After Mexico gained independence in 1821, Spain began to govern Manila directly.

[60] Under direct
Spanish rule, banking, industry and education flourished more than they had in the previous two
centuries.[61] The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 facilitated direct trade and communications with
Spain. The city's growing wealth and education attracted indigenous peoples, Negritos, Malays,
Africans, Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Europeans, Latinos and Papuans from the surrounding
provinces[62] and facilitated the rise of an ilustrado class that espoused liberal ideas: the ideological
foundations of the Philippine Revolution, which sought independence from Spain. A revolt by Andres
Novales was inspired by the Latin American wars of independence. Following the Cavite Mutiny and
the Propaganda Movement, the Philippine revolution eventually erupted, Manila was among the first
eight provinces to rebel and thus their role was immortalized in the Philippine Flag where Manila was
marked as one of the eight rays of the symbolic sun.