Happy Birthday to Senegal!

View of Angkor Wat, one of the largest religious monuments in the world. *Photo from Wikipedia November 9 is Independence Day, which celebrates the independence of Cambodia from France in 1953. In 802 AD, Jayavarman II declared himself king, uniting the warring Khmer princes of Chenla under the name “Kambuja”. This marked the beginning of the Khmer Empire which flourished for over 600 years, allowing successive kings to control and exert influence over much of Southeast Asia and accumulate immense power and wealth. The Indianized kingdom built monumental temples including Angkor Wat, now a World Heritage Site, and facilitated the

Princess Sikhanyiso Dlamini, the eldest daughter of King Mswati III of Swaziland, at a festival. *Photo from Wikipedia September 6 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Swaziland from the United Kingdom in 1968. The autonomy of the Swaziland nation was influenced by British and Dutch rule of southern Africa in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Finally, in 1894, a convention placed Swaziland under the South African Republic as a protectorate. In 1903, after British victory in the Anglo-Boer war, Swaziland became a British protectorate. The constitution for independent Swaziland was promulgated by Britain in November 1963 under the

Binondo, the oldest Chinatown in the world, in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. *Photo from Wikipedia June 12 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Philippines from Spain in 1898. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon Island in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the first Hispanic settlement in the archipelago was established. The Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for