Crisis and Instability of the Spanish Restoration: 1898-1909

Posted on Dec 14, 2024 in History

Crisis and Instability of the Restoration

1. The Crisis of 1898 and Colonial Problems

1.1. The War in Cuba and the Philippines

The Restoration regime was greatly affected by the so-called Cuban question, which included the following issues:

Outbreaks of unrest caused by Cuban independence: the little war known as the 1879 war, the uprisings of 1883 and 1885. These conflicts and repression, coupled with a long war (1868-1878), fed popular nationalism in Cuba, joined by the slaves as well as the rich Creoles.
Bureaucrats, businessmen, and Spanish sugar residents on the island refused to admit any kind of autonomy. The Peninsula also had many interests, for trade with Cuba, practically a monopoly market, gave Spain a positive balance. The abolition of slavery on the island was late, and the project to give it autonomy was not carried out. On the contrary, it was trying to become a province of Spain, dispatching some 700,000 migrants, especially from Galicia (1868-1894).
Cuba got much of its revenue from the United States, which exported more than 90% of the production of sugar and snuff. U.S. diplomatic pressure on the island increased. In 1892, the country obtained a favorable tariff for their products and then financed the independence movement with the intention to adjudicate when there was a conflict between Cuba and the metropolis.

The war broke out again in February 1895 with the Grito de Baire, the name given to the uprising that took place in the eastern part of the island. Then proclaimed the Montecristi Manifesto (Dominican Republic), written by José Martí and Máximo Gómez, civilian and military leaders, respectively, of a political group that had formed in New York: the Cuban Revolutionary Party. On the death of Martí, shortly after the war started, Gómez and Antonio Maceo assumed leadership of this revolt. Rebels joined the Philippines in 1896, led by Emilio Aguinaldo. General Polavieja, commanded by Spanish troops, acted with extreme hardness and executed the main intellectual of independence of the archipelago, José Rizal. The rebellion was suppressed in 1897.

In these circumstances, in February 1898, an incident took place: the explosion of the Maine, an American battleship that was in Havana harbor, which killed over 250 American sailors. Although it probably broke because of some accident, the press and the U.S. government blamed Spain for the explosion and offered to buy the island. Politicians in the preferred beverage honorable defeat before a bought peace. Public opinion and the Spanish press were generally very militaristic and nationalistic. The United States declared war on Spain in April 1898. The war was decided at sea: the U.S. squad defeated the Spanish first at Cavite, near Manila (Philippines), and later off Santiago de Cuba (May-July 1898). On December 10, 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed, by which Spain recognized the independence of Cuba and ceded Puerto Rico to the United States, the island of Guam in the Marianas, and the Philippines. In 1899, Spain sold to the German Empire the remnants of its empire in the Pacific: the Caroline Islands, the Marianas (except Guam), and Palau.

1.2. The Impact of 1898

The loss of the last Spanish colonies was known as the disaster of ’98 and had serious consequences, among which we highlight the following:

The resentment of the military towards the politicians, who had used them, causing them to lose the war. The political opposition, however, paid off politically from the defeat.
The growth of popular anti-militarism. The recruitment for the war in Cuba affected those without resources. This, coupled with the sight of soldiers returning wounded and maimed, increased the rejection of the army among the popular classes.
The emergence of a major intellectual and critical movement: Regenerationism. It emerged from the disaster of ’98, rejecting the political and social system of the Restoration, considering it a blight to progress in Spain. Its representatives include Miguel de Unamuno, Joaquín Costa, and Angel Ganivet.

2. Regenerationism and Revisionism

Political revisionism used the arguments of regeneration (the abolition of chieftaincy, social reform, protectionism, and the recovery of the greatness of Spain) to give a new impetus to the policy of the Restoration. The first to adopt these views were conservative politicians, led by Francisco Silvela. When he chaired the government between 1899-1900, he announced his intention to undertake “radical reform and a revolution from above”. This created two new ministries that embodied the claims of regenerationism: Public Education (equivalent to Education) and Agriculture. The task was continued by Antonio Maura.

The liberal leftists also adopted the spirit of regeneration (José Canalejas, Melquiades Álvarez…). These politicians proposed the reform of the monarchy from the left, and they won the sympathies of many liberal intellectuals. Between 1905 and 1907, the government succeeded in liberal political veterans like Montero Ríos or Monet. During this period of liberal governments, following dissatisfaction with the frequent media criticism poured on the occasion of the defeat of ’98, the confrontation took place between the army and the Catalan press following the publication in “Cu-Cut” (1905) of a joke that was considered offensive. A group of soldiers stormed the writing of this paper, which led to the enactment of the Law of Jurisdictions (1906), by which they were under military jurisdiction offenses to the unity of the country, the army, and the flag.

Above both dynastic parties was the figure of the sovereign Alfonso XIII, who began his effective reign, since the age of majority in 1902, and would come to embody later applied Regenerationism to the monarchy. His arrival to the throne began the second phase of the Restoration. With Antonio Maura (conservative) and José Canalejas (liberal) in government also reached a new generation of political ideas influenced by regenerationism, which attempted to launch the most important reform projects from within the system itself.

2.1. Maura’s Revisionism

Antonio Maura personified the renewal of the Conservative Party in the early twentieth century. In 1902 he was Interior Minister and subsequently presided over the Government on two occasions, known respectively as the “short government” (1903-1904) and the “long government” (1907-1909). After losing power in 1909, he had a critical opposition against his own party, led at that time by Eduardo Dato. Maura’s political program was called Maurism, its essence can be summarized in the following points:

Conservative Catholic masses. It was necessary to defend the social influence of the Catholic Church against the claims of the left to create a secular state. Spanish society was overwhelmingly Catholic and conservative and should be mobilized to express their views on elections and public altars.
Connect the monarchy with social reality. It was necessary to implement a social cooperative of Catholic character, i.e., a political system in which citizens were represented by corporations. This had to end the warlordism, which controlled universal suffrage. This voting system also did not represent the entire Spanish society. This agenda item involved a direct criticism of liberal parliamentarism and democracy.
Incorporate other political forces into the system. In particular, the conservative Catalan Lliga. To do this, Maura projected a Local Government Act that allowed the formation of associations. However, this law was never adopted.
Conduct a nationalist and expansionist foreign policy in Morocco to forget the defeat of 1898 and give new impetus to the military. These had become a powerful lobby that had the sympathy of Alfonso XIII himself. During Maura’s government, the construction of a naval squadron was approved, and military operations began in northern Africa (1909). Both measures dramatically increased state spending.

In July 1909, a crisis broke out in Barcelona, known as the Tragic Week, which ended with the government’s fall over Maura. In this conflict converged several political and social problems: Catalan politics, the Republicans, and the