This article will analyze the role of colonialism in Benito Perez Galdos’ novel Dona Perfecta by putting it into dialogue with the work of Jose Rizal. By examining the two writers side by side, we will see how the logic of colonialism manifested itself in the formal aspects of their work. Galdos will show us how the internal contradictions of metropolitan Spain during the Carlist Wars obeyed the same logic as the governing of the remaining overseas empire. Meanwhile, Rizal’s first novel, Noli me tangere, reveals how those same contradictions were equally complicit in the colonial project. Colonialism, while not explicitly mentioned by Galdos, manifests itself in the formal aspects of the novel, revealing a logic shared by internal as well as colonial contradictions. Noli me tangere, while thematically similar to Dona Perfecta, goes farther than Galdos in problematizing the Spanish liberal position, especially towards colonialism. While the realist novels of Galdos are an important window into 19th century Spain, Rizal’s work pushes those contradictions, thus revealing more fully the cultural logic of late imperial Spain.