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Governments are fond of murdering writers. That’s because throughout history many writers have inspired people to say fuck this government, let’s rebel. Such was the case with José Rizal, who helped inspire the Philippine Revolution against Spanish rule.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: December 30, 1896--
Ferdinand Magellan left Spain in 1519 with a fleet of five ships with a goal to circumnavigate the globe. Magellan didn’t survive the trip. In 1521 he arrived in the Philippines, but he didn’t fucking discover it, because there were already people there. The fleet spent several weeks in the region, during which time Magellan converted a couple thousand people to Christianity. But Lapulapu, the leader of the Mactan, said fuck your savior. Not interested. Magellan said how fucking dare you deny the lord and attacked, but he lost, and he died, and the Mactan kept his body as a trophy. The fleet left to finish the circumnavigation without Magellan, but that was not the end of Spanish fuckery in the Philippines.
Forty-four years later Spain had annexed and colonized the islands. This was during the reign of Philip II of Spain. Philip. Philippines. That shit still sticks. Kind of like the Americas being named for an Italian named Amerigo Vespucci. Continues below …
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Anyway, after a couple centuries of conquest and colonization, Philippine nationalism began around 1760, although it would be a long time before self-determination was achieved. There was a multi-decade process in which propaganda played a critical role in mobilizing the masses to say get fornicated to their Spanish overlords. José Rizal was a key figure in writing such propaganda.
Born in 1861, Rizal was an exceptional student who studied medicine and became an ophthalmologist. He was also a polymath: an artist, sculptor, farmer, and author who could master any discipline he set his mind to. Additionally, Rizal was a polyglot, able to converse in 22 languages. Being so intelligent, and also influential, the Spaniards of course had to kill him. Authoritarian regimes detest smart people.
Rizal authored two famous novels, published in 1887 and 1891, that were social commentaries on the evils of Spanish colonization. These works proved inspiring to those believing that armed revolution was the only way to achieve independence. As a result, Rizal was deported from Manila to a remote part of the Philippines. While there he stayed busy by building a hospital, a school, and a water supply.
In the summer of 1896, the Philippine rebellion had grown to a full-blown revolution. Rizal had already begun traveling to Cuba to work as a physician, but he was arrested during a stopover in Spain and returned to Manila to stand trial for his role in inspiring the revolution. Rizal was convicted and executed by firing squad on December 30, 1896. Alas, the U.S. got involved via the Spanish-American war and gained control of the Philippines in 1898. It would not become an independent nation until 1946. Rizal is hailed as a national hero by many in the Philippines, although that’s controversial because he disavowed the revolution prior to execution.
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