The beginnings of

Filipino nationalism
Mid 1700s-1900s
 FILIPINO NATIONALISM

• Up to the 1700s, Filipino revolts were fragmented and local with

various and oftentimes unrelated purposes.
 FILIPINO NATIONALISM

1. To retake one’s lost kingdom or chiefdom

2. To resist forced labor that separated the men for long periods from their families
3. To get rid of the oppressive tribute
4. To return to their ancient religion, the worship of Bathala and the anitos
Certain events and developments in the 1800s and 1900s led to a further
awakening of the people’s consciousness as a nation with common
grievances against Spanish colonial rule.

• The British invasion in the colony that exposed Spain’s vulnerability

• The Silang and Palaris revolts that demonstrated the capability of
regions to unite and expel the Spaniards from their territory
• The united Basi revolt in the north against Governor-General Basco’s
tobacco and wine monopolies

• The opening of foreign ports and the Suez canal that allowed entry of
advanced technology and liberal ideas from the Americas and Europe
• The secularization movement led by Indio and mestizo secular priests to fight for
the right to administer parishes that were held by Spanish regular priests.
• What started as a religious issue, regulars vs seculars, later acquired a racial undertone,
“Filipinos” vs Spaniards.

• The controversy ended with the execution of the three leaders of the movement Fathers
Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora, despite the failure of the government to prove their
alleged involvement in the Cavite Mutiny.
 British invasion and occupation

• In 1762 Spain and France entered into a treaty of alliance against England’s
ambition for supremacy. During the Seven Years’ War in Europe between
France and England, Spain was naturally drawn into the conflict.

• The British sent and expedition from India, whish at that time was a colony
of England, to the Philippines to occupy and seize it from Spain,
• Archbishop Manuel Rojo was acting governor-general when the British, with
6,000 men including Sepoys from Bombay, bombarded Intramuros, Malate,
Ermita, and Bagumbayan on September 22, 1762.

• Archbishop Rojo surrendered Manila and Cavite while Simon Anda, a magistrate
of the Audencia, escaped to Pampanga to continue the resistance.
THE SILAN AND PALARIS REVOLTS

• The Spanish defeat in the hands of the British opened the eyes of the
Filipinos to the impermanence of Spanish rule in the country and to
the fact that it could be challenged by force of arms.
• An Ilocano from Ilocos province rose in revolt, and demanded the expulsion of Spaniards and Spanish mestizos from Ilocos.

• He then declared himself “King of the Ilocos.”

• The British tried to win him over, promising to make him governor of the province if he conspired with the British against Spain.

• Silang accepted the offer but the alliance ended when he was killed by an assassin.

• His wife, Gabriela, took over the leadership but was later captured and hanged along with 100 followers.
• That same year in 1762, Palaris led a widespread revolt in Pangasinan, demanding for the end of payment of
tributes and countless abuses by the Spanish officials.

• For more than a year Polaris dominated the province.

• Upon the conclusion of the war with France and Spain, the British left in 1764.
• Spain, now rid pf Gabriela, sent 3,000 Ilocano troops to Pangasinan to quell the revolt where Palaris was
defeated and died in battle.
• The widespread revolts alarmed the Spanish authorities.
• Reforms in the economy were introduced.
• The economy developed slowly.
1. The incompetence of Spanish officials

2. Graft and greed of the merchants and religious corporations engaged in the galleon trade

3. Restrictive economic policies which closed some parts of the country to other foreign countries

4. The constant quarrels between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities assigned in the colony
• In 1778 he was appointed as governor-general of the Philippines.
• He surveyed the economic condition of the colony and found it far
from satisfactory.
• To improve commerce, industry, and agriculture, he encouraged the
cultivation of crops for export.

• He encouraged the development of mines

• Offered prizes to those who excelled in the manufacture of silk and fabrics
 FILIPINO NATIONALISM

• Governor Basco founded the economic society of friends in the country in 1781 and established the Royal
Company in 1785.

• It failed to improve foreign trade between the colony and Spain because of mismanagement and lack of
cooperation of the Manila merchants who preferred to engage in the galleon trade.

