Economic History and Bourbon Restoration in Spain
Economic History of Spain
[A] Agricultural Transformation: Key changes included new techniques, crops, the Norfolk four-year rotation system, an expanded irrigation network, and fertilizers. These changes led to increased production. Catalonia saw increased productivity due to irrigation, the four-year system, the elimination of wastelands, chemical fertilizers, and agricultural machinery, leading to commercialized agriculture and increased monetary flow. Changes in property types included land bound to the nobility and amortized land owned by the church. Detached land could be sold. *Desamortitzadores* (disentailers) included Godoy (targeting hospital properties), Joseph Bonaparte, the Trienio Liberal (1820-23), and Mendizábal (targeting regular clergy, with laws of secularization in 1835). State public auctions were held, with payments in cash or vouchers. Madoz targeted civil and communal property, auctioning meadows and forests.
Consequences of Seizure:
- Opportunity for land sales.
- Cultivation of more land.
- Increased production.
- Beneficiaries: Bourgeois buyers (industrial or commercial), landowners, and the Treasury.
- Contracts between agricultural employers and farmers.
- Construction of canals.
- Many peasants could not afford to buy land, leading to poverty, vagrancy, banditry, or imprisonment.
[B] Population Increase: Increased birth rates and death rates (due to diseases and epidemics). Population growth was modest, doubling between 1750 and 1900. There was a shift from mountain tops to towns, and city centers expanded to the periphery, with colonies in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and the USA.
[C] Industrialization: The countryside provided capital, trade, and exploitation. Early energy sources included coal, water, rivers, and waterfalls. The first industries (cotton and wool) were influenced by England’s steam power.
Bourbon Restoration (1875-1898)
Bases: The conservative constitution of 1876, with the crown as a moderator supported by the army and wealthy classes.
Objectives:
- Internal stability and defense of order.
- Ending the interference of the army in political life.
- Peace in the country (end of the Carlist War in 1876, abolition of Basque charters, and end of the Cuban conflict with the Peace of Zanjón in 1878).
Features:
- Bipartisanship: Conservatives (Cánovas) and Liberals (Sagasta) alternated in power.
- Peaceful turns, corruption, and electoral fraud.
- *Caciquismo* (political bossism) influencing power.
Opposition Forces
Republicanism: Declined and divided after the failure of the First Republic. Republican groups included the Possibilists (Castelar), Progressives (Ruiz Zorrilla), Federals (Pi i Maragall), and Unitarians (Salmerón).
Carlism: Renewal of leadership and program (Loredan minutes). A fundamentalist split occurred with the creation of the *Partido Católico Nacional* (Nocedal), creating distance between the clergy and Carlism.
Working Class Movement
Driven by social injustice and poverty:
- Luddisme: Burning of the Bonaplata steam engine in Barcelona (1835).
- Mutual aid societies: Mutual Protection Society of Cotton Weavers of Barcelona (1840).
- Peasant insurrections, particularly in Andalusia.
- First workers’ strike in Catalonia.
- Ideological influence: Utopianism and Republicanism (Selfactines strike against the general strike in 1854 and 1855).
Nationalism
Born as a reaction to the abolition of immunity and changes in traditional society. Founded by Sabino Arana, a supporter of the Basque race, charters, and religion. Creation of the PNV (Basque Nationalist Party) advocating for autonomy in the Basque Country.