Birth of the Philippine Nationalism

“One cannot speak nationalism in full sense.”

As someone who’s from the present living in this country, it is very easy for us to
identify ourselves as filipinos. It has been written in papers, in our documents, we are a
filipino since our birth. But have you ever realized when did we, as a nation, started
identifying ourselves as filipinos? And as a nation?

In the years before the 11th century, the Philippines was divided into various
principalities known as barangays, a term derived from Malayan vessels named
balangays. These small political units have been governed by datus, rajahs or sultans.
In 1565, European colonization began with the arrival of Spanish explorer Miguel López
de Legazpi from Mexico and the establishment of the first European settlements in
Cebu. Starting with only five ships and five hundred men, supported by Augustinian
monks, and further reinforced by two hundred soldiers in 1567, he was able to repel
rival Portuguese colonizers and to lay the foundations for the Spanish colonization of
the archipelago. In 1571, the Spanish occupied the kingdoms of Maynila and Tondo and
founded Manila as the capital of the Spanish East Indies. This Spanish colonization
unified the archipelago of the Philippines into a single political body.

The word "Filipino" in its earliest sense refers to Spaniards born in the Philippines
or the Insulares (Creoles) from whom Filipino nationalism started. Spanish-born
Spaniards or mainland Spaniards living in the Philippines have been referred to as
Peninsulares. The indigenous peoples of the Philippines have been referred to as
Indios. Those of mixed ancestry were referred to as Mestizos. Nationalism is not a
product of a sudden outburst of sentiment. It is brought about by certain factors that
gradually develop. It is like a seed nourished by common ideals and aspiration for
national unity. The sense of national consciousness came from the Creoles, who now
regard themselves as "Filipino", that was brought by economical, political, and socio-
cultural factors.

Starting with the economic scene, movements would not be possible if there
have been no economic growth during the 19th century Philippines, specifically after
1830. By these events, there was a shift from barter system to moneyed economy
Development in the export economy in those years brought increased prosperity to the
middle and upper Filipinos Classes who have been in a petition to benefit from it, as
well as from the Western-primarily British and American- merchants who organized it. It
also introduced to the Philippines both the machinery and the manufactured goods that
could be supplied by the manufacturing economies of the West, and that Spain could
not or would not supply. Due to rapidly growing population which in need of increased
amount of rice, Philippine exports in this burgeoning economy were agricultural
products specifically rice, sugar, and abaca (Manila hemp). With these, it gave the
agricultural lands of these products in Central Luzon, Batangas, parts of the Bicol
region, Negros, and Panay to profit the most. Some of the families that gained
prominence in the 19th century have continued to play an important role in Philippine
economics and politics. Being open to world trade and having these products abundant
in the Philippines, the Philippines became a major exporter for these products and
became well-known in other parts of the world. By these events, there was a shift from
barter system to moneyed economy.

Modernizing Filipinos saw the colonial policies of Spain as not only the reasons
of their existing economic prosperity, but increasingly as barriers to future advancement
and even threats to what had already been achieved. The volatility of these
governments has made it difficult for them to establish any kind of government’s
coherent policies for the overseas colonies; worse, the Philippines was used as a dump
site to give more party hangers-on jobs. The Spanish government has brought a whole
new mob of job-seekers to the Philippines, ready to fill their pockets with filipino money,
on the other hand, Filipinos were deprived of those few positions they had formerly held
in the bureaucracy while the vast majority of Spanish bureaucrats had no interest. in, or
even knowledge of, the country they were supposed to be governing. There was an
appointment of officials with inferior qualifications, without dedication of duty and moral
strength to resist corruption for material advancement. If the Spanish bureaucracy had
always been characterized by graft and corruption, at least those bureaucrats of an
earlier day had often remained in their country. Similar to what is happening to our
country today, our government keeps giving illegal Chinese workers jobs with high
salary while the majority of the filipinos are starving because of the uprising rate of
unemployment especially during this times of crisis.

Much worse in certain ways than political corruption was inability to meet the
basic needs of public works, schools, peace and order, and other pre-conditions for a
semi-modern economy. Established in order to rid the provinces of the tulisan bands,
Guardia Civil has not only struggled to accomplish this aim, but has become oppressive
force in the provinces, harassing farmers and using their position for personal
advantages.

In consequence, the old tax system has actually been penalized modernization, and
taxes have never made their way into the making of highways, bridges and other public
works needed for agricultural development. Highly protective tariffs forced Filipinos to
buy expensive Spanish textiles and other products

instead of the traditional cheaper British ones. In the face of a system that was
both exploitative and incapable of generating benefits for the colony, liberal nationalists
and even conservative upper-class Filipinos were increasingly unable to find any valid
motive for retaining the Spanish colonial regime, as it became increasingly obvious that
reforms would not be forthcoming.

A critical factor in the rise of nationalism in the late 19 th century was the socio-
cultural growth resulting to rapid spread of education from around 1860. It has become
a commonplace to talk about the role of ideas gained by European educated illustrados
in the growth of the nationalist movement. But it was not just this bunch of Filipinos that
were significant, nor was it just the intellectual environment of Europe that stimulated
the said nationalism. The propagation of higher education in many respects among the
middle-and lower-middle-class Filipinos who could not afford to go abroad was more
important to spread liberals and progressive ideas from Europe written by Rizal or Del
Pilar.

One of the main factors on the development of education in 19 th century was the
return of the Jesuits with ideas and methods new to the Philippine educational system.
They were asked by the Ayuntamiento to take over the municipal primary school and
they renamed it as Ateneo Municipal. After years it had been transformed into a
secondary school providing a higher standard of education than official standards and
more approximate to today 's college than to high school. There was another new
educational institution opened under the Jesuits too named Escuela Normal de
Maestros, that provide Spanish-speaking teachers for the projected new primary school
system. The Escuela Normal represented a hope of change in the minds of many
Filipinos, just as it would be opposed by those for whom modern Filipino education
posed a threat to the continuity of Spanish rule. However, it wasn’t these schools that
taught nationalism or the liberal principles of progress. But in imparting to its students a
humanistic education in literature, science, and philosophy, in inculcating principles of
human dignity and justice and the equality of all men, it effectively undermined the
foundations of the Spanish colonial regime, even without the Spanish Jesuits wishing to
do so. If they have not developed all the conclusions of their beliefs, many of the filipino
students would do so. The eyes of the Filipinos had been opened to a far broader
outlook than their limited Philippine experience before they ever set foot in Europe, and
they no longer would accept established order.

Nonetheless a major factor in giving nationalism actually took was the experience
of Filipino students in Spain. Seeing the freedoms enjoyed by the Peninsula, they have
become more conscious of the servitude that their people have suffered. On the other
hand, Spain's backwardness in contrast with other European countries has been seen
more perceptively as corruption and the futility of the Spanish political system and the
failure of the system to foster even the welfare of Spain, much less that of its colonies.
Many who have come to Europe in the expectation of change and modernization in the
Philippines, it has come to their senses that this will never be done under Spanish rule,
and the Filipinos must look to themselves. However, the ordinary Filipino who had not
gone to Manila or abroad for higher education remained in the traditional religious
practices and beliefs' of his forefathers and continued to look up to his friar parish priest
as father of his people and protector against oppressive government officials. One final
cultural factor involved in the rise of nationalism was the interest of filipino in the past,
largely inspired by the European, especially German, preoccupation with history and
ethnology. Filipino needed to see the importance of such historical investigation for the
creation of national consciousness among his countrymen.

The fall of the Spanish rule in the 19th century and the prominence of Rizal and
his reform agenda were the result of the interplay of various economic, political and
socio- cultural power on the filipino nationalism as well as the birth of the social
sciences and liberal ideas had gradually secularized societies in the 19th century and
thereby weakened the influence of religion in people’s mind, especially the well-
educated reformists and ilustrados. The political instability in Spain triggered by the
rapid change in leadership and the struggle between conservatives and liberals also
undermined the Spanish government in the Philippines. Although the influence of the
Catholic Church in the 19th century led by the friars had not diminished, the liberal and
revolutionary ideas of Rizal and the reformists had already awakened the nationalist
sentiment of the natives, which soon became the spark for political change in the late
19th century.
 But History repeats itself. Looking to the current situation of our country, where
our democracy and sovereignty as a nation is taken away little by little, where people
are being threatened and abused, where our rights don’t matter at all, where justice
cannot be found, where our government isn’t for the filipino people anymore. At these
times, we should not forget the sense of those born in the Philippines being one people
and for the people, with a national identity and national rights, and what we seek above
all is that this country should be free, free from tyrants from abroad or at home, a
country where there would not be any tyrants because we are not slaves, the growth of
a free people, proud of its past, working for its future, united in a common set of ideals.
A country that feels like our home, where everyone is for everyone.