José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was a Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is considered a national hero of the Philippines. An ophthalmologist by profession, Rizal became a writer and a key member of the Filipino Propaganda Movement, which advocated political reforms for the colony under Spain.
Rizal c. 1890s
José Rizal's baptismal register
Francisco Rizal Mercado (1818–1898)
Teodora Alonso Realonda (1827–1911)
History of the Philippines (1565–1898)
The history of the Philippines from 1565 to 1898 is known as the Spanish colonial period, during which the Philippine Islands were ruled as the Captaincy General of the Philippines within the Spanish East Indies, initially under the Viceroyalty of New Spain, based in Mexico City, until the independence of the Mexican Empire from Spain in 1821. This resulted in direct Spanish control during a period of governmental instability there. The Philippines was under direct royal governance from 1821 to 1898.
Pages of the Doctrina Christiana, an early Christian book in Spanish and Tagalog. The book contained Latin and Baybayin suyat scripts. (1593)
Tomb of Miguel López de Legazpi, founder of Manila as the capital city of the Philippine islands, located in Manila at the San Agustin Church inside the historic walled city of Intramuros
The Principalia of a rural parish in colonial Philippines, joining the Holy Week procession. Illustration, c. 1870
The two merchant galleons, Encarnacion and Rosario, which were hastily converted to warships to meet the superior Dutch armada of 18 vessels during the battles of La Naval de Manila in 1646 (artist's conception)