RIZAL AND HIS TIME

PROLOGUE
The world of Rizals Times

Objectives
1. Discuss the historical background of
the world and of the Philippines during
Rizals time.
2. Identify the different evils done by the
Spanish authorities in the Philippines.
3. Appreciate the events that led to the
positive change in the lives of the
Filipinos.

Before the birth of Rizal.

Feb. 19, 1861 the liberal Czar

Alexander II issued a proclamation
emancipating 22,500,000 serfs to
appease the rising discontent of the
Russian masses.
June 19, 1861 the birth of Rizal, the
American Civil war was raging
furiously in the United States on the
negro Slavery.

April 12, 1861 the negro slavery in

the United States erupted.
September 22, 1863, President
Lincoln issued his famous
Emancipation Proclamation.
June 1, 1861, Benito Juarez, a full
blooded Zapotec Indian was
elected president of Mexico.

Emperor Napoleon III of the

Second French Empire with his
imperialistic desire to secure a
colonial stake in Latin America
invaded and conquered Mexico.
He installed Archduke Maximilian
of Austria as puppet emperor of
Mexico on June 12, 1864.

Because of the raging American

Civil War President Juarez cannot
obtain military aid from his friend
president Lincoln.

Battle of Queretaro President

Juarez with the help of the US
troops defeated the Maximilian
forces and executed Emperor
Maximilian. Thus fizzled out
Napoleons ambition to colonize
Latin America.

The Birth of Rizal

Italians and Germans succeeded in
unifying their own countries
The Italians under the leadership of
Count Cavour and of Garibaldi and his
army of Red Shirts drove out the
Austrians and French armies from Italy
and proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy
under King Victor Emmanuel with Rome
as Capital.

The Prussians led by Otto von

Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor
defeated France in the FrancoPrussian war and established the
German Empire on Jan. 18, 1871,
with King Wilhelm of Prussia as the
First Kaiser of the German Empire.

With the defeat of Emperor Napoleon

his Second French Empire Collapsed
and over its ruin the Third French
Republic arose, with Adolph Thiers
as first President.

The times of Rizal saw the flowering

of Western Imperialism.

England emerged as the worlds

leading imperialist power.

During glorious reign of Queen

Victoria the British people asserted:
Britannia Rules the Waves.
Britain won in the First Opium war
(1840-1842) against the tottering
Chinese Empire under the Manchu
dynasty, and acquired the island of
HongKong (Fragrant Harbor)

In the Second Opium War (18561860) Britain won again and

forced the Manchu Dynasty to
cede Kowloon Peninsula.

After suppressing the Indian

Rebellion and dismantling the Mogul
Empire, she imposed her raj (rule)
over the sub-continent of India.
(India, Pakistan and Bangladesh)
By winning the Three AngloBurmese war, she conquered Burma.

Other lands in Asia that became

British colonies:
Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Maldives,
Aden, Malaya, Singapore and
Egypt.
In South Pacific they were able to
get Australia and New Zealand.

Other Imperialist countries that

followed Britains example:

France Vietnam, annexed

Cambodia and Laos. Then merged
all these countries into a federated
colony under the name French
Indochina.

Dutch colonized the vast and

rich archipelago of the East Indies
and named it the Netherlands East
Indies (now Indonesia).

Czarist Russia conquered

Siberia, Kamchatka, Kuriles, and
Alaska ( which she sold in 1867
to the U.S. for $7,200,000.
She also conquered the Muslim
Khanates of Bokhara, Khiva, and
Kokand in Central Asia.

They also acquired Manchuria

and as a sphere of influence
they were able to build the 5,800mile Trans-Siberian Railway,
reputed to be the worlds longest
railroad linking Vladivostok and
Moscow.

July 8, 1853, an American squadron

under the command of Commodore
Mathew C. Perry re-opened Japan to the
world. (214-year isolation)
Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito) modernized
Japan by freely accepting Western
Influences, including Imperialism.
Fought against the weak China in the
Sino-Japanese war, grabbed Formosa
(Taiwan), Pescadores and later annexed
Korea.

Germany was late in scramble for

colonies in Asia and Africa, turned
to the Islands in the Mid-Pacific
world.
Ilties a German warship entered
the harbor of Yap (an island in the
Carolines) seized the island and
hoisted the German flag.

Strangely, the Spanish Governor of the

Carolines (Don Enrique Capriles) was
present in the island but showed no
resistance.
The German seizure of Yap island
enraged Spain who claimed sovereignty
over the Carolines and Palaus by right of
discovery by Francisco Lezcano who
named it Carolina in Honor of King
Charles II.

To abort the brewing conflict

between the two country, both
submitted the Carolina Question
to Pope leo XIII for arbitration .

The Holy father recognized

Spains sovereignty over the
island but gave two concessions to
Germany:
the right to trade in the disputed
islands
the right to establish a coaling
station in Yap for German navy.

Rizal was in Barcelona when

these things are happening and he
even wrote an article on the
Carolina Question at La
Publicidad, a newspaper owned
by Don Miguel Morayta.

While imperialist powers were

enjoying the fruits of their
colonial rule Spain who was once
upon a time the Mistress of the
World, was stagnating as a world
power.

She lost her rich colonies in Latin

America (Paraguay, Argentina,
Chile, Colombia and Ecuador.

The Central American countries

(Costa Rica, Honduras,
Guatemala, El Salvador, and
Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru,
Bolivia and Uruguay)
Colonies that remained under her
rule was Cuba, Puerto Rico and
the Philippines.

The Philippines of Rizals Times

During the times of Rizal, the

sinister shadows of Spains
decadence darkened the
Philippine Skies.

Evils during the Spanish rule in the

Philippines

Instability of Colonial
administration
Corrupt Officialdom
No Philippine representation in
the Spanish Cortes
Human rights denied to Filipinos

No equality before the law

Maladministration of justice
Racial Administration
Frailocracy
Forced labor
Haciendas owned by the friars
Guardia civil