READINGS IN HISTORY- CHAPTER 1

History has always been known as the study of the past. Students of general education often dread
the subject for its notoriety in requiring them to memorize dates, places, names, and events from distant
eras. This low appreciation of the discipline may be rooted from the house shallow understanding of
history's relevance to their lives and to their respective contexts. While the popular definition of history as
the study of the past is not wrong, it does - not give justice to the complexity of the subject and its
importance to human civilization.

History was derived from the Greek word historia which means "knowledge, acquired through
inquiry or investigation." History as a discipline existed for around 2,400 years and is as old as
mathematics and philosophy. This term was then adapted to classical Latin where it acquired a new
definition.

Historia became known as the account of the past of a person or of a group of people through
written documents and historical evidences. That meaning stuck until the early parts of the twentieth
century. History became an important academic discipline. It became the historian's duty to write about
the lives of important individuals like monarchs, heroes, saints, and nobilities. History was also focused
on writing about wars, revolutions, and other important breakthroughs. It is thus important to ask: What
counts as history? Traditional historians lived with the mantra of "no document, no history." It means that
unless a written document can prove a certain historical event, then it cannot be considered as a historical
fact.

Questions and Issues in History

Indeed, history as a discipline has already turned into a complex and dynamic inquiry. This
dynamism inevitably produced various perspectives on the discipline regarding different questions like:
What is history? Why study history? And history for whom? These questions can be answered by
historiography.

In simple terms, historiography is the history of history.

History and historiography should not be confused with each other.

History is the past, the events that happened in the past, and the causes of such events.

On the other hand, historiography is history itself (i.e., How was a certain historical text written? Who
wrote it? What was the context of its publication? What particular historical method was employed? What
were the sources used?).

Historiography is important for someone who studies history because it teaches the student to be critical
in the lessons of history presented to him.
Positivism is the school of thought that emerged between the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

This thought requires empirical and observable evidence before one can claim that a particular
knowledge
I'm is true.

Positivism also entails an objective means of arriving at a conclusion. In the discipline of history,
the mantra "no document, no history" stems from this very same truth, where historians were required to
show written primary documents in order to write a particular historical narrative.

Positivist historians are also expected to be objective and impartial not just in their arguments but
also on their conduct of historical research.

As a narrative, any history that has been taught and written is always intended for a certain group
of audience. When the ilustrados, like Jose Rizal, Isabelo de los Reyes, and Pedro Paterno wrote history,
they intended it for the Spaniards so that they would realize that Filipinos are people of their own intellect
and culture.

Postcolonialism is a school of thought that emerged in the early twentieth century when formerly
colonized nations grappled with the idea of creating their identities and understanding their societies
against the shadows of their colonial past.

Postcolonial history looks at two things in writing history: first is to tell the history of their
nation that will highlight their identity free from that of colonial discourse and knowledge, and second is
to criticize the methods, effects, and idea of colonialism.

Postcolonial history is therefore a reaction and an alternative to the colonial history that colonial
powers created and taught to their subjects.

History and the Historian

It is the historian's job not just to seek historical evidences and facts but also to interpret these
facts. "Facts cannot speak for themselves."

It is the job of the historian to give meaning to these facts and organize them into a timeline,
establish causes, and write history.

Meanwhile, the historian is not a blank paper who mechanically interprets and analyzes present
historical fact. He is a person of his own who is influenced by his own context, environment, ideology,
education, and influences, among others. In that sense, his interpretation of the historical fact is affected
by his context and circumstances.
 The Annales School of History - is a school of history born in France that challenged the canons
of history.

This school of thought did away with the common historical subjects that were almost always
related to the conduct of states and monarchs

Annales scholars like Lucien Febvre, Marc Bloch, Fernand Braudel, and Jacques Le Goff
studied other subjects in a historical manner. They were concerned with social history and studied
longer historical periods. For example, Annales scholars studied the history of peasantry, the history
of medicine, or even the history of environment. The history from below was pioneered by the same
scholars

Historical Sources

Historical sources can be classified between primary and secondary sources.

Primary sources - are those sources produced at the same time as the event, period, or subject being
studied.

For example, if a historian wishes to study the Commonwealth Constitution Convention of 1935,
his primary sources can include the minutes of the convention, newspaper clippings. Philippine
Commission reports of the U.S. Commissioners, records of the convention, the draft of the Constitution,
and even photographs of the event. The same goes with other subjects of historical study. Archival
documents, artifacts, memorabilia, letters, census, and government records, among others are the most
common examples of primary sources.

