19th Century Spain: Economic Transformations, Industrialization, and Social Change

Posted on Nov 29, 2024 in Geography

19th Century Spanish Economy

12.1 Confiscations

The Spanish economy primarily depended on nineteenth-century agriculture. Physical factors, unequal land distribution, and technological shortfalls limited this sector’s contribution to economic modernization. The process of paying back the first part of the agrarian transformation of the nineteenth century, following the example of revolutionary France, involved nationalizing Church or municipal assets to be sold at public auction. Revenues from these sales were directed to the consolidation of public finances.

The set of disentailment laws, started at the century’s end, has been described as a liberal land reform. Agrarian reform because it altered property distribution and circulated undeveloped land for cultivation; liberal because nineteenth-century liberal governments conducted it and, moreover, formed a group of large landowners with this ideology. But, as we shall see, it had little impact on land reform.

We can distinguish three major stages in disentailment legislation:

• The First Stage

  Occurred at the turn of the century. Godoy started in 1798, affecting Church property with positive results for the royal treasury. This was followed by laws adopted by Joseph I in 1809 on the property of the regular clergy and the aristocracy who resisted the French invasion. The Cortes de Cádiz approved a general confiscation decree in September 1813 that was hardly implemented. Implementation didn’t occur until 1820, always understood as a tax reform, not a land reform. In fact, the three-year confiscation favored the middle and upper classes, who held public debt (actual worth), while hurting poor farmers who cultivated land with little pay or rent.

• The Second Stage

  Began with the disentailment laws of Finance Minister Juan Alvarez Mendizabal in 1836-37 and later standards. It lasted until 1844, when its application was paralyzed by the moderate government of Narvaez. Mendizábal’s confiscation of goods was mainly from the regular clergy (convents and monasteries), and since 1841, also from the clergy. The dual purpose of this operation was to clean up public finances in crisis due to the Carlist War and inherited debt, and create an abundant family of owners, as stated in the decree. Between 1836 and 1844, land and houses worth 3,447 million reales were sold, representing 60% of the Church’s assets in Spain in 1836.

• The Third Stage

  Took place in 1855 with the general confiscation law, the work of Finance Minister PASCUAL MADOZ. For this reason, it is known as the Madoz Law. It affected both Church property and municipal and community property. The sale of these nationalized assets lasted until the Restoration stage, but most were sold between 1855 and 1867, amounting to 4,900 million reales.

Consequences

• INCREASED THE NUMBER OF LARGE LANDOWNERS. This is why there was no intended agrarian reform, as the confiscation barely affected the land structure. The land changed hands but not its size or methods of exploitation.
• RICH PEOPLE WERE THE BUYERS, from the old aristocracy and bourgeoisie, enriched by business (trade, banking, railways, concessions, etc.) or by occupying senior positions in the administration, army, or Church: aristocrats, military, businesspeople, financiers, and high clergy.
• ALLOWED FOR THE CULTIVATION OF A GROWING NUMBER OF ABANDONED LANDS. Confiscation partially solved the endemic problem of food shortages, especially cereals.
• THE BIG LOSERS WERE THE PEASANTS, THE CHURCH, AND THE MUNICIPALITIES. The peasants went from being users of community property or low-rent land to paying higher rents for their crops; the Church lost much of its real estate, as well as artistic and documentary holdings; the municipalities lost their main source of income by privatizing their assets, wastelands, and commons. All this helps explain the support they received from the Carlist cause in rural areas and among farmers, while the seizure was seen as a Liberal instrument, identified with the rich and powerful who ruled Spain during that century.

The Effects on Production and Productivity

This massive land sales operation affected agricultural production. It’s estimated that more than 10 million hectares, half of the arable land, changed hands. The passage from dead hands (Church, municipalities) to private owners should have boosted growth, but it seems it did not. Other factors contributed to the shy development of Spanish agriculture during this century, such as the abolition of ecclesiastical tithes and the Mesta, the slow improvement of communications, and the increasing population.

