Philippines

The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic sovereign state in Southeast Asia composed of 7,641 islands that are situated in the . The nation was formed after the indigenous states were conquered by the Spanish Empire and merged into a single colony, a united identity they retained after achieving independence from the Spanish and the Americans who replaced them.
==History==
===Early Spanish expeditions===
In 1521, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived on the island of Cebu in the Philippines to search for an Isu artifact which he had managed to track to the region. Magellan met with the island's leader Rajah Humabon and converted him and the local indigenous population to Catholicism, intending to turn Cebu into a colony of the Spanish Empire.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 41
The explorer eventually located the Piece of Eden hidden on Cebu, a crescent amulet, but Humabon informed him that it was just a piece of a larger artifact, with another fragment owned by 's chieftain Lapu-Lapu. Magellan and his men subsequently fought against the artifact-empowered Lapu-Lapu, but were defeated and Magellan perished during the battle.
===Spanish colonial rule===
====Golden Age of Piracy====
At some point in the early 18th century, the Dutch navigator Hendrik, who was investigating Magellan's legend, visited the Basilica del Santo Niño in Cebu and met a monk who told him of Magellan's search for Isu artifacts and his fate. The monk made no mention of what had happened to the Pieces of Eden after Magellan's death, so Hendrik resolved to continue investigating by himself. He eventually found one of the artifacts in the lost Khmer city of Angkor and left behind clues in his personal sea log before he was killed in Macau.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 12
In 1719, Manilan supporters of Francisco de la Cuesta, enraged at Fernando Manuel de Bustillo Bustamante y Rueda's orders to imprison him, stormed Bustamante's mansion and killed him in the streets.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 51
In 1725, the British Assassin Edward Kenway, who had traveled to Southeast Asia in search of Angkor, was hired by a merchant to escort his trading vessel from Macau to Manila. Alongside his recently-established organization, the Zhang Wei Union, Edward travelled to the Filipino capital to fulfill the contract. While in the city, Edward's friend John Young found evidence that the Templars were close to locating Angkor and were influencing companies such as the East India Company and the Far East Company to organize an expedition in to find the lost city.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 24
After deciphering the contents of Hendrik's sea log and learning of the navigator's investigation into Magellan's story, the Zhang Wei Union's members used the Fenghuang to sail to the Philippines in order to follow Magellan's trail and find Angkor. Along the way, they fended off an attack by Admiral Jeong's fleet and the Chinese Assassins Xiao Han, Liu Qing, and Xue Yan,Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 49 and ran into their ally Jan van Aert, the Dutch East India Company's Chief Navigator who wanted to accompany them on their expedition.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 50
However, the Spanish authorities soon arrested the Union members and Jan's crew and brought them to Manila due to Jan's alleged involvement in Governor Bustamante's assassination six years prior. The Union members were subsequently confined aboard their ship under the watch of several guards, but managed to escape not long after. Taking advantage of a protest in the streets to infiltrate Fort Santiago, Edward rescued Jan and his men from captivity. However, he then witnessed the protest turn into a violent riot, led by a monk who wielded the crescent amulet previously found by Magellan.
Together with Shimazu Saito, Edward decided to face the monk and take the amulet from him. They cornered him in an alley but the monk used the amulet against them,Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 52 and Saito was eventually defeated.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 54 Edward was able to overcome the amulet's powers and confronted the monk,Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 55 but ultimately lost the artifact to Rajah, the leader of a resistance against the Spanish colonists.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 56
While Rajah killed the monk and escaped with the amulet, Edward and his fellow Union members were forced to flee Manila as the Spanish Army arrived in the city to quench the riot. Thanks to a distraction by Jan, who lured away the Spanish ships pursuing them, the Fenghuang was able to sail away to safety and resumed its voyage to Cebu.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 57
In the aftermath of the Manila riot, the Lieutenant Governor-General blamed the incident on the Dutch East India Company and was approached by the Qing businesswoman Lee Huiyin with an offer. In exchange for Lee's company trading goods with the Spanish, the Lieutenant Governor granted her ships free passage to the Southern Seas. This allowed Lee's allies – Jeong and the Chinese Assassins – to continue their pursuit of the Zhang Wei Union in their race to find Angkor.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 58
Meanwhile, en route to Cebu, the Union members passed by Monkey Island, which had recently been occupied by Rajah and his resistance,Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 59 who were engaged in a conflict with the island's Japanese settlers.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 64 The native warriors used their fort's artillery to trap the Fenghuang, forcing Xialun Qing to use the Celestial Chariot, a prototype , to survey the island from above and locate the fort.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 60 However, the balloon suffered a malfunction and caught fire, forcing Qing to parachute onto the island.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 61
Half of the Fenghuangs crew, led by Edward, went to the island to search for Qing, while the remaining Union members remained aboard the ship and fended off an attack by Rajah's men. Edward's expedition eventually found Qing in a village, whose inhabitants had rescued her from the jungle.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 62 After learning that many villagers had been forcefully recruited to Rajah's resistance and brainwashed by the crescent amulet, Edward captured some of them to use in an assault on the resistance's fort, during which the stronghold was destroyed.
