Antonio Morga`s Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas & Rizal`s Annotations
7
LESSON OBJECTIVES:
• ANALYZE RIZAL’S IDEAS ON HOW TO REWRITE
PHILIPPINE HISTORY.
• COMPARE AND CONTRAST RIZAL AND MORGA’S
DIFFERENT VIEWS ABOUT FILIPINOS AND PHILIPPINE
CULTURE.
Rizal’s ideas on how to
rewrite Philippine history.
What is Sucesos De las Islas Filipinas?
• 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 Jose Rizal with a prologue by Dr.
Ferdinand Blumentritt
Antoni De Morga
• Spanish Conquistador, government
official and historical anthropologist:
author of Sucesos De Las Filipinas (
Events in Philippine Islands)
• He wrote the first lay formal history of
the Philippines Conquest by Spain
• A doctorate in canon law and civil law
Antoni De Morga
• His history is valuable in that Morga had access to the survivors of
the earliest days of the colony and he, himself, participated in
many of the accounts that he rendered.
• The book (Sucesos) narrates the HISTORY of WARS, INTRIGUES,
DIPLOMACY and EVANGELAZATION of the PHILIPPINES. In a
somewhat disjointed way. Modern historian including RIZAL have
noted that Morga has a definite bias and would often distort facts
or even rely on invention to fit his defense of the Spanish
Conquest.
Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas
Morga wrote that the purpose for writing Sucesos
• Morga wrote that the purpose for writing Sucesos was so he could
chronicle "the deeds achieved by our Spaniards i the discovery,
conquest, and conversion of the Filipinas Islands - as well as
various fortunes that they have from time to time in the great
kingdoms and among the pagan peoples surrounding the islands. "
• Taking issue with the scopes of these claims. Rizal argued that the
conversion and conquest were not as widespread as portrayed
because the missionaries were only successful in conquering a
portion of the population of certain Islands.
What leads to Jose Rizal Sucesos De las Islas
Filipinas?
• Rizal was an earnest seeker of truth and this marked him as a
historian
• He had a burning desire to know exactly the conditions of
Philippines when the Spaniards came ashore islands
• His theory was that the country was economically self-sufficient
and prosperous, entertained the idea that it had a lively and
vigorous community
• He believed the conquest of the Spaniards contributed in part to
the decline of the Philippines rich tradition and culture.
What leads to Jose Rizal Sucesos De las Islas
Filipinas?
• He then decided to undertake the annotation of Antonio de
Morga’s Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas.
• His personal friendship with Ferdinand Bluementritt provided the
inspiration for doing a new edition of Morgas Sucesos.
• Devoting four months research and writing and almost a year to
get his manuscript published in Paris in January 1980.
What leads to Jose Rizal Sucesos De las Islas
Filipinas?
• Rizal Spent his entire stay in the city of London at the Bristish
Museum’s reading room.
• Having found Morga’s books, he laboriously hand-copied the whole
351 pages of the Sucesos.
• Rizal proceeded to annotate every chapter of the Sucesos.
Rizal's annotation of Morga's Sucesos
• His extensive annotations of Morga's work number "no less than 639 items
or almost two annotations for every page."
• Rizal also annotated Morga's typographical errors.
• He commented on every statement that could be nuanced in Filipino
cultural practices. For example, on page 248 Morga describes the
culinary art of the ancient Filipinos by recording: "... they prefer to eat
salt fish which begin to decompose and smell." Rizal's footnotes : "This is
another preoccupation of the Spaniards who, like any other nation in
that matter of food, loathe that to which they are not accustomed or is
unknown to them... The fish that Morga mentions does not taste better
when it is beginning to rot; all on the contrary" it is bagoong,and all
those who have eaten it and tasted it know it is not or ought not to be
rotten"
Rizal's annotation of Morga's Sucesos
• Rizal commits error of many historians in appraising the events of
the past in the light of present standards.
• Rizal attacks on the church were unfair and unjustified because
the abuses of the friars should not be constructed to mean the
Catholicism is bad.
