Module 3 Rizal in the 19th Century

Site: New Era University Printed by: Frenzyn Mae Yoro

Course: GECLWR-18 - The Life and Works of Rizal Date: Thursday, 26 August 2021, 9:10 AM
Book: Module 3 Rizal in the 19th Century
 Description

Lesson 1: Title
 Table of contents

1. Introduction/Overview

2. Learning Outcomes

3. ECONOMIC CONTEXT

4. SOCIAL BACKGROUND

5. POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

6. Seeing Rizal’s Life in His Society

7. MODULE 3 FORUM 1
 1. Introduction/Overview

Introduction

            Contextualization
aids comprehension. Generally, to contextualize something is to place within
its proper and larger setting in which it
presents its true and complete
meaning. As Jose Rizal was and grew up in the 19th century, to
contextualize him ---so as to understand his life,
thoughts, and works--- is to
understand the social and political context of that century.

Nineteenth
century is commonly depicted as the birth of the modern life, as well as the
birth of many nation-states around the globe. The century
was also a period of
massive changes in Europe, Spain, and consequently in the Philippines. It was
during this era that the power and glory of
the Spain, the Philippines’
colonizer, had waned both in its colonies and in the world.

Discussions
on the 19th century Philippines as Rizal’s context are hereby
divided into three (3) aspects: the economic, social, and political.
Under
these main headings are major historical events or issues, which characterized
the country during that era.
 2. Learning Outcomes

1.
Appraise the link between the individual and the society.

2. Analyze the different social, political, economic,

and other cultural changes that occurred in the 19th century.
 3. ECONOMIC CONTEXT

The
Economic Context

            At
least four historical elements basically compose the economic context of the
era in which Jose Rizal was born: (a) at the end of the
Galleon Trade, (b) the
opening of the Suez Canal, (c) the rise of export of crops economy, and (d) the
established monopolies in the
Philippines.           

END OF GALEON TRADE

            Our locals were already trading with

China, Japan, Siam (now Thailand), India, Cambodia, Borneo, and the Moluccas
(Spice Islands)
when the Spanish colonizers came to the Philippines. In 1565,
the Spanish government closed the ports of Manila to all countries except
Mexico, thereby giving birth to Manila-Acapulco Trade popularly known as the
“Galleon Trade”

            The Galleon Trade (1565-1815) was a

ship (“galleon”) trade going back and forth between Manila (which actually
landed first in Cebu)
and Acapulco, Mexico. It started when Andres de Urdaneta,
in convoy under Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, discovered a return route from Cebu to
Mexico in 1965. The trade served as central income-generating business for
Spanish colonist in the Philippines.

            Through this trans-Pacific trade,

the mango de Manila, tamarind and rice, the carabao (known in Mexico by 1737),
the cockfighting,
Chinese tea and textiles, fireworks display, tuba (coconut
wine) making went to Mexico. The return voyage, on the other hand, brought
numerous and valuable fauna into the Philippines, including guava, avocado and
papaya, pineapple, horses, and cattle (“Galleon Trade,” n.d.).
Other
consequences of this 250-year trade were the intercultural exchanges between
Asia (especially Philippines), Spanish America and
onward to Europe and Africa.

            Because of the galleon trade, Manila

became a trading hub where China, India, Japan, and Southeast Asian countries
sent their goods
to be consolidated for shipping. Those who ran the hub and did
most of the work were primarily Chinese. They arrived in the Philippines in
junky
yearly, bringing goods and workforce. With the huge migration of Chinese
because of the galleon trade, the Spaniards feared them and taxed
them, sent
them out of the Parian and eventually, when tension rose, massacred some of
them. “Such massacres were at their height in the 17th
century from
suspicion, unease, and fear, until the Spaniards and the Chinese learned to
live with each other in the few centuries” (Ongpin,
n.d.).

            The Manila Galleon Trade allowed

modern, liberal ideas to enter the Philippines, eventually and gradually
inspiring the movement for
independence from Spain. On September 14, 1815, the
Galleon Trade ended with Mexico’s war of independence.

            Previously, the Philippines was

governed by Spain from Mexico. The Spanish Crown took direct control of the Philippines
and
administered it directly from Madrid. The opening of the Suez Canal and the
invention of stem ships, which lessened the travel time from Spain
to the
country to 40 days, made this move convenient.

