Rizal & 19th Century Philippines Context

Rizal in the Context of Nineteenth-Century Philippines

• Filipino nationalism's origins can't be understood by looking only at Rizal and his ideas.
• Examining Rizal's nationalist thinking requires understanding the context of his era.
• Rizal's importance and ideas can't be grasped without knowing the 19th-century environment.
• Rizal's words are often used without considering when they were spoken or the issues they addressed. This leads to misinterpretations.
• Portraying the American colonial system as fulfilling Rizal's goals is a distortion.
• It's a misrepresentation to depict Rizal as a weak reformer who couldn't accept Bonifacio's revolution.
• It would be wrong to invoke Rizal as a patron of Marcos' New Society ideals.
• The late 19th-century nationalist movement grew from the economic expansion in the Philippines after 1830.
• The export economy increased the wealth of the Filipino middle and upper classes, and Western merchants.
• The industrialized West provided machinery and consumer goods that Spain couldn't or wouldn't supply.

Economic Development

• Philippine foreign trade figures demonstrate the economic changes:
  • In 1825, exports were 1,000,000 pesos, imports were 1,800,000 pesos, totaling 2,800,000 pesos.
  • In 1875, exports were 18,900,000 pesos, imports were 12,200,000 pesos, totaling 31,100,000 pesos.
  • In 1895, exports were 36,600,000 pesos, imports were 25,400,000 pesos, totaling 62,000,000 pesos.
• Philippine exports were primarily agricultural products.
• Increased rice demand benefited those controlling rice, sugar, and abaca lands.
• Beneficiaries included Filipino landowners (hacenderos), friar orders with large estates were beneficiaries, and "inquilinos" (tenants) of the friar estates.
• Many "inquilinos" became like landowners, passing rented lands through generations and employing their tenants ("kasama").
• The relationship between "inquilinos" and "kasama" was like a semifeudal system.
• Rizal's ancestor, Domingo Lam-co demonstrates export economy success.
• In the mid-18th century, a Biñan hacienda tenant held 2.9 hectares.
• In the 1890s, Rizal's family rented over 390 hectares in the Calamba hacienda.
• Rising land value caused friction between "inquilinos" and haciendas, leading to disputes over profit sharing.
• The revolution wasn't an "agrarian revolt" because prosperous "inquilinos," not "kasama," challenged friar ownership.
• The motive to challenge friar ownership was weakening friars' political influence.

Political Developments

• Economic development under non-Spanish initiatives had political consequences.
• Modernizing Filipinos saw Spanish colonial policies hindering progress.
• Unstable Spanish governments couldn't create consistent colonial policies leading to the Philippines being used to reward political supporters with jobs.
• Filipinos were excluded from bureaucracy positions, and Spanish bureaucrats lacked interest in the country.
• Spanish bureaucracy was corrupt but earlier bureaucrats were somewhat concerned about the Philippines.
• With the Suez Canal's opening in 1869, Spanish officials came to the Philippines to exploit its resources, not to help it thrive.
• Government corruption made it unable to provide basic services like public works and schools.
• The Guardia Civil was created to fight bandits but instead harassed farmers.
• The tax system penalized modernization, and taxes weren't used for public works.
• High tariffs forced Filipinos to buy expensive Spanish goods.
• Liberal and upper-class Filipinos found little reason to maintain Spanish rule due to exploitation and being incapable of producing benefits for the colony.
• Rizal had decided to separate from Spain, according to Spanish prosecutors in 1896.