Ferdinand Blumentritt
• Ferdinand Blumentritt also wrote a preface
emphasizing some salient points:
• The Spaniards have to correct their erroneous
conception of the Filipino as children of limited
intelligence
• That there existed three kings of Spanish delusions
about the Philippines:
• Filipino were an inferior race
• Filipinos were not ready for parliamentary
representation and other reforms
• Denial of equal rights can be compensated by
strict dispensation of justice.
Ferdinand Blumentritt’s Prolugue
• Writing in Spanish, instead of his native German language.
• Praised Rizal's work as "scholarly and well-thought out"
• He noted that Morga's Sucesos was so rare that "the very few libraries
that have it guard it with the same solicitude as if it were the treasure
of the Incas"
• He criticized Rizal's annotations on two counts:
• He first observed that Rizal had committed the mistake of many modern
historians who judged events in the past in the context of contemporary
ideas and mores.
• He perceived as the overreach of Rizal's denunciations of Catholicism.
that Rizal should confine his critique to the religious orders in the
Philippines who spared no effort to suppress calls for reform
Rizal Purpose of the Morga’s Sucesos
• In Jose Rizal's dedication, he explained among other things, the purpose
of the new edition of Morga's Sucesos:
• "if the book succeeds in awakening in you the consciousness of our past
which has been obliterated from memory and in rectifying what has
been falsified and calumniated, I shall not have labored in vain, and on
such basis, little though it may be, we can all devote ourselves to
studying the future"
• 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.
3 Main Propositions in Rizal’s New Edition of
Morga’s Sucesos
• The people of the Philippines 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.
Rizal Annotation
• In his historical essay which include tha narration of Philippines
colonial history, punctuated as it was with incidences of agony,
tensions, tragedies and prolonged of suffering that many of people
had been subjected to. He correctly observed that as a colony of
Spain, “The Philippines was depopulated, improverished and
retarded, astounded by metaphor sis, with no confidence in her
past, still without faith in her present and without faltering
hope in the future.
• He went to say:
• "... little by little, they (Filipinos) lost their old traditions, the
mementoes of their past; they gave up their writing, their songs,
their poems, their laws, in order to learn other doctrines which
they did not understand, another morality, another aesthetics,
different from those inspired by their climate and their manner of
thinking. They declined, degrading themselves in their own eyes.
They become ashamed of what was their own; they began to
admire and praise whatever was foreign and incomprehensible;
their spirit was damaged and it surrendered."
Rizal Notation of Morgas Sucesos
• To the Filipinos: "In my "NOLI ME TANGERE" I commenced to sketch
the present conditions obtaining in our country. The effect
produced by my efforts gave me to understand - before
proceeding to develop before your eyes other successive scenes that is necessary to first lay bare the past, in order the better to
judge the present and to survey the road trodden during three
centuries. "
• In Jose Rizal's dedication, he explained among other things, the purpose of the
new edition of Morga's Sucesos:
• "if the book succeeds in awakening in you the consciousness of our past which
has been obliterated from memory and in rectifying what has been falsified and
calumniated, I shall not have labored in vain, and on such basis, little though it
may be, we can all devote ourselves to studying the future"
• 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.
• JOSE RIZAL
RIZAL’S MORGA AND VIEWS OF
PHILIPPINE HISTORY
Ocampo, Ambeth
SUCESOS DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS
Background information/ Important information
about Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.
1. Antonio De Morga - Author of Sucesos de las
islas Filipinas. Spanish lawyer and official in the
Philippines during the 17th century.
2. This is one of the first books ever to tackle
Philippine history.
3. Book that describes the events inside and
outside of the country from 1493 to 1603,
including the history of the Philippines.
4. Consist of 8 Chapters.
5. Discuss the political, social and economical
aspects of a colonizer and the colonized
country.
6. The content of the book is based on
documentary research, observation and
personal experience of Morga.
7. Rizal is a secondary source of the book due to
his Annotations.
WHAT IS LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS?
The Philippines was named in honor of King
Philip II of Spain.
WHAT IS SUCESOS?
EVENTS, HAPPENINGS, OCCURRENCE
The Sucesos is the work of an honest observer, a versatile
bureaucrat, who knew the workings of the administration from the
inside.
