José Rizal

José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda or José Rizal (born June 19, 1861, Calamba,
Philippines—died December 30, 1896, Manila) was a patriot, physician, and man of letters who
was an inspiration to the Philippine nationalist movement.
The son of a prosperous landowner, Rizal was educated in Manila and at the University of
Madrid. A brilliant medical student, he soon committed himself to the reform of Spanish rule in
his home country, though he never advocated Philippine independence. Most of his writing was
done in Europe, where he resided between 1882 and 1892.
In 1887 Rizal published his first novel, Noli me tangere (The Social Cancer), a passionate
exposure of the evils of Spanish rule in the Philippines. A sequel, El filibusterismo (1891; The
Reign of Greed), established his reputation as the leading spokesman of the Philippine reform
movement. He published an annotated edition (1890; reprinted 1958) of Antonio Morga’s
Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, hoping to show that the native people of the Philippines had a
long history before the coming of the Spaniards. He became the leader of the Propaganda
Movement, contributing numerous articles to its newspaper, La Solidaridad, published in
Barcelona. Rizal’s political program included integration of the Philippines as a province of
Spain, representation in the Cortes (the Spanish parliament), the replacement of Spanish friars
by Filipino priests, freedom of assembly and expression, and equality of Filipinos and Spaniards
before the law.
Rizal returned to the Philippines in 1892. He founded a nonviolent-reform society, the Liga
Filipina, in Manila, and was deported to Dapitan in northwest Mindanao. He remained in exile
for the next four years. In 1896 the Katipunan, a Filipino nationalist secret society, revolted
against Spain. Although he had no connections with that organization and he had had no part in
the insurrection, Rizal was arrested and tried for sedition by the military. Found guilty, he was
publicly executed by a firing squad in Manila. His martyrdom convinced Filipinos that there was
no alternative to independence from Spain. On the eve of his execution, while confined in Fort
Santiago, Rizal wrote “Último adiós” (“Last Farewell”), a masterpiece of 19th-century Spanish
verse.

Philippine Revolution
Philippine Revolution, (1896–98), Filipino independence struggle that, after more than 300
years of Spanish colonial rule, exposed the weakness of Spanish administration but failed to
evict Spaniards from the islands. The Spanish-American War brought Spain’s rule in the

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Philippines to a close in 1898 but precipitated the Philippine-American War, a bloody war
between Filipino revolutionaries and the U.S. Army.
Numerous quasi-religious uprisings had punctuated the long era of Spanish sovereignty over
the Philippines, but none possessed sufficient coordination to oust the Europeans. During the
19th century, however, an educated Filipino middle class emerged and with it a desire for
Philippine independence. Opposition before 1872 was primarily confined to the Filipino clergy,
who resented the Spanish monopoly of power within the Roman Catholic Church in the islands.
In that year the abortive Cavite Mutiny, a brief uprising against the Spanish, served as an excuse
for renewed Spanish repression. The martyrdom of three Filipino priests—José Burgos, Mariano
Gómez, and Jacinto Zamora—for allegedly conspiring with the rebels at Cavite sparked a wave
of anti-Spanish sentiment.
Reform-minded Filipinos took refuge in Europe, where they carried on a literary campaign
known as the Propaganda Movement. Dr. José Rizal quickly emerged as the leading
Propagandist. His novel Noli me tángere (1886; The Social Cancer, 1912) exposed the
corruption of Manila Spanish society and stimulated the movement for independence.

The Philippine Revolution

By 1892 it became obvious that Spain was unwilling to reform its colonial government. Andres
Bonifacio, a self-educated warehouse clerk, organized a secret revolutionary society, the
Katipunan, in Manila. Membership grew to an estimated 100,000 by August 1896, when the
Spaniards discovered its existence. Bonifacio immediately issued a call for armed rebellion. The
Spanish then arrested Rizal, who had advocated reform but never condoned the revolution.
Rizal’s public execution, on December 30, 1896, so enraged and united Filipinos as to make
permanent retention of power by Spain clearly impossible.
In March 1897 leadership of the revolution passed to a young general, Emilio Aguinaldo, who
had Bonifacio shot for alleged sedition. Aguinaldo proved incapable of militarily defeating the
Spanish troops, who were augmented by Filipino mercenaries. In the later months of 1897,
Aguinaldo’s revolutionary army was pushed into the mountains southeast of Manila.
On December 15, 1897, the pact of Biak-na-Bato was proclaimed. Though its precise terms have
been a matter of impassioned debate ever since, the pact brought a temporary end to the
Philippine Revolution. Aguinaldo and other revolutionary leaders accepted exile in Hong Kong
and 400,000 pesos, plus Spanish promises of substantial governmental reforms, in return for
laying down their arms. Neither side executed the terms of the pact in good faith. Aguinaldo
used the money to purchase arms in Hong Kong, and the Spanish reneged on the promised
reforms.
After the U.S. Navy commodore George Dewey annihilated the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay on
May 1, 1898, Aguinaldo immediately returned to the Philippines. He began the revolution
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anew, this time against the United States, which had assumed title to the Philippines as a result
of the Spanish defeat. Aguinaldo was captured in 1901 and subsequently appealed to Filipinos
to cease fighting and accept U.S. sovereignty.