• In 1807, some 10,000 rebels in Ilocos revolted against the government monopoly of a locally-produced wine
from sugarcane called basi. The basi revolt as it was called, was among the bloodiest uprising ever recorded
during this time.
 Laissez-faire or “let alone policy” in commercial and trading ventures by the Europeans soon caught6 the
interest of the Spanish king.in 1834 the king realizing the futility to foreign traders.in 1842, manila could boast of
American, one Danish and eight British commercial firms. The ports of Iloilo , Zamboanga, and Sual (in
Pangasinan)were Tacloban and Legazpi in 1873.Batangas produced coffee; Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur,
Sorsogon and Albay produced hemp; Indio and tobacco came from the ilocos and Cagayan Valley. Sugar cane
was produced in Negros and Iloilo in the Visayas and Pampanga , Laguna and Batangas in Luzon. The British
vice consul in Iloilo, Nicolas Loney, introduced the first modern machinery that converted sugar cane into
refined sugar.
 FILIPINO NATIONALISM

As exports in agricultures increased, inquilinos or the tenants in the haciendas and

their families began to accumulate wealth. As members of the middle class, they were able
to send their children to colleges and universities in Manila and even to Europe. Hence , the
wealthy and highly educated Filipinos called ilustrados compose the middle class in
Philippines colonial society under Spain. Spaniards born in Spain , working or residing in the
country were called Españoles or peninsulares.
 FILIPINO NATIONALISM

The rest were either mestizos or Indio's. Belonging to the middle class also meant changing their former lifestyle, clothing ,
houses, forms of amusement and cultural activities to those that were similar or closer to what Spaniard and Europeans did and
maintained which were comfortable and expensive . The first event was the Tagalog publication of Florante at Laura in 1838 by
Francisco Baltasar or Balagtas . The revolt by Apolinario de la Cruz of “Hermano Pule in Tayabas (now Quezon province) in 1841.
The Spanish authorities were alarmed by its pure Indio membership under the guise of a confradia, whose aim was to revive the
ancient catalonan. Teachings within the Catholic church. Hermano Pule had become so popular that the Tagalog in the regions called
him” king of the Tagalog's”
 FILIPINO NATIONALISM

The Spaniard in the Philippines founded many colleges for men and women . But these
colleges and universities were exclusively for the Spaniards and the Spanish mestizos. These
included San Juan de Letran, San Jose , San Felipe and others. The schools for women
included the College of San Potenciana, Santa Isabel College, the Santa Rosa College,
among others. It was not until the second half of the nineteenth century that these college
,including the Universities of Santo Tomas , admitted natives.
• As a result , a good number of those children became lawyers, physicians,
pharmacist, teachers, land surveyors and merchants. The Spaniards feared it
was the illustrados who later ask embarrassing questions about Spanish
misdeeds, incompetence , inefficiency, greed and corruptions. And most
dangerously they pushed the idea of the Indio's as “Filipinos “ with equal
rights as the Spaniards in the country.
 FILIPINO NATIONALISM

The changes that took place in the second half of the nineteenth century had far reaching
effects on the Filipinos . One of these important changes was the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
this resulted in the shorter route and travel time between Spain and the Philippines. Among them
were exiled creoles from Mexico like Varela and Novales, whose subversive ideas and activities
advocated freedom and liberties. Later on, they influence some educated Filipinos and soon both
were asking the government to introduce changes in the administration of the colony.
 These books and periodicals were read by the educated Filipinos who learned about democratic
practice in Europe, such us freedom of the press, freedom of speech , and the free exchange of
ideas among people. Printed Literatures and magazines, plus the introduction of modern technology
such as the mail (1854). The telegraph (1873),the telephone and the Manila – Dagupan railway
(1890), hastened the spread of these ideas and awareness of the happening s between the cities and
country-side. Before the opening of the Suez Canal , the voyage from Spain to the Philippines and
vice versa took time and was often dangerous that many Filipinos who could afford to go to Europe
did not bother to travel.
 FILIPINO NATIONALISM

In 1868, a revolutions took place in Spain. The revolutionists were against the autocratic reign of Queen Isabel II. It lasted from
1868- 1868. the triumph of the Spanish revolutionists who fought for popular suffrage and freedom of speech , the press , and of
religions , brought to the country same liberal and progressive Spaniards. One of them was Governor- General Carlos Maria de la
Torre.. When he arrived in Manila in 1869, he put into practice the liberal principles of the revolutionists in Spain. The educated Indio's
, mestizos and Spaniards born in the Philippines who sympathized with liberalism and Governor de la Torre, serenaded him to show
their appreciation of the governor`s kind attention and democratic ways.
• De la Torre`s administration of the Philippines was significant because of

• the following reasons:

• * He abolished the censorship of the press,

• *He abolished flogging as a punishment

• * He solved the agrarian unrest in Cavite. To many Filipinos , mestizo, and Spaniards who embraced
progressive ideas , Governor de la Torre was the best governor-general the Philippines has ever had.
 FILIPINO NATIONALISM

The Filipinos and their allies among the mestizos and the progressive Spaniards, the
administration of Governor de la Torre was brief. The republic of Spain ended in 1870 when the
monarchy was restored and a new king assumed the Spanish throne . One of these was Rafael de
Izquierdo, who was appointed governor – general in 1871 to replace de la Torre; Being an autocrat,
he boasted that he would rule the Philippines “with a cross in one hand and a sword in the other “.
 He disapproved the establishment of a school of arts and trades in Manila
because he was afraid that it might be used as a political club. Those who were
known to have favored the administration of de la Torre were considered
suspects and were spied upon. The friars and the monarchists among the
Spaniards became his staunch supporters and were happy over his reactionary
attitudes.
 FILIPINO NATIONALISM

Priesthood during the Spanish period was composed of two classes; the regular and the secular. The regular priests were those
who belo9nged to the religious orders like the Dominicans, the Recollects, the Augustinians , and the Franciscans. The Secular priests
were not member of any religious orders. The regular priests or simply regulars, have a mission to fulfill,i,e, to convert non- Christian
people to Christianity. In the Philippines the friars or members of the religious order not only made converts to Christianity but they
also occupied parishes. At first the Spanish archbishop and some governor supported their demands and a few Filipino seculars become
parish heads.
 This led to the campaign called secularization . Initially , the leader of the
Filipino campaign to secularize the parishes was Fathers Pedro Pablo Pelaez (1812-
1863) , a Spanish mestizo . After his death he was succeeded by Farther Jose A. Burgos
(1837-1872) , another Spanish mestizo ; other secular priests involved in the
secularization movement who were either Spanish Mestizo , Chinese mestizo, or
Indio's i9ncluded Fathers Jacinto Zamora , Mariano Gomez, Toribio del Pilar, Mariano
Sevilla, Pedro Dandan, Jose Guevara and many more.
 FILIPINO NATIONALISM

The relations between the Filipinos seculars and Spanish regulars grew from bad to worse. The Spanish
regulars who continued to occupy the parishes blamed the Filipino priests by saying that latter were not prepared
to administer parishes. At the height of the secularization controversy, the Cavite mutiny occurred on January 20,
1872, involving a number of workers and some privilege of shipyard workers to be exempted from forced labor
and from paying tribute by governor-general de Izquierdo. The mutineers included Indio's, mestizos, and
criollos. (Spaniards born in Mexico and exiled in Cavite) they were led by a military sergeant named La Madrid.
 The leaders and the participants were arrested and later shot to death . The
government , believing it to be a rebellion, ordered the arrest of Filipino and mestizo
who were allegedly behind it. Among those arrested were Fathers Jose Burgos,
Mariano Gomez, Jacinto Zamora , Pedro Dandan, Toribio del Pilar , Mariano Sevilla,
Agustine Mendoza, Jose Guevara and others. Among the civilians arrested were Pedro
Carillo, Antonio Regidor, Joaquin Pardo de Taversa and others. They were sentenced
to be banishes to Guam, while Gomez, Burgos and Zamora were sentenced to death.
 FILIPINO NATIONALISM

The priests , Gomez ,Burgos and Zamora were jailed in Fort Santiago before they were tried for rebellion . Priests , both

regulars and seculars were allowed to see them. During the trials , the government failed to prove convincingly with the January

mutiny . The governor –general promised to present documents to prove that the three priests were guilty of “rebellion” which

to many was actually a mutiny . But he never presented any documents and to this day, no documents had been found to show

that Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora were in any way, connected with the mutiny. On February 17, 1872, the three priest marched

from Fort Santiago to Bagumbayan Field ( now Luneta).

 It is said that Zamora lost his mind and silently accepted to e garroted. While they being
executed one by one, first , Zamora then Gomez, and lastly Burgos, the witnesses of the event
took off their hats and knelt to pray for the souls of the innocent priests. The importance of
the execution of the three priests rested on the fact that the Filipinos who witnesses the
execution began to thinks and feel as Filipinos, not as Ilocano's , Tagalogs, Visayans, Bicolanos,
and others. Rizal who was eleven years old at that time , would later dedicated his second novel
El Filipibustirismo (The Rebel) , to the memory of the three martyred priest.