondary batteries, including Italian and American ships with 20.3 cm (8 in) guns and British ships with 23.4 cm (9.2 in) guns, outclassing the previous German battleships of the Deutschland class with their 17 cm (6.7 in) secondaries. German designers initially considered ships equipped with 21 cm (8.3 in) secondary guns, but erroneous reports in early 1904 that the British Lord Nelson-class battleships would be equipped with a secondary battery of 25.4 cm (10 in) guns prompted them to consider an even more powerful ship armed with an all-big-gun armament consisting of eight 28 cm (11 in) guns. Over the next two years, the design was refined into a larger vessel with twelve of the guns, by which time Britain had launched the all-big-gun battleship HMS Dreadnought.

Westfalen was 146.1 m (479 ft 4 in) long, 26.9 m (88 ft 3 in) wide, and had a draft of 8.9 m (29 ft 2 in). She displaced 18,873 t (18,575 long tons) with a standard load, and 20,535 t (20,210 long tons) fully laden. The ship design retained 3-shaft triple expansion engines instead of the more advanced turbine engines. Steam was provided to the engines by twelve coal-fired water-tube boilers, with the addition in 1915 of supplementary oil firing. This machinery was chosen at the request of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz and the Navy's construction department. The department stated in 1905 that the "use of turbines in heavy warships does not recommend itself." This decision was based solely on cost: at the time, Parsons held a monopoly on steam turbines and required a 1 million gold mark royalty fee for every turbine engine. German firms were not ready to begin production of turbines on a large scale until 1910.

Westfalen carried a main battery of twelve 28 cm (11 in) SK L/45 guns in an unusual hexagonal configuration. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 guns and sixteen 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/45 guns, all of which were mounted in casemates. The ship was also armed with six 45 cm (17.7 in) submerged torpedo tubes. One tube was mounted in the bow, another in the stern, and two on each broadside, on either end of the torpedo bulkhead. The ship's belt armor was 300 mm (11.8 in) thick in the central citadel, and the armored deck was 80 mm (3.1 in) thick. The main battery turrets had 280 mm (11 in) thick sides, and the conning tower was protected with 400 mm (15.7 in) of armor plating.

## Service history

The German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) ordered Westfalen under the provisional name Ersatz Sachsen as a replacement for SMS Sachsen, the lead ship of the elderly Sachsen-class ironclads. The Reichstag secretly approved and provided funds for Nassau and Westfalen at the end of March 1906, but construction on Westfalen was delayed while arms and armor were procured. She was laid down on 12 August 1907 at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen. As with her sister Nassau, construction proceeded swiftly and secretly; detachments of soldiers guarded both the shipyard and the major contractors who supplied building materials, such as Krupp. The ship was launched on 1 July 1908, underwent an initial fitting-out, and then in mid-September 1909 was transferred to Kiel by a crew composed of dockyard workers for a final fitting-out. However, the water level in the Weser River was low at this time of year, so six pontoons had to be attached to the ship to reduce her draft. Even so, it took two attempts before the ship cleared the river.

On 16 October 1909, before Westfalen was commissioned into the fleet, the ship took part in a ceremony for the opening of the third set of locks in the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal in Kiel. Exactly one month later, Westfalen was commissioned for sea trials, which were interrupted only by fleet training exercises in February 1910. At the completion of the trials on 3 May, Westfalen was added to I Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet; two days later, she became the squadron flagship, replacing the pre-dreadnought battleship SMS Hannover. The navy had intended to transfer the ship to II Battle Squadron, but this plan was discarded after the outbreak of World War I in July 1914.

### World War I

Westfalen participated in most of the fleet advances into the North Sea throughout the war. The first operation was conducted primarily by Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper's battlecruisers; the ships bombarded the English coastal towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby on 15–16 December 1914. A German battlefleet of 12 dreadnoughts, including Westfalen, her three sisters and eight pre-dreadnoughts sailed in support of the battlecruisers. On the evening of 15 December, they came to within 10 nmi (19 km; 12 mi) of an isolated squadron of six British battleships. However, skirmishes between the rival destroyer screens in the darkness convinced the German fleet commander, Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl, that the entire Grand Fleet was deployed before him. Under orders from Kaiser Wilhelm II, von Ingenohl broke off the engagement and turned the battlefleet back towards Germany. In late March 1915 the ship went into drydock for periodic maintenance.

#### Battle of the Gulf of Riga

In August 1915, the German fleet attempted to clear the Russian-held Gulf of Riga in order to assist the German army, which was planning an assault on Riga itself. To do so, the German planners intended to drive off or destroy the Russian naval forces in the Gulf, which included the pre-dreadnought battleship Slava and a number of smaller gunboats and destroyers. The German battle fleet was accompanied by several mine-warfare vessels, tasked first with clearing Russian minefields and then laying a series of their own minefields in the northern entrance to the Gulf to prevent Russian naval reinforcements from reaching the area. The assembled German fleet included Westfalen and her three sister ships, the four Helgoland-class battleships, the battlecruisers Von der Tann, Moltke, and Seydlitz, and several pre-dreadnoughts. The force operated under the command of Franz von Hipper, who had by now been promoted to vice admiral. The eight battleships were to provide cover for the forces engaging the Russian flotilla. The first attempt on 8 August was broken off, as it took too long to clear the Russian minefields.

