Vizcocho, Gerard Dominic A.

ZGE 1109 - ITBE

1. Discuss briefly, the various social, political, economic, and cultural changes that occurred
in the world in the 19th century.
Let’s first put our focus to Europe where several powerful empires at that time existed.
For example, the United Kingdom had an empire that was one of the largest empires in history
and during this period, people in the United Kingdom had accelerated growth of culture and
art that we now call as the Victorian era, named after the monarch who reigned at that time.
It was also during the 19th century that the American civil war started and ended with the
victory of the Union and the abolition of slavery in the United States of America. This was also
the century in which the Spanish Empire relinquished all claims of sovereignity over Cuba,
Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.
Let’s then shift our focus to Asia where the First Sino-Japanese war erupted and mostly
took place in modern day Korea. It directly involved Japan and the Chinese Qing Dynasty but
also indirectly affected Korea, which was called Joseon at that time. Japan had been rapidly
industrializing under Emperor Meiji after the USA forced the country open to trade. It must be
noted that Japan, the Qing Dynasty, and Joseon were isolationalists at the beginning of the
century but by the end of it, Japan was already prepared to fight powerful nations such as
the Russian Empire over their sphere of influences. The Meiji restoration is an important facet of
world history that would ultimately influence both the first and second world wars.
Overall, the century was marred with the idea of Europe’s Imperialism and by the rapid
growth of the economies as the Industrial Revolution began and spread throughout the world.
2. Discuss briefly, the major political and economic changes that occurred in the Philippines
in the mid-to-late 1800's.
By the 1850s the Philippines was a major source of income for the Spanish Empire, as the
demand of Philippine sugar and abaca keeps growing by the year and in 1869, the year that
the Suez Canal was opened, the demand grew even further. This in turn influenced the rise of
a new social class because select Filipinos had ample land needed for the growing of coffee,
abaca, and sugarcanes. These Filipinos are the Chinese-Filipino Mestizos, note that some
families that gained prominence during this era continues to have an important role in politics
and economy of the Philippines to this day.
Also, by the tail end of the 1800s, the Filipinos were starting to rise up and challenge
Spanish influence over the country, this ultimately led to the Philippine Revolution wherein the
Filipinos won with the help of the United States of America. The war would not end, however,
as in 1899, the Philippine-American War commenced.
3. Enumerate and be able to discuss the contributory factors that led to the emergence of
Chinese mestizos as an important element of Philippine society.
Though only gaining significant population in the 19th century, precolonial Philippines
had a significant number of Chinese migrants from the Ming Dynasty. Their dominance in
influence gained them notoriety and they were clashing with the church. As I have mentioned
above, the opening of the Philippines to trade due to the decline of the Manila-Acapulco
trade played an important part in making Chinese Mestizos influence greater. In 1840, the
Spanish Colonial authorities encouraged the return of Chinese to the Philippines and by the
1880s, the population of Chinese immigrants were already at 100,000. Their money also led
them to afford and pursue higher education abroad which, in turn, made them wary of the
abuses and the mistreatment of the Spaniards.
To conclude, their signifance to the Philippine society was skyrocketed by the rise of the
trade of Philippine sugar, abaca, and coffee. This made them powerful and rich enough to
afford studies outside of the Philippines which made them open to the world and when they
came back, they would disseminate their knowledge to their less-fortunate countrymen and
this would prove important in the Philippine Revolution.
Some prominent Chinese-Filipino mestizos were Emilio Aguinaldo, Andrés Bonifacio,
Marcelo del Pilar, Antonio Luna, José Rizal, and Manuel Tinio.