OPENING OF SUEZ CANAL

            An artificial sea-level waterway in

Egypt, the Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the
Isthmus of Suez.
Constructed by Suez Canal Company between 1859 and 1869 under
the leadership of French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps, it was officially
opened
on November 17, 1869.

            With the opening of the canal, the

distance of travel between Europe and the Philippines was considerably
abbreviated and thus virtually
brought the country closer to Spain. Before the
opening of the canal, a steamer from Barcelona had to sail around the Cape of
Good Hope to
reach Manila after a menacing journey of more than three months.
With the Suez Canal, the voyage was lessened to only 32 to 40 days.

            It’s the opening of the Suez Canal

became a huge advantage in commercial enterprises especially between Europe and
East Asia. More
importantly, it served as a significant factor that enabled the
growth of nationalistic desires of Jose Rizal and other Filipino ilustrados.

            The Suez Canal expedited the

importation not only of commercial products but also books, magazines, and
newspapers with liberal
ideas from America and Europe, which ultimately
affected the minds of Rizal and other Filipino Reformists. The political views
of Western liberal
thinkers entered the Philippines. Furthermore, the reduced
route stimulated more and more Spaniards and Europeans with liberal ideas to
come
to the country and interact with local reformists.

            The availability of the Suez Canal

has also encouraged the ilustrados,
especially Jose Rizal, to pursue education abroad and learn
scientific and
liberal in European academic institutions. Their social dealings with the
liberals in the West have influenced their thoughts on
nationhood, politics,
and government.
 RISE OF THE EXPORT OF CROP ECONOMY

            During the Galleon Trade, most of

the Spaniards in the Philippines were engrossed in maritime trading
undertakings between Manila and
Mexico. The exploitation of the Philippines’
natural resources and the progress of an export crop economy were phenomena of
the nineteenth
century, not of Spanish rules early period.

            Some years after the end of the

Galleon Trade, between 1820 and 1870, the Philippines was well on its way of
developing an export
crop economy. Products such as sugar, Manila hemp, and
coffee were produced of foreign markets while imported goods of the European
factory industry found their way into many parts of the Philippines. The
various economic activities in the new export-crop economy in the
country
provided many opportunities for the expanding Chinese population. Formerly
concentrated in Manila, many Chinese moved to province
that produced export
crops: the hemp producing areas southeastern Luzon and the eastern Visayas, the
sugar area of western Visayas, and the
tobacco provinces of the northeastern Luzon.

            The development of the export crop

industry in the Philippines was motivated by the commercial undertakings of
North European and
North American merchants, who provided capital,
organization, and access to foreign markets and sources of imports. But since
they based
their operations in port cities, especially Manila, they needed
agents who could distribute imports in the interior and buy up goods for the
export.
This role was assumed primarily by Chinese.

MONOPOLIES

            Another main source of wealth during

the post-galleon trade era was monopoly contracting. After 1950, government
monopoly contracts
for the collection of different revenues were opened to
foreigners for the first time. The Chinese instantly took advantage of this
commercial
opportunity and thus, for the rest of the 19th century,
enjoyed a pre-eminent position in monopoly contracting in the Philippines.

            The opium monopoly was especially a

profitable one. During the 1840’s, the Spanish government had legalized the use
of opium
(provided that it was limited to Chinese) and a government monopoly of
opium importation sales was created. The majority of contracts in the
monopoly
were held by the Chinese.

            But even before 1850, monopolies on

some products had been established, which were basically controlled by the
colonial government.
There were monopolies of special crops and items, such as
spirituous liquors (1712-1864), betel nut (1764), tobacco (1782-1882), and
explosives (1805-1864). Among these monopoly systems, the most controversial
and oppressive to locals was perhaps the tobacco monopoly.

            On March 1, 1972, Governor General

Jose Basco placed the Philippine tobacco industry under government control,
thereby establishing
the tobacco monopoly. It aimed to increase government
revenue since the annual subsidy coming from Mexico was no longer sufficient to
maintain the colony. An order was thus issued for the widespread cultivation of
tobacco in the province of Cagayan Valley, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos
Sur, La Union,
Isabela, Abra, Nueva Ecija, and Marinduque.

            These provinces planted nothing but

tobacco and sold their produce only to the government at a pre-designated
price, leaving little or no
profit for the local farmers. The system set the
required number of tobacco plants that must be sold to them by each family.
Nobody was allowed
to keep even a few tobacco leaves for personal use, thereby
forcing the local farmers to buy the tobacco they themselves planted from the
government. Fines and/or physical punishments were sanctioned to anyone who would
transgress any of the decrees under the system.

