Philippine in the 19th Century

The 19th century, which spans the years 18 hundred and 01 to 19 hundred, stands out
as a time marked by enormous changes and pivotal moments that profoundly shaped
our understanding of history and our sense of self. One of the most admired people in
Philippine history is José Rizal. He was a multidimensional intellectual and political
activist during the 19th century, most remembered for his political writings that sparked
the Philippine revolution and finally resulted in his execution by the Spanish occupiers.
This time period saw a wide range of significant changes, particularly in the political,
economic, and social arenas. It was a period when nationalism's stirrings were apparent,
as evidenced by the birth of a propaganda movement, the escalation of a national
anti-colonial conflict, the igniting of a revolutionary fever, and the victorious declaration
of our independence.

Economic Aspect

a.) End of Galleon Trade

· In 1565, the Spanish government closed Manila's ports to all nations except
Mexico, leading to the establishment of the famous "Ship Trade" between Manila and
Acapulco.

· Products sent from the Philippines to Mexico during this trans-Pacific trade
included Mango de Manila, Tamarind, Rice, Carabao, Chinese tea, Cockfighting,
Fireworks, and Tuba (coconut wine).

· On the other hand, various important plants and animals were introduced to the
Philippines upon the return of the Galleon Trade, including Guava, Avocado, Papaya,
Pineapple, Horses, and Cattle.

· The Galleon Trade, which took place from 1565 to 1815, involved a 250-year
exchange route between Manila (initially arriving in Cebu) and Acapulco, Mexico.
•Andres de Urdaneta, under the leadership of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, initiated this
trade by discovering a return route from Cebu to Mexico in 1565.

· The Galleon Trade served as the primary income-generating activity for Spanish
colonists in the Philippines.

· The Manila Galleon Trade facilitated the introduction of modern ideas into the
Philippines, eventually contributing to the movement for independence from Spain.
· The Galleon Trade came to an end on September 14, 1815, due to Mexico's
struggle for independence.

The Galleon Trade came to an end on September 14, 1815, primarily due to Mexico's
war of independence from Spanish colonial rule. This significant historical event
disrupted the trade route and marked the conclusion of the Galleon Trade that had been
in operation for several centuries between Manila and Acapulco.

B. Opening of the Suez Canal

· The Suez Canal, an artificial waterway in Egypt connecting the Mediterranean

Sea to the Red Sea, opened on November 17, 1869, after a ten-year construction led
by French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps.

· The canal significantly reduced travel time between Europe and the Philippines,
drawing the nation closer to Spain with a journey of only 32-40 days.

· This facilitated trade between Europe and East Asia and played a pivotal role in
inspiring nationalist aspirations among Filipino leaders like Jose Rizal.

· Additionally, it allowed the importation of not just goods but also progressive
literature from America and Europe, influencing Rizal and other reformists.

· Moreover, the Suez Canal's accessibility encouraged Filipino illustrados,

especially Rizal, to pursue education abroad and gain knowledge from European
academic institutions.

The Suez Canal, an artificial passage in Egypt, was formally launched on November 17,
1869, following a decade-long construction effort overseen by French diplomat
Ferdinand de Lesseps. This canal links the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea by
traversing the Isthmus of Suez and has played a vital role in facilitating global trade and
navigation, serving as a shorter route for ships traveling between Europe and Asia.

C. Rise of the Export of Crop Economy

· During the Galleon Trade, most Spanish residents in the Philippines were involved
in sea trade between Manila and Mexico.

· In the 19th century, the Philippines saw the exploitation of natural resources and
the growth of an export-focused economy.
· Between 1820 and 1870, the Philippines made strides in developing an
export-driven economy.

· This economic shift offered opportunities for the expanding Chinese community.

· North European and North American traders played a pivotal role in promoting
the export industry by providing capital, organization, and access to foreign markets and
imports.

The rise of an export crop economy can have both positive and negative effects,
including economic growth, increased income for farmers, and job creation.
However, it can also pose challenges related to sustainability, environmental impact,
and dependence on international markets.

D. Monopolies

· From 1850 onwards, foreigners were allowed to bid for government contracts to
collect various revenues for the first time.

· Throughout the 19th century, the Chinese took advantage of this opportunity,
dominating revenue collection contracts in the Philippines.

· In the 1840s, the Spanish government legalized opium use, but only for Chinese
residents, and established a monopoly on its importation and sales.

· Before 1850, the colonial government had already set up monopolies for certain
products, including liquor (1712-1864), betel nut (1764), tobacco (1782-1882), and
explosives (1805-1864).

· Among these, the tobacco monopoly was the most contentious and burdensome
to locals.

· On March 1, 1782, Governor-General Jose Basco instituted the tobacco

monopoly, which lasted exactly 100 years until its abolition in 1882.

· A century of hardship and perceived betrayal, particularly due to the oppressive

tobacco monopoly, fueled the desire for freedom from colonial oppression among
Filipinos, especially Novo Ecijanos.