RIZAL’S OBJECTIVES
1. To awaken the consciousness of the Filipinos regarding their glorious
ways of the past
2. To correct what has been distorted about the Philippines due to
Spanish conquest
3. To prove that Filipinos are civilized even before the coming of the
Spaniards
BLUMENTRITT’S INFLUENCE ON RIZAL
Ferdinand Blumentritt has encouraged Rizal to write about the
Philippines’ pre-colonial History.
THE FIRST OBJECTIVE ON RIZAL’S
ANNOTATION
THE EARLY FILIPINO PRIDE
Rizal strove to establish that the Filipinos could be proud
of their pre-conquest past.
THE SECOND OBJECTIVE ON RIZAL’S
ANNOTATION
HISTORY AS A PROPAGANDA WEAPON
Rizal aimed to use history as a propaganda weapon.
EARLY GOVERNMENT
Our forefathers in the pre-colonial Philippines already
possessed a working judicial and legislative system
HIGH LITERACY RATE
The Spanish missionaries exploited the baybayin for their
own ends, learning and using it to translate their goals
EARLY ARTILLERY
Our ancestors were very proficient in the art of war. Aside
from wielding swords and spears, they also knew how to
make and fire guns and cannons.
SMOOTH FOREIGN RELATIONS
The pre-colonial Filipinos had already established
trading and diplomatic relations with countries as far
away as the Middle East
SELF- SUFFICIENT
In terms of food, our forefathers did not suffer
from any lack thereof. Blessed with such a
resource-rich country, they had enough for
themselves and their families
ADVANCED CIVILIZATION
Our ancestors possessed a complex working society and
a culture replete with works of arts and literature
IMPORTANT POINTS
• Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas is the first book to tackle the Philippine history.
• The book discusses the political, social and economical aspects of a colonizer and
the colonized country.
• The book that describes the events inside and outside of the country from 1493 to
1603, including the history of the Philippines.
• The pre-colonial Philippines already possessed a working judicial and legislative
system
• Spanish missionaries put an end to the baybayin written system of the Philippines
to translate their goals
• Our ancestors possessed a complex society and culture filled with arts and
literature
RIZAL’S ANNOTATIONS MORGA’S
SUCESOS
Rizal’s Annotations
VS .
De Morga’s Sucesos
1. Philippines was NOT DESERTED and was
actually HABITABLE.
1. Philippines was DESERTED and
INHABITABLE.
2. Spaniards, like any other nation, treat food to
which they are not accustomed or is unknown to
them with disgust. This fish that Morga mentions
is bagoong (salted & fermented fish).
2. Beef and fish they know it best when it has
started to rot and stink
RIZAL’S 3 PROPOSITIONS
1. The people of the Philippines have a culture on their own, before the coming
of the Spaniards
2. Filipinos were decimated, demoralized, exploited, and ruined by the Spanish
colonization
3. The present state of the Philippines was not necessarily superior to its past
IMPORTANCE OF RIZAL’S ANNOTATIONS
TO THE PRESENT GENERATION
To awaken in the Filipinos the consciousness of our past
To devote ourselves to studying the future
To first lay bare the past, in order to better judge the present and to survey the
road trodden during three centuries
To prove Filipinos had a culture of their own, prior to colonization, that the
Filipinos were NOT inferior to the white man
To shatter the myth of the so-called “Indolence of the Filipinos”
To reduce those Filipinos who denied their native tongue into rotten fish
To seriously study Tagalog and produce a comprehensive Tagalog dictionary
To embrace the generic term “Indio”, or in today’s case, Filipino, with all its
negative connotations, and turn it into one of dignity and nobility
REFERENCES
http://www/philippinestudies.net/ojs/index.php/ps/article/viewFile/662/663
https://filipiknow.net/life-in-pre-colonial-phil ippines/
https://www.coursehero.com/file/p3ol5 23/o-RIZALS-ANNOTATION-OF-MOR GAS-SUCESOSDE-LAS-ISLAS-FILI PINAS-Three-purposes-for/
https://www.slideshare.net/abbieelaine kuhonta/sucesos-39902918 4.
https://prezi.com/qawe8nczviaq/rizals- annotation-of-sucesos-de-