Rizal’s Ancestry
 DOMINGO LAM CO Context: World Events during the time of Rizal
- Rizal’s Great Grandfather
- from Fujian, China
- landed in Binondo
- baptized at age 35
- Married a Chinese mestiza: Ines de la Rosa
- settled at the Dominican Estate in Binan, Laguna
 FRANCISCO MERCADO
- son of Domingo Lam Co and Ines de la Rosa
- assumed the surname Mercado (market)
- Rizal’s grandfather
 FRANCISCO ENGRACIO MERCADO
- son of Francisco Mercado
- father of Rizal
- lived at the Dominican Hacienda
Catalogo Alpabetico de Apellidos (1848)
• Governor General Narciso Claveria- issued a decree
ordering all natives to adapt new surnames for proper
taxation.
• Exempted: Filipinos from the old nobility such as the
Lakandulas and the Makapagals who helped the
Spanish pacify the islands;
: also the pure Chinese who had a separate tax
• Mercado family was not exempted as they already
intermarried with mestizos and lived in the islands for
generations
• Rizal’s father chose Ricial (“green fields”), then
eventually Rizal Mercado
• Rizal’s mother, Teodora Alonso Realonda, came from
Manila, who had Japanese and mestizo ancestry.
The Hacienda de Calamba
• After getting married, Rizal’s parents moved to the
neighboring town of Calamba, where the Dominicans
had a hacienda.
• The Dominican hacienda was over two thousand
hectares from the boundary of Binan and Santa Rosa
to the foothills of Mount Makiling
• Rizal’s family was able to lease 500 hectares and
hired sharecroppers to do the actual cultivation. Don
Francisco (Rizal’s Father) also became a principalia.
BAHAY NA BATO
• built at the plaza de Calamba,
• while Dona Teodora managed a store and a ham press
which produced meats.
• Rizal’s family also engaged in the trading of sugar and
of dyestuff.
• Later, a second bahay na bato was built in another
part of Calamba.
The Rizal House
• had a library of more than a thousand books
• also entertained visitors to Calamba consisting of
priests (“turkey dinners”) and of government officials
Rizal’s oldest brother Paciano, graduated with a Bachiller en
Arts degree from San Juan de Letran.
-The Dominicans were very generous to the Rizal family. For
the first five years, they don’t have to pay any rent, after which
the Rizal family only had to pay 15 pesos instead of the standard
25 pesos.
-The lands were very fertile and there was a ready source of
water
United States
- Civil War, Negro slavery, and the Emancipation
Proclamation of 1863
Russia
- Czar Alexander II emancipated tens of millions of serfs.
Mexico
- Just before Rizal’s birth in 1861, had a full-blooded
Zapotec Indian President
England under Queen Victoria
- predominant imperial power in the world
Italy and Germany
- unified into powerful, political entities
China
- divided up by Europeans after the Opium War
India
- under British raj rule. The rest of Asia divided up
amongst the Europeans
Japan
- opened up by America to the world, ending its 214 year
isolation, with modernization
Germany
- a late imperial power; acquired colonies in Africa and
began seeking Pacific possessions. Nearly went to war
with Spain over the Central Pacific Islands. If not for the
arbitration of Pope Leo XIII.
Spain
- was a fading power, having lost her rich colonies in
Central and South America to revolution and
independence. By the late 1800s, the Spanish Empire
was reduced to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines
(which included Guam).
The Philippines during the 18th century
• The rise of the export crop economy and monopolies
- Governor General Jose de Basco y Vargas (1778)-
who saw the potential for large scale production of cash
crops in the colony
- Basco established the Royal Company of the
Philippines in 1785 to finance these projects. The
purpose was to make the colony self-supporting and
self-sufficient.
- Repealed ban on Chinese merchants- would lead to the
rise of the Chinese mestizos
- Began to open Manila to foreign traders, both Asian
and non-Asian
- The Tobacco monopoly – remittances(payment); cigar
production – led to cultivation of abaca and sugar
- Basco’s efforts were successful- from 1800 to 1810,
exports of Philippine origin accounted for 10 percent
of total exports (from forest and sea products).
- By the 1840’s, almost 90 percent of total export
revenue came from six Philippine-grown cash crops:
sugar, tobacco, abaca (hemp) fiber and cordage,
indigo, coffee and cotton. The cash economy replaced
trade in kind.
