NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY,INC
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte
Unit 2:
The World of Rizal’s Times
and To appreciate and grasp the personality of Rizal, it is but necessary to know the history
of the world and of course, the Philippines during his times.
19th
Basically, the 19th century when he was born and lived was a century full of turmoil and
chaos. There were many battles, conquests, radical changes brought about by revolts, upheavals
and uprisings in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
The World of Rizal’s Times
1. On February 19, 1861, the liberal Czar Alexander II, issued a proclamation emancipating
22,500,00 serfs.
2. On June 19, 1861, the American world War (1861-65) was raging in the United States over
the issue of Negro slavery.
3. On June 1, 1861, Benito Juarez, a full-blooded Zapotec Indian, was elected President of
Mexico. A year after his election, emperor Napoleon III of the Second French Empire sent
French troops which invaded and conquered Mexico.
4. In Rizal’s times, two European nations, Italy and Germany succeeded in unifying their own
countries.
5. There was also the flowering of Western imperialism. England emerged as the world’s
leading imperial power.
6. Other imperialists such as France, grabbed the weak countries in Southeast Asia and
colonized them.
7. Czarist Russia turned eastward to Asia, conquering Siberia and later occupied Kamchatka,
Kuriles, and Alaska.
8. On July 8, 1853, an American squadron under the command of commodore Matthew C.
Perry re-opened Japan to the world
SS 106 : Life, Works, and Writings of Rizal Page 1
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY,INC
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte
9. Germany was somehow late in acquiring colonies in Asia and Africa. She turned to the
island archipelagos of the mid-pacific world.
10. While the imperialist powers were enjoying the fruits of their colonial ventures and
achieving global prestige, Spain was stagnating as a world power. Her former colonies has
risen in arms against Spanish tyranny and achieved their independence.
The times of Rizal saw the flowering of Western imperialism. England emerged as the world’s
leading imperialist power. On account of her invincible navy and magnificent army, she was able
to conquer many countries throughout the world and to establish a global colonial empire. Thus
the British people during the glorious reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) proudly asserted:
“Britannia rules the waves.” By winning the First Opium War (1840-1842) against the tottering
Chinese Empire under the Manchu dynasty, she acquired the island of Hong Kong (Fragrant
Harbor). In the Second Opium War (1856-1860), she won again and forced the helpless Manchu
dynasty to cede the Kowloon Peninsula opposite Hong Kong. In 1859, after suppressing the Indian
Rebellion and dismantling the Mogul Empire, she imposed her rule over India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh. By winning the Three Anglo-Burmese Wars, she conquered Burma. Other lands in
Asia which became British colonies were Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Maldives, Aden, Malaya,
Singapore, and Egypt, Australia, and New Zealand of the South Pacific also became British
colonies.
Other imperialists grabbed the weak countries in Southeast Asia and colonized them. In 1858-
1863, France conquered Vietnam; annexed Cambodia and Laos; and all these countries into a
federated colony under the name French Indochina. The Dutch colonized this vast and rich
archipelago and named it the Netherlands of East Indies (now Indonesia).
SS 106: Life, Works, and Writings of Rizal Page 2
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY,INC
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte
Russia turned eastward to Asia, conquering Siberia and later occupied Kamchatka, Kuriles, and
Alaska (which she sold in 1867 to the U.S. for $7,200,000). From 1865-1884, she conquered the
Muslim Khanates of Bokhara, Khiva, and Kokand in Central Asia.
On July 8, 1853, an American squadron under the command of Commodore Matthew C. Perry re-
opened Japan to the world. After this event, which ended Japan’s 214-year isolation, Emperor
Meiji modernized the country by freely accepting western influences, including imperialism.
Germany, on the other hand, turned to the archipelagoes of the mid-Pacific world. On August 25,
1885, a German warship, the Ilties, entered the harbour of Yap, an island in the Carolines, landing
the German marines who seized the island, hoisted the German flag and proclaimed the Carolines
and Palaus as colonies of Germany.
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