Roots of Dependency presents an original overview of the dramatic changes which flowed from the Philippines' entry into world trade and the consequent ascendancy of cash crop agriculture in the insular economy. In the early chapters Fast and Richardson describe how, because of Spain's relative weakness, the main stimulants of this economic transformation were the markets and commercial agents - merchants, shippers and bankers - of Britain and United States. The second section of Roots of Dependency analyzes the political tensions that these developments created, tensions which culminated in the 1896 revolution.. Who were the real heroes of the revolution? Fast and Richardson maintain that the common people, unsung, unremembered and cruelly betrayed, emerged as the true defenders of national honor.