19th CENTURY PHILIPPINES AS RIZAL’S CONTEXT

VOCABULARY

 Cash Crop – crops cultivated for export.

 Decree – an order issued by a legal authority; a policy pronouncement.
 Galleon Trade – from 1565-1815, this was the form of trade between the Philippines and
Mexico. The galleons (ships) would sail to Mexico loaded with goods and return to the
Philippines carrying the payment in silver.
 Insulares – pure-blooded Spanish born in the Philippines.
 Mestizo – a person with mixed ancestry-one parent is Chinese or Spanish and the other is a
native; an important sector of the population in nineteenth century Philippines.
 Merchant Houses – firms established in Manila and other cities by foreign traders.
 Pacto de Retroventa – an agreement that allowed a landowner to sell his/her land with the
guarantee that he/she could buy the land back at the same price.
 Parian – Chinese enclave established in 1581 outside the walls of Intramuros. The Chinese were
forced to live in the Parian.
 Peninsulares – pure-blooded Spanish born in Spain.
 Principalia – wealthy pure-blooded natives said to have descended from the kadatoan class.
 Sangley – a term that proliferated in the Spanish Philippines to refer to people of pure Chinese
descent; came from the Hokkien word “seng-il” meaning business.
 Social Stratification – a way by which people are categorized based on socio-economic as well
as political standards.

THE WORLD IN THE 19TH CENTURY

UNITED STATES

 There is rapid industrialization and America will be the next superpower after Spain.
 Industrialization – invention and use of machines and factories.
 Racial issue – negroes are subject to the slavery of the whites.
 When Lincoln became president, reforms took place and the negroes were granted freedom and
American citizenship

ENGLAND

 One of the most powerful nations that colonized America.

 Under the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), England was transformed into a conqueror and
the continent of Africa was their main target.
 Mother of all parliamentary governments.
 Reform bills: voting rights to the laborers (1867), free education to all British students (1870),
and unions were organized as part of the worker’s rights and privileges (1871).
ITALY

 The reign of King Victor Manuel II worked for the unification of Italy since the country was ruled
by several kingdoms.
 However, Vatican City remained separated and became a state with a sovereign territory in Italy
that was proclaimed under the Lateran Treaty of 1929.

GERMANY

 Known as Prussia.
 In 1870, the military Gen. Otto von Bismarck led the attacked on France.
 In 1871, William I was crowned the Emperor of Germany

FRANCE

 After the French Revolution in 1789, the empire continued to rise to power under Emperor
Napoleon III.
 It was later defeated by Germany.

INDIA

 This country was governed by a mogul empire where Sepoy soldiers staged a mutiny and
murdered some British commanders of the army.
 After the mutiny, British authorities hired loyal Indian soldiers to quell the Mogul Empire and re-
establish once again British colonialism in India.

CHINA

 Known to be the oldest trading partner of the Philippines.

 China was ruled by a dynasty (led by family rulers) in the 19th century.
 Manchu dynasty ruled China when the Taiping rebellion happened between 1852-1864.
 China was divided by foreign powers like Italy, France, Great Britain and Russia.
 The Opium war (1856-1860) became one of the economic and political turmoil of that time
where Hong Kong was surrendered to the British under several treatises and agreements.

Japan

 In 1851 (8 yrs before Rizal was born), the American Naval Force headed by Matthew Perry
wanted to establish ports for American ships.
 Japan signed several treatises with other European countries particularly France, Russia,
Holland, & Great Britain.
 This was the first time the Westerners entered Japan which has established its shogunate for a
long time.
Singapore

 Singapore was known for its ports at that time where merchant and passenger ships loaded and
unloaded from place to place.
 It was founded by British Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819 and its complete independence was
established after its separation from the Federation of Malaya in 1965.

19th CENTURY PHILIPPINES

 Known to be the “Age of Enlightenment” in Philippine history.

 The monarchy in Spain experienced a dynastic shift from the Habsburgs to the Bourbons in the
late 18th century.
 Bourbon policies and reforms were carried out to save dwindling economy of the empire.
 It is divided into three institutions: Political, Economic, and Social.

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS

 The governor-general performs dual functions: political and ecclesiastical.