- The rise of the Chinese mestizo - new immigrants linked
provincial producers to the world market
- The Parian (Chinese sector in Manila) was re-
established
- Indio and mestizo elites- a new middle class
The Galleon Trade
• With the end of the Spanish empire in the America, the
Manila-Acapulco galleon which linked American and
Asian trade and which began in 1565, ended in 1815
Foreign Trade
• Manila was opened to world trade officially in 1834-
city became a “port of call”
- more diverse jobs, more money transactions and more
cultural diversions
- Manila’s population increased from 100,000 in 1822
to 150,000 by the mid-1800s
• In the 1850s and 1860s, the ports of Iloilo and Cebu • Racial hierarchy in the Philippines under Spain
opened to foreign shipping, stimulating trade and
agriculture in the Visayas. New tracts of forestland on
Negros were cleared for sugar.

Opening of the Suez Canal

• The Suez Canal was opened to world trade in 1869
- dramatically decreased travel time from Europe and
led to many Spanish migrating (like birds of prey) to the
Philippines in search of jobs. Therefore, the Philippines
became a dumping ground, displacing Filipinos.
- enabled ilustrados to easily reach Europe from the
Philippines for study and for travel
- hastened the movement of people and of ideas from
Europe to the Philippines
• Domination of imports, exports and distribution by the
British and by the Chinese in the Philippines
Under Spanish Government
• Centralized- the Ministries of the Colonies
established in Madrid in 1863- exercised executive,
legislative, judicial and religious powers.
• The Governor General
- appointed by the Spanish monarch
- Represents the King in all state and religious matters
- Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines
- The Vice Royal Patron over the religious affairs in the
islands
- The ex-officio President of the Royal Audiencia, which
enjoyed judicial powers
- There were 112 Spanish-Governor Generals in our
country. The first one was Miguel Lopez de Legazpi
(1565-1572) and the last was Diego de los Rios
(1898)
Spanish Political Institutions In The Philippines
• Local Government Unit of the Philippines Under
Imperial Spain
•
Situation in the Philippines during the 19th century
• 19th century
- said to be the century of Rizal
- Industrial Revolution fueled by the commercial
revolution
• Changes were fueled by the European desire for
foreign goods not available in Europe, such as coffee,
chocolate, cane sugar, cotton and tobacco.
Worldwide Economic Changes
• Advancement of science during the 19th century led to
the invention of machines such as the steam engine
(replaced sailing ships and manual labor in industries
such as textile weaving and animal power in
transportation) and of the cotton gin, which made the
removal of cottonseeds from fibers more efficiently.
• In the northern United States, machines replaced slave
labor. In the southern United States, slave labor
persisted until the US Civil War
• The Philippines was affected by the twin commercial
and industrial revolutions. The Philippines began to
export its own products including sugar, tobacco, some
coffee, the abaca fiber (for making ropes) - which
came to be called Manila hemp. Manila hemp came
to be in demand by many American shipbuilding
companies in New York, Massachusetts and
Connecticut.
• From an entrepot based economy to that of a cash crop
economy
• End of monopolies and the rise of a laissez-faire
economy - an export economy that led to prosperity
for the Filipino middle and upper classes
• The end of the galleon trade in 1817
• British and American exporters traded with Filipinos
 • 1796- the first American ship, the Astrea, sailed directly
to the Philippines to load a cargo of sugar and
returned to Salem, Connecticut after 70 days
• Large rice, sugar and abaca growing lands; Filipino
hacenderos; friar orders owning large hacienderos;
and the inquilinos of the friar haciendas.
• EXAMPLE- Rizal’s Chinese ancestor Domingo Lam-co,
who came to the Binan hacienda in the mid-18th century.
The average holding of an inquilino back then was 2.9
hectares.
- After Rizal’s father moved to the Calamba hacienda,
the Rizal family in the 1890s rented from the hacienda
over 390 hectares.
Economic Changes in the Philippines
• Foreign businessmen not only bought local goods for
the international market, but also created demand for
finished goods made in Europe and America.
• The buyers of the goods were the local elite and the
emerging middle class
• European goods, European fashions and jewelry were
seen as a sign of affluence
• Many benefited including the traders in contact with the
foreign merchants, managers of farms who leased land
for agriculture; big landowners also leased lands to
inquilinos.
• The inquilinos lease lands to sharecroppers or tenants
known as kasamas, who do the actual cultivation in the
field
Inquilinos
- Were in contact with traders who sold the goods locally
or abroad. The inquilinos profit enormously. They
began to have bahay na bato or stone houses and have
better clothes and food. They became the new local
elite and had the financial means to send their children
to colleges and to universities in Manila or even
abroad.
