PART 1 - Land, history and people.- Chapter 1 7107 islands.- Sea and land intertwined: the terraqueous character of the Philippines.- Mountainous islands from the Ring of Fire.- The high level of maritimity of the archipelago.- Chapter 2 A tropical archipelago.- General characteristics of the Philippine climate.- Amihan and habagat.- Typhoons.- Chapter 3 The Spanish creation of the Philippines: the birth of a nation.- Pre-Hispanic Philippines.- Spanish exploration and conquest.- Spanish colonization in the Philippines.- The Philippine Revolution.- Chapter 4 From US colony to independent country: the construction of a State.- The American colonization of the Philippines.- The independence of the Philippines.- Chapter 5 100 million Filipinos.- The rising number of Filipinos.- A slower population growth and its expected benefits.- The health status of the Philippine population.- Chapter 6 The diversity of the Philippine population.- The linguistic diversity.- Indigenous minorities in the Philippines.- The Chinese in the Philippines.- PART 2 - The Philippines in the global economy.- Chapter 7 Emerging tiger ? The paradoxes of the Philippine economy.- A laggard country.- A declining position in Asia.- A country seen as difficult to do business in.- Innovation and higher education: a mediocre performance in international surveys.- An unusual structure of employment.- The "informal" economy.- Growth without development ?.- Chapter 8 Farm productions and rural landscapes.- Farms and crops.- Rice in the Philippines.- Corn: the second staple crop.- Three major export crops.- Animal husbandry in the Philippines.- Chapter 9 The Philippine agriculture: weaknesses and controversies.- Sugar haciendas.- Agrarian reform.- Insuring a rice self-sufficiency for the Philippines.- The issues of land conversion and environmental degradation.- Chapter 10 The use and abuse of sea resources.- Fish and fisheries.- Aquaculture in the Philippines.- Protecting a rich marine environment under threat.- Chapter 11 Industry vs. Services.- The failed industrialization of the Philippines.- The rise of services.- Chapter 12 Global Pinoys: the archipelago of migration.- A worldwide Filipino presence.- The role of the Philippine government in international migration.- Assessing the impact of international migration on the Philippines.- The risks of dependence: a "slave nation" ?.- PART 3 - Regional organization and spatial planning.- Chapter 13 The spatial structure of the Philippines: urbanization and regional inequalities.- Administrative divisions of the Philippines.- From rural to urban: patterns of urbanization in the Philippines.- From the colonial to the modern city: housing forms and urban landscapes.- Regional disparities and hierarchies.- Chapter 14 Transportation in the Philippines.- Navigating the Philippines.- Air transport in the Philippines.- Rail transport.- Bus transport in the Philippines.- Local transportation in the Philippines.- Towards a better transport system?.- Chapter 15 The growth of Greater Manila.- The Spanish colonial city: Intramuros.- American Manila: the Burnham plans.- The new capital: Quezon City.- From Manila to the megacity of Metro Manila.- Transportation networks in Manila.- A multicentered metropolis.- Vignettes of the Manila metropolitan area.- Chapter 16 Managing Metro Manila.- The challenge of floods.- The challenge of housing: squatters and urban development.- The challenge of daily mobility.- Manila as a sustainable and smart green city: an impossible dream?.- Towards a better metropolitan governance?.- Chapter 17 Regional development policies in the Philippines.- The evolution of regional planning in the Philippines.- Clark and Subic: from the US military to national development centers.- Cebu, the Philippines' second city.- New directions in planning?.- PART 4 - Challenges for the Philippines.- Chapter 18 Towards a Bangsamoro in Mindanao ?.- Early Islam in Mindanao.- The Moros in colonial time