In general, production grew modestly until the last quarter of the century, when crop productivity increased. Of all the crops, wheat, the staple food, increased its production by 72% between 1800 and 1890, compared to other cereals (rye, millet, sorghum) which remained stagnant (only increased by 46%). But since the 1870s, other products such as corn, oranges, or fruit grew at a faster rate. Still, the productive structure of Spanish agriculture hardly changed throughout the century and continued to rely on the classic triad consisting of wheat, olives, and vines. These crops, plus legumes, occupied 90% of arable land until the end of the century and represented 80% of the total agricultural product, excluding forests and livestock. The protectionist policy imposed by the 1891 tariff aimed to curb the large agrarian crisis of the century. But this policy hid the low productivity of Spanish agriculture, especially in cereals, technical backwardness, archaic structures, low investment, etc. Other productions that came to the fore since the mid-century (wines, raisins, almonds, olive oil, citrus fruits) were not fully developed until the twentieth century, when the protective policy was abandoned.

Agriculture in nineteenth-century Spain was a key sector, but less dynamic than in other European countries. It is true that acreage increased, but the population engaged in these tasks (around 65%) hardly changed, and consumption and productivity levels were very low. Thus, in 1890, the yield of wheat in Spain was 7.6 quintals per hectare, while it was 25.3 in the United Kingdom and 17.1 in Germany. Arable land increased from just over 20 million hectares in 1830 to 45 million in 1900, but that expansion was not accompanied by improved yields. Agricultural production did not grow due to the limited capacity of demand, the small urban population (only 9% lived in cities of over 100,000 at the end of the century) and the low quality of the diet. However, Spain went from being an exporter of wheat and flour in the period 1826-1850 to being a net importer since 1875, and the protectionist pressure that materialized in the 1891 tariff tried to prevent the entry of foreign grain. National production was therefore not sufficient to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population. Finally, agriculture was not a driving force for demand for industrial products for use in the field and did not provide significant capital. Neither the textile, steel, nor chemical industries found a rural market until the twentieth century. While in other European countries that demand was an impetus to industrial development, in Spain, the demand for machinery, fertilizers, and tools was limited. For example, a superphosphate factory founded in 1890 by the Nobel Dynamite Society closed soon after due to virtually no demand. We therefore conclude that the stagnation of agriculture was one of the root causes of the backwardness of the Spanish economy during this century.

12.2 Industrialization and Modernization Infrastructures

Spanish Industrialization

Unlike England and other European nations, nineteenth-century Spanish industrialization was late and incomplete. There has been talk of a failure of the Industrial Revolution in Spain, which implies that attempts were thwarted. The qualification of “late” is justified. England’s Industrial Revolution began in 1770. In Spain, 1830 was a period of paralysis, and only after this year were the first industrial tests undertaken in Catalonia. Thus, the process of industrialization began seventy years late. The causes were:

• In Asturias, coal was expensive, difficult to extract, and of low calorific value, which placed Spain at a disadvantage.
• The Spanish population grew less, and their purchasing power was relatively small. This was another factor in foreign dependency on tooling and technical innovations.
• Shortage of capital, forcing the construction of railway facilities to foreign investors.

Industrial Revolution: Textiles and Steel

The first was centered in Catalonia, the second in the Basque Country. Cotton, cheaper and more adaptable to machine work driven by steam, displaced other fabrics: linen, silk, wool. In 1833, a factory in Barcelona (The Vapor de Bonaplata) introduced the steam engine into its workshops. From 1835 to 1860, the growth of Catalan textile production was rapid; from 1860, the pace slowed continuously. Import figures show the growth of the cotton textile industry. Since 1861, Catalonia experienced a period of raw material shortage, known as the “cotton famine,” caused by the American Civil War, one of the leading producers in this field. But the Catalan industry recovered, helped by protectionist policies and high customs tariffs on English textiles. The 1880s were euphoric when the market for Cuba and Puerto Rico expanded demand. While Barcelona became the capital of cotton, nearby cities specialized in other fabrics. Sabadell and Terrassa became centers of the wool industry.

The steel industry had its first trials in the blast furnaces of Malaga. This attempt was ruined by the remoteness of the coal; Vizcaya, which provided the capital for the yards, beat Asturias. Thus, the plants were installed in the Nervión basin, next to iron deposits, and not in the coalfields of Asturias. Moreover, cheaper British coal arrived at the port of Bilbao, in the same boat that transported Basque iron to England and Belgium, where large mining companies had been formed (Cía Orconera Iron Ore Ltd, 1874 and the Societe Franco-Belge des Mines de Somorrostro, 1876). Before the mid-century, a financial group founded a blast furnace in Bilbao at Bolueta. Soon a long line of entrepreneurs appeared, inaugurated by the Ibarra family. With the merger of three companies, the Altos Hornos de Vizcaya company was born in 1902, the largest firm in the sector.

