Rizal- Handout 3

The Nineteenth Century 1801-1900

 The Century of the Industrialization/ the Industrial Revolution, European and American Imperialism and the
Colonial Rebellions
 The Industrial Revolution is the period of rapid development of automation in industries and the creation of
the assembly-line system for product creation. This basically meant that various products and practices (in
food production and resource collection/extraction) had shifted to machine-based processes that reduced
human input thus reducing human error leading to an increase product uniformity, reduced production times
and elevated production rates
 The industrial revolution had largely occurred in the United States of America and certain European colonial
empires. Little of this mechanized revolution reached colonial territories as most colonies were treated as
sources of inexpensive human laborers and points of resource extraction.
 European and American Imperialism is highly observable in the dynamics of these western powers in their
indirect competition with each other through their control over colonies states and their inherent resources
that are traded all across the global market
 Colonies from Africa, Asia, and Central and South America all experienced a rise of rebellions and
revolutionary movements across this century. It could be said that various colonies were inspired towards
their own drives for independence due to the news of the struggles and successes of other movements across
the world

Rizal’s First Voyage 1882-1887

 Singapore
o His core motivation for traveling to Madrid was for the completion of his education as a doctor
specialized in ophthalmology. And this was further supported by his personal desire to cure his
mother’s growing blindness as well as the limitations of his opportunities in practicing medicine
locally due to the pressure asserted upon him and his family by Dominican priests
o His father was not approving of this choice by Jose but he was supported by his brother Paciano and
uncle, Antionio Rivera.
o Rizal boarded the Steam Ship Salvadora on route to Singapore with a passport under the name Rizal
Mercado

 Port Galle and Colombo

o Rizal boarded the French steamer, Djemnah, headed for Europe and their first stop from Singapore was
the port city of Galle in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka)
o Whilst the shipped was docked in Port Galle, Rizal went to Ceylon’s capital, Colombo, and acquired
materials and references for learning French

 Aden
o In this port city of Yemen, Rizal remarked upon seeing camels for the first time, the climate being
hotter than Manila and the inhospitable barren lands near the coast

 Suez Canal
o This man-made waterway situated between Egyptian lands and the Sinai peninsula allowed ships to
bypass the long travel of going across the coastal area of the African continent before reaching Europe
and instead allowed them to pass quickly into the Mediterranean Sea

 Port Said
o This Egyptian port was the end point of the passage of the Suez Canal and the starting point of his
Mediterranean stretch of his voyage

 Naples
o Rizal’s ship docked in this southern city of Italy wherein he took the opportunity to visit a few
historic sights of the city such as Mount Vesuvius and the Castle of St. Telmo.

 Marseilles, France
o The steamer docked in this southern port city of France on June 12, 1882.
o During his stay in the city, he visited the Chateau d’lf, a notable location in “The Count of Monte
Cristo” by Alexander Dumas (the same author of The Three Musketeers) that Rizal had read when
studying in Ateneo
o His next leg of the journey was done by train (steam-powered locomotive) on the way towards
Barcelona, Spain

 Spain
o Rizal first arrived in the city of Barcelona and remarked on the atmosphere of freedom and liberalism
 o During his stay in the city, he wrote essays for Diariong Tagalog under the pen name Laong Laan:
Amor Patrio (Love of Country), Los Viajes (Travels), Reviste de Madrid (Review of Madrid)
o Rizal enrolled at the Universidad Central de Madrid on November 3, 1882 in the courses of Medicine
and Philosophy and Letters
o He also took courses at the Academy of San Carlos on the subjects of painting and sculpting, and
Languages: French, German and English
o Aside from that, he also took private lessons at the Hall of Sanz and Carbonell on Shooting and
Fencing
o During his time in Spain, Rizal joined the Circulo Hispano Filipino (Hispano-Philippine Circle), a
society of Spaniards and Filipinos supported by a group of peninsulares who advocated to the voice of
the Filipinos.
o Notable members of the Circle included Marcelo H. del Pilar, Juan Luna and Graciano Lopez Jaena

