Jose Rizal has a reputation for being a sincere search of the truth, and it is this trait that

distinguished him as a great historian throughout history. He had a burning desire to understand the
Philippines' actual situation when the Spaniards arrived to conquer the islands. The majority of the
sources that were available were either written by religious order friars or zealous missionaries who were
determined to eradicate native beliefs and cultural practices, which they regarded as idolatrous and
barbaric.
Despite the colonizers' claim that they were solely responsible for refining the Philippine islands,
Rizal's beliefs say otherwise. For him, the native populations of the Filipinos were self-sustaining and
customarily spirited - it was because of the Spanish colonization that the Philippine's rich culture and
tradition faded to a certain extent. Rizal went in search of a trustworthy narrative of the Philippines in the
early years and at the start of Spanish colonization in order to corroborate this notion. According to some
sources, Rizal discovered research papers regarding Asian ethnic communities written by prominent
European scientists while he was in Europe. One of these academics was Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt, the
author of "Versucheiner Ethnographie der Philippinen." Rizal wrote to him, which is how their friendship
got started. Dr. Antonio Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, which, according to many historians, gave
an honest portrayal of the Philippine situation during the Spanish time, was suggested by Dr. Blumentritt,
a competent Filipinologist.
However, according to other versions, Rizal learned about Antonio Morga via his uncle, Jose
Alberto. Sir John Browning, the English governor of Hong Kong, who had once visited Rizal's uncle, had
given him the information about an ancient Philippine history written by a Spaniard. When in London,
Rizal became familiar with the British Museum right away, where he discovered one of the few surviving
copies of Morga's Sucesos. At his own expense, Rizal had the book republished with the inscription that
Morga's position in the colonial government gave him access to many crucial documents, enabling him to
write about the political, social, and economic stages of life of the natives and their conquerors from the
years 1493 to 1603.
Morga's work impressed Rizal that he himself chose to annotate it and release a new edition. On
each chapter of the Sucesos that might have a distorted portrayal of Filipino cultural traditions, he
painstakingly appended footnotes. proved that the Philippines had a highly developed civilization before
the arrival of the Spanish. Some of the more significant notes were translated into English by Rizal's first
biographer, Austin Craig.