The Railroad

The Iberian Peninsula has rugged terrain and rivers that do not provide sufficient flow for river traffic. Natural conditions emerged as a drawback for designing a communications network, essential for economic growth. Transportation by animal traction—gigs, carts, and carriages—was uncomfortable for passengers and expensive for goods. For land transport, it was crucial to build the railway. The train was the top innovation of the century, a symbol of industrial progress, but governments were slow to undertake the project of building a network. The first line, between Barcelona and Mataró (28 km), opened in 1848. The second joined Madrid to Aranjuez in 1851. These were short trips that had little economic impact. Only with the advent of progressive governments was the 1855 Railway Act enacted, which promoted the construction of long lines, connecting major inland cities and the coast. During the decade 1856-1866, much of the network was built, driven by government support and foreign capital inflows (Banca Rothschild, Pereire group…). During the Restoration, from 1875, the Peninsular network was completed and ended up being exploited by two companies: MZA (Madrid-Zaragoza-Alicante) and the Northern Railway. A disastrous error was committed in the Spanish network design: the track width (1.67 m), which was wider than the European standard. Probably due to a technical error. There has also been talk of a military measure to hinder another French invasion in the future, now discarded. In any case, it was very negative for Spanish communications with Europe.

The consequences of the introduction of railways were remarkable. Distances were shortened, and costs were reduced. City supply was more fluid, and cyclical famines in dry years were mitigated because the train facilitated food imports. Diets became more varied and nutritious because it was easier to transport fruits and fish, items that suffered from long journeys on dusty roads. Capital, materials, and labor were directed towards the expansion of this innovative transportation. During the Restoration, it became fashionable among the upper classes to vacation on the coast. It was a golden period for San Sebastian, where traditionally the royal family vacationed. The departure or arrival of the train became the subject of poems, paintings, and newspaper articles, testimonials to the role of the new means of transport.

In the early nineteenth century, trade in Spain was limited to district markets, barely communicated with each other and isolated from the outside. Legal barriers and the lack of a road network contributed to this fragmentation. The Cadiz Cortes proclaimed the freedom of trade. But until its abolition in 1834, the guilds hindered freedom to work and the movement of goods. Multiple fees were paid—tolls to enter items into a city through the gates of the wall, pontazgos to cross a bridge, barcazgos to use a boat—and tariffs to cross the border in some areas. In 1868, Spain had 887 tolls, some state-run, others private. Even with influential legal barriers, the lack of communication was more decisive. Two effects were noted in the lack of an internal market: high prices and shortages. An item could be missing in one region while abundant in another nearby. Goods could be cheap in one place and expensive in another, even in neighboring districts. In lean years, the price of bread rose in Madrid, while wheat was offered at lower prices in Zamora and Valladolid.

This situation was corrected with some provisions, including the unification of weights and measures, when the metric system was introduced, and monetary union, when the provisional government of the 1868 Revolution, with a decree signed by Figuerola, established the peseta as its official currency. However, market articulation was achieved without promoting the communications network. The improved communication network led to the intensification of road traffic, the rejuvenation of roads, coastal shipping traffic (as demonstrated by maritime statistics), and rail traffic. For long distances, rail transport monopolized. Wine, wheat, coal, and raw materials for industry were major items included in railway freight lists.

Although this market articulation was not complete during the nineteenth century, its benefits were obvious. For example, the price of wheat in Madrid, higher than in Valladolid in mid-century, was almost the same at the end of the century. Basque industrialization needed a minimum flow of Asturian coal. And Catalonia was able to place its materials in the domestic market because it had lost most of the barriers that existed in 1800. The basis of the domestic market had been created.