 Paris
o During summer vacation in Madrid, Rizal toured Paris. In a letter to his family, he commented on the
costly nature of essential commodities in the French capital
o He toured many sites of in the capital such as the Opera House, the Place de la Concorde, the Arch of
Triumph, the Madelaine Church, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Column of Vendome and the tomb
of Napoleon the Great, as well as the Palace of Versailles (the former home of French royalty)

 Madrid
o After his summer in Paris, Rizal joined the order of the freemasons, under the Madrid lodge called
Acacia and his Masonic name was “Dimasalang”
o The reasons for joining the Masonic Order was: (1) to aid in his fight against the abusive friars in the
Philippines; and (2) to use them as his shield to combat the friars that used the Catholic religion’s
power and wealth in persecuting Filipino patriots
o Due to his avid love for books, he scrimped on food and clothes and lived in modest accommodations
in order to collect them. Some of the important books in his collection are: Uncle Tom’s Cabin by
Harriet Beecher Stowe; the works of Alexander Dumas (Count of Monte Cristo and The Three
Musketeers); The Wandering Jew by Eugene Sue; Lives of the Presidents of the United States from
George Washington to Andrew Johnson; and The Complete Works of Horace (Quintus Horatius
Flaccus, roman poet)
o Rizal began writing Noli me Tangere when he was still a student at the Central University of Madrid
after reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The book was about the trial and hardship
of black slave and awakened in Rizal his inherent love and concern for the afflicted
o Noli Me Tangere’s title was said to based on the Biblical passage of John 20: 13-17 wherein the phrase
“Touch Me Not” was said by Jesus to Mary Magdalene.
o He graduated Licentiate in Medicine on June 21, 1884 and Licentiate in Philosophy and Literature on
June 19, 1885 with a scholastic rating of “Excellent” (Sobresaliente)
o Rizal however was unable to gain a Doctorate in Medicine due to not presenting the thesis required for
graduation. This circumstance allowed him to practice medicine but barred him from teaching
medicine in formal institutions of learning

 Germany
o After graduating from the Central University of Madrid, Rizal proceeded to travel through Paris and
into Germany meeting up with various friends and making new acquaintances as he began practicing
his profession in medicine
o For a time, Rizal worked as an assistant to Dr. Otto Becker at the University Eye Hospital in
Heidelberg
o He continued writing the book in his subsequent travels across France and Germany where the final
revisions were made in Berlin
o Rizal also found the time to translate Friedrich Schiller’s William Tell as well as the Fairy Tales of
Hans Christian Andersen (this includes “The Little Mermaid” and “The Snow Queen” which was the
loose basis for Disney’s Frozen)
o Maximo Viola, a friend of Rizal from Bulacan, funded the initial production run of Noli Me Tangere
wherein which 2000 copies were produced within 5 months
o Rizal also became a member of the Anthropological Society, the Ethnographic Society and the
Geographic Society in Berlin. One of the first Asians to have ever become a member of these German
academic societies

 Departure from Europe

o On a visit to the city of Prague (Czech Republic), Rizal visited the tomb of Nicolaus Copernicus.
o In Geneva Switzerland, Maximo Viola and Jose Rizal parted ways. Viola returned to Spain as Rizal
continued on to Rome.
o He then went to Marseilles and once again boarded the steamer Djemnah that was headed to Saigon,
Vietnam
 Return to Calamba
o Upon Rizal’s return to Calamba, Laguna, he established a clinic where his first patient was his mother
o He worked as a town physician
o He was called to Malacañang by Gov. Gen. Emilio Terrero due to the controversy raised by Noli Me
Tangere as the public became aware of its contents as the first copies had arrived in Manila
o A review of the book, found that it was heretical, impious, unpatriotic, subversive, and injurious to the
government of Spain in the Philippines. Importation, reproduction and distribution of the book had
then on been prohibited.
o Rizal was “requested” by Gov. Gen. Terrero to leave the country
Rizal’s sketch of the coastline near Aden, Yemen

1800s Map of the World

An Illustrated Map of Rizal’s Journey in Germany from February 1886 to May 1887
Commissioned and launched by the Philippine Embassy in Germany in July 20, 2017