Monopolies can have significant economic and social implications. They often lead to
higher prices, reduced consumer choice, and potential abuses of market power. As a
result, many governments have antitrust or competition laws in place to regulate and
prevent monopolistic practices, aiming to ensure fair competition and protect consumer
interests.

Social Aspect

In the 19th century, Filipinos endured a system characterized by feudalism and a

master-slave relationship imposed by the Spanish colonialists. Society was structured
into three distinct classes:

Upper Class: This group comprised Spaniards, peninsulares (Spaniards born in Spain),
and friars who held positions of authority and power over Filipinos, enjoying significant
privileges. It included Spanish officials, Peninsulares who occupied key government
roles, and friars who were members of specific religious orders.

Middle Class: The middle class encompassed natives (pure Filipinos), mestizos
(individuals of mixed indigenous Filipino, European, or Chinese heritage), and
criollos/insulares (individuals of European descent born in the Spanish colonies).
Criollos/Insulares were the offspring of Spanish couples born in the colonies.

Lower Class: This category comprised solely Filipinos. The 'Indios' were pure-blooded
Filipinos who lived in poverty and were subject to Spanish rule.

Highest Class/Upper Class

Peninsulares- pure blood, white Spaniards who were born in Spain but had moved to
live in the Spanish colonies. (A country or area under the full or partial political control of
another country, typically a distant one, and occupied by settlers from that country.)

Gobernadorcillo – functioned as an equivalent to today’s municipal mayor.

Cabeza – leader of an organization or association in town, the one who is responsible
for collecting taxes and contributions on behalf of the gobernadorcillo
At times, the gobernadorcillo and the Cabeza de barangay utilized force to collect funds
from the locals.
gobernadorcillo (who had functions similar to a town mayor), and the cabezas de
barangay (heads of the barangays) who governed the districts.

Friars - In the Philippines, a friar was often the only functioning Spaniard in a town,
responsible for religious duties, administration, and acting as a mediator. He was feared
due to his spiritual role, command of the local language, and extended stay.
 A. European arrangement of Education
– the framework Spanish colonizers acquainted with the archipelago, the schools were
set up and run by Catholic ministers.

• Religion – was made as a compulsory subject at all levels to change over the locals to
the Catholic confidence and make them dutiful. Simply means that education is set up
to comprising the teaching of the religion introduced by the Spanish Colonizers.

• King Philip II's Leyes de Indias (Laws of Indies) – this ordered Spanish specialists
to instruct local people, to show them how to peruse and compose and to learn
Spanish.

• First formal schools were the parochial schools opened in their areas by the teachers,
for example, the Augustinians, Franciscans, Jesuits, and Dominicans. (in simple words
their teachers are the friars) These missionaries emphasized the teachings of the
Catholic religion starting from the primary level to the tertiary level of education.

• Colleges (likeness secondary school today) were built up for young men and young
ladies. History, Latin, Geography Mathematics, and Philosophy were among the
subjects educated to undergrads.

• University training was opened during the early piece of the seventeenth century.But
these universities were only opened for Spanish citizens and Spanish Mestizos only.

• In the 19th century, the universities became opened for the Filipino natives and the
curriculum became centered on religion.

> To accomodate more students from different social stratification like Spanish Citizens,
Mestizos, and Filipino natives, a Royal decree instituted the establishment of a
public-school system in the Philippines. (Since it will be more accessible to all)

• 1863 – a regal pronouncement set up a state-funded educational system in the

Philippines. Earlier run by strict specialists, at this time, the colleges were at long last
directed by the legislature during the last 50% of the century; however, and still, at the
end of the day, the congregation controlled its educational program.
> Growing numbers of educated Filipino natives gave rise to a new social class, they
are called the illustrados. Their point was to be at a similar level with the pleased
Spaniards. Despite being educated, they still suffered from racial discrimination coming
from the Spanish citizens.

• With the opening of the Suez Canal, which made a move to Europe quicker, simpler,
and progressively moderate, numerous local people exploited the opportunity to seek
after better training in Spain, ordinarily in Madrid and Barcelona. This made the
Illustrados attracted to seeking higher education in Europe.

Although the Chinese who lived on islands before the Spanish colonization had married
native women, it was not until the Spanish colonial administration that the Chinese
mestizo emerged as a legally separate class.

B. The Rise of Chinese Mestizo also known as Mestizo de Sangley

• Elimination of the ship exchange – Manila got open to remote vendors nearly without
limitation by the mid-1830s.

• Development of business agribusiness – this brought about the nearness of the new
social class.

• Haciendas of sugar, espresso, and hemp – had developed close by the landholding of
the congregation and the rice bequests of the pre-Spanish honorability, which were
normally possessed by Chinese-Filipino mestizos.

C. The Rise of the Inquilinos

• Inquilino - means "tenant."

In better understanding

• The 19th-century Inquilino tenant system in the Philippines is a qualified system of

tenancy, granting land use in exchange for rent.
• Many estates turned progressively to the inquilino system of land tenure, but since the
friars and secular Spanish were normally absentee landlords, estate management was
granted to an administrator who was typically a lay Spanish mestizo Filipino lay brother.

