I found out that Mexico's Independence Day actually falls on this date, when Miguel Hidalgo made that famous battle cry in Dolores, or rather this is called in Mexico as "Grito de Dolores" in 1810. This is why today, our "sister-country" celebrates its Bicentennial Independence Day.
Where did it all began?
Well, we have to give credit to Napoleon I of France, who invaded Portugal in 1808 and Spain in 1809 during the Napoleonic Wars. This brought forth the collapse of the government in Madrid, and lead to the dissolution of Spain into fractionalized provincial juntas during the Peninsular War of 1808-1814. Because of this war, the once mighty Spanish Empire which lands covered 4 continents was humiliated in the global arena.
Seeing the opportunity, not only did Mexico revolt from the Spanish Crown, but soon followed the other Spanish colonies in the Americas - Rio de Plata, Peru, Chile, Venezuela, Guatemala, New Granada, and Paraguay left the orbit around Madrid. The Spanish American Wars of Independence left Spain with only Cuba and the Spanish East Indies, which includes the Philippines, Guam, Palau, the Marianas, and the Carolines as its major overseas colonies.
So what does this all mean for us Filipinos?Looking at the event in the bigger picture, we can say that September 16 is our day as Filipinos where we should remember the beginning of the end of the Spanish Colonial Period of the Philippines. As Mexico was won its War of Independence from the Spain, aside the from the riches of the Americas, Spain also lost the economic lifeline of the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade by 1821.
Realizing the need to generate income for the Crown, the Spanish government finally opened the Philippines in 1834 to foreign trade. Simmering in the undercurrent of society are the Illustrados who also caught on the news of the Spanish American Wars of Independence and the French Revolution. Top this with the liberal ideas of the Governor-Generalship of Carlos Maria delca Torre in 1869, the Philippines was on its way to independence.
By 1871, de la Torre was replaced by Rafael de Izquierdo, who rescinded the liberal laws of of the former, and imposed a harder hand of rule in Manila - imposing taxes on soldiers and required the citizenry to do manual labor. A year later de Izquierdo's martial rules lead to the Cavite Mutiny, where Filipino Artillery soldiers killed their Spanish officers, which then brought forth a crackdown by the Governor-General against not only the soldiers, but other prominent Filipinos, such as the three priests Gomburza - which we know today as the spark of Filipino nationalism that lead to the Philippine Revolution against Span in 1896.
And the rest is history...