Shortly after the Union members departed Monkey Island, its villages were ravaged by the Chinese Assassins and members of the Shimazu clan led by Fuma Sukuna, who were searching for the amulet. Upon learning that Rajah and most of his resistance had left the island and sailed to Cebu, the Chinese Assassins decided to follow them.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 65
The Fenghuang also followed Rajah's trail to Cebu, leading to Edward and Saito confronting the Visayan chief inside the Basilica del Santo Niño, where Hendrik had hidden a second sea log containing clues to Angkor's location.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 66 Although Rajah managed to flee with the log, his plan to escape from the Cebu harbor was thwarted by John Young, who used the Fenghuangs cannons to sink his fleet.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 67
Subsequently, Rajah and his men took over Fort San Pedro, but after the rebels protested against Rajah's orders to execute the civilians inside the fort, the Visayan chief killed them all in a blind rage. Moments later, Rajah was again confronted by Edward and Saito, who had used a second Celestial Chariot built by Yun Pyeong-Gyu to infiltrate the fort.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 69 While Edward fought and defeated Rajah, taking the amulet from him, Saito recovered Hendrik's sea log.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 71
At the same time, the Chinese Assassins arrived in Cebu and confronted Edward and Saito at Fort San Pedro.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 72 Edward reluctantly used the amulet to subdue them, but Xue Yan managed to steal the sea log from Saito, who was unable to recover it because she and Edward were forced to escape the city.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 73 
Regrouping with their fellow Union members, John assumed temporary leadership of the Fenghuangs crew in lieu of Edward, who was recovering from the amulet's effects, and set a course for the Sultanate of Sulu to reconvene with Jan van Aert.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 74
====Seven Years' War====
In 1742, the British Templar John Harrison was stationed in Manila to look for Isu sites throughout Asia. Although unsuccessful in his search, the time there allowed Harrison to pick up the trail of the Precursor box once held by the Assassin Shao Jun and trace its journey out of China and into the West Indies.Assassin's Creed: Rogue – War Letters: "The Manila Galleons"
When the Seven Years' War broke out between Britain and France a decade later, the Templars sent agents to Manila to disrupt the interests of the Spanish presence in the city. As a result, Manila was conquered by the British, though it was returned to Spain a year after the war.Assassin's Creed: Rogue – Shay Cormac's fleet: "Let Us Take Charge from Now On"
===Struggle for independence===
The Filipino people would eventually manage to secure their independence from the Spanish Empire through a that lasted from 1898 to 1899.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 70 This revolution was entwined with the , at the end of which Spain ceded the territory of the Philippines to the United States.
The resulting saw the United States emerging victorious and occupying the Philippines until the of the islands during World War II. After the United States retook the Philippines from Japan in 1945, the country became independent for the first time since the 16th century.
===Modern times===
In 2013, the Assassins' interim Mentor Gavin Banks decided to buy firearms from Emmanuel Barraza's contact, a weapon supplier in the Philippines near the , to be prepared for the worst once they arrived in Osaka to help the Japanese Assassins.Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Surveillance: "To the Teeth"
In 2023, an Abstergo Industries team including Doctor Shimazu Sei and her bodyguard Yuki travelled to Cebu via the Exitus to track Edward Kenway's footsteps and locate the Piece of Eden he had found.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 42 Alongside Noa Kim, a descendant of Edward who had been abducted and forced to relive his ancestor's memories in the Animus, Sei and Yuki travelled around Cebu looking for leads. However, during their search, they were ambushed by Doom Eagle, a criminal organization led by the Assassin Nathan Zhang who sought to rescue Noa.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 43
Despite managing to escape the ambush and head to a shopping mall, Noa, Sei and Yuki were again attacked by Doom Eagle, who injureed Yuki in a shootout, forcing Noa and Sei to flee into the mall.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 44 There, the former fought Nathan, who informed him of the truth regarding his father's Assassin affiliations.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 46
With Abstergo's Sigma Team closing in, Nathan was ultimately forced to abort the rescue mission and escape, though not before giving Noa the sea log of the Zhang Wei Union's captain Mustafa. Noa and Sei subsequently used the information from the sea log to explore Edward's memories of his time in the Philippines,Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 47 allowing them to discover the crescent amulet's location in the .
==Appearances==
*Assassin's Creed: Initiates 
*Assassin's Creed: Rogue 
*Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple 
==References==
zh:菲律宾
Category:Countries in Asia
Category:Island countries
Category:Philippines
Category:Former Spanish colonies