On 16 August 1915, a second attempt was made to enter the Gulf: Nassau and Posen, four light cruisers, and 31 torpedo boats managed to breach the Russian defenses. On the first day of the assault, two German light craft—the minesweeper T46 and the destroyer V99—were sunk. The following day, Nassau and Posen battled Slava, scoring three hits on the Russian ship that forced her to retreat. By 19 August, the Russian minefields had been cleared and the flotilla entered the Gulf. However, reports of Allied submarines in the area prompted the Germans to call off the operation the following day. Admiral Hipper later remarked that "to keep valuable ships for a considerable time in a limited area in which enemy submarines were increasingly active, with the corresponding risk of damage and loss, was to indulge in a gamble out of all proportion to the advantage to be derived from the occupation of the Gulf before the capture of Riga from the land side." In fact, the battlecruiser Moltke had been torpedoed that morning.

#### Return to the North Sea

By the end of August Westfalen and the rest of the High Seas Fleet had returned to their anchorages in the North Sea. The next operation conducted was a sweep into the North Sea on 11–12 September, though it ended without any action. Another sortie followed on 23–24 October during which the German fleet did not encounter any British forces. Another uneventful advance into the North Sea took place on 21–22 April 1916. A bombardment mission followed two days later; Westfalen joined the battleship support for Hipper's battlecruisers while they attacked Yarmouth and Lowestoft on 24–25 April. During this operation, the battlecruiser Seydlitz was damaged by a British mine and had to return to port prematurely. Due to poor visibility, the operation was soon called off, leaving the British fleet no time to intercept the raiders.

#### Battle of Jutland

Admiral Reinhard Scheer, who had succeeded Admirals von Ingenohl and Hugo von Pohl as the fleet commander, immediately planned another attack on the British coast. However, the damage to Seydlitz and condenser trouble on several of the III Battle Squadron dreadnoughts delayed the plan until the end of May 1916. The German battlefleet departed the Jade at 03:30 on 31 May. Westfalen was assigned to II Division of I Battle Squadron, under the command of Rear Admiral W. Engelhardt. Westfalen was the last ship in the division, astern of her three sisters. II Division was the last unit of dreadnoughts in the fleet; they were followed by only the elderly pre-dreadnoughts of II Battle Squadron.

Between 17:48 and 17:52, eleven German dreadnoughts, including Westfalen, engaged and opened fire on the British 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron, though the range and poor visibility prevented effective fire, which was soon checked. At 18:05, Westfalen began firing again; her target was a British light cruiser, most probably the Southampton. Despite the short distance, around 18,000 metres (19,690 yd), Westfalen scored no hits. Scheer had by this time called for maximum speed in order to pursue the British ships; Westfalen made 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph). By 19:30 when Scheer signaled "Go west", the German fleet had faced the deployed Grand Fleet for a second time and was forced to turn away. In doing so, the order of the German line was reversed; this would have put II Squadron in the lead, but Captain Redlich of Westfalen noted that II Squadron was out of position and began his turn immediately, assuming the lead position.

Around 21:20, Westfalen and her sister ships began to be engaged by the battlecruisers of the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron; several large shells straddled (fell to either side of) the ship and rained splinters on her deck. Shortly thereafter, two torpedo tracks were spotted that turned out to be imaginary. The ships were then forced to slow down in order to allow the battlecruisers of I Scouting Group to pass ahead. Around 22:00, Westfalen and Rheinland observed unidentified light forces in the gathering darkness. After flashing a challenge via searchlight that was ignored, the two ships turned away to starboard in order to evade any torpedoes that might have been fired. The rest of I Battle Squadron followed them. During the brief encounter, Westfalen fired seven of her 28 cm shells in the span of about two and a half minutes. Westfalen again assumed a position guiding the fleet, this time because Scheer wanted lead ships with greater protection against torpedoes than the pre-dreadnoughts had.

At about 00:30, the leading units of the German line encountered British destroyers and cruisers. A violent firefight at close range ensued; Westfalen opened fire on the destroyer HMS Tipperary with her 15 cm and 8.8 cm guns at a distance of about 1,800 m (2,000 yd). Her first salvo destroyed Tipperary's bridge and forward deck gun. In the span of five minutes, Westfalen fired ninety-two 15 cm and forty-five 8.8 cm rounds at Tipperary before turning 90 degrees to starboard to evade any torpedoes that might have been fired. Nassau and several cruisers and destroyers joined in the attack on Tipperary; the ship was quickly turned into a burning wreck. The destroyer nevertheless continued to fire with her stern guns and launched her two starboard torpedoes. One of the British destroyers scored a hit on Westfalen's bridge with its 4-inch (10 cm) guns, killing two men and wounding eight; Captain Redlich was slightly wounded. At 00:50, Westfalen spotted HMS Broke and briefly engaged her with her secondary guns; in about 45 seconds she fired thirteen 15 cm and thirteen 8.8 cm shells before turning away. Broke was engaged by other German warships, including the cruiser Rostock; she was hit at least seven times and suffered 42 dead, six missing, and 34 wounded crew members. An officer aboard the light cruiser Southampton described Broke as "an absolute shambles." Despite the serious damage inflicted, Broke managed to withdraw from the battle and reach port. Just after 01:00, Westfalen's searchlights fell on the destroyer Fortune, which was wrecked and set ablaze in a matter of seconds by Westfalen and Rheinland. She also managed to sink the British destroyer Turbulent.