Dark Side To The Commercial Revolution
• More lands had to be opened for cultivation
• Lands were titled to those who can read and write
• Practices like landgrabbing and duping of illiterate
landowners became common
• People with means, such as religious orders owned
lands
• Farmers now found that the land was no longer theirs
and that they had to pay rent to a landowner; they
were sometimes driven off the land
• The increasing gap between the rich and the poor
- mestizos and indios rose above others, becoming the
new, local elite
- but their rise only became possible because of the
sweat and toil of the sharecroppers
- the rise of a new oppressive class and the rise of the
remontados
• Also, increasing friction between the haciendas and
the prosperous inquilinos over the fruits of the economic
boom. The motive would be both political and
economic- to weaken the friars’ influence in Philippine
political life.
Changes in Political Thinking
• Absolute rule gave way to Enlightenment ideas such as
power in the people’s hands (the social contract) by the
French noble Baron de Montesquieu and Englishman
John Locke.
• The monarch then enters into a covenant with the
people where the monarch is to provide good and just
governance to the people who will in turn render him
allegiance.
• Philosophes (Jean Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu,
Locke, Benjamin Franklin and even Thomas Jefferson)
• The concept of God-given rights that cannot be taken
away unless it was necessary to preserve order and
freedom
• The American Revolution (led to the Constitution of the
United States)
• French Revolution (liberty, equality and fraternity)
A note on rights
• Though people maybe equal in terms of rights some
rights will have to be surrendered for the benefit of the
majority. To have equal rights such as speech,
expression and movement will invite anarchy. Some will
have to be toned down to preserve order.
• French Revolution led to regicide
Political Change in Spain
• Spain joined France in the Continental System during
the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother,
Joseph, ascended to the Spanish throne. But the
Spanish preferred the deposed Crown Prince,
Ferdinand. The Spanish retreated to the port city of
Cadiz and fought a guerilla war against the occupying
French.
The Constitution of Cadiz in 1812
• Liberal minded Spanish believed that power must be
shared with the people and that the government must
follow a basic law that is approved by the people.
• Through the Constitution of Cadiz in 1812, the
government in Cadiz extended representation even to
the colonies, giving the Philippines representation in the
Cortes.
a.) Gave equal rights to both Spanish citizens and
colonials
b.) Abolished forced labor
c.) abolition of the galleon trade
• In Manila, Spanish residents elected a trader named
Ventura de los Reyes, who traveled from Manila to
Cadiz in 1813. In Cadiz, de los Reyes participated in
the deliberations of the Cortes.
End of Cadiz
• But as Napoleon pulled out all the French troops from
Spain, Ferdinand VII reassumed absolute rule. He
persecuted the liberals, dissolved the Cortes and
abrogated the Cadiz constitution.
• Forced labor was reinstated in the Philippines
Further Representation for the Philippines
 In 1822, a separatist revolt succeeded and restored
the Cadiz Constitution, and representation was
restored for the Philippines. But this revolt was short
lived as Ferdinand VII returned to the throne
 In 1833, with the death of Ferdinand, the ascendancy
of Maria Cristina as Queen regent for her daughter.
Maria Cristina was forced by the Cortes to grant
representation to the people and to the colonies, but
not to the Philippines.
End of Representation
 The Philippines was placed under a government called
the Overseas Ministry
 From then on, the Philippines did not have
representation in the Spanish parliament and Spain
continued its downward spiral due to mismanagement.
The Philippine Middle Class
 The opening of Manila and ports across the country
opened the islands to foreign trade
 Traders and inquilinos who traded in agricultural
products benefited and accumulated new wealth
 The new native elite were no longer the descendants of
the datu class but the merchant class
The New Middle Class
 The rise of the principals - the new rich and middle class
 Prefixes - The use of Dons and Doñas. Even Mr. and
Mrs. became badges of distinctions. Also Senor, Senora
and the children Senorito and Senorita, which carried
bigger weight in pride.
- By contrast, Mang and Aleng are native prefixes.
The Limpieza De Sangre (Purity of Blood)
 The Indio and the mestizo cannot:
- Become Governor Generals or Governors of
provinces
- For those who joined religious life, cannot become
Bishops or Archbishops
- Cannot become priests of regular orders like the
Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans or Recollects
- In the military or civil guard, cannot rise above the
rank of teniente
 The only way Indios and Mestizos can advance was
through business.
 Some become lawyers, but the Limpieza de Sangre
ensures that some offices and positions are off limits to
indios and mestizos regardless of how well they
improve their economic and social status; closed off
avenues for advancement
 Indios and mestizos therefore enter into business, law
and secular priesthood
 Peninsulares and Insulares also looked down on the
natives and the mestizos.
 Worst off were the common and uneducated indios,
who only started receiving basic education in 1863.
