Life, Works and Writings of Rizal
The Background of Rizal’s Times (Part 1)
Context: World Events during the time of Rizal
Age of Empires
• In the United States: Civil War (American Civil War)
between the white, anti-slavery and industrial North
versus the white, pro-slavery plantation owners in the
South; Negro (Black) slavery, where blacks were
treated as property. The North believes in using
machinery to produce goods in factory. While the
Southern states are more reliant on the black state.
: The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 issued
by US President Abraham Lincoln to free the
slaves. Eventually, the blacks in America were
not only were freed, but became citizens and
gained voting rights.
• Russia: Czar (Caesar)Alexander II emancipated tens of
millions of serfs (peasants). Russia was not yet
communist at the time.
•Mexico, just before Rizal’s birth in 1861, had a full-
blooded Zapotec Indian (native Mexican) President.
Mexico was already independent by the time Rizal was
born.
•England under Queen Victoria- predominant imperial
power in the world (The Sun Never Sets on the British
Empire)
• Italy and Germany, divided for a long time, unified
into powerful, political entities; young countries who
acquired only a few colonies because they arrived late
in the scene. Germany would be among Rizal’s favorite
countries. But Germany was also the home of Karl
Marx (communism – abolition of all the private
property; everybody equal; anti-religion) and of Martin
Luther (Protestantism – branching away of one set of
Christianity; separation of protestantism to
Catholicism). Later, Nazism will come from Germany,
leading to World War II
• China - was not yet communist at the time. It was
under an Emperor and was weak. It was under Qing
dynasty.
- Emperor would launch a war on drugs against
the Europeans because he suspected that the
Europeans were profiting from selling opium to
young Chinese, who then became addicted
- divided up by Europeans after China lost the
Opium Wars
• India- under British raj rule (caste system in India).
The rest of Asia divided up amongst the Europeans
• Japan - opened up by America to the world, ending
its 214 year isolation, with modernization. Another
favorite country of Rizal.
• Germany- a late imperial power; acquired colonies in
Africa and began seeking Pacific possessions. During
the 1880’s, while Rizal was in Europe, it nearly went to
war with Spain over the Central Pacific Islands. War
would have taken place if not for the arbitration of
Pope Leo XIII.
• By then, Spain was a fading power, having lost her
rich colonies in Central and South America, such as
Mexico, to revolution and independence. By the late
1800s, the Spanish Empire was reduced to Cuba,
Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, which included Guam.
In 1898, 2 years after the death of Rizal, the United
States will take-over these Spanish colonies.
The Philippines during the 18th century
• The rise of the export crop economy (first you plant
crops in a plot of land, harvest them and sell – earn
profit) and monopolies (production of goods in the
colony) in the colony
- After the Spanish war with the British, Spanish
Governor General Jose de Basco y Vargas (1778)
saw the potential for large scale production of
cash crops in the colony
- Basco established the Royal Company of the
Philippines in 1785 to finance these projects.
The purpose was to make the colony self-
supporting and self-sufficient, agriculturally
profitable but not politically independent
• The Spanish repealed the ban on Chinese merchants,
who were expelled for 100 years after repeated
uprisings against the Spanish. The Chinese returned
and intermarried with the natives. Their renewed
presence and business activity will lead to the rise of the
Chinese mestizos, among whom would be Rizal’s clan.
• Manila was opened to world trade
• The tobacco monopoly led to remittances. The
planting of tobacco would also lead to the cultivation of
abaca and sugar, a form of double-cropping or even
triple cropping to use the land, but which also led
sometimes to exhaustion.
• The Spanish Governor General Basco’s efforts were
successful- from 1800 to 1810, exports of Philippine
origin accounted for 10 percent of total exports from
forest and sea products. By the 1840’s, almost 90
percent of total export revenue came from six
Philippine-grown cash crops: sugar, tobacco, abaca
(Manila hemp - sturdy) fiber and cordage, indigo,
coffee and cotton. The cash economy replaced trade
(barter) in kind.
Philippines became a dumping ground, displacing
Filipinos.
- enabled ilustrados to easily reach Europe from
the Philippines for study and for travel
- hastened the movement of people and of ideas
from Europe to the Philippines
• Domination of imports, exports and distribution by
the British and by the Chinese in the Philippines

• The rise of the Chinese mestizo - new immigrants/
new middle-men who linked provincial producers to
the world market. Rizal’s ancestry would be Chinese
mestizo.
- The Parian (Chinese sector in Manila) was re-
established
• Rise of Indio and mestizo elites- a new middle class
such as the families of the Propagandists and the
families of future leaders like Emilio Aguinaldo
19th century Spanish Colonial Fashions for the wealthy
and middle-class
Under Spanish Government
• Centralized – the Ministries of the Colonies
established in Madrid in 1863 – exercised executive,
legislative, judicial and religious powers.
• The Governor General
- Appointed by the Spanish Monarch
- Represents in the King in all state and religious
matters
- Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines
- The Vice Royal Patron over the religious affairs
in the islands
- The ex-officio President of the Royal Audiencia,
which enjoyed judicial powers

The Galleon Trade

• With the end of the Spanish empire in the America,
the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade which linked
American and Asian trade and which began in 1565,
ended in 1815. It lasted for 250 years.

• Manila was opened to world trade officially in 1834

- more diverse jobs, more money transactions and
more cultural diversions
- Manila’s population increased from 100,000 in
1822 to 150,000 by the mid-1800s

• In the 1850s and 1860s, the ports of Iloilo and Cebu

opened to foreign shipping, stimulating trade and
agriculture in the Visayas. New tracts of forestland on
Negros were cleared for sugar. The Negrense (Negros)
wants to declare their independence.

Opening of the Suez Canal

• In 1869, British engineers were able to find gaps, a
shallow piece of land which if they did through, will
open one sea with another sea (Mediterranean Sea
with the Indian ocean). They dug through the land, dig
a canal opened one sea to another sea thus opening
the Suez Canal. Suez is located in Egypt which is
considered much shorter route.
• The Suez Canal was opened to world trade in 1869-
dramatically decreased travel time from Europe and
led to many Spanish migrating (like birds of prey) to
the Philippines in search of jobs. Therefore, the