Chapter 6 Annotation of Antonio Morgas Sucesos de Las Islas Filipinas

CHAPTER 6:
ANNOTATION OF
ANTONIO MORGA’S
SUCESOS DE LAS ISLAS
FILIPINAS
SUCESOS DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS
IS A BOOK WRITTEN AND

PUBLISHED BY ANTONIO DE
MORGA CONSIDERED AS
ONE OF THE MOST
IMPORTANT WORKS ON THE
EARLY HISTORY OF THE
SPANISH COLONIZATION OF
THE PHILIPPINES.
What is Sucesos De Lasa 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.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION/ IMPORTANT
INFORMATION ABOUT SUCESOS DE LAS
ISLAS FILIPINAS
 It was published in 1609 after he was reassigned to Mexico in two
volumes by Casa de Geronymo Balli, in Mexico City. The first
English transition was published in London in 1868 and another
English translation by blair and Robertson was published in
Cleveland in 1907.
 This is the one of the first books ever to tackle Philippine history.
 Book that describes the events inside and outside of the country
from 1493 to 1603, including the history of the Philippines.
CONTENTS
The title means Events in the Philippine Islands and thus

the books primary goal is a documentation of events
during Spanish colonial period of the Philippines as
observed by the author himself.
The book also includes Filipino customs, traditions,
manners and religion during the Spanish conquest.
DR. ANTONIO DE MORGA
ANTONIO DE MORGA
SANCHEZ GARAY
(November 29, 1559 – July
21, 1636) was a Spanish
soldier, lawyer and a high-
ranking colonial official for
43 years, in the Philippines
(1594 to 1604), New Spain
and Peru, where he was
president of the Real
Audiencia for 20 years.
Antonio de Morga
 Spanish conquistador, gov’t official, and historical

anthropologist: author of Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas
(Events in the Philippine Islands).
 He wrote the first lay formal history of the Philippines
conquest by Spain.
 A doctorate in canon law and civil law
Morga’s purpose for Writing Sucesos
Morga wrote that the purpose for writing Sucesos was so he could
chronicle “the deeds achieved by our Spaniards is 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 Jose Rizal to 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 condition of the
Philippines when the Spaniards came ashore to the islands.
 His theory was 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 Philippine’s rich tradition and culture.
 Rizal spend his entire stay in the city of London at the
British Museum’s reading room.
 Having found Morga’s book, 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 annotation 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 footnotes: “this is another preoccupation of the Spaniards who, like any other
nation in that matter of food, leathe 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 rolten”
Ferdinand Blumentritt also wrote a preface
emphasizing some salient points:
 The Spaniards have to correct their erroneous

conception of the Filipinos as children of limited
intelligence
 That there existed three kinds of Spanish delusions
about the Philippines:
* Filipinos 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
Rizal’s 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 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”
3 Main Propositions in Rizal’s New Edition of
Morga’s Sucesos
A
R  The people of the Philippines had a culture on their own, before the
G coming of the Spaniards
U  Filipino were decimated, demoralized, exploited and ruined by the
Spanish colonization
M
 The present state of the Philippines was not necessarily superior to
E its past.
N
T
The “SUCESOS” as annotated by Rizal, appeared for the first
time in the Philippines sixty eight years later when a publisher
in Manila, published the new work in 1958, to contribute his
bit to the national effort to honor Rizal. The present work is
the sixth volume of the Series of Writings of Jose Rizal which
the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission has no
published in commemoration of his birth.
THANK YOU!

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CHAPTER 6:

IS A BOOK WRITTEN AND

The title means Events in the Philippine Islands and thus

 Spanish conquistador, gov’t official, and historical

taking issue with the scopes of these claims,

 The Spaniards have to correct their erroneous

In Jose Rizal’s dedication, he explained among other things, the purpose of

“If book succeeds in awakening in you the consciousness of our past

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