            The colonial government exported the

tobacco to other countries and to the cigarette factories in Manila. The
tobacco monopoly
positively raised revenues for the government and made
Philippine tobacco prominent all over Asia and some parts in Europe. Negatively
though, the monopoly brought about food shortages since the planting of basic
crops like rice was somewhat neglected and abandoned.

            The tobacco monopoly was finally

abolished in 1882. (Some references state that tobacco monopoly in the
Philippines was from 1781 to
1881, not 1782 to 1882, although most authors
agree that it lasted for exactly 100 years.) A century of hardship and social
injustice caused by
tobacco monopoly prompted Filipinos in general and Novo Ecijanos in particular, to seek
freedom from colonial bondage
 4. SOCIAL BACKGROUND

Social
Background

            Concerning
the social picture of the 19th century Philippines, at least three topics are
needed to be discussed: (a) education, (b) the rise
of Chinese Mestizo, and (c) the rise of inquilinos.

EDUCATION IN THE 19TH CENTURY

            With the coming of the Spanish

colonizers, the European system of education was somewhat introduced to the
archipelago. Schools
were established and run by Catholic missionaries.

            Aiming to convert the natives to

Catholic faith and make them obedient, the colonial government and the Catholic
Church made religion
a compulsory subject at all levels.

            King Philp II’s Leyes de Indios (Laws of the Indies) Mandated Spanish authorities
in the Philippines to educate the locals, to teach them
how to read and write
and to learn Spanish. The Spanish missionaries thus established schools,
somewhat educated the natives, but did not
seriously teach them the Spanish
language, fearing that the Indios
would become so knowledgeable and turn out to be their co-equal. Less than
one-fifth of those who went to school could read and write Spanish, and far
fewer could speak the language properly.

            The first formal schools in the land

were the parochial schools opened in their parishes by their missionaries, such
as the Augustinians,
Franciscans, Jesuits, and Dominicans. Aside from religion,
the native children were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and some
vocational and
practical arts subjects. Aside from the Christian Doctrines,
Latin (the official language of the Catholic Church) was also taught to the
students
instead of Spanish. The Spanish friars believed that the natives would
not be able to match their skills, and so one way for the locals to learn
fast
was to use strict discipline, such as applying corporal punishment.

            Later on, colleges (which were

equivalent of our high school today) were established for boys and girls. There
was no co-education
during the Spanish regime as boys and girls studied
separate schools. The subject taught to college students included history,
Latin, geography,
mathematics, and philosophy.

            University education was opened in

the country during the early part of the 17th century. Initially,
the colleges and universities were open
only to the Spaniards and those with
Spanish blood (mestizos). It was only
in the 19th century that these universities started accepting native
Filipinos. Still giving emphasis on religion, universities then did not
earnestly teach science and mathematics.

            In 1863, a royal decree called for

the establishment of a public school system in the Philippines. Formerly run
totally by religious
authorities, the education in the colony was thus finally
administered by the government during the first half of the 19th
century though even then
the church controlled its curriculum. Previously
exclusive for Spaniards and Spanish mestizos,
university became open to natives though their
limited their accommodations to
the sons of wealthy Indio family.

            Nonetheless, as a result of the

growing number of educated natives, a new social class in the country emerged,
which came to be
known as the Ilustrados.
But despite their wealth and education, the Ilustrados
were still deemed by the Spaniards as inferior. One of the aims of
the Ilustrados was to be in the same level
with the proud Spaniards.

            With the opening of the Suez Canal,

which made the travel to Europe faster, easier, and more affordable, many
locals took advantage of
the chance to pursue higher and better education in that
continent, typically in Madrid and Barcelona. There, nationalism and the thirst
for
reformed bloomed in the liberal atmosphere. The new enlightened class in
the Philippine society would later lead the Philippine independence
movement,
using the Spanish language as their key means of communication. Out of this
talented group of students from the Philippine arose
what came to be known as Propaganda Movement. The most prominent
of the Ilustrados was Jose Rizal, who
inspired the craving for freedom
and independence with his novels written in
Spanish.

 THE RISE OF THE INQUILINOS

            At least in modern Spanish, the term

inquilino has the same meaning as the
English “tenant.” Contextually, the 19th Century Inquilino
system in the Philippines is
better understood as a qualified system of tenancy, or the right to use land in
exchange for rent.