The indios lead simple lives as tenant farmers and
fishermen. Some served the Spanish army as soldiers
and some served as policemen.
How the Spaniards Retained So Much Power
 The population of the Philippines in the 19th century
under Spain numbered around 3 to 4 million people.
Spaniards were less than 10 percent of the population.
 Most of the Spaniards were concentrated in cities like
Manila
 But in the provinces, typically the only Spaniard in town
was the alferez and the commander of the Civil Guard
 Members of the police and the military were natives.
 Divide and conquer - troops from another area or
province is used to suppress the uprising.
- the Spanish also sought to secure native loyalty
through the granting of positions and status, especially
at the local level
 It was also rare to find Spanish residents in the towns
as most of them were concentrated in Manila and the
cities.
 By 1896, there were 30,000 Spanish as compared to
3 million Indios
 The British and the Americans handled foreign trade,
while the Chinese and the ethnic Chinese were
suppliers. Spain merely held positions of religious and
political authority.
The Scientfic Revolution of the 19th Century
 More emphasis on science rather than religion
- scientific method - the use of evidences and of
logic
 Free masonry - a brotherhood established on the
principles of equality among its members; encouraged
free speech and thought
- opposed to the Church
- Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, secularism
- late 19th century Philippines - Masonic Lodges
The Spanish Time During Rizal’s Time
 During the 19th century, the Philippines was one of the
last large colonies of Spain left (and the richest colony)
after the independence of the Latin American colonies
 Communication with Spain became faster in the 1840s
with the invention of the telegraph
 In 1869, the Suez Canal significantly cut the sailing
distance between Manila and Barcelona from between
two to three months to just one month.
Political Challenges During 19th Century
 Political upheavals in Spain - a period of secularism;
conservatives vs liberals, constitution changes,
government turnovers, party strifes, and revolutions.
 Between 1835 and 1897, the Philippines was ruled by
50 governors general - hampered the political and
economic development of the Philippines. Also, no
representation in the Cortes, but instead through the
Ministry for Overseas Colonies.
 Politico-military governments in Visayas and
Mindanao, with Mindanao turned into a mission field
for the Jesuits.
 Challenges such as
a. corruption
b. the inability to provide for basic needs of public
works, schools, peace and order
c. oppression and harassment by the Guardia Civil
d. an antiquated form of taxation that hampered
modernization of roads, bridges and other public
works
e. highly protective tariffs that forced Filipinos to buy
expensive Spanish textiles than the cheaper British
ones
  corruption, cruelty, incompetence and venality of
leaders
 The issue of representation in the Cortes
- Filipinos had representation in the Cortes (the
Spanish Parliament) between 1810 and 1813 -
Ventura de los Reyes (Cadiz Constitution of 1812,
which abolished the galleon trade)
- There were further periods of representation
(1820-1823) and (1834-1837)
- Representation of the overseas colonies (including
the Philippines) was finally abolished in 1837.
Philippine conditions thereafter worsened.
 1883 - Graciano Lopez-Jaena - implore the Spanish
Cortes in Madrid for Philippine representation. The
Philippines never gained representation until the end of
Spanish rule in 1898.
 The Laws of the Indies, which protected the rights of
natives and promoted their welfare, were not enforced
in the Philippines.
 Courts were unjust
- Dr. Rizal’s family
- Juan de la Cruz in Cavite
 A fair justice system only appeared to be for White
Spaniards.
 There was also plenty of racial discrimination - “a white
skin, a high nose, and Castilian lineage”- superiority
 Racial prejudice - in government offices, in courts, in the
armed forces, in the social circles, and even in the
educational institutions and in the ecclesiastical
hierarchy.
 “Government run by the friars”- historically, the friars
controlled the religious and educational life of the
Philippines, and later in the 19th century, they came to
acquire tremendous political power, influence and
riches. (the role played by the friar curate)
“Government Run by the Friars
- the friar runs local affairs, acting as the local school
inspector, health inspector, prison inspector, inspector
of the accounts, cabezas de Barangay. He approves
census lists, tax lists, list of army conscripts, and
register of births, deaths, marriages; power and
influence increased from 1850s onwards. They
acquired tremendous political power, influence and
riches.
 Rizal, M.H. del Pilar, Graciano Lopez-Jaena and other
Filipinos eventually became critical of friar rule in the
Philippines, despite Christianity and European
civilization.
 Most friars were good, but there were also bad friars
 Forced Labor- polo y servicio
- All male Spanish residents between 18 and 60
were also required to render forced labor, but
they and the well to do Filipinos who can pay for
the exemption (falla). Filipinos resented the race-
based practices.
