Sucesos

Annotation of
Antonio Morga’s
Sucesos de las
Islas Filipinas
Learning Outcomes
EXPECTED OUTCOMES: SESSION OUTLINE:
At the end of this session, the 1. Rizal’s Annotations to
student is expected to: Morga’s “Successos de las
1. Analyze Rizal’s ideas on Islas Filipinas, 1609”
how to rewrite Philippine
history; and
2. Compare and contrast Rizal
and Morga’s different views
about Filipinos and
Philippine culture.
2
Ignorance is servitude, because as
a man thinks, so he is; a man who
does not think for himself and
allows himself to be guided by the
thought of another is like the
beast led by a halter.
– Jose Rizal
3
Dr. Antonio
Morga
And his “Sucesos”
Dr. Antonio and his “Sucesos”
✣ Antonio de Morga (1559-1636) was a Spanish

historian and lawyer and a notable colonial official
for 43 years in the Philippines, New Spain, and
Peru.
✣ He stayed in the Philippines, then a colony of
Spain, from 1594 to 1604.
✣ As Deputy Governor in the Philippines, he re-
established the Audiencia and took over the
function of judge (“oidor”).
5
Antonio de Morga
Antonio de Morga
(1559-1636):
-Author of Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas (1609)
Maxrialto.wordpress.com
6
Dr. Antonio and his “Sucesos”
✣ When reassigned to Mexico, he published the book

Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas in 1609, considered one of the
most significant works on the early history of the Spanish
colonization of the Philippines.
✣ The history is said to cover the years from 1493 to 1603.
discussions deal with the political, social and economic
phases of life of both natives and their colonizers.
✣ On the dedication page, Morga writes: “…this small
book…is a faithful narrative, devoid of any artifice and
ornament...regarding the discovery, conquest and
conversion of the Philippine Islands, together with the
various events in which they have taken part…specifically
describing their original condition…”
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Rizal’s Annotation of the
Book
✣ He did not believe the colonizers’ claim that they

sociologically improved the islands; instead, Rizal
supposed that the Spanish colonization somewhat
result in the deterioration of the Philippine’s rich
culture and tradition.
✣ In 1888-1889, Rizal largely spent his many months
of stay in London at the British Museum, copying
and annotating this rare book available in the
library.
8
Rizal’s Annotation of the
Book
✣ Rizal meticulously annotated every chapter of the Sucesos,

commenting even on Morga’s typographical errors.
✣ He provided enlightenment on every statement, which he
believed misrepresenting the local’s cultural practices.
✣ For instance, Morga describes on page 248 the culinary of
the ancient Philippine natives by recording: “They prefer
to eat salt fish which begin to decompose and smell.”
Rizal’s annotative footnote explains: “This is another
preoccupation of the Spaniards who, like any other nation
in the matter of food, loathe that to which they are not
accustomed or is unknown to them”.
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Some Important
Annotations
✣ Austin Craig (1872-1949), an early biographer of

Rizal, translated into English some of the more
important of Rizal’s annotations in the Sucesos:
⨳ The civilization of the pre-Spanish Filipinos in regard to
the duties of life for that age was well advanced as the
Morga history shows in its eighth chapter.
⨳ The discovery, conquest and conversion cost Spanish
blood but still more Filipino blood. It will be seen later on
in Morga that with the Spaniards and on behalf of Spain
there were always more Filipinos fighting than Spaniards.
10
Some Important
Annotations
⨳ Morga shows that the ancient Filipinos had army and navy with
artillery and other implements of warfare. Their prized krises and
kampilans for their magnificent temper are worthy of admiration
and some of them are richly damascend. Their coats of mail and
helmets, of which there are specimens in various European
museums, attest their great advancement in this industry.
⨳ The image of the Holy Child of Cebu, which many religious writers
believed was brought to Cebu by the angels, was in fact given by
the worthy Italian chronicler of Magellan’s expedition, the
Chevalier Pigafetta, to the Cebuano queen.
⨳ The southern islands, the Bisayas, were also called “The land of the
painted People (or Pintados in Spanish), because the natives had
their bodies decorated with tracings made with fire, somewhat like
tattooing.
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Some Important
Annotations
⨳ “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.”
⨳ Consequently in this respect the “pacifiers” introduced no
moral improvement. We even do not know if in their wars
the Filipinos used to make slaves of each other, though
that would not have been strange, for the chroniclers tell
of captives returned to their own people. The practice of
the Southern pirates, almost proves this, although in these
piratical wars the Spaniards were the first aggressors and
gave them their character.
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The Value of Rizal’s
Annotation
Sketch the present state and established the Rectify what has been FALSIFIED OR
existence of the SOCIAL CANCER IS CALUMNY
And make sure that Filipinos will no longer be

born and brought up in IGNORANCE
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Suggested Further readings
✣ Blumentritt, F. (1962). Prologue to Jose Rizal, Annotated Copy of Antonio de

Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. Manila: National Centennial Commision.
✣ Ocampo, A. (1998). “Rizal’s Morga and views of Philippine History” in
Philippine Studies vol. 46 no.2
✣ Rizal, J. (1962). Historical events of the Philippines Islands by Dr. Antonio de
Morga, annotated by Jose Rizal, preceded by a prologue by Dr. Ferdinand
Blumetritt. Manila: Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission.
14
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15

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Annotation of

✣ Antonio de Morga (1559-1636) was a Spanish

✣ When reassigned to Mexico, he published the book

✣ He did not believe the colonizers’ claim that they

✣ Rizal meticulously annotated every chapter of the Sucesos,

✣ Austin Craig (1872-1949), an early biographer of

And make sure that Filipinos will no longer be

✣ Blumentritt, F. (1962). Prologue to Jose Rizal, Annotated Copy of Antonio de

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