Secondary sources - are those sources, which were produced by an author who used primary sources to
produce the material. In other words, secondary sources are historical sources, which studied a certain
historical subject.

For example, on the subject of the Philippine Revolution of 1896, students can read Teodoro
Agoncillo's Revolt of the Masses: The Story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan published originally in 1956.
The Philippine Revolution happened in the last years of the nineteenth century while Agoncillo published
his work in 1956, which makes the Revolt of the Masses a secondary source. More than this, in writing
the book, Agoncillo used primary sources with his research like documents of the Katipunan, interview
with the veterans of the Revolution, and correspondence between and among Katipuneros.

The historian should be able to conduct an external and internal criticism of the source, especially primary
sources which can age in centuries.

External criticism - is the practice of verifying the authenticity of evidence by examining its physical
characteristics; consistency with the historical characteristic of the time when it was produced; and the
material used for the evidence.

Examples of the things that will be examined when conducting external criticism of a document
include the quality of the paper, the type of the ink, and the language and words used in the material,
among others.
Internal criticism - the examination of the truthfulness of the evidence. It looks at the content of the
source and examines the circumstance of its production.

Internal criticism looks at the truthfulness and factuality of the evidence by looking at the author
of the source, its context, the agenda behind its creation, the knowledge which informed it, and its
intended purpose, among others.

For example, Japanese reports and declarations during the period of the war should not be taken.
as a historical fact hastily. Internal criticism entails that the historian acknowledge and analyze how such
reports can be manipulated to be used as war propaganda. Validating historical sources is important
because the use of unverified, falsified, and untruthful historical sources can lead to equally false
conclusions. Without thorough criticisms of historical evidences, historical deceptions and lies will be
highly probable.

Philippine Historiography underwent several changes since the precolonial period until the
present.

Ancient Filipinos narrated their history through communal songs and epics that they passed
orally from a generation to another. When Spaniards came, their chroniclers started recording their
observations through written accounts.

Filipino historian Zeus Salazar introduced the new guiding philosophy for writing and
teaching history: pantayong pananaw (for us- from us perspective). This perspective highlights the
importance of facilitating an internal conversation and discourse among Filipinos about our own
history, using the language that is understood by everyone.

CHAPTER 2: CONTENT AND CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF SELECTED PRIMARY

SOURCES IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY

Primary sources we are going to examine are:

 First Voyage Around the World by Antonio Pigafetta

 Kartilya ng Katipunan by Emilio Jacinto
 The 1898 Declaration of Philippine Independence
 Political Caricature of the American Era (1900-1941) by Alfred McCoy
 Corazon Aquino’s Speech before the U.S. Congress

First Voyage Around the World by Antonio Pigafetta

 Antonio Pigafetta (1490-1534)
 Known by the name Antonio Lombardo or Francisco Antonio Pigafetta
 Joined the Magallanes-Elcano famous expedition to the Moluccas in August 1519
and finished on September 1522.
 He accompanied Ferdinand Magellan in his fateful circumnavigation of the world.
Analysis of the book:

 The five ships were: Santiago, San Antonio, Conception, Victoria, Trinidad.
 Only Trinidad, Conception, and Victoria reached the Philippines.
 Their fleet reached in what he called the Ladrones Islands or the “Islands of the Theives ”.
 Presently known as the Marianas Islands
He recounted:
“These people have no arms, but use sticks, which have a fishbone at the end.
They are poor, but ingenious, and great thieves, and for the sake of what we
called these three islands the Ladrones Islands”.
 Ten days after they reached the Ladrones Islands, they reached the isle of Zamal, now
Samar but Magellan decided to land in an inhabited island where they could rest for few
days.
 They welcomed the natives with food, drinks and gifts. In return, the natives gave them
fish, palm wine (uraca), figs, and two cochos.
 The fleet went to Humunu island (Homonhon) which they found as “Watering Place of
Good Signs”.
 On March 25, 1521, they saw two balanghai (balangay), a long boat full of people in
Mazzava.
 They went to another Island whose king was Raja Calambu, King of Zuluan and Calagan
(Butuan and Caragua).
 On March 31, 1521, the first mass was presided, which happened to be Easter Sunday.
 After the mass, Magellan ordered that the cross be brought with nails and crown in place.
He explained that the cross, nail and the crown were the signs of his emperor and that he
was ordered to plant it in the places that he would reach.
 After 7 days, they reached the islands of Ceynon (Leyte), Bohol, Zzubu (Cebu).
 April 7th, they reached the port of Cebu, the largest and richest island.
 Magellan spoke before the people of Cebu about peace and God. The king of Cebu was
baptized as Christian.
 The mass was conducted by the shore every day. Magellan gave the queen an image of an
infant Jesus made by Pigafetta.
 On April 26th, Zula, a principal man from the island of Mactan went to see Magellan and
asked him a boat full of men so that he would be able to fight the chief name Silapulapu
(Lapulapu).
 Magellan’s force arrived in Mactan with a number of 49, abd the islanders of Mactan
were estimated to be 1,500 in number.
 The battle of Mactan began. Magellan died in the battle.
 The natives targeted him since they knew that he was the captain general, they pierced
him with a poisonous arrow in his right leg and hit with a lance on his face.
 Magellan’s men elected Duarte Barbosa as the new captain.
 The chronicle of Pigafetta was one of the most cited documents by historians who wished
to study the precolonial Philippines.
 Pigafetta was seen as a credible source for a period, which was prior unchronicled and
undocumented.
  It was believed that his writing account for the “purest” precolonial society.

