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05 ELMS Task 1 Essay
05 ELMS Task 1 Essay
BSIT
Rizal was much too impulsive, too committed to portray the past, as he
himself said "cold-
bloodedly and as an impartial judge." Rizal wanted to point out, above all,
three things with
the publication: firstly, that the Filipinos possessed an independent
culture before the
arrival of the Spaniards; secondly, that the Filipinos were decimated,
demoralized,
exploited and ruined by the Spanish civilization; and thirdly, the condition
achieved, the
importation of Spanish civilization did not necessarily, and certainly not
in all spheres of
interest, bring to the Philippines an improvement or a higher niveau. Indeed
as earlier said,
Blumentritt could not approve the work of his friend completely. "My
profound
appreciation of your work cannot stop me from confessing that more than once
I have
discovered your mistake, which many modern historians commit: interpreting
events in the
past in the light of contemporary ideas. This is not correct. The historian
must not expect
the broad horizon of ideas which move the l9th century from the men of the
l6th century."