 Rizal was not a professional historian, but he was a dedicated student of history in

general and of the Philippine history in particular. Rizal’s love for his country made him
a historian. Rizal saw how the Philippines was belittled and he himself experienced how
Filipinos were wrongly derides. Thus, he formed that personal desire to make the
Philippines known according to a proper prospective and historiography was one
solution.
 Historiography, the writing of history, especially the writing of history based on the
critical examination of sources, the selection of particular details from the authentic
materials in those sources, and the synthesis of those details into a narrative that stands
the test of critical examination. Rizal read historical materials such as Antonio Pigafetta’s
“First Voyage Around The World”. Rizal also used works of different English and
French historians.
 Rizal was a historiography with a purpose that is to encourage appreciation for the
Philippines. His aim was not really the study of history, but to study the Philippines
through history call Filipinology or Philippine studies. Rizal even thought of putting up
an International Association of Filipinologists with the aim of studying the Philippines
from scientific and historical point of view but the its inaugural convention did not
materialize, however, because the French government, at that time, discouraged private
conferences for the period of the Paris Expo.
 Rizal’s Morga, says Ambeth Ocampo, is significant because with his edition, Rizal befan
the task of writing the first Philippine history from the viewpoint of a Filipino. Also,
Rizal made a letter to Ferdinand Blumentritt, asking him to write a history of the
Philippines.

Document 1

- Rizal’s introduction in his Annotation to Morga’s book where he explains his reason for
doing such historical study.

The next three documents are selected excerpts from Morga’s Chapter 8 (An Account of
the Philippine Islands). Morga’s Sucesos is composed of eight chapters; the first seven
are political, that is the account of the different achievements and policies of all the
Spanish governors from Legazpi to Acuna, and the eight chapter deals with Filipinos’
social patterns and customs. In this Chapter, Morga described the life in the islands
before Spanish contact. It is in this last chapter that Rizal added footnotes for several
points mentioned by Morga in order to clarify of provide inputs for the proper
reconstruction of pre-Hispanic Philippines.

Document 2
- include notes numbered 99 to 113, focused on pre-Hispanic political institutions.
Document 3
- includes footnotes numbered 18-16, focused on pre-Hispanic culture.

Document 4
- include footnotes numbered 120-130, focused on some pre-Hispanic social practices

Document 5
- is an excerpt from Rizal’s “On the New Orthography of the Tagalog Language” This is
another example of Rizal’s scientific study of the Philippines and this time it is on the
Tagalog Language. Orthography studies the rule of correct spelling and pronunciation
that go with correct arrangement of the letters to form a word or phrases.

Document 6
- Rizal’s tribute to Blumentritt. In this passage, Rizal gives his views about historical
studies and Philippines studies while praising the scholarly work done by Blumentritt.
Ferdinand Blumentritt is Rizal’s Austrian bosom friend, an ethnographer and a professor
of History. Rizal asked Blumentritt to write the history of Philippines but he begged off;
but he had gladly written the prologue when Rizal finished writing the Annotation of the
Sucesos himself.

Document 7
- is the poem “Hymn to Labor” written by Rizal in 1888 for the town fiesta of Lipa. The
piece, though written in poetry, serves the unveil Rizal’s sociology. Sociology is
concerned with social relationships and studies in society, human interactions,
interpersonal and intrapersonal relations as well as social institutions.

Additional info

Morga's work is based on personal experiences, or on documentation from eye-witnesses of the

events described. Moreover, as he tells us himself, survivors from Legazpi's expedition were still
alive while he was preparing his book in Manila, and these too he could consult. As a lawyer, it is
obvious that he would hardly fail to seek such evidence.

