Why Rizal wrote “The Philippines a Century Hence”

• Jose Rizal did the Philippines and Spain a great service during the centennial celebration of
the French revolution held in France in 1889 by writing five articles for La Solidaridad.
• France was rocked by a series of revolutionary outbreaks from May 5 to August 5, 1789,
ending centuries of tyranny and oppression.
• Conscious of the significance of historical events in the life of nations and people, Rizal felt
that it was timely to remind Spain that the forces which brought about the Spanish
revolution and the French revolution, could be disastrous for her in the Philippines.
• “The Philippines a Century Hence”-essay predicting the political destiny of the Philippines
within a hundred years.
• Rizal showed that if Spain did not change her colonial policies in order to maintain her rule
over the country, an inevitable cataclysm will follow.
• Rizal maintained that the Philippines would remain Spanish:
• if the former could be helped to enter the life of law and civilization
• if the rights of the individuals were respected there
• if other human rights were granted the inhabitants
• if the liberal policy of the government was carried out without trickery, meanness,
subterfurge or falsehood
I

Can you give a reason why we need to know the past history of a country before we can tell its
future?
• To foretell the history of a nation its necessary to open the book that tells of her past.

How were the Filipinos affected by supporting the imperialistic ambition of Spain?
• In this terrible crisis of people, they change government, laws, usages, customs, religions,
beliefs, the Philippines was: depopulated, impoverished, retarded, astounded by her
metamorphosis, with no more confidence in her past, without faith in her present, and
without any flattering hope in the future.

Was it justifiable for the Filipinos to be ashamed of their own culture? Why?
• Little by little, people lost their old traditions, the mementos of their past, they gave up their
writing, their songs, their poems, their laws, another morality, another aesthetics.
• They declined, degrading of themselves in their own eyes, they became ashamed of what
was their own, they began to admire and praise whatever was foreign and incomprehensible,
their spirit was dismayed.

Why did the lethargic spirit of the Filipinos become alive again?
• The inhabitants of the islands of the Philippines were ready for the coup de grace calculated
to destroy totally their will-power and their dominant minds, to convert them into brutes and
beasts of burden, a humankind without brains and withiut hearts.
• The spirit of the people didn't allow itself to be thus intimidated, and though it had been
awakened in a few hearts only, its flame, however was spreading surely and fiercely thanks
to the abuses and stupid tricks of certain classes to destroy noble and generous sentiments.