When he moved up to a university, his grades became lower. He was an above-average kid who worked hard on his studies. At school, he wasn’t a genius, but he also wasn’t a slacker. Growing up, Jose Rizal had supportive parents and siblings. While still indebted to the friars, they owned and managed lands. The combination of this new way of thinking, and the search for justice against the abuses of the friars would give rise to the groups of people that share Rizal’s sentiments. They would be encouraged to use their faculties of reason and rationality, not just religion and faith. Jose Rizal and many other wealthy Filipinos that studied in Europe would become influenced of the age. The 1800’s also gave rise to the age of Enlightenment in Europe. This meant that the abuses caused by friars were left unquestioned. To question them spelled doom even for the highest-ranking appointed officials. Governors might come and go in Manila, the friars remained.” In this case, the friars held a lot of power: economic and political influence. Guerrero puts it “Governments might rise and fall in Madrid. The islands then became a Spanish colony for next three hundred years.īy the 1800’s, there was still no separation of the State and the Church in the Philippines. The next Spanish expeditions would wear down the natives and convert most of the tribes into Catholicism. In 1521, Magellan would reach the islands that is now called The Philippines, and he would die on the beach after battling with the native tribes. In the 1500’s, Europe sent out expeditions to look for resources and as a byproduct, to spread the word of Christianity. He wanted democratic freedoms and representation in the Spanish Cortes.

He stressed that his goal was assimilation and not independence.

A couple years prior to his execution, a group of revolutionaries asked him for his advice, and he would disapprove. It is a turning point in Philippine history in the way that it acted as a catalyst for an impending revolution.Īlthough unexpected and uncharacteristic, Rizal declined this revolution. In 1896, he was executed for rebellion, sedition, and conspiracy. Jose Rizal is the National Hero of the Philippines. Jose Rizal, The Life And Death Of A Reluctant Revolutionary

The first filipino leon maria guerrero