Industrial development needed a stable financial system that could subsidize companies and channel the available resources of the social elite. However, the state’s main concern was to collect revenue for public coffers; hence, it exerted strong state control over the banking sector. Efforts to create a private banking system in Spain were linked to the boom in railway construction. Banking expansion experienced a period of expansion (1855-1864) and a contraction (1864-1870). Progressive legislation in 1856 allowed the creation of banks of issue, authorized to issue banknotes and specialized in short-term commercial loans, and credit societies, which could make long-term loans. Banks funded, especially, the railways and the state’s public debt. Among them were the following: Bank of Barcelona (1844-1922), Banco de Santander (1857), and Banco de Bilbao (1857). Since 1874, the Bank of Spain retained the monopoly of currency issue, so that all these entities became corporate commercial credit and finance institutions. The state bank, meanwhile, was instrumental in the Spanish economy: the Banco de San Fernando (1829), expanded in 1848 and converted in 1856 into the Bank of Spain, was primarily intended to meet the financing needs of the state; later, when it obtained the monopoly of note issue, it provided the state with large loans to pay its debts. Through the amounts deposited in the Bank of Spain, individuals financed the State Treasury and monetized government debt. Domestic and foreign capital was invested in this more often than in industry or agriculture. The chronic deficit of the state budget favored these investments.

12.3 Population Growth and Social Change. Labor Movement

Although population estimates are not very accurate, by 1800, Spain had about 11 million people. In 1900, it had exceeded 18 million. Compared with previous centuries, this was remarkable growth of over 50%, but when compared with that of the European industrial powers, it should be termed modest. This increase was concentrated in the second and last thirds of the century because the Peninsular War and the loss of Spanish America had influenced population stagnation. Industrial and coastal regions grew more (Catalonia and the Basque Country) and less domestic and agricultural regions, such as Castile and Extremadura. A characteristic phenomenon of this century, perceptible also in Spain, was the displacement of the rural population to the cities, which explains urban sprawl. At the beginning of the century, only Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, as well as the Cádiz-Jerez area, exceeded 100,000 inhabitants. In contrast, at the end of the century, several cities had populations between 100,000 and 200,000.

Population growth occurred despite several brakes:

• War. The conflicts slowed population growth: in the first third of the nineteenth century, the war against Napoleon in the Peninsula and the war of independence of the American colonies; then the three Carlist wars; and in the last stage, the Cuban wars, the Ten Years’ War (1868-1878) and the war of 1895, resulting in a loss of more than 200,000 young men.
• Epidemics and diseases. Cholera (in 1834, 1854, 1865, and 1885) killed 800,000 people. Influenza, malaria, and tuberculosis were prevalent in urban centers.
• Infant mortality. One in five children died during their first year of life.
• Emigration. Many Spaniards sought their fortune in Cuba, Argentina, and other South American republics.

