Espartero’s Regency: Pronouncements, Reforms, and Centralization
The Regency of Espartero
The Pronouncement
In 1840, numerous juntas organized in major cities. General Baldomero Espartero, architect of the Convention of Vergara and a popular hero, took charge of the rebel forces and took over the government. The Queen, forced by the movement of the juntas, decided to leave Spain rather than accept the progressive agenda. The country’s government passed into the hands of a ministry headed by Espartero as regent. This called elections that gave a resounding victory to the Liberals, facilitated by the withdrawal of the moderates, who did not stand for election to manifest their opposition to the progressive access to power and to leave open the road for their return to the presidency.
The Government-Regency (1841-1843)
The triumph accelerated progressive reforms undertaken by Mendizabal and Calatrava. The confiscation was completed by selling real estate and land; the secular clergy remained in the cities.
Espartero’s Regency lasted three years, during which military budgets followed an austere line, thus encouraging unrest among officers and members of Masonic orders, with General Narvaez at the head. NCOs were not integrated into these associations because of their progressive tendencies.
During the Regency, there were numerous pronouncements of a moderate character, most notably those conducted by Diego de Leon, who was shot.
Attempts made by O’Donnell and Narvaez also failed. These were supported from abroad by the Queen Mother and the French King. These statements created a climate of instability and hampered the constitutional functioning.
The moderates increasingly turned to a prestigious military figure who led their claims to return to power: Ramon Maria Narvaez.
Against traditional economic protectionism, Espartero launched an economic policy seen by large sections of the Catalan public opinion as free trade, while using a modest tariff on British textiles, which was seen as an attack on the domestic industry. In 1843, the ruler announced elections; the Progressive Party was divided into two factions: the military and civil, the latter of which set in motion a conspiracy.
The popular discontent with Espartero crystallized in a statement headed by Narváez, who, from exile, landed in July 1843 in Valencia and directed himself towards Madrid with the support of military units. Espartero triumphed over the forces. On August 2, abandoned by his own, Espartero embarked at Puerto de Santa Maria for London.
Centralization
The work of the moderates in Spain was a centralized policy presented as a historical continuity of tradition and the Bourbon French Napoleonic model, designed to give uniformity to the country. This policy is manifested in the development of legal unity, embodied in the new Penal Code, drafted by a general committee created in 1843, reflecting the abolition of the charters in 1851.
In 1844, through a ministerial decree by González Bravo, the Civil Guard was established in order to preserve public order, property, ensuring the protection of people, carrying out the suppression of banditry and enforce the laws. The province became the territorial demarcation par excellence.