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First Revolutionary Movement : Benedict Anderson 's Novel Imagined Communities

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Benedict Anderson’s book Imagined Communities develops a theoretical framework which can be applied to the formation of nation-states in the 18th and 19th centuries across the world. Anderson’s analyses of the processes that contribute to a nation’s birth reveal a constant prerequisite in every revolutionary movement: an imagined community. Imagined communities are formed by a number of people who identify with a socially constructed group, even though they have no interaction with the vast majority of the community’s members (Anderson, 1983, p. 6). Using the framework set forth by Anderson, the rise of nationalism in 19th century colonial Philippines can be analyzed in detail. As a national hero of the Philippines, Jose Rizal prompted the formation of a Filipino imagined community. His nationalist actions follow a similar to path to those of other revolutionary figures around the world, the same path as shown by Anderson’s Imagined Communities. The inception of Filipino nationalism under the guidance of Jose Rizal can be interpreted best through the lens of Benedict Anderson’s analytical structure. The Philippines of the early 19th century under the rule of Spain was most certainly not a nation as defined by Anderson. While the Spanish had imposed borders on the area centuries before, the colony was under complete control by the Spanish and not sovereign (Anderson, 1983, p. 7). In addition, the Filipino natives failed to imagine themselves as a connected community; rather

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