The New Society

of the Ancien Regime society, called estates, was characterized by the existence of closed groups. The nobility and clergy were the privileged classes, they enjoyed special rights including exemption from taxes. But the industrial society led to the emergence of new groups: entrepreneurs, workers, etc. It was characterized by equality, at least theoretically, and mobility. Fortune chose the social level of the individual (class society) and not the family who had been born. Nobility and clergy lost their privileges, while a new class, formed by businessmen and professions, climbing and assumed positions of increasing power levels.
NOBILITY lost influence, a phenomenon detectable most European countries. Accustomed to the indolence of an agricultural world nobles felt reluctant to risk his fortune in industrial enterprises. Moreover, the law treated them as to other citizens. Farm income support with a lavish lifestyle led to some noble families to ruin. It was what happened to the House of Osuna, the largest contributor in the early reign of Isabel II. However, the nobles got through relatively unscathed century, because they assumed two strategies: the marital bond with the more affluent middle-class families and partnering with employers in many firms. However, shows that the nobility remained present in nineteenth century society in three aspects: political, economic and social development.
a) In the political arena nobles, always coming to the throne, monopolized the charges at the Royal Palace. Many of them had reserved seats in the Senate chamber intended for the upper classes in most of the constitutions, as we have seen. This power was strengthened by the awarding of peerages businessmen fortunate case of Marquis Salamanca, builder of railroads and a Madrid suburb that bears his name, military and highlights:NARVAEZ (Duke de la Torre), O’DONNELL (Duke of Tetuan) PRIM (Marquis of Castillejos), although none has accumulated many titles as Espartero (Duc de la Victoria and Prince of Vergara).
b) In the economic field the nobles entered boards as presidents or vice presidents of insurance companies and construction, without providing sufficient capital for their delivery to that office, which proves that they are appointed by the luster of his name . Thus, one can speak of financial alliance between the aristocracy and gentry.
c) In the social field the bourgeoisie imitated the aristocratic habits. The new rich have dreamed of a palace like the titles of rank. And they practice their hobbies: opera, dance, receptions.
CLERGY received the strongest attack of the liberal regime. The removal of privileges was in first place in the field of economics. The seizure, which did not affect the property of nobles, deprived the Church of its ownership of land and much of the city. The extinction of tithing closed another source. Since 1840, the worship and the clergy depended on an item in the budgets, starting sometimes generous and other stunted. These difficulties affected the religious census reduction. Not appear to diminish the secular clergy, the cathedrals and parishes attending, but the regular clergy, monks and nuns, who, forced to leave their convents, depended on the subsidy, very little that the treasury approved. In 1837, Treasury paid the maintenance of 24,000 monks, in 1854 had shrunk to about 8,000, among other reasons because the state sought excuses for not paying the subsidy. The monks secularised, with 2 daily real income, real proletariat constituted a religion. The reluctance of clergy to accept the liberal regime depended not only on economic questions were mainly due to a mentality hostile to innovation. Because even before the seizure many sectors of the clergy had supported the Carlist. And as we discussed above, the bishops were hostile to any move towards religious tolerance (1856), freedom of worship (1869), and, moreover, the separation of church and state decided by the First Republic (1873). The loss of positions was not a continuous process. At the Restoration, many religious orders regained influence through education. In small towns the clergy maintained a leadership that was lacking and in large cities, as seen in The Regent’s great novel of Clarín.
Bourgeoisie encompassed from business lawyers, journalists and so on., All strata of society, but here we employ in the strictest sense of businessmen. The bourgeoisie were the stars of the century. Where did the wealth that sustained their upward mobility? Unlike the nobles, bound by tradition to the great land ownership, the bourgeoisie profited by diversifying their activities. Some bankers, remise, O’SHEA, increased their wealth by borrowing to the state. Others, such as Catalan SAFONT with the administration of urban services, such as the collection of fees of doors and supplies to the army. Bankers and managers in Madrid had its place of business. In Barcelona and Bilbao, the fortunes were due to investment in industrial, commercial and transport (GÜELL and GIRONA in Barcelona, ​​Bilbao IBARRA). An almost inexhaustible source of benefits was obtained urban land speculation. The cities grew and were ordered by widening plans that used by sharp investors.
