Isabel II Reign in Spain: Politics and Economy (1843-1868)

Posted on Jan 15, 2025 in History

Isabel II Reign in Spain (1843-1868): Government and Economy

1. Moderate Decade (1844-1854)

Isabel II showed a preference for the moderates. The moderates implemented doctrinaire liberalism, which held a centralizing policy aimed at standardizing the state, but it was anti-democratic and conservative. The main figure was Narváez.

Reforms:

  • Creation of the Civil Guard; the militia was eliminated.
  • Councils Act of 1845, which reinforced centrality.
  • Reform of the tax system in 1845 with a new, more rational, efficient, and modern tax system.
  • Electoral Act of 1846: Very restricted suffrage.
  • Concordat of 1851: The Pope accepted the loss of church property and disentailment.

Constitution of 1845:

  • Established joint sovereignty of the King and the Cortes.
  • Strengthened the role of the Crown.
  • Bicameral Cortes: Senate appointed by the Queen for life; Congress, with a very census-based and direct suffrage.
  • Confessional State: Catholic.
  • Curtailment of individual rights.
  • Other measures included the adoption of the metric system, the Law of Public Functionaries, etc.

The end of the moderates: On the one hand, the “moderates” did not form a political party; on the other, electoral manipulation was constant. Since 1849, the Democratic Party gained strength, not only promising social policy reforms but also developing the Republican Party. The labor movement and federalism began to emerge. Government attempts to curtail freedoms created a broad movement against the government, which manifested in the statement and the events of Vicalvaro in 1854, led by Generals Serrano and O’Donnell, with the coming to power of the progressives.

2. Progressive Biennium (1854-1856)

The ruling in Vicalvaro (O’Donnell) was simultaneous with other popular uprisings. The Manifesto of Manzanares included: respect for constitutional legality, the claim to the throne, tax cuts, expanding the population, and the National Militia. It was a progressive government led by Espartero and a new Liberal Union party, which sought to unite progressives and moderates.

Reforms:

  • Civil Confiscation of Madoz, 1855: sale of other ecclesiastical goods and the property of municipalities.
  • Measures of economic modernization: Railways Act (1855), banking laws (1856) that would lead to the Bank of Spain.

The expansion of freedom brought out new political tendencies manifested in many newspapers. O’Donnell resigned, and Espartero paralyzed reforms, declared a “state of siege,” and harshly repressed the uprisings that had exploded in Madrid and Barcelona.

3. The Return of the Moderates, the Liberal Union, and the End of the Reign (1856-1868)

Constitution of 1856, “non nata” (never enacted), raised national sovereignty; legislative power resided in Parliament and the King.

3.1. Narváez’s Return to Power (1856)

Narváez returned to power in 1856 but was unable to resolve the situation.

3.2. The Liberal Union (1858-1863) – O’Donnell

This period experienced a time of economic prosperity, development, and expansion of the railways. On the other hand, it pursued a foreign policy of colonial rule, above all in Morocco (1859). However, there was a serious crisis in the Liberal Union, with the departure of many of its founders. O’Donnell resigned.

3.3. The Return of the Moderates – Narváez (1863-1868)

Since 1866, conservatism was beset by three problems:

  1. Social demand for political participation.
  2. Corruption and discredit of the Court of Isabel II.
  3. Discomfort caused by a major agricultural and financial crisis in 1866:
  • Financial: Low profitability of the railways, with bank failures.
  • Catalan textile crisis.
  • Subsistence crisis.

Conspiracies against the government and the Queen succeeded. Thus, liberals went back to insurgency with the support of Democrats.

  • Night of San Daniel (April 10, 1865): The Minister of Education expelled various professors for exposing ideas against the monarchy and the Church.
  • Sergeants’ Barracks of San Gil (June 22, 1866), with Prim at the forefront from exile.

There was an alliance of progressives and Democrats. The Pact of Ostend (1866) occurred between opposition forces and sectors of the Liberal Union with the following objectives:

  • Overthrow of the Queen.
  • Establishment of universal suffrage.
  • The form of government, monarchy or republic, would be decided later by the courts.

This brings us to the September 1868 Revolution, the Glorious, which saw the fall of Isabel II and the end of the dynamics of clashes between moderates and progressives that had marked her reign.