•Finally in 1890, the annotated edition of

Morga’s Sucesos printed by Garner Feres, with a

prologue written by Blumentritt, as requested
by Rizal came out.

•Rizal wrote and proved that before the

coming of the Spaniards, the Filipinos had
already a certain degree of civilization.
What is Sucesos De las isalas Felipinas?

•it is one of the important works on the early history

of the Spanish colonization of the Philippines
published in Mexico in 1609 by Antonio de Morga.

• Annotated by Dr. Jose Rizal with a prologue by Dr,

Ferdinand Blumentritt
 3 Main Propositions in Rizal’s New Edition of
Morga’s Sucesos
• The people of the Philipiines had a culture on
their own, before the coming of the Spaniards.

• Filipinos were decimated, demoralized,

exploited and ruined by the Spanish colonization.

• The Present state of the Philippines was not

necessarily superior to its past
Dr. Jose Rizal's annotations to Morga's 1609 Philippine
History
TO the Filipinos: In Noli Me Tangere I started to
sketch the present state of our native land. But the
effect which my effort produced made me realize
that, before attempting to unroll before your eyes the
other pictures which were to follow, it was necessary
first to post you on the past. So only can you fairly
judge the present and estimate how much progress
has been made during the three centuries (of Spanish
rule).
(Dr. Jose P. Rizal, center beside Marcelo H. Del Pilar and other Filipinos in
Madrid, Spain, 1890.)

Like almost all of you, I was born and brought

up in ignorance of our country's past and so, without
knowledge or authority to speak of what I neither
saw nor have studied, I deem it necessary to quote
the testimony of an illustrious Spaniard who in the
beginning of the new era controlled the destinies of
the Philippines and had personal knowledge of our
ancient nationality in its last days.
 •It is not the fact that the Filipinos were unprotected
before the coming of the Spaniards.

•The islands came under Spanish sovereignty and

control through compacts, treaties of friendship and alliances
for reciprocity

•Morga show that the ancient Filipinos had army and

navy with artillery and other implements of warfare

•Morga’s expression that the Spaniards “brought war to

the gates of the Filipinos”
 •The Spaniards retained the native name for the new
capital of the archipelago, a little changed, however, for the
Tagalogs had called their city “Maynila”

•When Morga says that the lands were “entrusted

(given as encomiendas) to those who had “pacified” them, he
means “divided up among.”

•The artillery cast for the new stone fort in Manila, says
Morga, was by the hand of an ancient Filipino

•From the earliest Spanish days ships were built in the

islands, which might be considered evidence of native culture
 •Morga’s mention of the scant output of large artillery from
the Manila cannon works because of lack of master foundry
works shows after the death of the Filipino.

•It is worthy of note that China, Japan and Cambodia at

this time maintained relations with the Philippines.

•The Spanish historians of the Philippines never overlook

any opportunity, be it suspicion or accident that may be
twisted into something unfavorable to the Filipinos.

•Still the Spaniards say that the Filipinos have contributed nothing to
Mother Spain, and that it is the islands which owe everything.
 •In Morga’s time, the Philippines exported silk to
Japan whence now comes the best quality of that
merchandise.

•The Cebuanos drew a pattern on the skin before

starting in to tattoo. The Bisayan usage then was the same
procedure that the Japanese today follow.

•Morga’s remark that the Filipinos like fish better

when it is commencing to turn bad is another of those
prejudices which Spaniards like all other nations, have.
 •Morga’s statement that there was not a province or
town of the Filipinos that resisted conversion or did not
want it may have been true of the civilized natives.

•”The Spaniards,” says Morga, “were accustomed to

hold as slaves such natives as they bought and others
that they took in the forays in the conquest or
pacification of the islands”
THANK YOU!