As a lawyer, it is obvious that he would hardly fail to seek such evidence. The Sucesos is the
work of an honest observer, himself a major actor in the drama of his time, a versatile bureaucrat,
who knew the workings of the administration from the inside.It is also the first history of the
Spanish Philippines to be written by a layman, as opposed to the religious chroniclers. Morga's
book was praised, quoted, and plagiarized, by contemporaries or successors. Filipinos have
found it a useful account of the state of their native culture upon the coming of the conquistadors;
Spaniards have regarded it as a work to admire or condemn, according to their views and the
context of their times; some other Europeans, such as Stanley, found it full of lessons and
examples.
Here are excerpts from Rizal’s annotations to inspire young Filipinos of today.

“To the Filipinos: In Noli Me Tangere (The Social Cancer) 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). 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 then the shade of our ancestor’s civilization which the author will call
before you. If the work serves to awaken in you a consciousness of our past,
and to blot from your memory or to rectify what has been falsified or is
calumny, then I shall not have labored in vain. With this preparation, slight
though it may be, we can all pass to the study of the future, wrote Rizal in
Europe in 1889.

“Governor Morga was not only the first to write but also the first to publish a
Philippine history. This statement has regard to the concise and concrete form
in which our author has treated the matter. Father Chirino’s work, printed in
Rome in 1604, is rather a chronicle of the Missions than a history of the
Philippines; still it contains a great deal of valuable material on usages and
customs. The worthy Jesuit in fact admits that he abandoned writing a political
history because Morga had already done so, so one must infer that he had
seen the work in manuscript before leaving the Islands.”
Rizal's view of Philippine historiography is expressed in his annotations to Morga's Sucesas, in
his essay Filipinas dentro de cien aiios (The Philippines Within a Century), and most clearly in
an outline periodization of Philippine history which he prepared for the International Association
of Philippinologists, hoping that it could convene a conference of European Philippinologists in
Pans during theInternational Exposition of 1889. .

I. PE Hispanic Philippines.
Geography, Geology, Hydrography, Flora and Fauna, Govemment,Civilization, Literature,
Earliest information about the Philippines in Europe, Bibliography, etc.
11. Amval of the Spaniards to the loss of Philippine autonomy and her incorporation into the
Spanish nation. (1521-1808)
Influence of Spanish civilization on the social life of the Philippines.Conversion into
Catholicism, Encomiendas, Wars and Invasions, Immigration, Covemment, Commerce,
Religious troubles, etc.
111. Incorporation of the Philippines into the Spanish nation up to the Cavite Mutiny(1808-
1872).
Government, Representation in the Spanish Cortes, Loss of her char-acter as a Spanish province
and the declaration of her status as acolony, Reforms, Criticism, Influence of the Monastic
Orders on the material progress of the Islands, the Philippines compared with other colonies, etc.
IV. Linguistics
Classification of languages spoken in the Philippines Tagalog, Visayan, Ilocano, rsplgnol dc hina
[literally Kitchen Spanish or the pidgin Spanish spoken in Cavite], studies on modem literature
of the Tagalogs, modem literature cf the Philippines, religious books, etc. (Epistolario 1938,
383439).
V. Races and Independent Regions which includes all Muslim sultanates, independent tribes,
Negritos, etc. (406).
The fifth part, on Race and Independent regions, was an after- thought, as seen in the
correspondence between Rizal and Blumentritt. It was not in the original outline, suggesting that
Rizal saw the Muslims of the Southern island of Mindanao, as well as the non-Christian, non-
~is~aIu'& indios of the mountains, differently from the lowland Christian indios of which he was
part.
Morga began his work, Sucesos de las islas Filipinas, it is claimed, as a way of saving face after
the disaster with the Dutch invaders in Manila in 1600. Hence, it is Morga's version of the battle
of Manila Bay left to history. The work consists of eight chapters:

1. Of the first discoveries of the Eastern islands.

2. Of the government of Dr. Francisco de Sande
3. Of the government of don Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peiialosa
4. Of the government of Dr. Santiago de Vera.
5. Of the government of Gomes Perez Dasrnariiias.
6. Of the government of don Francisco Tello
7. Of the government of don Pedro de Acuiia
8. An account of the Philippine Islands