Propaganda Movement
Propaganda Movement, reform and national consciousness movement that arose among
young Filipino expatriates in the late 19th century. Although its adherents expressed loyalty to
the Spanish colonial government, Spanish authorities harshly repressed the movement and
executed its most prominent member, José Rizal.
Public education did not arrive in the Philippines until the 1860s, and even then the Roman
Catholic Church controlled the curriculum. Because the Spanish friars made comparatively little
effort to inculcate a knowledge of Castilian, less than one-fifth of those who went to school
could read and write Spanish, and far fewer could speak it. The Filipino populace was thus kept
apart from the colonial power that had been ruling it for more than three centuries. After the
construction of the Suez Canal in 1869, sons of the wealthy were sent to Spain and other
countries for study. At home and abroad, a growing sense of Filipino identity had begun to
manifest, and in 1872 this burgeoning nationalism spawned an armed insurrection. About 200
Filipino soldiers at the Cavite arsenal revolted, killed their officers, and shouted for
independence. Plans for a similar demonstration in Manila failed. The rebellion was quickly
suppressed and led to wholesale arrests, life imprisonment, and the execution of, among
others, three Filipino priests, whose connection with the uprising was not satisfactorily
explained.
In 1888 Filipino expatriate journalist Graciano Lopez Jaena founded the newspaper La
Solidaridad in Barcelona. Throughout its course, La Solidaridad urged reforms in both religion
and government in the Philippines, and it served as the voice of what became known as the
Propaganda Movement. One of the foremost contributors to La Solidaridad was the precocious
José Rizal y Mercado. Rizal wrote two political novels—Noli me tangere (1887; Touch Me Not)
and El filibusterismo (1891; The Reign of Greed)—which had a wide impact in the Philippines.
López Jaena, Rizal, and journalist Marcelo del Pilar emerged as the three leading figures of the
Propaganda Movement, and magazines, poetry, and pamphleteering flourished.
While López Jaena and Pilar remained abroad, in 1892 Rizal returned home and founded the
Liga Filipina, a modest reform-minded society that was loyal to Spain and breathed no word of
independence. As with the Cavite mutiny, the Spanish authorities overreacted to a perceived
threat to their rule. They promptly arrested and exiled Rizal to a remote island in the south.
Meanwhile, within the Philippines there had developed a firm commitment to independence
among the somewhat less privileged class. Shocked by the arrest of Rizal, these activists formed
the Katipunan under the leadership of Andres Bonifacio, a self-educated warehouseman. The
Katipunan was dedicated to the expulsion of the Spanish from the islands, and preparations

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were made for armed revolt. There had been many Filipino rebels throughout the history of
Spanish rule, but now for the first time they were inspired by nationalist ambitions and
possessed the education needed to make success a real possibility.
On August 26, 1896, Bonifacio issued the Grito de Balintawak (“the Cry of Balintawak”), calling
for an armed uprising against the Spanish. The centre of the revolt was in Cavite province,
where Filipino independence leader Emilio Aguinaldo first came into prominence. Spain sent
reinforcements until there was an army of 28,000, along with a few loyal regiments of Filipino
soldiers. A stiff campaign of 52 days brought about the defeat of the insurgents, but the Spanish
once again endeavoured to work against their own interests. Although Rizal had no connection
to the uprising or Katipunan, the Spanish military arrested him and, after a farcical trial, found
him guilty of sedition. He was executed by a firing squad in Manila on December 30, 1896.
The execution of Rizal breathed new life into the insurrection, and the Philippine Revolution
spread to the provinces of Pangasinan, Zambales, and Ilocos. With the destruction of the U.S.
battleship Maine on February 15, 1898, in the harbour of Havana, Cuba, and the subsequent
wave of public indignation, hostilities erupted between Spain and the United States. The exiled
Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines on May 19 and announced renewal of the struggle with
Spain. The Philippines declared independence from Spain on June 12 and proclaimed a
provisional republic with Aguinaldo as president. With the conclusion of the Spanish-American
War, the Philippines, along with Puerto Rico and Guam, were ceded by Spain to the U.S. by the
Treaty of Paris, on December 10, 1898. The Filipino struggle for independence would continue
through the Philippine-American War and would not be achieved until after World War II.

