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| 1863 |
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| The Spanish Overseas Ministry took over rule of the Philippines from the Council of the Indies. | 1 |
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| 1864 |
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| Mestizo cleric José Burgos released a manifesto calling for ethnic equality in the priesthood. | 2 |
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| 1872 |
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| Mutiny amongst the garrison at Cavite Arsenal. The execution of religious nationalists including José Burgos had great influence on the Philippine national movement. A substantial number of ilustrados left the country. Filipino intellectuals in Spain later established the Propaganda Movement, which sought political representation in the Spanish Cortes and attempted to promote awareness of Tagalog culture and precolonial history. Masonic lodges also played an important part in the nationalist movement. | 3 |
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| 1876–78 |
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| The Spanish attacked Sulu to assert their sovereignty over the sultanate. In 1878 Sulu's possessions in North Borneo were leased to Britain. In July 1878 Sulu signed a treaty promising to obey the Spanish ruler. Germany and Britain later acknowledged Spain's rights over Sulu. | 4 |
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| 1881 |
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| Abolition of the tobacco monopoly. Followed by general reform of the tax structure in 1884, this was part of an attempt to transform the archaic fiscal system in the colony. | 5 |
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| 1886–87 |
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| Spanish forces conquered parts of Mindanao, although much of the island retained its independence until the revolution. | 6 |
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| 1887 |
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| The nationalist intellectual José Rizal produced the influential novel Noli Me Tangere while in exile in Spain. The novel's satire of corruption and injustice in the Philippines aroused government hostility. | 7 |
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| 1889 |
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| La Solidaridad, a Filipino nationalist newspaper, began publication in Spain, circulating the views of intellectuals like Rizal. | 8 |
| The Becerra Law set up town councils as part of an attempt to modernize regional organization. In similar fashion, the Maura Law of 1893 reformed urban administration. | 9 |
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| 1892 |
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| Rizal returned to the Philippines and founded the liberal La Liga Filipina, which proposed a nonradical program of economic and educational advancement. The government regarded the group as seditious and banished Rizal to Mindanao. The working-class activist Andres Bonifacio organized the revolutionary secret society Katipunan. Bonifacio attempted to recruit ilustrados into Katipunan, but they were generally unwilling to join because of the movement's revolutionary aims. | 10 |
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| 1896, Aug. 24 |
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| Rebellion of Katipunan marked the start of the Philippine Revolution. Economic problems fueled discontent. Inability to gain support from the ilustrados, who were the only truly national group in the Philippines, contributed to early failures, as did Bonifacio's military inexperience. The execution of Rizal on Dec. 30 intensified popular resentment of the government and widened the scope of the rebellion. The revolt of Emilio Aguinaldo in Cavite was the first defeat of the Spanish. | 11 |
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| 1897 |
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| Bonifacio was executed after a power struggle in the revolutionary movement, after which Aguinaldo became leader. The movement suffered military setbacks, and the Spanish began to prevail in the field. | 12 |
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| Dec. 15 |
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| Biyak-na-bato pact between the revolutionaries and the Spanish, who were anxious to end the war because of the revolution in Cuba. Aguinaldo agreed to stop fighting in return for passage to exile and a money payment. | 13 |
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