19TH CENTURY PHILIPPINES

as Rizal’s Context
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Appraise the link between the individual and society.

2. Analyze the various social, political, economic, and cultural changes

that occurred in the 19th century.

3. Understand Jose Rizal in the context of his times.

 THE REVOLUTION

• Governor-General Jose de Basco y Vargas arrived in the Philippines,

Galleon Trade was not yet in progress. But trading with China, Japan, Siam
(now Thailand), India, Cambodia, Borneo and the Moluccas (Spice
Islands) was already apparent among our ancestors when the Spaniards
came to the Philippines.

• The Philippines, allegedly a Spanish colony, was then governed from

Mexico and in 1565, Hence the birth of the Manila-Acapulco Trade, more
known as the “Galleon Trade.”
 Galleon Trade
The Galleon Trade was a government monopoly. It was a Ship (“galleon”) in 1565-1815.

 Acapulco to Manila with 500,00 pesos worth of goods spending 120 days.
 Manila to Acapulco 250,000 pesos worth of goods spending 90 days.

• This trading system served as the economic lifeline for the Spaniards in Manila, serving most trades between China and
Europe. During the heyday of the galleon trade.

China silk was most important cargo.

Tamarind
Rice
Carabao
Chinese tea and Textiles
Fireworks
Tuba

• Profit 100-300%
• Governor Basco thought asking an organization, the Royal
Philippine Company, that will finance both the agricultural and
the new trade that were being made between the Philippines and
Spain, and other Asian countries.
• In 1871, A first tobacco industry Monopoly and it was
established.
Cagayan Valley
Isabela
Abra
Nueva Ecija
Marinduque
 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

• Which was about the inventions of steam engines and machines that were
used in the manufacturing sector.
• considered as one of the most significant developments in the 19th century.
From this, positive effects took place as the industrial revolution contributed
many things to the people:
• 1. The Philippines was opened for world commerce.
• 2. Foreigners were engaged in manufacturing and agriculture.
• 3. The Philippine economy became dynamic and balanced.
• 4. There was rise of new influential and wealthy Filipino middle class.
• 5. People were encouraged to participate in the trade.
6. Migration and increase in population were encouraged.
• 1810 end of Galleon Trade
• 1834 Manila World trade

 Because of the fortune that these ilustrados have, they were able
to send their children to Spain and Europe to further their
studies.
 In this period, railways and steamships were constructed for
safer, faster and comfortable means of transportation and
communication.
 November 17, 1860. The opening of the Suez Canal built by
Ferdinand de Lesseps.
 In 19Th Century Philippine economy began to flourish through
the cash crop.
• Tabaco • cotton
• Sugar • indigo
• Abacca • coffee
• More provinces shifted to growing cash crops so ownership
and management of lands became major concerns. Farmers
were pressured to produce more harvest while the
landowners (hacienderos) take advantage of their position.
Then they would engage in a pacto de retroventa – an
agreement of sale guaranteeing that the landowner could
buy the land back at the same price at which it was sold.

• Because of the growth of the economy, people required

better care for lands. As a result, there came the
Inquilinos, a laborer indebted to a landlord who allows
him to form a farm in parts of his property and who, in
exchange, works without pay from the landlord.
The Rise of Chinese
• Chinese mestizos was brought by the increasing growth
of the economy. Even before Spanish colonization, they
were already doing multiple services as traders, artisans
and domestic servants in the Philippines.

• When the Galleon trade was introduced, the products

of the Chinese were the goods that were most traded.

• Spaniards were afraid that the Chinese could be

more loyal to the Indios (Christianized natives)
than the Spanish regime. However, despite this
dilemma, the Spaniards find the Chinese as the
population who were essential to the economy.
 Accordingly, the increasing population of the mestizos prompted the emergence of the following social status in
the society:

1st Peninsulares (pure-blooded Spaniard born in the Iberian Peninsula such as Spain)
2nd Insulares (pure-blooded Spaniard born in the Philippines)
3rd Spanish Mestizo (one parent is Spanish, the other is a native or Chinese Mestizo; or one parent is Chinese, the
other is a native)
4th Principalia (wealthy pure-blooded native supposedly descended from the kadatoan class)
5th Indio (pure-bloodedd native of the Philippines or the Filipinos) 6th Chino Infiel (non-Catholic pure blooded
Chinese)
• In the 19th century, the Spaniards’ economic power started to weaken. True, they have maintained their superiority
because of their status but the issue brought complications with the growing principalia wherein the mestizos realized
their indispensable position in the society as movers and facilitators of the economy.

• An inquilinato system was introduced during the mid-eighteenth century because of the increasing economy
through the export of agricultural crops for trade. The process for the system was: somebody or someone, known as
canon, will be renting a piece of land for a fixed amount for the year.
• The sharecroppers were also happy with the arrangement
because they will be exempted from their responsibility to
serve the forced labor owing to their labor obligations to
the religious estates as demanded by the Spanish
government.