Andres Bonifacio
Andres Bonifacio (born Nov. 30, 1863, Manila—died May 10, 1897, Mt. Buntis, Phil.) was a
Philippine patriot, founder and leader of the nationalist Katipunan society, who instigated the
revolt of August 1896 against the Spanish.
Bonifacio was born of poor parents in Manila and had little formal education, working as a
messenger and warehouse keeper before becoming involved in revolutionary activity. He was,
however, well-read. Unlike the nationalist poet and novelist José Rizal, who wanted to reform
Spanish rule in the Philippines, Bonifacio advocated complete independence from Spain. In
1892 he founded the Katipunan in Manila, modelling its organization and ceremony on that of
the Masonic order. The Katipunan at first grew slowly, but by 1896 it had an estimated 100,000
members and branches not only in Manila but also in central Luzon and on the islands of Panay,
Mindoro, and Mindanao. Its members were mostly workers and peasants; the urban middle
class supported reform rather than revolution.
In August 1896 Bonifacio led the long-planned insurrection on Luzon; but his forces were
defeated by Spanish troops, and he was forced to retreat to Montalban in the north, while

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Emilio Aguinaldo, one of his lieutenants, carried on resistance. As the Spanish systematically
routed the insurrectos, it became increasingly clear that Bonifacio was an ineffective military
leader. In March 1897 a convention at Tejeros named Aguinaldo, rather than Bonifacio,
president of a new Philippine republic. Refusing to recognize the convention, Bonifacio tried to
establish his own rebel government. In April 1897 Aguinaldo had Bonifacio arrested and tried
for treason; he was executed by a firing squad.

The Social Cancer

The Social Cancer, novel by Filipino political activist and author José Rizal, published in 1887.
The book, written in Spanish, is a sweeping and passionate unmasking of the brutality and
corruption of Spanish rule in the Philippines (1565–1898).
The story begins at a party to welcome Crisóstomo Ibarra back to the Philippines after seven
years of studying in Europe. His father, Don Rafael, passed away shortly before his return, and
Crisóstomo soon learns that he died in prison after accidentally killing a tax collector and being
falsely accused of other crimes by Father Dámaso, the longtime curate of the church in
Crisóstomo’s hometown of San Diego. Crisóstomo returns to San Diego, and his fiancée, María
Clara, joins him there. After the schoolmaster tells him that Father Dámaso and the new curate,
Father Salví, interfere with his teaching, Crisóstomo decides to build a new modern school in
San Diego.
On a picnic with María Clara, Crisóstomo goes on a fishing boat and helps the pilot, Elías, kill a
crocodile. Elías later warns Crisóstomo that there is a plot to murder him at the ceremony for
the laying of the school’s cornerstone, and indeed, as Crisóstomo is placing mortar for the
cornerstone, the derrick holding the stone collapses. Although Crisóstomo escapes injury, the
derrick operator is killed. At a dinner later, Father Dámaso insults the new school, Filipinos in
general, Crisóstomo, and Don Rafael. An enraged Crisóstomo attacks him, but María Clara stops
him from killing the priest. Later her father breaks off her engagement to Crisóstomo and
arranges for her betrothal to a young Spanish man, Linares.
Father Salví plots with Lucas, the brother of the deceased derrick operator, to organize a strike
on the barracks of the Civil Guard and to convince the attackers that Crisóstomo is their
ringleader. Father Salví then warns the head of the Civil Guard of the impending assault. When
the attack fails, the rebels say that Crisóstomo was their leader, and he is arrested. Elías helps
Crisóstomo escape from prison, and they flee by boat on the Pasig River with members of the
Civil Guard in pursuit. Elías dives into the river to distract the pursuers and is mortally wounded.
It is reported that Crisóstomo was killed, and a distraught María Clara insists on entering a
convent.
In the novel’s dedication, Rizal explains that there was once a type of cancer so terrible that the
sufferer could not bear to be touched, and the disease was thus called noli me tangere (Latin:

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“do not touch me”). He believed that his homeland was similarly afflicted. The novel offers both
a panoramic view of every level of society in the Philippines of the time and droll satire. Its
description of the cruelty of Spanish rule was a catalyst for the movement for independence in
the country. It later came to be regarded as a classic of Philippine literature, though it is more
frequently read in English or Tagalog translation than in its original Spanish.

