Life, Works and Writings of
Jose Rizal
Chapter 3.
Political
Development
The Spanish rule
in the 19th
Century
The Filipinos became the Spaniard’s
slaves.
Appointment of officials with inferior
qualifications, without dedication of
duty and moral strenght to resist
corruption for material advancement.
They collected and wasted the money
of the Filipinos.
They had the right to appoint the
different positions obtained by the
Governor-general of the country.
The term of office depends on the
desire of the King of Spain .
The Spanish officials travelled too
much and id not put too much
attention to the needs of the people.
The Alacadias/Alcade is the most
corrupt which includes the
administrators, judges and military
commandants.
They have P25/mo.
liberal allowances and
priveleges to take certain
percentage of money
the total amount of taxes.
There was also business practice
called “indulto para comerciar” and
the monopoly trades
Rise and Gradual Spread of
Liberalism and Democracy
Principal ideas of Liberalism: liberty
and equality. Was realized in the
American Revolution.
It demanded:
-representative government
- equality before the law
-
The idea of Liberty also meant to
specific individuals freedoms:
- freedom of the press
- freedom of speech
- freedom of assembly
- freedom from arbitrary
arrest
Democracy became a
way of life in
European countries
like Britain, Belgium
and Switzerland.
Democracy was gradually established
through the following means:
-promulgation of laws that advance
democracy;
-undertaking of reforms thru
legislation;
-abolition of slavery;
- adoption of a liberal constitution;
-providing the citizens the
“opportunity to propose laws;
- adoption of manhood suffrage;
- granting of political and social rights
of people
Impact of the Bourbon Reforms
Castilian: Reformas
Borbonicas were set of
economic and political
legislations promulgated
by the Spanish crown
under various kings of
the House of Bourbons
in the 18th century.
The crown pursued state supremacy
over the Catholic Church resulting in :
- the suppression of the Society
of Jesus;
-and an attempt to abolish
ecclesiatical privelege (fuero
eclesiastico)
The Bourbon Reforms were intended
to :
1. Stimulate manufacturing and
technology to modernize Spain.
2. Designed to make the administration
more efficient and to promote its
economic, commercial and fiscal
development
3. To Limit the power of Creoles and re-
establish Spanish supremacy over the
colonies such as the Philippines.
Cadiz Constitution of 1812
A Spanish constitution ,
adopted by the
Constituent Cortes in
Cadiz on March 18, 1812
and made public on
March 19, 1812 during
the Spanish Revolution
of 1808-14.
The Declaration of The Cadiz
Constitution:
- Art. 13. “Sovereign resides in the
nation, which retains the exclusive right
to establish its own fundamental laws”
-Art 14. Spain was proclaimed a
hereditary monarchy
- Art 15. Legislative power vested in the
Cortes and the monarch and
- Art 16. Executive power represented by
the monarch
- Art. 286 and 307 . The constitution
proclaimed individual freedom and the
inviolability of domicile .
- Art. 12. Catholicism the official religion
of Spain and prohibited the practice of
any other religion.
- Art. 18. The equality of Spaniards of
the mother country and those of the
Spanish colonies
-Art. 362. Establishment of a national
militia in the provinces.
King Ferdinand VII :
- on his return to Spain,
he revoked the
constitution on May 4,
1814.
Riego y Nunez
- the constitution was restored by his
proclamation at the outbreak of the
Spanish Revolution of 1820-1823.
Oct. 1, 1823 : the constitution was
abolished by Ferdinand VII .
June 18, 1837 : the constitution went
into effect for a 3rd time in response
to the demands of the masses .
Related Events Concerning the Cadiz
Constitution
Ferdinand VII, byname Ferdinand the
Desired, Spanish Fernando el Deseado,
(born October 14, 1784, El Escorial,
Spain—died September 29, 1833,
Madrid), king of Spain in 1808 and from
1814 to 1833. Between 1808 and 1813,
during the Napoleonic Wars, Ferdinand
was imprisoned in France by Napoleon.
Ferdinand was the son of Charles IV and
Maria Luisa of Parma, who placed their
whole confidence in Manuel de
Godoy. From 1795 Godoy had flaunted the
title of prince of the Peace for his
capitulation to France in the Peace of Basel.
Ferdinand’s tutor stirred up his jealousy and
encouraged him to seek the protection
of Napoleon. Charles IV was sufficiently
alarmed to arrest Ferdinand but forgave
him.
When Godoy allowed French troops to enter
Spain, Charles was overthrown by the Revolt
of Aranjuez (March 17, 1808), and
he abdicated in favour of Ferdinand.
However, French troops occupied Madrid,
and Napoleon summoned Ferdinand to the
frontier and obliged him to return the crown
to his father, who granted it to Napoleon.
Napoleon made his brother Joseph
Bonaparte king of Spain and held Ferdinand
in France for the duration of the war.
It was left to the Spanish populace to rise
against the French invaders in the name of
the absent Ferdinand, known as “the
Desired.” In 1812 independent Spaniards
adopted the Constitution of Cádiz, but in
December 1813 Napoleon released
Ferdinand expressly to overthrow it. When
Ferdinand returned to Spain in 1814 he was
urged by reactionaries to abolish the Cortes
of Cádiz and all its works, which he did
almost immediately.
He resumed his obsolete powers and
attempted to recover control of Spanish
America, now partly independent. But his
ministers could neither reinforce his armies
in America nor persuade the British
government to collaborate or connive at
reconquest. In 1820 a liberal revolution
restored the Constitution of 1812, which
Ferdinand accepted, but in 1823 Louis
XVIII of France sent the duc d’Angoulême at
the head of a large army to release Ferdinand
from his radical ministers.
Ferdinand’s new
government arrested the
radicals or drove them into
exile. By 1826 the Spanish
possessions in America
were all independent.
Ferdinand’s government
now depended on a militia,
the Royalist Volunteers,
and the French forces of
occupation.
Ferdinand had no children from his three
marriages, and his absolutist supporters
looked to his even more absolutist
younger brother, Don Carlos (Carlos María
Isidro de Borbón), to succeed him. In 1830
his fourth wife, María Cristina, gave birth
to a daughter, the future Isabella II.
Isabella’s birth prompted Ferdinand to
revoke the Salic Law of Succession, which
prevented women from acceding to the
throne.
During Ferdinand’s illness, Don Carlos tried
to persuade the queen to recognize his
rights, but Ferdinand recovered, banished
Don Carlos, and looked for moderate
liberal support for his young daughter.
When Ferdinand died in September 1833,
Isabella was recognized as the sovereign,
but his widow was obliged to lean on the
liberals as Don Carlos asserted his claims
from Portugal and thus began the First
Carlist War.
( Source: The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica )