Through Rizal's "The Philippines a Century Hence," a desire to understand and deconstruct the legacy of occupation is utilized to try to formulate what a future might look like in the Philippines. In this legacy, it can be said that a varied set of responses to occupation, perpetuated both by the Spanish and the colonized people themselves, contributed to the stagnation of any progress towards independence. The driving force would be a clash of political, ideological, and even racial identities amongst many newly formed group in the Philippines, who maintained different attitudes towards colonialism from each other and from pure natives. Spanish blood became diluted throughout many generations in the Philippines, making its way into native blood, blurring the line between conquered and conqueror. Eventually, even some Filipinos themselves helped maintain the rule of the Spanish through roles in the military and local government. This ambiguity of identity and response to the Spanish for 300 years resulted in a slow evolution, with various changes in loyalty amongst Filipinos. It was only when common grievances against the Spanish among all Filipinos worsened to an absolute breaking point when unification first took hold, which was the catalyst for revolution.
Over 300 years of occupation, interbreeding between Spanish and natives created a vast array of separate racial and cultural identities, such as the Mestizos, the Castizos, the Espomolo, and many others. As the generations passed, Filipinos "lost their old traditions and memories, they forgot their writings, their songs, their poetry, their laws in order to learn by rote other doctrines." (Rizal 377) Filipinos, who carried many different customs even before occupation, became further fragmented and complicated in their attitudes towards the occupiers.