READING PHILIPPINE HISTORY

AIZLE PORSCHE BSTM 1B

LESSON 1: introduction to history definition, issues, sources, and methodology

 John P. Candeleria and Veronica C. Alporha – history has always been known as the study of the past
 HISTORIA – Greek word meaning knowledge acquired through inquiry or investigation
- History as a disciplined existed for around 2,400 years and is as old as mathematics and philosophy
- Known as the account of the past of a person or of a group of people through written document and
historical evidences
- Stuck until the early parts of the 20th century
- Became an important academic discipline
- Historian duty to write about the lives of important individuals like; monarchs, heroes, saints, and
nobilities, wars, revolutions and important breakthroughs
- “No document, no history.” – traditional historians lived with the mantra, means that unless a written
document can prove a certain historical event, it cannot be considered as a historical fact.
- History- progressed and opened up to the possibility of valid historical sources, which were not limited to
written documents, like government records, chronicle account or personal letters
- Keener on passing their history by word of mouth
- Other documents burned or destroyed in the events of war or colonization
- Restricting historical evidences as exclusives written is also discrimination against social classes who were
not recorded in paper.
- Nobilities, monarchs, the elite, and even middle class have their birth certificate, education, marriage,
and death as a matter of government historical records.
 Absence of written documents – historians who started using other kinds of historical sources
a. Oral traditional forms of epic and songs, artifacts, architecture, memory
1. Archeologists – use artifacts from bygonr era to study ancient civilizations
2. Linguistic – tracing historical evolutions, past connections among different group, and flow of cultural
influence by studying language and changes it has undergone
3. Biologist and Biochemist – through analyzing genetics and DNA patterns of socities
 Historiography – is the history of history
 History – study of the past
 Historical sources – primary and secondary
1. Primary sources – produced at the same event, period, or subject being studied
- Minutes of the convention, newspaper clippings and records of the convention
- Eg. Commonwealth constitution convention of 1935
2. Secondary sources – produced by an author who used primary sources to produced material
- Articles critiquing the art of the work and dissertations
 Why study history?
1. To learn about the past.
2. To understand the present.
3. To appreciate our heritage.
4. To broaden perspective.
5. To acquire background for critical thinking.
 The meaning of history
1. Yesterday of Mankind – history is the yesterday of mankind. In the Ph history, it is the memory of all
Filipinos both dead and alive. A nation without history lacks direction.
2. Record the past – history is that condition changes. Filipinos believe that the changes can become
progress-movement toward a goal.
 3. The story of all Filipinos – a student of Philippine history, the story of the Filipinos. It is more than a
record a record of events. It is a dramatic account happened to actual men and women as they strove
and search for a good life.
4. Historical forces – as question as you read it. You will discover that history has often been shaped by
certain forces
a. Geography – influence of the environment
b. Economy – living they had
c. Politics – how they governed themselves
d. Education – how sciences, innovation, and research played an important part of their lives
 Sources of historical data
1. Written sources – letters, diaries, contracts, bulletins, newspaper accounts, journals
2. Oral transmitted materials – unwritten and passed through word of mouth like myths, folklore, legends,
tula, balagtasan, folk songs
3. Artistic production – historical paintings, portraits, vases, carvings, engravings, sketches
4. Electronic data – produced through the use of energy like films, documentaries, radio, tv, computer data
5. Relics and remains – include fossils, artifacts, bones, vases, potteries, language
 Understanding sources
1. Primary sources – materials produced by people or groups directly involved in the event or topic being
studied. These people are either participants or eyewitnesses to the event.
- Formally, there are eight examples
1. Photograph that may reflect social conditions of historical realities and everyday life.
2. Old sketches and drawings that may indicate the condition of life.
3. Old maps that may reveal how space and geography were used to emphasize trade routes.
4. Cartoons for political expression for propaganda.
5. Material evidences of the prehistoric past like cave drawings and old syllabaries
6. Statistical tables, graphs, and charts.
7. Oral history or recordings by electronic means of account of eyewitnesses
8. Published and unpublished primary documents, eyewitness accounts and other written sources
2. Secondary sources – “the testimony of anyone who is not an eyewitness that is of one who is not
present at the event of which he tells”, Gottscalk.
- Books, scholarly journals and articles that had been interpreted primary sources
 ROBERT FOX. THE TABON CAVES. ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS AND EXCAVATIONS ON PALAWAN,
PHILIPPINES (primary sources)
 TABON MAN – June and July 1962, scattered fossil bones of at least three individuals were
excavated including a large frontal fragment of a frontal bone with the brows and portion of
nasal bones.
 Fossils had been disturbed by magapode birds
 May be dated from 22,000 to 40,000 yrs ago
 WILLIAM HENRY SCOTT. PREHISTORIC SOURCE OF MATERIAL FOR THE STUDY OF PHILIPPINE HISTORY
(secondary sources)
 TABON MAN – the earliest human skull remains known in the Philippine are the fossilized
 Found in the west coast of Palawan. Appeared to be a kind of little Stone Age factory
 Dated by C-14 to roughly 7,000 bc to 20,000 bc with an earlier level of
 Physical anthropologist had examined the skull agreed it was belonged to modern man – homo
sapiens.