El Filibusterismo
El Filibusterismo, the second of José Rizal’s novels of Philippine life, is a story of the last days of
the Spanish régime in the Philippines. Under the name of The Reign of Greed it is for the first
time translated into English. Written some four or five years after Noli Me Tangere, the book
represents Rizal’s more mature judgment on political and social conditions in the islands, and in
its graver and less hopeful tone reflects the disappointments and discouragements which he
had encountered in his efforts to lead the way to reform. Rizal’s dedication to the first edition is
of special interest, as the writing of it was one of the grounds of accusation against him when
he was condemned to death in 1896. It reads:
“To the memory of the priests, Don Mariano Gomez (85 years old), Don José Burgos (30 years
old), and Don Jacinto Zamora (35 years old). Executed in Bagumbayan Field on the 28th of
February, 1872.
“The Church, by refusing to degrade you, has placed in doubt the crime that has been imputed
to you; the Government, by surrounding your trials with mystery and shadows, causes the
belief that there was some error, committed in fatal moments; and all the Philippines, by
worshiping your memory and calling you martyrs, in no [vi]sense recognizes your culpability. In
so far, therefore, as your complicity in the Cavite mutiny is not clearly proved, as you may or
may not have been patriots, and as you may or may not have cherished sentiments for justice
and for liberty, I have the right to dedicate my work to you as victims of the evil which I
undertake to combat. And while we await expectantly upon Spain some day to restore your
good name and cease to be answerable for your death, let these pages serve as a tardy wreath
of dried leaves over your unknown tombs, and let it be understood that every one who without
clear proofs attacks your memory stains his hands in your blood!
-J. Rizal.”
A brief recapitulation of the story in Noli Me Tangere (The Social Cancer) is essential to an
understanding of such plot as there is in the present work, which the author called a
“continuation” of the first story.
Juan Crisostomo Ibarra is a young Filipino, who, after studying for seven years in Europe,
returns to his native land to find that his father, a wealthy landowner, has died in prison as the
result of a quarrel with the parish curate, a Franciscan friar named Padre Damaso. Ibarra is
engaged to a beautiful and accomplished girl, Maria Clara, the supposed daughter and only
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child of the rich Don Santiago de los Santos, commonly known as “Capitan Tiago,” a typical
Filipino cacique, the predominant character fostered by the friar régime.[vii]

Ibarra resolves to forego all quarrels and to work for the betterment of his people. To show his
good intentions, he seeks to establish, at his own expense, a public school in his native town.
He meets with ostensible support from all, especially Padre Damaso’s successor, a young and
gloomy Franciscan named Padre Salvi, for whom Maria Clara confesses to an instinctive dread.
At the laying of the corner-stone for the new schoolhouse a suspicious accident, apparently
aimed at Ibarra’s life, occurs, but the festivities proceed until the dinner, where Ibarra is grossly
and wantonly insulted over the memory of his father by Fray Damaso. The young man loses
control of himself and is about to kill the friar, who is saved by the intervention of Maria Clara.
Ibarra is excommunicated, and Capitan Tiago, through his fear of the friars, is forced to break
the engagement and agree to the marriage of Maria Clara with a young and inoffensive
Spaniard provided by Padre Damaso. Obedient to her reputed father’s command and
influenced by her mysterious dread of Padre Salvi, Maria Clara consents to this arrangement,
but becomes seriously ill, only to be saved by medicines sent secretly by Ibarra and
clandestinely administered by a girl friend.
Ibarra succeeds in having the excommunication removed, but before he can explain matters an
uprising against the Civil Guard is secretly brought about through agents of Padre Salvi, and the
leadership is ascribed to Ibarra to ruin him. He is warned by a mysterious friend, an outlaw
called Elias, whose life he had accidentally saved; but desiring first to see Maria Clara, he
refuses to make his escape, and when the outbreak [viii]occurs he is arrested as the instigator
of it and thrown into prison in Manila.
On the evening when Capitan Tiago gives a ball in his Manila house to celebrate his supposed
daughter’s engagement, Ibarra makes his escape from prison and succeeds in seeing Maria
Clara alone. He begins to reproach her because it is a letter written to her before he went to
Europe which forms the basis of the charge against him, but she clears herself of treachery to
him. The letter had been secured from her by false representations and in exchange for two
others written by her mother just before her birth, which prove that Padre Damaso is her real
father. These letters had been accidentally discovered in the convento by Padre Salvi, who
made use of them to intimidate the girl and get possession of Ibarra’s letter, from which he
forged others to incriminate the young man. She tells him that she will marry the young
Spaniard, sacrificing herself thus to save her mother’s name and Capitan Tiago’s honor and to
prevent a public scandal, but that she will always remain true to him.
Ibarra’s escape had been effected by Elias, who conveys him in a banka up the Pasig to the
Lake, where they are so closely beset by the Civil Guard that Elias leaps into the water and
draws the pursuers away from the boat, in which Ibarra lies concealed.