• Suddenly a change in the social structure and land

services started an argument between the Spanish
religious hacienderos, the inquilinos and the
sharecroppers. The abuses of the friar estates
started when the Philippine Revolution broke out
in 1896 and became one of the main causes that
urged the rebellion.
• Education was under the control of the friars during • The Filipino students developed inferiority complex
the 19th to mid-19th century. Fear of God and in learning - having learned the culture of silence. By
obedience to the friars were the main lessons taught to the end of 19th century, the only school that offered
students. Children in the schools were taught to instill different courses was the University of Santo Tomas,
in their minds that they were inferior to others and an existing higher education in the Philippines that
were only capable of doing manual work. The was founded in 1611. Courses offered were related to
students’ learning were measured based on how well medicine, pharmacy, theology, philosophy, canon and
they read without understanding it. civil law.
• An Educational Decree of 1863, requiring each town in the Philippines to establish one elementary school
for boys and one elementary for girls, also paved the way for the establishment of a regular school for the
training of teachers to master the Spanish language, under the supervision of the Jesuits.

• The teaching of Spanish language to Filipinos were opposed by the friars. They believed that teaching
the Spanish language may lead to the development of political and social awareness among the natives,
which will allow them to work for freedom and independence.
• The next revolution was the French Revolution,
which allowed for the changing of political views
among the people. It started in Europe and other parts
of the world. Since politics, not only in France but
Spain, too, were disturbed during the 19th century, a
revolution arose. The French governmental structure
changed from absolute monarchy, which gave
privileges to the nobles and religious officials.

• The Philippines was conquered by the Spaniards, the

land property of the Filipinos were lost because of the
encomienda system. In addition, Spanish culture and
religion became widespread and the Filipinos were
forced to accept it. The colonization of the Spaniards
during the 19th century had been seen in the
administration, social structure, educational system and
economic situation of the Philippines.
• The colonization of the Spaniards during the
19th century had been seen in the administration, The Thirteen Colonies were:
social structure, educational system and • New England Colonies
economic situation of the Philippines. • Massachusetts
• Rhode Island
• Connecticut
• Considered as the third revolution, the American • Middle Colonies
revolution was somehow about the political disturbance • New York
during the mid-18th century. There were thirteen (13) • New Jersey
North American colonies that forcibly removed the • Pennsylvania
British empire from power and ignored the British • Delaware
government for United States of America to become a • Southern Colonies
sovereign nation. The American revolution has given the • Maryland
idea that the colonized people will have their • Virginia
independence from their colonizers in the 19th century. • North Carolina,
• South Carolina
• Georgia
• The overthrowing of the British colonial masters to gain
independence and achieve the status of becoming a
sovereign nation had reached the European countries and
other parts of the world. This motivated the people to
follow. Filipino reformists like Rizal also got the same
idea from the American revolution to pursue freedom and
independence for the country. During the 19th century,
when the Philippines was opened for world trade, new
ideas coming from the Americans and people from other
places arrived in the Philippines and greatly influenced the
ilustrados.
 BOURBON REFORMS
AND
CADIZ CONSTITUTION

• The Spanish monarchs decided on implementing

Bourbon reforms, a set of economic and political laws
that contributed to the expansion of the gaps between
the peninsulares and the creoles (those born in
America).
• During the reorganization of the colonial military, the bourbons sought to ensure that all officers were Spanish born,
but it was difficult for them to apply the policy because most of the officers were natives, although the highest ranking
officials belonged to the Peninsulares.

Said reforms were aimed at the following:

1) to control over the American colonies;

2) for the crown to obtain resources through exploitation;
3) to professionalize the army;
4) to subdivide New Spain into mayors;
5) to diminish the viceroy’s political power; and
6) to prohibit the natives from participating in political or
ecclesiastical commands.
- These reforms emerged because of the need for free trade
and open new ports to improve trading with other
countries;
• in 1812, in the middle of the occupation of almost all of • Studies of the Cádiz Constitution and liberalism up to
the Iberian peninsula by the French army. The the recent years were almost exclusively confined to the
constitutional monarchy that the Constitution of 1812 Peninsula where Spanish America is now a very large
tried to put in place did not materialize because King field of research regarding these topics:
Fernando VII declared it invalid and restored
absolutism in May of 1814.
The bicentennials of
1) the beginning of the crisis of the Spanish monarchy or
• The study of the Cádiz Constitution, of liberalism, crisis hispánica (2008),
and of its manifold relations with Spanish America 2) of the beginning of the “independence” movements in
during the first quarter of the 19th century has Spanish America (2010), and
shown such a revival in the past two decades that 3) of the promulgation of the Cádiz Constitution (2012)
it may be a temptation to say that this is a “new” have been the main motives behind the editorial
field in the Western academic world. avalanche on these topics that were witnessed for the past
years.
• The 1812 Constitution was deemed essential if one is to understand the
political, ideological, and intellectual aspects of liberalism. With all its
limitations and its very restricted application in the Peninsula, it was
revolutionary vis-à-vis the political principles that had sustained the
Spanish monarchy for centuries.

• Because Cádiz, liberalism, and the 1812 Constitution are the main
objectives of this bibliography, it centers its attention in Peninsular Spain
during the six years that cover the crisis hispánica and the revolución
liberal española (i.e., 1808–1814) and in Spanish America during those
six years and the following decade, all through which the presence,
weight, and influence of what was still the metropolis was felt in the
entire region (with considerable variations among the different territories