 Magellan’s voyage Around the world

Historical sources - written by various authors with different perspective
Perspective – refers to the pov of the said writer who was an eye witness to the event.
One of the benefits that the Europe gained from the Crusades was the discovery of some
products that were not available in their home country like porcelain, silk, incense etc.
Spices – most expensive and in-demand lucrative commodity among Europeans
 Asian goods reached Europe either via Silk Road or Arabian-Italian route. Both roads are
expensive and disrupted by wars, natural calamities and bandits. The closing of the land route of
the Spice Trade with the conquest of the Ottoman Empire of Constantinople (turkey)
Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal put u a maritime school that trained sailor.
The Magellan-Elcano expedition left the port of San Lucar de Barrameda in Seville on August 20,
1519 with around 270 men.
3 ships reached the Philippines. First couple of weeks of the Spaniards to the Ph was marked
with hospitality and cordial exchanges of goods.
Lapu-lapu, chieftain of Mactan refused to trade and when Magellan heard this, he waged war
with him. Magellan died during the war.
On September 7, 1522, Elcano and 17 survivors arrived in Spain aboard the ship Victoria. One of
them is Antonio Pigafetta, assistant of Magellan who kept a journal that became the main source
of what we know.

LESSON 2: ACT OF PROCLAMATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE FILIPINO PEOPLE

 December, 1897 – truce was declared between two forces with the Filipino leaders led by Gen. Emilio
Aguinaldo agreeing to be exile to Hongkong while the Spaniards paid an indemnity for the damages caused
as a result of conflict
- First phase of the Ph Revolution ended in a stalemate between Spaniards and the Filipino rebels.
- Truce Lasted for only a few months
- Eventually led to the Spanish-American War in 1898 – arrival of new colonizer in Ph
 Ven before the battle in Manila in1898
- Aguinaldo had been already been meeting with the Americans in Singapore.
- E. Spencer Pratt – Aguinaldo talk to him regarding US-Filipino collaboration against the Spaniard
- Commodore George Dewey – commander of Asiatic Fleet. Aguinaldo failed to meet him because Dewey
went to attack the Spanish fleet
- Aguinaldo stayed in Hongkong and met with the American consul general Rounseville Wildman. He paid
Wildman a total of Php 117, 000 to purchase riffle and ammunition.
- A first shipment worth php 50, 000 was made but ther half was never delivered.
 May 19, 1989 – Aguinaldo returned to Ph on the board of US crusier McCulloch.
- He conferred with Dewey about Ph condition and was supplied w arms captured from the Spaniards
- In his headquarter in Cavite, Philippines announced the resumption of the revolution against the
Spaniards, the beginning of the second phase.
- Aguinaldo commanded 12, 000 troops.
 May 28 – first victory in Alapan, Imus, Cavite. Newly-made Filipino flag was hoised in Alapan then later
unfurled at the Treato Caviteno in Cavite Nuevo.
 May 24 – creation of dictatorial government
 June 12, 1898 – Aguinaldo declared Ph independence from Spanish rule at a ceremony in his house in Kawit,
Cavite
- Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista read the declaration and signed by 117 person
- Philippine National Anthem – “Marcha Nacional Filipina” composed by Julian Felipe and was played by
the Banda de San Francisco de Malabon and the PH flag was again unfurled.
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
*GENERAL EMILIO AGUINALDO – INITIATOR OF THE PH INDEPENDENCE THAT LED TO THE MAKING OF THE
PROCLAMATION
- was born on March 22, 1969 in Kawit, Cavite
- second youngest of eight children of Carlos Aguinaldo(+1883) and Trinidad Fany
- he followed his father’s foot step and was chosen Capitan Municipal of Kawit in 1894
- he joined Katipunan with the name “Magdalo”
 1896 – Katipunan is cavite succeed in driving away the Spaniard from the province
 Supremo Andres Bonifacio – worsened the situation resulting to creation of revolutionary
government
 Elections for the pamahalaang panghimagsik were held in Barrio Tejeros, San Francisco de Malabon
(general Trias) and Aguinaldo was elected as the president
 Bonifacio angrily declared the election as nulled and void. The Magdalos however considered that
result of the election.
 Bonifacio was arrested and executed together with his brother Procopio on May 10, 1897 after trying
to put up his government
 Bonifacio’s death weakened the Katipunan
 1897 – Aguinaldo and his officer went in exile in Hongkong in exchange for an indemnity, amnesty,
and colonial form