• During harvest time, the administrator would collect the rent of the inquilinos,
organize the delivery of the harvests to the local market or Manila, and remit the
income from sales and rents to the estate owners. In some states, though. These farm
duties were consigned to trusted inquilinos. Some inquilinos would make many and
irrational demands from farmworkers.

• Inquilinos paid a fixed rent in which the amount was determined by the size and
quality of the land being cultivated. Due to the expansion of land owned by friar states,
the proportions of farmlands leased to inquilinos also increased, allowing many of
them to sub-lease parcels of their land to sharecroppers or kasamas. This system
eventually became very profitable that some inquilinos acquired lands of their own and
entered in other profitable commercial ventures.

• There were also conflicts between estate owners and workers. The issue was
triggered by excessive taxes, land rent collection, declining sharing agreements, high
labor demands, and capricious crop price fixing.

Inquilinos, who sub-leased their farms, gained relative freedom, enabling them to lead
peasant protest movements against alleged land abuses by Jesuits, Dominicans,
Augustinians, and Recollects.

• There were instances of peasants taking arms to protest the alleged abuses
and usurpation of their lands by the Jesuits, Dominicans, Augustinians, and the
Recollects.

The relative freedom, which the inquilinos acquired by sub-leasing their farms, provided
them a tactical advantage for arranging and leading these peasant protest movements.

Political Aspect

Liberalism
They are based on the ideas of liberty and equality, which encompass a variety of
political ideologies that prioritize individual liberty as the most important political
objective while also emphasizing individual rights and equality of opportunity.

Liberals understand that the government itself can be a threat to liberty, but they
nevertheless feel that government is important to protect people from being mistreated
by others. A political revolution was sparked by the French Revolution (1789–1799),
which spread to other parts of the world as well as Europe.

Later, a period of instability in politics occurred in Spain.

The Catholic Church was viewed as an opponent of change by Spain's liberals.

Liberalism from America began to infiltrate the Philippines and influence the ilustrados
in the 19th century when it was made accessible to international trade by ships and
people from distant ports.

The Suez Canal's opening made it easier to import Western literature, periodicals, and
newspapers with liberal viewpoints, which eventually influenced the minds of local
reformers like Jose Rizal.

Carlos Maria De la Torre, the first liberal governor-general of the Philippines, became an
example for the nation's experience with liberalism.

A temporary administration was established when the liberals in Spain overthrew Queen
Isabel II in the 1868 rebellion, and it carried out the same changes in the motherland in
the Spanish colonies.
Carlos Maria De la Torre was chosen by the temporary government to serve as
Governor-General of the Philippines from 1869 to 1871.

BOURBON

King Philip V, King Ferdinand VI, King Charles III, and King Charles IV of the Spanish
Bourbons supported a century-long campaign to reform and modify the Spanish empire.

Between 1565 and 1898, Spain had the advantage of the Bourbon reform efforts. They
had some influence on how the colony was managed by Spanish officials, but not much.
The policies lacked some ideological consistency due to Madrid leaders' many and
usually at odds goals as they labored haltingly to reconcile the crown's various
commercial, administrative, budgetary, and military objectives.

Reforms had a considerably less significant influence than colonial policy improvements
in places like Mexico, the Philippines, Chile, and New Granada, which had far-reaching
implications.

Its influence, at the very least, was that it gave people—particularly the Filipino
natives—the notion that colonialism could go place without the Catholic Church
interfering too much.

CADIZ

Basically It was the first constitution in Spain that established national sovereignty and
the division of powers

In Cadiz (March 1812), a liberal constitution was proclaimed under Napoleon's rule over
Spain.

It was inclusive of everyone from overseas, including the Italian regions and even the
Philippines, giving it a universal flavor.

In the Mediterranean port of Cadiz, some 300 representatives from Spain, Spanish
America, and the Philippines proclaimed a liberal constitution. It appeared plausible,
especially since the British Navy had protected the city.

The Cadiz Constitution, which was quickly put into effect in Manila, established the
principles of an inclusive masculine testimonial, national power created governance,
press freedom, and support for land transformation and free enterprise.

Don Ventura de Los Reyes made his decision when Governor-General Manuel
Gonzales Aguilar demanded the appointment of Manila officials. The nominee was a
wealthy businessman who was a member of Manila's Royal Corps of Artillery.

It was declared invalid by King Fernando VII in May 1814, which restored absolutism. In
any case, the period around Cadiz was a particularly pivotal one in the political history
of the Spanish-speaking world.
Excluding the native population from paying tribute and making open administrations
reliant on the Constitution's equality guarantee was a crucial declaration of faith in the
Philippines.

It was very compelling for the opportunity-loving people of the Philippines in the
nineteenth century because it was a liberal constitution that gave the people power,
recognized the resident's right to individual freedom and equity, and permitted the
privilege of testimonial.