Abstract: What is the meaning of nationalism in a world of globalizing interconnections? Does it make sense to see in national integration a “template,” as Thomas Hylland Eriksen puts it, for the processes of globalization? Do nationalist movements challenge colonial hegemony while seeking an accommodation within a global system of states and transnational agencies? Possible answers to these questions may be gleaned from the writings and personal histories of the nineteenth-century Filipino expatriates called “ilustrados.” Definitions of the term ilustrado include the dispersed group of Filipino educated elite who denounced the dysfunctions and abuses of Spanish colonial rule, who agitated across borders in networks and associations originating outside the Philippines.…