The KKK and the “Kartilya ng Katipunan”

 The Kataastaasan, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK)
or Katipunan was the most important organization formed in the Philippine history.
Two visions:

1. A united Filipino nation that would revolt against the Spaniards

2. For the total independence of the country from Spain.
On the other hand, the Propaganda movement led by ilustrados like Marcelo H. del Pilar, Graciano
Lopez Jaena and Jose P. Rizal did not envision a total separation of the Philippines from Spain, but
only demanded equal rights, representation, and protection from the abuses of the friars.

Kartilya ng Katipunan- one of the most important Katipunan documents.

 Katipunan’s code of conduct.

 The original title of the document was Manga Aral ng Katipunan ng mga A.N.B. or Lessons of
the Organizations of the Sons of the Country.
 It was written by Emilio Jacinto in the 1896.
 He was only 18 years old when he joined the movement.
 A Law student at the Universidad de Santo Tomas
Below is the translated version of the rules in Kartilya:

1. The life that is not consecrated to a lofty and reasonable purpose is a tree without a
shade, if not a poisonous weed.
2. To do good for personal gain and not for its own sake is not virtue.
3. It is rational to be charitable and love one’s fellow creature, and to adjust one ’s
conduct, acts and words to what is itself reasonable.
4. Whether our skin be black or white, we are all born equal: superiority in knowledge,
wealth and beauty are to be understood, but not superiority by nature.
5. The honorable man prefers honor to personal gain; the scoundrel, gain to honor.
6. To the honorable man, his word is sacred.
7. Do not waste thy time: wealth can be recovered but not time lost.
8. Defend the oppressed and fight the oppressor before the law or in the field.
9. The prudent man is sparing in words and faithful in keeping secrets.
10. On the thorny path of life, man is the guide of woman and the children, and if the
guide leads to the precipice, those whom he guides will also go there.
11. Thou must not look upon woman as a mere plaything, but as a faithful companion who
will share with thee the penalties of life; her (physical) weakness will increase thy
interest in her and she will remind thee of the mother who bore thee and reared thee.
12. What thou dost not desire unto thy wife, children, brothers and sisters, that do not unto
thy wife, children, brothers and sisters of thy neighbor.
 13. Man is not worth more becauseTHEhe TREATY OF PARIS
is a king, because his nose is aquiline, and his color
white, not because he is a priest, a servant of God, nor because of the high prerogative
 Was
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of the same rays, the lives of those
who have gone before, the fatigues and the well-paid sufferings will remain. If he who
desires to enter has informed himself of all this and believes he will be able to perform
what will be his duties, he may fill out the application for admission.
Analysis:

The main purpose of the Kartilya.-To overthrow a colonial regime

 The content and provisions of the Kartilya as a reaction and response to certain value systems that
they found despicable in the present state of things that they struggled against with.
 Various provisions in the Kartilya repeatedly emphasized the importance of honor in words and
in action.
 The teaching of the Katipunan on how women should be treated with honor and respect, while
positive in many respects and certainly a significant stride from the practice of raping and
physically abusing women, can be telling of the Katipunan ’s secondary regard for women in
relation to men.
 Kartilya was instructive not just of the Katipunan’s conduct toward other people, but also for the
members’ development as individuals in their own rights.
Reading the “Proclamation of the Philippine Independence”
 June 12, 1898- the Philippine Independence was proclaimed in the province of Cavite.
 It signaled the end of the 333 years of Spanish Colonization.
 The red and blue colors of the flag associated with courage and peace.
 The document reflects the general revolutionary sentiment of that period.
 The abuses mentioned in the proclamation like friar abuse, racial discrimination, and inequality
before the law reflect the most compelling sentiments represented by revolutionary leadership.
 However, no mention was made about the serious problem that affected the masses more
profoundly was the land agrarian crisis felt by the numerous Filipino peasants in the 19 th
century.
 Teodoro Agoncillo stated that the Philippine Revolution was an agrarian revolution.
 The common revolutionary soldiers fought in the revolution for the hope of owning the lands that
they were tilling once the friar estates in different provinces if the revolution succeeded.
 Leaders: Emilio Aguinaldo, Ambrosio Rianzeras-Bautista, and Felipe Buencamino.
 The execution of GOMBURZA and the failed Cavity Mutiny of 1872 was also narrated in the
document.
 This shows that they saw this event as a significant awakening of the Filipinos in the real
conditions of the nation under the Spain.

PHILIPPINE POLITICAL CARICATURE IN ALFRED MCCOY’S PHILIPPINE

CARTOONS: POLITICAL CARICATURE OF THE AMERICAN ERA
(1900-1941)

 Political cartoons and caricature- are a rather recent art form, which veered away from the
classical art by exaggerating human features and poking fun at its subjects.
 Cartoons became an effective tool of publicizing opinions through heavy use of symbolism,
which is different from a verbose written editorial and opinion pieces.

 This cartoon shows a politician from Tondo, named Dr. Santos passing his crown to his
brother-in-law, Dr. Barcelona.
 A Filipino guy (as depicted wearing salakot and barong tagalog) was crying to stop
Santos, telling the latter to stop giving Barcelona the crown because it is not his to begin
with.
 This cartoon was a commentary on the unprecedented cases of colorum automobiles in
the city streets. The Philippine Free Press published this commentary when fatal
accidents involving colorum vehicles and taxis occurred too often already.

 This cartoon depicts a cinema.

 A blown-up police officer was at the screen saying that couples are not allowed to neck
and make love in the theater.

 The caricature of Uncle Sam riding a chariot pulled by Filipinos wearing school
uniforms.
 The Filipino boys were carrying American objects like baseball bats, whiskey and boxing
gloves.
 This cartoon was based on an event in 1907 when William Howard Taft was brought to
the Manila pier riding a chariot pulled by the students of Liceo de Manila.
  Uncle Sam rationing porridge to the politicians and members of the Progresista Part
while members of the Nacionalista Party look on and wait for their turn.
 This cartoon depicts the patronage of the United States being coveted by politicians from
either of the party.
Analysis:

 The transition from the Spanish Colonial Period to the American Occupation period demonstrated
different standards of changes and shifts in culture, society and politics.
 Americans drastically introduced democracy to the nascent nation and the consequences were far
from the ideal.
REVISITING CORAZON AQUINO’S SPEECH BEFORE THE U.S. CONGRESS

 Corazon “Cory” Cojuanco Aquino functioned as the symbol of the restoration of democracy and
the overthrow of the Marcos Dictatorship in 1986.
 The EDSA People Power, which installed Cory Aquino in the presidency, put the Philippines in
the international spotlight for overthrowing a dictator through peaceful means.
 When former senator Ninoy Aquino was shot at the tarmac of Manila International Airport on 21 st
of August 1983, the Marcos Regime greatly suffered a crisis of legitimacy.
 Seven months since Cory Aquino became president, she went to the United States and spoke
before the joint session of the U.S. congress.
 She began her speech with the story of her leaving the United States three years prior as a newly
widowed wife of Ninoy Aquino.
 She told of Ninoy’s character, conviction, and resolve in opposing the authoritarianism of Marcos.
 She stated that the death of Ninoy sparked the revolution of the responsibility of “offering the
democratic alternative” had fallen on her shoulders.
Analysis:

 Cory’s speech was an important event in the political and diplomatic history of the country
because it has arguably cemented the legitimacy of the EDSA government in the international
arena.
 The speech talks of her family background, especially her relationship with her late husband,
Ninoy Aquino.
 It is well known that it was Ninoy who served as the real leading figure of the opposition at that
time.