Despite the ferocity of the night fighting, the High Seas Fleet punched through the British destroyer forces and reached Horns Reef by 4:00 on 1 June. With Westfalen in the lead, the German fleet reached Wilhelmshaven a few hours later, where the battleship and two of her sisters took up defensive positions in the outer roadstead. Over the course of the battle, the ship had fired fifty-one 28 cm shells, one-hundred and seventy-six 15 cm rounds, and one hundred and six 8.8 cm shells. Repair work followed immediately in Wilhelmshaven and was completed by 17 June.

#### Raid of 18–19 August

Another fleet advance followed on 18–22 August, during which the I Scouting Group battlecruisers were to bombard the coastal town of Sunderland in an attempt to draw out and destroy Beatty's battlecruisers. As only two of the four German battlecruisers were still in fighting condition, three dreadnoughts were assigned to the Scouting Group for the operation: Markgraf, Grosser Kurfürst, and the newly commissioned Bayern. The High Seas Fleet, including Westfalen at the rear of the line, would trail behind and provide cover. However, at 06:00 on 19 August, Westfalen was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS E23, some 55 nautical miles (102 km; 63 mi) north of Terschelling. The ship took in approximately 800 metric tons (790 long tons; 880 short tons) of water, but the torpedo bulkhead held. Three torpedo-boats were detached from the fleet to escort the damaged ship back to port; Westfalen made 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph) on the return trip. The British were aware of the German plans and sortied the Grand Fleet to meet them. By 14:35, Admiral Scheer had been warned of the Grand Fleet's approach and, unwilling to engage the whole of the Grand Fleet just 11 weeks after the close call at Jutland, turned his forces around and retreated to German ports. Repairs to Westfalen lasted until 26 September.

Following the repair work, Westfalen briefly went into the Baltic Sea for training, before returning to the North Sea on 4 October. The fleet then advanced as far as the Dogger Bank on 19–20 October. The ship remained in port for the majority of 1917. The ship did not actively take part in Operation Albion in the Baltic, though she was stationed off Apenrade to prevent a possible British incursion into the area.

#### Expedition to Finland

On 22 February 1918, Westfalen and Rheinland were tasked with a mission to Finland to support German army units to be deployed there. The Finns were engaged in a Civil War between the Whites and the Reds. On 23 February, the two ships took on the 14th Jäger Battalion, and early on 24 February they departed for Åland. Åland was to be a forward operating base, from which the port of Hanko would be secured, following an assault on the capital of Helsinki. The task force reached the Åland Islands on 5 March, where they encountered the Swedish coastal defense ships , , and . Negotiations ensued, which resulted in the landing of the German troops on Åland on 7 March; Westfalen then returned to Danzig.

Westfalen remained in Danzig until 31 March, when she departed for Finland with Posen; the ships arrived at Russarö, which was the outer defense for Hanko, by 3 April. The German army quickly took the port. The task force then proceeded to Helsingfors; on 9 April Westfalen stood off Reval, organizing the invasion force. Two days later the ship passed into the harbor at Helsingfors and landed the soldiers; she supported their advance with her main guns. The Red Guards were defeated within three days. The ship remained in Helsingfors until 30 April, by which time the White government had been installed firmly in power.

Following the operation, Westfalen returned to the North Sea where she rejoined I Battle Squadron. On 11 August, Westfalen, Posen, Kaiser, and Kaiserin steamed out towards Terschelling to support German patrols in the area. While en route, Westfalen suffered serious damage to her boilers that reduced her speed to 16 kn (30 km/h; 18 mph). After returning to port, she was decommissioned and employed as an artillery training ship.

### Fate

Following the German collapse in November 1918, a significant portion of the High Seas Fleet was interned in Scapa Flow under the terms of the Armistice. Westfalen and her three sisters—the oldest dreadnoughts in the German navy-were not among the ships listed for internment, so they remained in German ports. During the internment, a copy of The Times informed the German commander, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, that the Armistice was to expire at noon on 21 June 1919, the deadline by which Germany was to have signed the peace treaty. Von Reuter believed that the British intended to seize the German ships after the Armistice expired. To prevent this, he decided to scuttle his ships at the first opportunity. On the morning of 21 June, the British fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers; at 11:20 Reuter transmitted the order to his ships.

As a result of the scuttling at Scapa Flow, the Allies demanded replacements for the ships that had been sunk. Westfalen was struck from the German naval list on 5 November 1919 and subsequently handed over to the Allies under the contract name "D" on 5 August 1920. The ship was then sold to ship-breakers in Birkenhead, where she was broken up for scrap by 1924.

Nassau-class battleship of the German Imperial Navy