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On Christmas Eve, at the tomb of the Ibarras in a gloomy wood, Elias appears, wounded and
dying, to find there a boy named Basilio beside the corpse of his mother, a poor woman who
had been driven to insanity by her husband’s neglect and abuses on the part of the Civil Guard,
her younger son having [ix]disappeared some time before in the convento, where he was a
sacristan. Basilio, who is ignorant of Elias’s identity, helps him to build a funeral pyre, on which
his corpse and the madwoman’s are to be burned.
Upon learning of the reported death of Ibarra in the chase on the Lake, Maria Clara becomes
disconsolate and begs her supposed godfather, Fray Damaso, to put her in a nunnery.
Unconscious of her knowledge of their true relationship, the friar breaks down and confesses
that all the trouble he has stirred up with the Ibarras has been to prevent her from marrying a
native, which would condemn her and her children to the oppressed and enslaved class. He
finally yields to her entreaties and she enters the nunnery of St. Clara, to which Padre Salvi is
soon assigned in a ministerial capacity.

Annotated Edition of Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

Jose Rizal’s 1890 annotated edition of Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (1609)
was a landmark historical project designed to prove Filipinos had an advanced culture before
Spanish colonization. Published in Paris, Rizal corrected distortions, defended pre-colonial
customs, and refuted claims of native inferiority.
Key details of this historical work include:
Purpose: Rizal aimed to foster national consciousness by highlighting a "glorious" past,
countering the narrative that Filipinos were uncivilized before 1565.
Methodology: Studying at the British Museum, Rizal meticulously annotated the text, often
clarifying, amplifying, or refuting Morga's observations.
Content: The annotations argue that the Spanish occupation led to the decline of native
industry, culture, and population.
Significance: The work serves as a cornerstone of Filipino historiography, attempting to reclaim
the Philippine narrative from a nationalist perspective.
Reprint: While the original was published in 1890, it was later reprinted in 1958, cementing its
place in historical studies.
Rizal chose Morga’s work because he considered it more objective than other Spanish
chronicles, despite its inherent colonial biases. The annotations often highlighted, for example,
that what Morga described as primitive, Filipinos viewed as sophisticated aspects of their own
culture.
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The annotated edition of Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas was published by
José Rizal in Paris in 1890, and a significant reprint was published in the Philippines in 1958 by
the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission.
Overview of the Annotated Edition
José Rizal's 1890 annotated edition of Antonio de Morga's 1609 work is a foundational text in
Philippine historiography. Rizal dedicated the work to the Filipino people, aiming to awaken
their consciousness of their pre-colonial history and correct distortions made by Spanish
chroniclers.
Original Author: Antonio de Morga, a Spanish colonial official, wrote the original Sucesos as a
secular, eyewitness account of the early history of the Spanish colony.
Rizal's Purpose: Rizal annotated the work to provide a Filipino perspective on history, using
Morga's relatively objective observations to demonstrate that the Philippines had an advanced
and prosperous civilization before Spanish colonization.
Rizal's Research: Rizal hand-copied the entire 351-page manuscript while researching in the
British Museum in London.
1890 Publication: The first annotated edition was published in Paris by Libreria de Garnier
Hermanos, with a prologue by Rizal's friend, Ferdinand Blumentritt. Copies were heavily
censored and confiscated by Spanish authorities in the Philippines, making the first edition
extremely rare.
1958 Reprint: The annotated version did not appear widely in the Philippines until 1958, when
the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission published a new edition as the sixth volume of
the Series of Writings of Jose Rizal. This made the work accessible to a broader Filipino
audience decades after its initial publication.
Key Themes in Rizal's Annotations
Rizal's annotations countered the Spanish narrative by highlighting the existence of a
sophisticated pre-colonial Filipino civilization with established trading systems, advanced
agriculture, and existing governance structures and metallurgy. He detailed the negative impact
of Spanish colonization on native culture and critiqued how colonial policies disrupted
indigenous development. By offering a counter-history, Rizal aimed to validate pre-colonial
Philippine culture and assert a national identity based on historical evidence.

Citation Information:
Article Title: José Rizal
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
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Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 10 December 2025
URL: [Link]
Access Date: January 26, 2026

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