Middle class, the group of experts, the most influential lawyers. Essential Casiresultaba be an advocate for a political career. The faculty of law, the law and the seat of deputy or senator chapters covering the many biographies. Secondly, journalists enjoyed great influence, the expansion of the press. The statesman or party leader had to have their own newspaper. FERNÁNDEZ DE LOS RIOS, figure of the Revolution of 68, may be cited as an example of progressive journalism, ESCOBAR, founder of The Times, as a figure of conservative journalism. With the extension of education, the chair, and the quintessential college, became another set of social relevance. University professors and institute were civil servants. The State was concerned about their economic situation, while forgetting the teachers, whose salaries are attributed to the municipalities. Officials shaped one of the most extensive and unstable. Each change of government caused the entry of thousands of fellow in government offices and the corresponding output of another of equal numbers passing the ranks of the “unemployed”, acutely reflected pathetic figure in his novel by GALDÓS Miau. With the growth of cities and public works, architects and engineers played a key role. The figure CERDA, author of the expansion of Barcelona, ​​or widening and the Arturo Soria, Madrid Ciudad Lineal promoter, are the most outstanding. But no professional group other than lawyers, it is more interesting than the doctors. Aware of the problems of inner cities and poor conditions of industrial work, their reports are valuable documents. During the Restoration, some of them became political figures, including Doctor Esquerdo in the Republican Party, or JAIME VERAOne of the founders of the Socialist Party.
Classes were the majority. In an agrarian society like nineteenth-century Spanish, the large space of the population consisted of peasants. The laborers were only seasonal work and living conditions were bad. In 1860, the illiteracy rate was 80% in 78% Sevilla Cádiz. Were clearly better levels of smallholders in other regions, in urban areas persisted well into the century a large craft, people living in their offices, which demonstrated that industrialization was only incipient. This also explains the weakness of Spanish workers. We know better the lives of Spanish workers in late century, when the Commission of Social Reforms (1883) conducted an extensive survey. By linking prices and wages is found that it was essential to the work of more than one family member. In the 80 needed 4 pesetas a day to meet all expenses, when wages ranged between 1.50 and 2 pesetas. Two other well-defined groups were represented by servants and dependents. Amazed at the number of servants, which meant Madrid about the seventh of the population census of 1887. There is only one explanation: affluent families possessed a large number of domestic servants from housework, coachmen, lackeys and butler, because this list is interpreted as a display of his wealth. Moreover, the employees of small businesses had a similar status to that of the servants, with little pay, are they compensated with food and accommodation. These low levels of society, from artisans to servants or dependents in contrast to the opulence of the stars of the century, in whose ranks sticking swords, bankers or lawyers.
The labor movement One of the most important social changes of the nineteenth century was the emergence of the industrial working class, initially, was a small group and only representative in Barcelona, ​​Madrid and Malaga steel core. One of the causes of their appearance were the tough work situations that were submitted:
1) The salaries were low. Hardly enough to survive them and there were protests and riots against price increases. In addition, compensation was significantly less for women.
2) The working day was very long. Men, women and children could reach the 15-hour work day.
3) The working conditions were harmful. Continuous noise, extreme temperatures in winter and summer, dirt, lack of security, poor diet and frequent accidents. A mid-nineteenth century lived a worker of average age 30 years compared to 50 of a bourgeois.
4) Their living conditions were equally poor, overcrowding, poor sanitation, infectious diseases, alcoholism and illiteracy.
These difficulties led them to create, from the early thirties, mutual aid societies to protect themselves in case of illness or job loss. In the middle of that decade the worsening situation, reduction in pay and job losses, caused frequent demonstrations, a small outbreak of Luddism, destruction of machines (rare in Spain) and Bonaplata factory fire in 1835, in Barcelona, ​​pioneered the use of new technologies. After the adoption in 1839 some liberalization in terms of association, a group of Catalan workers in 1840 founded the Co-Production Association of Cotton Weavers, first labor union in Spain, initially apolitical, who spent a few years to have 50,000 members. His example was echoed in other trades. At first I only wanted to make a defense of wages, without taking further requests. But moderates in 1844 banned them and had to go underground. During the biennium 1854-1856 Progressive greater permissiveness, made ​​a strong comeback these early societies, mutual aid. But the economic crisis and social unrest broke out in 1855 with the first general strike that paralyzed the industrial centers of the city of Barcelona.
In the 1868-1874 democratic Sexenio lack of genuine social reforms contributed to the estrangement of the labor movement from political parties (Democratic and Republican) and its depoliticization, in 1868 with the arrival in Spain of Giuseppe Fanelli, a friend of Bakunin who represented the anarchists, the International Workers Association (TIA or First International, founded in London in 1864, is formed in Spain’s first international hub., particularly those settled in Madrid and Barcelona. In 1870 I held in Barcelona Congress Spanish Regional Federation of the AIT in which the thesis won Bakuninists the apolitical and collectivism.,
In late 1871, Paul Lafargue, Marx’s son-headed, the other trend of International contacts with international media in Madrid Spanish and formed a small Marxist group took to the Federation called New Madrid whose purpose was to found a party political worker. However, the Congreso Obrero de Cordoba of 1872-1873 confirmed the rupture of the Spanish labor movement and the prevalence anarchist. PABLO IGLESIAS In 1879 he founded the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE)of Marxist and in 1888, the union, General Union of Workers (UG7) linked to the Socialist party and began a slight rise of socialism in Spain.
