# Execution of José Rizal (30 December 1896)

URL: https://allhistories.com/philippines/timeline/1896-execution-of-jose-rizal
Location: Bagumbayan (Luneta), Manila
Themes: Journalism, Propaganda Movement, Biography

On 30 December 1896 José Rizal was executed by a firing squad of Filipino soldiers in the Spanish army at Bagumbayan, Manila, with regular Spanish troops ready should they fail. A court martial had convicted him of rebellion, sedition and conspiracy. Wikipedia gives his last words as consummatum est (it is finished). Rizal had left Dapitan on 1 August 1896 to serve as a doctor in Cuba and was arrested on 6 October, during a stopover in Barcelona, and sent back to Manila. In Fort Santiago he issued a manifesto disavowing the revolution as it then stood. Rizal himself had favoured reform, not armed separation. He was buried secretly at Paco Cemetery; his remains were exhumed in 1898 and reinterred at the Rizal Monument in 1912. A retraction document said to have been found in 1935 is disputed: Ricardo Pascual concluded it was not in Rizal's hand, while other historians accept it. His execution made him a national martyr, and he is the Philippines' national hero. At this point in the timeline (1896), the Spanish colony of the Philippines was administered by Acting Governor-General Camilo García de Polavieja (13 December 1896 – 15 April 1897). Meanwhile, the Katipunan was led by its Supremo, Andrés Bonifacio (January 1895 – 22 March 1897).

## Why it matters
His death turned a moderate reformer into the national martyr and hardened support for independence.

Ruler at the Time: [Camilo García de Polavieja](https://allhistories.com/philippines/rulers/camilo-garcia-de-polavieja)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — José Rizal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Rizal)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Jose Rizal](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jose-Rizal)