Manila ( m-NIL-, Spanish: [manila]; Filipino: Maynila, pronounced [majnila]), officially known as the City of Manila (Filipino: Lungsod ng Maynila, locally [lusod n majnila]), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and as of 2019 was the world's most densely populated city proper. It was the first chartered city in the country, designated as such by the Philippine Commission Act 183 of July 31, 1901. It became autonomous with the passage of Republic Act No. 409, "The Revised Charter of the City of Manila," on June 18, 1949. Along with Mexico City and Madrid, Manila is considered to be part of the world's original set of global cities because its commercial networks were the first to extend across the Pacific Ocean and connect Asia with the Spanish Americas through the galleon trade; when this was accomplished, it marked the first time in world history that an uninterrupted chain of trade routes circling the planet had been established. Manila is the second most natural-disaster-afflicted capital city in the world after Tokyo; despite this, it is among the most populous and fastest growing cities in Southeast Asia.The Spanish city of Manila was founded on June 24, 1571, by Spanish conquistador Miguel Lpez de Legazpi. This is regarded as the city's official founding date; however, a Tagalog-fortified polity called Maynil had already existed on the site, dating back as far as 1258. It is the name of this old polity from which the Spanish and English name Manila derives. After the defeat of the polity's last indigenous Rajah, Sulayman III, in the Battle of Bangkusay, a fortified Spanish city called Intramuros was built directly on top of the site of old Maynil. Manila was the seat of power for most of the country's colonial rulers and was one of the royal Spanish cities in the Philippines in the Spanish East Indies, along with Cebu, Naga, and Iloilo. Today, it is home to many historic sites, some of which were built during the 16th century.

The term "Manila" is commonly used to refer to the whole metropolitan area, the greater metropolitan area or the city proper. The officially defined metropolitan area, called Metro Manila, the "capital region" of the Philippines, includes the much larger Quezon City and the Makati Central Business District. It is the most populous region in the country, one of the most populous urban areas in the world, and is one of the wealthiest regions in Southeast Asia. The city proper was home to 1,846,513 people in 2020, and is the historic core of a built-up area that extends well beyond its administrative limits. With 71,263 people per square kilometer, Manila is the most densely populated city proper in the world.Manila is located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay, on the island of Luzon. The Pasig River flows through the middle of the city, dividing it into the north and south sections. The city comprises 16 administrative districts and is divided into six political districts for the purposes of its representation in the Congress of the Philippines and the election of city council members. In 2018, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network listed Manila as an "Alpha-" global city and ranked it seventh in economic performance globally and second regionally (behind Delhi, India in the latter case), while the Global Financial Centres Index ranks Manila 79th in the world.

The Philippines ( (listen); Filipino: Pilipinas), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean, and consists of about 7,640 islands, that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines is bounded by the West Philippine Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the southwest, and 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. The Philippines covers an area of 300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi) and, as of 2020, had a population of around 109 million people, making it the world's thirteenth-most populous country. The Philippines is a multinational state, with diverse ethnicities and cultures throughout its islands. Manila is the nation's capital, while the largest city is Quezon City, both lying within the urban area of Metro Manila.

Negritos, some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Adoption of animism, Hinduism and Islam established island-kingdoms called Kedatuans, Rajahnates and Sultanates. 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 part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. During this time, Catholicism became the dominant religion, and Manila became the western hub of trans-Pacific trade. In 1896, the Philippine Revolution began, which then became entwined with the 1898 Spanish–American War. Spain ceded the territory to the United States, while Filipino revolutionaries declared the First Philippine Republic. The ensuing Philippine–American War ended with the United States establishing control over the territory, which they maintained until the Japanese invasion of the islands during World War II. Following liberation, the Philippines became independent in 1946. Since then, the unitary sovereign state has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by the People Power Revolution.

It is considered to be an emerging market and a newly industrialized country, which has an economy transitioning from being based on agriculture to being based more on services and manufacturing. The Philippines is a founding member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and the East Asia Summit. The Philippines' position as an island country on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes the country prone to earthquakes and typhoons. The country has a variety of natural resources and a globally significant level of biodiversity.