Cultural Development

• A key factor in the emergence of nationalism in the late nineteenth century was cultural development as a result of the rapid spread of education from about 1860.
• Educated Filipinos ("ilustrados") played a role in the rise of nationalism.
• Higher education among middle- and lower-middle-class Filipinos was important for spreading liberal ideas.
• With approximately 5% of Filipinos able to communicate in Spanish, a regional and national movement became possible.
• The return of the Jesuits influenced education.
• The Jesuits introduced new ideas and methods to the Philippine educational system after being expelled in 1768 and returning in 1859.
• The Jesuits renamed the municipal primary school to Ateneo Municipal open to both Filipino and Spanish students.
• By 1865, the Ateneo Municipal had turned into a secondary school that taught beyond what was required. -The Ateneo Municipal thought Latin, Spanish, Greek, French, and English with focus on the natural sciences.
• Under the Jesuits also oversaw the Escuela Normal de Maestros, opened in 1865.
• The Escuela Normal de Maestros intention was to provide Spanish-speaking teachers for the new primary school system.
• The Escuela Normal represented progress for Filipinos, but a threat to Spanish rule by those who opposed modern education.
• Jesuit sources highlight opposition from parish priests toward graduates of the Normal School.
• The book published in 1885 by Fr. Miguel Lucio y Bustamante denounced "[itong] manga maestrong bagong litao ngayon, na ang pangala,i, normal" and the danger of studying.
• Nationalism emerged more in secondary schools, with students not having been to Europe.
• Rizal wrote of his studies of literature, science, and philosophy opening his mind.
• Rizal said that studies at Ateneo greatly developed his patriotic sentiments.
• Rizal said The Jesuits may not have intended to teach love of country, but showed all that is beautiful and best.
• The Ateneo undermined Spanish colonial rule because it was imparting a humanistic education.
• The Philippine nationalists were less appreciative of the other schools run by the Dominicans.
• Nationalist leaders among the Filipino clergy, like Fr. Jose Burgos and Fr. Mariano Sevilla, came from the University of Santo Tomas.
• Marcelo del Pilar, Emilio Jacinto, and Apolinario Mabini obtained there education from San Jose or the university of Santo Tomas.
• Spanish official Juan de la Matta proposed closing these institutions in 1843.
• It is clear that the university was communicating something that stirred up the sparks of nationalism.
• Seeing the liberties enjoyed in Spain, the Filipinos became more aware of there servitude.
• Many came to the Philippines still in hope of reform and modernization came to realize that this would never be achieved under Spanish rule and that the Filipinos must look to themselves.
• Rizal was the main, though by no means the only, Filipino to see the importance of such historical investigation for the creation of a national consciousness among his countrymen.
• Rizal joined an historical consciousness formed by German historiography, applying modern historical method to the investigation of that heritage.
• Rizal seeks out all the evidence of a Filipino civilization before the coming of the Spaniards and tries to show how the intervening three centuries have meant decline rather than progress.
• Rizal proves too much and veers toward the opposite distortion from that of friars who had denied all civilization to the pre-His- panic Filipinos, he did lay a historical foundation in his Morga and other essays for a national consciousness and pride in the race which was to prove important for the future.

Religious Developments

• Education produced an "ilustrado" class that was antifriar, at times anticlerical or anti-Catholic.

• Hostility cannot be directly related to abuses of the friars because they were not more in the late 19th century than an earlier period.

• The attitude among "ilustrados" is due to the political and religious of the Spanish Patronato Real in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

• The Spanish colonial government leaned more heavily on the devotion of Filipinos to their Catholic faith.

• Gov. Valeriano Weyler in 1891 stated "Religion can and should be in Luzon and the Bisayas a means of government which is to be taken advantage of, and which justifies the necessity of the religious orders".

• Rafael Izquierdo expressed the key ideas of this policy: "religious orders have their defects.. but in the Philippines they have two qualities which from the political point of view are so great and so important that they oblige us to prescind from whatever may be alleged against them".

• Juan Alaminos felt, No one could deny their patriotism, which verges on fanaticism, and they make the Indio believe that only in loving the Spaniards can he save his soul in the next life.

• Rizal and his fellow nationalists were in agreement with Governors Weyler, Izquierdo, and Alaminos.

• Paciano Rizal wrote in reference to a rumor he had heard that Arch- bishop Nozaleda, then in Europe, had proposed friar support for reforms to the Filipino nationalists there, in the person of Del Pilar, in order to end the antifriar campaign of La Solidaridad. "The people do not desire to appropriate to themselves this Hacienda... but they likewise know that those lands did not have the extension which they now wish to"

• The most just and equitable thing is to say which lands do not belong to the Hacienda

• The cause that Rizal is spoken of as upholding was Filipinos to run there own affairs.

• The ordinary Filipino maintained the traditional religious practices of his forefathers

• Division was the sorrow the ordinary Filipino felt when there friar parish priest was taken away.

• Leaders like Rizal had seen the struggle primarily as a movement aimed at the creation of a national consciousness.

• Religious leaders had to use the bible for protection.

Higher Education and the Origins of Nationalism

• The Ateneo Municipal, which Rizal took delight in contrasting with the other schools of Manila, did not escape the jabs of his pen.
• The Ateneo represented progress only because the Philippines was still emerging from the darkness of the Middle Ages"
• Rizal would explicitate, describing his