            As earlier explained, the

elimination of the Galleon Trade and the opening of the Suez Canal gave way for
more intensive rice cultivation
and production of crops, such as sugar cane and
tobacco. Consequently, many estates turned progressively to the Inquilino system of the land
tenure. But
since the friars and secular Spanish were normally absentee landlords, estate
management was granted to an administrator who
was typically a lay Spanish mestizo of Filipino lay brother. During
harvest time, the administrator would collect the rent of the Inquilinos, organize
the delivery of the
harvests to the local marker or to Manila, and remit the income from sales and
rents to the estate owners. In some estates
though, these farm duties were
consigned to trusted Inquilinos.
Acting as overlords, some Inquilinos would
make innumerable and irrational
demands from farm workers.

            As friars estates enlarged,

outlining the boundaries that separated these estates from communal lands
became a common cause of
conflict:

Disputes
over communal woodcutting and grazing areas occurred regularly between villages
and estates, with their latter denying to the farmer
their traditional communal
privileges. In Bulacan, for instance, the villagers once complained that the
friars took illegal possession of their land
and to compound this crime, they
even denied the use of rivers for fishing and the forest for collecting
firewood and wild fruits. In Cavite and
Laguna, the Dominicans and Tagalogs
frequently fought over border lands. In one incident, the former claims that
the pasture lands in a nearby
mountain was included in their land grant, while
the latter denied this and regularly killed the estate cattle grazing there.
Land border conflicts
became so acute in these provinces that they serve as
catalysts for agrarian uprisings. (Sobritchea, n.d.)

           

            There were also conflicts between

estate owners and workers. These stemmed from collection of excessive taxes and
land rent, the
decline of sharing agreements, extreme demands for labor
services and capricious fixing of crop prices:

“… the hacienda structure

consisted of three strata: the estate owner, the leaseholder of Inquilino and the tenant-sharecropper. Between the
owner and the Inquilino, however, was
the administrator who often demanded a share of the produce, over and, above
the stipulated land rent.
Each year at harvest time, the inquilino paid the land rent, separated the seed, and
divided the remaining crop equally between the
sharecropper and himself. Since
the sharecropper was at the bottom rung of the hierarchy, he suffered most
abuses and demands of the two
non-producing sectors above him.” (sobritchea,
n.d.)

            Consequently, there were instances

of peasants taking arms to protest the alleged abuses and usurpation of their
lands by the Jesuits,
Dominicans, Augustinians, and the Recollects. The
relative freedom, which the Inquilinos
acquired by sub-leasing their farms provided them a
tactical advantage for
arranging and leading these peasant protest movements.

 
 5. POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

Political
Landscape

          The
so-called political influences affecting the 19th
century-Philippines largely impacted the locals, particularly Jose Rizal. Under
these
political influences, worthy of mention are (a) Liberalism, (b) the
impact of Bourbon reforms, and (c) the Cadiz constitution.

LIBERALISM

            Liberalism
is a worldview founded on the ideas of freedom and equality. It includes a wide
range of political philosophies that consider
individual liberty to be the most
significant political goal, and underscore individual rights and equality of
opportunity. Liberals normally believe
that government is necessary to protect
individuals from being abused by others though they are also aware that
government itself can pose a
threat to liberty.

            The French revolution (1789-1799)

started a political revolution in Europe and consequently in some other parts
of the globe. “Having
‘Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” as its battle cry,
this period became a fundamental change in the political history of France as
the French
government structure was changed from absolute monarchy (with feudal
privilege for the rich and clergy) into a more liberal government system
founded on the principle of citizenship and inalienable rights.

            As an eventual repercussion of the

French revolution, Spain later experienced a stormy century of political
disturbances, which included
“numerous changes in parliament and constitutions,
the Peninsular war, the loss of Spanish America, and the struggle between liberals
and
conservatives” (Vallano n.d.). The liberals in Spain considered the
Catholic Church, called anti-clericalism, had gained some strength.

            Radical modifications in government

form were also introduced by liberals in Spain. These political changes had
their repercussion in the
Philippines, “cracking the fabric of the old colonial
system and introducing through cracks perilous possibilities of reform, of
equality and even
emancipation” (De la Costa, as cited in Vallano n.d.)

            When the Philippines was opened to

the world trade in the 19th century, liberal ideas from America
carried by ships and people from
foreign ports started to penetrate the country
and sway the illustrados. These
political thoughts included the ideologies of the American and
French
revolutions.

