The relationship between the Philippines and Spain began when Magellan, who was supported by the Spanish royal family, landed in Cebu in 1512. Later, the Philippines was renamed Las Islas Filipinas after King Philip II of Spain, and became a Spanish colony from 1571 to 1898. The Philippines remained a Spanish colony for over 320 years.

Jose Rizal was a Filipino revolutionary, independence activist who inspired the nationalist movement, journalist, physician, inventor, translator, businessman, educator, and writer. Along with Ramon Magsaysay, he is revered as the father of the Philippines. He was born on June 19, 1861 in Calamba, Philippines and died on December 30, 1896 in Manila.

Rizal went to Spain to study medicine. He also learned German and French in a short period of time and studied at the University of Paris and Berlin. Here, he was also recognized by many European scholars. He was fluent in many languages ​​at the time and could speak and write the rest at a basic level. He obtained his medical license at the age of 25 and was a genius who was also well-versed in pharmacy and showed outstanding abilities in sociology, economics, history, anthropology, mathematics, architecture, and literature.

However, his experience in Europe made upper-class youth aware of the contradictions of colonial rule. The discrimination he experienced abroad awakened his national and revolutionary consciousness and gave him a desire for reform and liberation of the Philippines. Rizal led the enlightenment movement by publishing “To Compatriots” in the form of a letter to his compatriots residing in Spain, asking them to refrain from gambling and laziness and to be recognized as honest and hard-working people.

He also published a rebuttal to a book (sucesos de las islas filipinas, Success of the Philippines) that praised the legitimacy of the Spanish colonial rule for bringing civilization to the "lazy and barbaric" Filipinos, and published a novel (Noli Me Tángere, Don't Touch Me) that exposed the reality of colonialism in which Spanish colonial officials, plantation owners, and Spanish priests distorted the image of Filipinos as stupid to justify their colonial rule. It sharply criticized the contradictions of colonial rule, and vividly depicted the Spanish giving special privileges only to their own people and discriminating against the Filipinos in the colony. This article, published by a young student from the colony, rapidly spread among the cultural circles of Spain, the intellectual class in Madrid, and students, where an open and liberal atmosphere was spreading at the time, and led to public opinion criticizing Spain's colonial rule in Spain. Eventually, he was exiled by order of the Spanish government, returning to the Philippines.

After his forced exile, he gave up his dream of becoming a doctor and began a full-fledged revolution and independence movement. Rizal demanded democratic reform of colonial rule from the Spanish government, and at the same time, he fought for self-government with the Filipino people. Unlike the armed independence movement of Andres Bonifacio, who was an independence activist at the same time as Rizal, he pursued a pacifist independence movement.

Afterwards, the Spanish government arrested Rizal on false charges of being behind the armed struggle for independence, and at the trial held in Manila, he defended himself without a lawyer, but was eventually falsely accused. Afterwards, he was transferred to the Fort Santiago prison in Intramuros, where he was imprisoned. He was publicly executed by firing squad in Manila on December 30, 1896, on charges of treason, sedition, and conspiracy to commit sedition by military law. To prevent his body from becoming a trigger for the independence movement, his body was buried secretly, and to this day, it is unknown where Rizal is buried. Rizal's death became a catalyst for the Filipino people's will for independence, and he came to be revered as the father of independence by the Filipinos.