During Rizal's lifetime from 1861-1896, the world was experiencing significant changes and imperialism was on the rise. Many European powers were colonizing parts of Asia and Africa. The Philippines was still under oppressive Spanish colonial rule, experiencing political instability, corrupt officials, denial of human rights, forced labor under the friars' hacienda system, and abuse from the Guardia Civil. Rizal would go on to advocate for reforms and greater freedom for the Filipino people living under these conditions of Spanish colonialism.

1. RIZAL AND HIS TIME
PROLOGUE
The world of Rizal’s Times

2. Objectives
 1. Discuss the historical background of
the world and of the Philippines during
Rizal’s time.
 2. Identify the different evils done by
the Spanish authorities in the
Philippines.
 3. Appreciate the events that led to the
positive change in the lives of the

3. Before the birth of Rizal.

4.  Feb. 19, 1861 – the liberal Czar
Alexander II issued a proclamation
emancipating 22,500,000 serfs to
appease the rising discontent of the
Russian masses.
 June 19, 1861 the birth of Rizal, the
American Civil war was raging
furiously in the United States on the
negro Slavery.

5.  April 12, 1861 the negro slavery in
the United States erupted.
 September 22, 1863, President
Lincoln issued his famous
Emancipation Proclamation.
 June 1, 1861, Benito Juarez, a full
blooded Zapotec Indian was
elected president of Mexico.

6.  Emperor Napoleon III of the
Second French Empire with his
imperialistic desire to secure a
colonial stake in Latin America
invaded and conquered Mexico.
He installed Archduke
Maximilian of Austria as puppet
emperor of Mexico on June 12,
1864.

7.  Because of the raging American
Civil War President Juarez cannot
obtain military aid from his friend
president Lincoln.

8.  Battle of Queretaro – President
Juarez with the help of the US
troops defeated the Maximilian
forces and executed Emperor
Maximilian. Thus fizzled out
Napoleon’s ambition to colonize
Latin America.

9. The Birth of Rizal
 Italians and Germans succeeded in
unifying their own countries
 The Italians under the leadership of
Count Cavour and of Garibaldi and
his army of “Red Shirts” drove out
the Austrians and French armies
from Italy and proclaimed the
Kingdom of Italy under King Victor
Emmanuel with Rome as Capital.

10.  The Prussians led by Otto von
Bismarck, the “Iron Chancellor”
defeated France in the Franco-
Prussian war and established the
German Empire on Jan. 18, 1871,
with King Wilhelm of Prussia as the
First Kaiser of the German Empire.

11.  With the defeat of Emperor Napoleon
his Second French Empire Collapsed
and over its ruin the Third French
Republic arose, with Adolph Thiers
as first President.

12. The times of Rizal saw the flowering
of Western Imperialism.
 England emerged as the world’s
leading imperialist power.

13.  During glorious reign of Queen
Victoria the British people asserted:
Britannia Rules the Waves.”
 Britain won in the First Opium war
(1840-1842) against the tottering
Chinese Empire under the Manchu
dynasty, and acquired the island of
HongKong (Fragrant Harbor)

14.  In the Second Opium War (1856-
1860) Britain won again and
forced the Manchu Dynasty to
cede Kowloon Peninsula.

15.  After suppressing the Indian
Rebellion and dismantling the
Mogul Empire, she imposed her
raj (rule) over the sub-continent of
India. (India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh)
 By winning the Three Anglo-
Burmese war, she conquered
Burma.

16.  Other lands in Asia that became
British colonies:
 Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Maldives,
Aden, Malaya, Singapore and
Egypt.
 In South Pacific they were able to
get Australia and New Zealand.

17. Other Imperialist countries that
followed Britain’s example:
 France – Vietnam, annexed
Cambodia and Laos. Then merged
all these countries into a federated
colony under the name French
Indochina.

18.  Dutch – colonized the vast and
rich archipelago of the East Indies
and named it the Netherlands East
Indies (now Indonesia).

19.  Czarist Russia – conquered
Siberia, Kamchatka, Kuriles, and
Alaska ( which she sold in 1867
to the U.S. for $7,200,000.
 She also conquered the Muslim
Khanates of Bokhara, Khiva, and
Kokand in Central Asia.

20.  They also acquired Manchuria
and as a “sphere of influence”
they were able to build the 5,800-
mile Trans-Siberian Railway,
reputed to be “the world’s longest
railroad” linking Vladivostok and
Moscow.

21.  July 8, 1853, an American squadron
under the command of Commodore
Mathew C. Perry re-opened Japan to
the world. (214-year isolation)
 Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito)
modernized Japan by freely accepting
Western Influences, including
Imperialism. Fought against the weak
China in the Sino-Japanese war,
grabbed Formosa (Taiwan),
Pescadores and later annexed Korea.

22.  Germany was late in scramble for
colonies in Asia and Africa, turned
to the Islands in the Mid-Pacific
world.
 Ilties a German warship entered
the harbor of Yap (an island in the
Carolines) seized the island and
hoisted the German flag.

23.  Strangely, the Spanish Governor of
the Carolines (Don Enrique Capriles)
was present in the island but showed
no resistance.
 The German seizure of Yap island
enraged Spain who claimed
sovereignty over the Carolines and
Palaus by right of discovery by
Francisco Lezcano who named it
Carolina in Honor of King Charles II.

24.  To abort the brewing conflict
between the two country, both
submitted the Carolina Question
to Pope leo XIII for arbitration .

25.  The Holy father recognized
Spain’s sovereignty over the
island but gave two concessions to
Germany:
 the right to trade in the disputed
islands
 the right to establish a coaling
station in Yap for German navy.

26.  Rizal was in Barcelona when
these things are happening and he
even wrote an article on the
Carolina Question at La
Publicidad, a newspaper owned
by Don Miguel Morayta.

27.  While imperialist powers were
enjoying the fruits of their
colonial rule Spain who was once
upon a time the “Mistress of the
World”, was stagnating as a world
power.

28.  She lost her rich colonies in Latin
America (Paraguay, Argentina,
Chile, Colombia and Ecuador.

29.  The Central American countries
(Costa Rica, Honduras,
Guatemala, El Salvador, and
Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru,
Bolivia and Uruguay)
 Colonies that remained under her
rule was Cuba, Puerto Rico and
the Philippines.

30. The Philippines of Rizal’s Times
 During the times of Rizal, the
sinister shadows of Spain’s
decadence darkened the
Philippine Skies.

31. Evils during the Spanish rule in the
Philippines
 Instability of Colonial
administration
 Corrupt Officialdom
 No Philippine representation in
the Spanish Cortes
 Human rights denied to Filipinos

32.  No equality before the law
 Maladministration of justice
 Racial Administration
 Frailocracy
 Forced labor
 Haciendas owned by the friars
 Guardia civil