            Furthermore, the opening of the Suez

Canal eased the importation of books, magazines, and newspaper with liberal
ideas from the
West, which eventually impacted the thought of local reformists,
such as Jose Rizal. The political views of liberal thinkers, such as Jean
Jacques
Rousseau (Social Contract), John Locke (Two Treatises of Government),
Thomas Paine (Common Sense), Thomas Jefferson, Montesquieu,
Voltaire, and some
others thus entered the Philippines.

            The valuable canal also encouraged more

and more liberal Spaniards and Europeans to come to the country and intermingle
with
natives. The abbreviated route has also stimulated the ilustrados like Rizal to pursue higher
studies abroad in learn liberal ideas in European
universities. For sure their
school interaction with liberals in foreign lands has affected their beliefs on
politics and nationhood.

            Philippines’ actual experience of

liberalism comes from the role modelling of the “first liberal governor-general
in the Philippines,”
Governor-General Carlos Maria De la Torre. After the
liberals in Spain had deposed Queen Isabela II in 1868 mutiny, a provisional
government
was formed, and the new government extended to Spain’s colonies the
reform they implemented in the motherland. The liberal General Carlos
De la
Torre was appointed by the provisional government as Governor-General of the
Philippines. He held the position from 1869 to 1871, and
as widely considered
to be the most beloved of the Spanish Governor-General ever assigned in the country.

            General De la Torre’s rule was

essential in the dawn of national consciousness of the locals in the 19th
century. His liberal democratic
governance had provided Jose Rizal and the
others a preview of a democratic rule and way of life:

“De la
Torre put into practice his liberal and democratic ways by avoiding luxury and
living a simple life. During his two-year term, Governor De
la Torre had many
significant achievements. He encouraged freedom and abolished censorship. He
recognized the freedom of speech and of
the press, which were guaranteed by the
Spanish Constitution. Because of his tolerant policy, Father Jose Burgos and
other Filipino priests
were encouraged to pursue their dream of replacing the
friars with Filipino clergy as parish priests in the country. His greatest
achievement was
the peaceful solution to the land problem in Cavite. This
province has been the center of agrarian unrest in the country since 18th
century
because the Filipino tenants who lost their land had been oppressed by
Spanish landlords. Agrarian uprisings led by local hero, Eduardo
Camerino,
erupted several times in Cavite. This agrarian problem was only solved without
bloodshed when Governor De la Torre himself went to
Cavite and had a conference
with rebel leader. He pardoned the latter and his followers, provided them with
decent livelihood and appointed
them as members of the police force with
Camerino as captain.” (Vallano, n.d.)

 THE IMPACT OF THE BOURBON REFORMS

            When
the Spanish Bourbon King Philipp V (b. 1700-1746) assented to the throne, he
and his successors, Ferdinand VI (r. 1746-1759),
Charles III (r. 1759-1788),
and Charles IV (r. 1788-1807), advocated a century-long effort to reform and
modify the Spanish empire. These policy
changes, known jointly as the Bourbon
reforms, endeavored to curtail contraband commerce, reclaim control over
transatlantic trade, restrict the
church’s power, reform estate finances to
fill dwindling royal coffers, and found tighter administrative and political
control within the empire.

            Ideally, the Bourbon reform policies

were advantageous to the Philippines, which was under Spain from 1565 to 1898.
They surely
impacted the way the colony was run by Spanish administrators but
only to limited extent. For one thing, the Philippines was practically far from
Spain, and so it was hard for the Bourbon advocates to check if reform policies
were properly implemented in Spain’s colony in the far East.

            Moreover, there were questionable

maters as regards the effectiveness of the Bourbon reform project. The policies
lacked some
ideological coherence, with the diverse and frequently
contradictory aims of Madrid policy makers, who struggled haltingly to balance
the
crown’s several commercial, administrative, fiscal, and military aims. The
reform process was also seen as so complex, much so that Spanish
reformers
sometimes promoted distinctly different kinds of policies for province in its
diverse empire. Furthermore, there were instances when
European conflicts
forced Charles IV to go home from one policy to another by the mid-1790s to
meet the needs of financing Spain’s wars.

            As a consequence, there were very

different impacts of reform in the diverse Spanish empire, having deep
consequences of colonial
policy innovations in areas, such as Mexico, while in
some other regions such as the Philippines, Chile, and New Granada, the reforms
had a
much more limited impact. But while historians are questioning the
overall timing, impact, and effectiveness of the Bourbon reforms, its impact at
least is it gave people, especially the natives in the Philippines, the idea
that colonization could be done without much intervention from the
Catholic
Church.

