After Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, the Spanish crown began to govern Manila directly. Under direct Spanish rule, banking, industry and education flourished more than they had in the previous two centuries. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 facilitated direct trade and communications with Spain. The city's growing wealth and education attracted indigenous peoples, Negritos, Malays, Africans, Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Europeans, Latinos and Papuans from the surrounding provinces and facilitated the rise of an "ilustrado" class that espoused liberal ideas: the ideological foundations of the Philippine Revolution, which sought independence from Spain. A revolt by Andres Novales was inspired by the Latin American wars of independence as the revolt itself was led by demoted Latin-American military officers stationed at the city, from the then newly independent nations of Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Costa Rica. Following the Cavite Mutiny and the Propaganda Movement, the Philippine revolution eventually erupted, Manila was among the first eight provinces to rebel and thus their role was immortalized in the Philippine Flag where Manila was marked as one of the eight rays of the symbolic sun.