ABSTRACT
The foreign-dominated quality of Philippine history is compounded by the insidious consequences of Spanish and American colonial rule, which, among other things, have negated Philippine pride. The loss of the empire in Latin America was a trauma from which the Iberian-born Spaniards in the Philippines never fully recovered. Since they also were helpless to control the economic changes of the nineteenth century, they became increasingly defensive. Jose Rizal, the most famous ilustrado, was a relatively wealthy fifth-generation Chinese mestizo. Despite the alleged claims of military necessity by Emilio Aguinaldo's supporters, Andres Bonifacio was not guilty of treason to Philippine nationalism—he had merely lost control of the Katipunan, which, significantly, was reformulated into a revolutionary government. Aguinaldo's reputation and the independence struggle were revived by the serendipitous intervention of United States power after the battleship Maine was sunk at Havana Harbor, and the situation was now dramatically altered.