With the Restoration, 1875, the labor movement was greatly affected by the return of the monarchy and the bourgeois liberal order. His chances were small because the action had major limitations, the exercise of freedom of expression, association and assembly. The Restoration regime did not try to integrate, movement, a laborer. In general the labor movement in the last third of the nineteenth century was characterized by three salient features:
* Trade unions, workers were not unitary: the principal elements were anarchism, socialism and moderate reformism.
* The weight remained anarchism, especially: Catalonia and Andalusia, in contrast, what was happening in other parts of Western Europe. Anarchism was deeply rooted in Spain for being the first ideology to propagate, its versatility, allowing him to get along with other political movements, and its ability to integrate with the unions.
* The working and popular sectors opted for political republicanism. Therefore, collaboration., Rather than confrontation, characterized the relations between republicans and anarchists.
Since 1874 labor groups linked to the International Association: Workers (AIT) started to operate in secrecy, which had two parallel effects: the organizational disruption and radicalization of its ideology and its means of, action. For example, the attack on Alfonso XII in 1878, carried out by, a young worker Mateo Morral Cooper Tarragona.
Workerism anarchist anarchism was reorganized into the eighties, following the new possibilities offered by the Liberal government SAGASTA. This created the Federation of the Spanish Region (ftree). The regions which had the largest presence ftree were Catalonia and Andalusia. The complexity of anarchism is manifested in the episode known as the Black Hand. In 1883 the authorities of Cadiz and Jerez accused of crimes and common crimes alleged murderers anarchist organization called the Black Hand. Was intended to organize an escalation of repression and judicial against in Andalusian anarchism. These events triggered a strong conservative agitation against the workers and popular republicanism. In, nineties anarchists conducted three types of actions:
* Trade union action, stimulated by the general strike and the demand for eight-hour workday that accompanied the first of May celebrations.
* The violent action, as the attacks in Barcelona between 1893 and 1896 or the murder of Canova in 1897 conducted by the anarchist Michele Angiolillo, as well as the CANALEJAS JOSEPH in 1912, at the hands of Manuel Pardiñas.
* The cultural production, focusing mainly on education sill, where prominence to the figure of Francisco Ferrer Guardia, creator of the so-called modern school.
The repression of the anarchists was systematically following the attacks in Barcelona, ​​Montjuic lastillo prisons filled with prisoners and carried out numerous executions and deportations. The process triggered a massive intellectual and political protest against the indiscriminate repression.
Socialism was founded in 1879 in Madrid the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), whose first secretary was PABLO IGLESIAS, created in 1888 in Barcelona the socialist trade union, General Union of Workers (UGT). The PSOE founded his newspaper, The Socialist, in 1886 and participated in the creation of the Second International in 1889, workers’ association led by social democrats, without the presence of anarchists who refused any collaboration with bourgeois political parties, including Republicans. The socialist core characterized by the following features:
* The influence of French Marxism, which led him to go to a kind of industrial proletariat, very numerous in Spain.
* The defense of the doctrine of the struggle against bourgeois political forces. The socialist political discourse portrayed the Republicans as defenders of the bourgeois socialism which kept away from the popular groups, who were mostly Republicans.
* The belief in the inevitable collapse of capitalism, which led the fight to subordinate trade union politics. However, the contact, more regular with the Second Socialist International 1889 led the leaders of socialism to rethink these assumptions in the mid-nineties and give more importance to the struggle for reforms, concrete.
The PSOE had a slow growth and implementation, so that only in 1910, thanks to the formation of the Republican-Socialist, won the first act of deputy, Pablo Iglesias.
Since 1883, appeared in Spanish society circles of the first Catholic workers, promoted by priests as the Jesuit Antonio Vicent. These groups favored cooperation between employers and employees together to create a religious movement based on the social doctrine of the Church, used to have a paternalistic and formed a partnership rooted almost exclusively among the peasants of Valencia, did not become real unions and their role protest was invalid. Confessional unionism will further develop during the first third of the twentieth century.
Reformist trade unionism in the last third of the nineteenth century Spain dominated, trades workers and small establishments, while industrial workers were scarce. In 1887 there were 243,000 factory workers, of whom 45,000 were women, hired by your child, conflict and especially because their wages represented only half the male wage. By contrast, those from arts and crafts were 823,340. So in Spain had a strong hold on trade union, compared to less developed at the time of the trade unions and socialist anarchists.
The most widely used forms of association for trade union were cooperative and mutualism. He was a moderate reformist unionism model and could assume any collaboration with employers and specific reforms. He believed in education as a means of social emancipation(Hence its activity in night schools, casinos, etc..), Members were generally under the influence of republicanism. Consumer cooperatives, mutual work and developed throughout Spain. Catalonia was one of the areas where trade unionism had a more substantial reform. They said the textile union Three Classes of Steam and the newspaper El Obrero. Social Magazine.