Educational Transformations
 Colonial education was in the hands of the friars -
missionaries established schools, appointed teachers,
and developed the schools’ curricula. But focus was on
memorization in the vernacular. Contents were on the
fear of God and obedience to the friars.
 University of Santo Tomas - (Dominicans, 1611)- by Fr.
Miguel de Benavides; first known as the College of Our
Lady of Rosary, then as Colegio de Santo Tomas. In
1645, it became a university known as UST, which
offered courses in medicine, pharmacy, theology,
philosophy, canon and civil law. Only Spaniards,
mestizos and wealthy Filipinos were admitted. Young
Indios can study for the priesthood or law, with the
opening of the Faculty of Civil Law in 1734. By 1871,
young physicians or pharmacists may study at the
Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy.
 In schools, the girls were separated from the boys. For
boys, Colegio de Santo Tomas and Colegio de San
Juan de Letran under the Dominicans and Ateneo de
Municipal, under the Jesuits. For girls, Santa Isabel, La
Concordia, Santa Rosa and Santa Catalina. The
Dominican Rector at UST oversees all the schools. All
were required to take an examination before
admission.
 Educational Decree of 1863 - required one elementary
school for boys and one for girls in each town in the
country; a normal school for teacher training, with
Spanish as the medium of instruction.
 Some natives may even aspire to study abroad in
universities in Spain and in Europe
 Agricultural unrest by rural folks in friar-owned
haciendas.
 Rizal, whose family and relatives were tenants of the
Dominican Estate of Calamba, advocated land reform,
but this went against the Dominican friars. Rizal would
accuse all the friars of contributing to economic
stagnation.
 Guardia Civil in the Philippines was accused of many
abuses towards the natives. Rizal and his mother were
said to have been victims of the Guardia Civil.
Filipino Nationhood
 Only developed during the last years of Spanish rule
in the 1890’s
 Owing to:
1. Opening of the Philippines to world commerce -
liberal ideas
- deplorable conditions of the country- political
reform
2. rise of the middle class (basis of nationalism) –
sons of mestizos and the principalia educated in
Europe; compared European vs Filipino society
3. the liberal regime of Carlos Maria de la Torre
(1869) - freedom and democracy
4. racial discrimination - in universities and colleges,
government offices, church and court of justice.
- Fray Miguel de Bustamante wrote Si Tandang
Basyong Macunat – the Filipino has low mental
ability, is not capable of acquiring education,
 and could only tend to the field and work the
carabao
5. secularization controversy - a racial controversy
between the Spanish friars and the Filipino secular
clergy (who the friars claimed were unqualified to
administer parishes)
- Fr. Pedro Pelaez, an insulares and Vicar of
Manila, led the fight against royal decrees
turning secular parishes over to friars
- Fr. Burgos - Filipino priests and Spanish priests
were equal
o defended the Filipino clergy from
Spanish attacks; fostered unity
6. Cavite Mutiny of 1872 - mutiny of the Filipino
soldiers in the arsenal in Cavite due to the removal
of the exemptions from tributes and forced labor
- Fr. Jose Burgos, Fr. Mariano Gomez, and Fr.
Jacinto Zamora were executed for their
involvement in secularization
 Filipinos saw the priests as martyrs and saw
the need for unity
 A turning point - peaceful campaign for
reforms that led to the Propaganda
Movement
 Many native priests were relegated to being just co-
adjutors due to limpieza de sangre
 Fr. Burgos - the youngest and the most brilliant with eight
degrees from UST. Fr. Zamora was an examiner of priests
at the Manila Cathedral. Fr. Gomez was a crusading
parish priest from Bacoor who fought for the natives.
 Governor General Carlos Maria de la Torre (liberal) -
pardoned the leader of the agrarian unrest in Cavite and
even made him chief of police force; abolished flogging
as punishment for desertion; dismissed his bodyguards and
mingled with people (populist approach)
 Governor General Rafael Izquierdo (conservative)- rule
with the Cross on one hand and the Sword on the other

Cavite Mutiny of 1872

 Mutiny of the Filipino soldiers in the arsenal in Cavite due

to the removal of the exemptions from tributes and forced
labor
- Fr. Jose Burgos, Fr. Mariano Gomez, and Fr. Jacinto
Zamora were executed for their involvement in
secularization. But before they were executed, the
Archbishop of Manila Meliton Martinez refused to
defrocked them.
- Filipinos saw the priests as martyrs and saw the need
for unity
- Filipinos witnessing GOMBURZA execution was a
turning point for Filipino nationalism