 THE CADIZ CONSTITUTION

During
the Napoleonic occupation of Spain, liberal constitution was promulgated in
Cadiz in March 1812. Drafted by elected representatives, the
Cadiz Constitution
was put in practice in almost all the areas of the Hispanic Monarchy still
under control of the Spanish crown.

This
milestone constitution had an impact on many other European constitutions, as
well as the American states after independence. The Cadiz
Constitution was the
first constitution in Europe to deal with national sovereignty, recognizing
sovereignty as coming from the people and not
from the king. Unlike the French
constitution, which applied to all French-speaking citizen of France, this
Spanish Constitution of 1812 had a
universal character as it included everyone
from overseas, like the Italian kingdoms and even the Philippines.

During
the occupation of almost all of the Iberian peninsula by the French army in
that fateful year, a group of around 300 deputies from Spain,
Spanish America,
and the Philippines promulgated a liberal constitution in the Mediterranean
part of Cadiz. This became possible especially
because the city was protected
by the British Navy.

The
first delegates from the Philippines were Pedro Perez de Tagle and Jose Manuel
Coretto who took their oath of office in Madrid. The Cadiz
Constitution, which
was formally implemented in Manila soon after, established the principles of
universal male suffrage, national sovereignty,
constitutional monarchy, and
freedom of the press, and advocated land reform and free enterprises. Dealing
with the policies on Spain colonies
including the Philippines, the constitution
issued a decree “granting all its colonies representation as provinces in
Spanish cortes through
deputies chosen by the various capital cities” (Pedrosa,
n.d.). Under the Cadiz Constitution:

Governor
General Manuel Gonzales Aguilar called for an election of Manila officials
which resulted in the selection of Don Ventura de los Reyes,
a wealthy merchant
and member of the Royal Corps of Artillery of Manila, as the deputy. The
Vigan-born Don Ventura de los Reyes was a son
of poor Ilocano parents. He took
part in the Ilocos revolt led by Diego Silang in 1762, but later on engaged in
vegetable and indigo business. He
was one of the delegates who signed the
Constitution but it was only after a year that those in Manila knew about the
decree.” (Pedrosa n.d.)

The
constitutional monarchy that the Cadiz Constitution attempted to put in place
did not come to fruition because in May of 1814, King
Fernando VII declared it
invalid and restored absolutism. However, Cadiz was a very significant period
in the political history of Spanish-
speaking world at least. On the part of the
locals in the Philippines, one crucial creed embodied in the constitution was
the exemption of the
natives from paying tributes and rendering public services
based on its equality clause.

For
the freedom-loving people of the Philippines in the 19th century,
the constitution was very influential as it was a liberal constitution, which
vested sovereignty in the people, recognized the equality of all men and the
individual liberty of the citizen, granted the right of suffrage.

 
 6. Seeing Rizal’s Life in His Society

In
various social sciences, it is a widely accepted principle that we see the life
on an individual in his/her society, and society in the life of
individual.
This is precisely the reason that 19th century Philippines, as
Rizal’s society, is discussed here as a preliminary in studying the hero’s
life
and works.

            One unique feature of Rizal,

nonetheless, is that he did not only know the valuable information about his
society but also had a quality of
mind that helped him use the information in a
way that he could think about what was going on in the world and of what might
be happening
within himself. Sociologists call this quality of mind the
“sociological imagination.”

            Having this sociological imagination,

people can view their inner life and career in terms of larger historical
forces. Those who possess
this quality of mind can understand their own
experiences by locating themselves in history; they can recognize the response
available to them
by becoming aware of all of the individuals who share the
same situation as themselves.

            People who cannot locate their lives

in history are unlikely to know how to respond effectively to a world in which
the lives of people
around the globe are interconnected and which one society’s
problems are part of larger global problems. On the other hand, those who have
the sociological imagination can grasp history in the context of realities they
face and the connections between the two. As will discussed in this
book, Rizal
had this quality---he knew his place in the greater scheme of things, he
understood the societal forces shaping his life, and thus able
to respond in
ways that benefited others.
 7. MODULE 3 FORUM 1

ANSWER

https://collvle.neu.edu.ph/mod/forum/view.php?id=98070&forceview=1