 Political powers include being the chief executive head of the colony-managing the internal
affairs of the state as well as the executor of the laws of the land.
 He was also the chief of Real Audencia or the Spanish Supreme Court in the Philippines were
cases were elevated after the failure of cases in local courts.
 He was also the commanding officer of the armed forces particularly the navy and the army.
 To settle Church matters because there was Union of the Church and State.
 To check the powers of the Governor-General, there were officials being sent by the King – the
residencia and visitadores.
 Visitadores – check the performance of the Governor-General and they were temporary and
different from the residencia.
 Residencia – are permanent officials who will scrutinize the performance of the out-going
Governor-General. The incoming Governor-General would be probably coming from the
residencia.
 In the local set-up, local government was divided into provinces, cities, and barangays.
 The provinces were led by the alcalde-mayor who was the executive of the provinces.
 Cities were called, ayuntamiento that were headed by a petty governor known as the
“gobernadorcillo.”
 The little towns were called “pueblos.”
 The barangays were headed by a chief known as the cabeza de barangay and they served as tax
collectors.
 Jose de Basco y Vargas was the first governor-general to the Philippines under the Bourbon
mandate who arrived in 1778.
 It was during the time of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, appointed by King Philip II of Spain, that
portions of land (encomienda) were awarded.
ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS

 During the previous centuries, it was forbidden for the Philippines to trade with other countries
because of Spain’s monopolistic policy.
 By 1834, this policy was removed and Manila opened its port to world trade. Other ports like
Iloilo, Cebu, Sual, Pangasinan, and Zamboanga followed.
 There was demand for Philippine products such as sugar, coffee, abaca, tobacco, dyestuff, and
rice.
 This created economic opportunities as many families began trading these products for the
international market.
 ENCOMIENDA SYSTEM or the leasehold system became one of the main economic programs of
Spain in the Philippines.
 The 70-30 percentage crop sharing became the most abused practice to uneducated farmers
because it was usurious.
 BANDALA SYSTEM or monopoly system where the Spaniards monopolized the buying and
selling of raw materials and middlemen sold them at a higher cost.
 GALLEON TRADE – an economic activity during this time where “boletas” or tickets were used to
purchase goods from the ships though there were instances when ships never returned due to
typhoons or man-made accidents at sea.
 Spanish and Chinese families intermarried with natives who were farmer that became traders.
 In the process, they become affluent and formed the middle class.
 They have better houses and obtained higher education degrees which they thought made them
equal with the Spaniards.
 Eventually, they became concerned with issues of equality including secularization.
 The quest for equality was the cry of the times.

SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

SOCIAL STRATA

Peninsular Pure-blooded Spaniard born in the Iberian Peninsula.

Insular Pure-blooded Spaniard born in the Philippines.

Mestizo Born of mixed parentage, a mestizo can be:

Spanish Mestizo – one parent is Spanish, the other is native; or

Chinese Mestizo – one parent is Chinese, the other is a native.

Principalia Wealthy pure-blooded native supposedly descended from the kadatoan class.

Indio Pure –blooded native of the Philippines.

 Chino Infiel Non-Catholic pure blooded Chinese

 The peninsulares and insulares – rich and wealthy class.

 Followed by the mixed races.
 The rising middle class of the ilustrados (composed of the educated class) including Rizal’s
family.
 Almost 60% of the population is “indio” which belongs to the lower class and uneducated
Filipinos.
 Frailocracy – Filipinos are subjected under the Spanish friars (M. H. del Pilar)

RIZAL AS A PRODUCT OF HIS TIMES

1. Divine Intervention

Rizal’s vast knowledge and social consciousness are God’s gifts to him. As a reformer, he was
well-versed in letter and language. It is a fact that Jose Rizal possessed a lot of talents and he used his
literary and writing ability to fight the Spanish tyranny. He believed that “the pen is mightier than the
sword.”

2. Environmental Awareness

Rizal’s environment might be one of the very reasons why he fought the Spanish authorities as
he was surrounded by several names who became his advisers and mentors. He witnessed the execution
of GOMBURZA at a young age of 11 which awakened his awareness of the social injustices of the
Spanish authorities. He believed that “tyranny” has no room in a free society which he envisioned for
the country.

3. Educational Factors

Rizal became a young professional who gained his expertise in Ateneo (as surveyor), University
of Sto. Tomas (as a medical student), and in Universidad Central de Madrid (continuing his medical
studies). His expertise became in demand as a barrio doctor serving his less privileged compatriots. His
literary knowledge and observations in the Philippines and his travels abroad were his inspirations when
he wrote his two novels.

4. Family Orientation

The Mercado family along with other “middle class families” were Rizal’s first teachers.
Belonging to the ilustrado class, Rizal was sent abroad to continue his medical studies though there were
some objections from his mother. His family was his source of strength in his fight for social justice from
the evil society of that time. Paciano, his brother was his closest adviser and supporter during his stay in
Europe. Rizal’s family has influenced him a lot in inculcating and developing nationalism in him.