Caraga state university
Ampayon, Butuan City 8600, Philippines
URL: www.carsu.edu.ph
Lesson 25
Philippines: A Century Hence
Background
✓The Philippines A Century Hence, came out as a series of 4
articles in the La Solidaridad from September 30, 1889 to
February 1, 1890.
✓The essay was written as a forecast of the future of the
country within a hundred years. Rizal felt that it was time to
remind Spain that the forces and circumstances that ushered
in the French and Spanish revolutions could have a telling
effect for her in the Philippines.
✓Originally known as Filipinas Dentro de Cien Años
Background
The essay has 4 parts (articles)
Part I causes of the miseries of the people
Part II Filipino awareness on society under Spanish rule
(Filipinization)
Part III centered on the reforms and political changes
Part IV delved on the stages that would lead the
Philippines to independence
The essay presented a radical prophesy to what will
happen to the Philippines through the century.
1. That the Philippines will remain to be a colony of Spain,
but it will be in good terms,
2. That the Philippines will try to cut the ties of our
Motherland from the captors through a revolution, and
3. That we will be colonized by another country.
The essay start by analyzing the various causes of the
miseries suffered by the Filipino people:
✓Implementation of her military policies which
dramatically decreased population.
✓Deterioration and disappearance of Filipino indigenous
culture
✓Passivity and submissiveness to the Spanish rule
✓ Poverty becoming rampant
✓ Families becoming neglected by society
Rizal believes that with all those considered time will
come that the Filipino people could not further tolerate
such oppression.
✓ Keeping the people uneducated and ignorant has failed,
because the Filipino has awakened a national
consciousness
✓ Keeping the people impoverished has failed, because
Filipinos started to explore other horizons for progress.
✓ Exterminating the people is also an alternative. However,
to wipe out the nation would also require the sacrifice of
Spanish soldiers.
✓ Rizal’s vision in the essay became a reality in 1898.
America wrestled with Spain to win the Philippines and
eventually took over the country. Theirs was a reign of
democracy and liberty. Five decades after Rizal’s death,
Philippines gained her long-awaited independence.
History quotes taken from Philippines A Century
Hence
✓ In order to know the destiny of a people, it is necessary to
open the book of its past.
✓ History does not record in its annals any lasting domination
by one people over another, of different races, of diverse
usages and customs, of opposite and divergent ideas. One of
the two had to yield and succumb. (Hindi naitala ng kasaysayan sa mga
talaan nito ang anumang pangmatagalang dominasyon ng isang tao sa isa pa, ng iba't ibang lahi,
ng magkakaibang paggamit at kaugalian, ng magkasalungat at magkakaibang ideya. Ang isa sa
dalawa ay kailangang magbunga at sumuko. “)
A quote taken from Philippines A Century Hence
✓ The government needs a free press, the government that
still dreams of prestige, that builds on mined ground… A
free press will let a government know the throbs of public
opinion.
References
Garcia, Carlito & Cruz, Cynthia. Rizal and the Development of Filipino Nationalism: A
textbook on the Life, Works and Writings of Our National Hero. Mandaluyong City: Books
Atbp Publishing Corp.,2005
Zaide, Grogorio & Zaidde, Sonia. Jose Rizal: Life, Works and Writings of a Genius, Write,
Scientist and National Hero. Quezon City: All-Nations Publishing Co., Inc., 2008
http://thelifeandworksofrizal.blogspot.com/2011/08/philippines-century-hence-summary-
and.html
