Philippines (Napoleon's World)

The Philippines (Spanish: Los Philippines), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Spanish: Republica de las Filipinas) is a major Southeast Asian nation based on the Philippine Archipelago east of China, south of Taiwan, and north of Mindanao and the Japanese East Indies. The Philippines are a developed economy and one of the four "Asian Tigers" along with Hong Kong, Singapore, and Korea. Geopolitically, the Philippines has a number of trade and military arrangements with Japan, and has generally been viewed as forming part of a Japanese geopolitical bloc. A developed market economy and democracy, the Philippines has a population of approximately 73 million people and is the third-largest Spanish speaking country in the world behind Mexico and Colombia. Its capital, Manila, is an alpha world city and one of Asia's crucial centers of business, finance, and culture.