Liberal Revolution in Spain (1833-1868)

Posted on Nov 1, 2024 in History

Item 2: Liberal Revolution in the Reign of Isabel II (1833-1868)

During the reign of Isabel II (1833-1868), Spain underwent a process of liberal revolution. This period began with a long civil war between the Carlists (absolutists) and the Isabelinos (liberals) due to a dynastic conflict over the succession that began with the death of Fernando VII. A new ruling class, the agrarian bourgeoisie, emerged from the alliance between the old landed gentry and the new bourgeoisie. This class controlled the political system through census-based voting and established a legal and economic order that allowed the development of capitalism.

However, several problems hindered the consolidation of a truly representative parliamentary political system. The Queen’s favoritism towards the moderates distorted the alternation of power, and often the change of the ruling party was not the result of an election but a military coup or a popular revolt (rigging). Census-based suffrage and manipulation of elections left the political system in the hands of a minority of landowners and different political cliques.

2.1 Liberal Revolution Process (1833-1843)

Between 1833 and 1843, the legal dismantling of the ancien régime, the consolidation of property, and the configuration of a liberal state took place.

The First Transitional Government (1833-1836)

Fernando VII’s will established a Governing Council to advise the Regent Maria Cristina, chaired by Cea Bermúdez and composed mostly of moderate absolutists. The new cabinet proclaimed itself a defender of absolutism but proposed some timid administrative reforms. Practically the only reform undertaken by this government was the new provincial division of Spain. Thus, in 1833, Spain was divided into 49 provinces.

The Isabelino throne began to falter for two reasons:

• The Cea government’s inaction.
• The extension of the Carlist War.

Some military and royal advisors convinced Regent Maria Cristina of the need to appoint a new government to enlist the support of the Liberals, who had become indispensable partners. Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, a moderate liberal, was chosen to preside and carried out the first alterations, although very limited. His proposal was the promulgation of a Royal Statute, which was neither a constitution nor a granted charter, but only a set of rules to summon the Cortes. It soon became clear that these reforms were insufficient for a good part of liberalism.

The division between doceañista liberals (moderate) and the exaltados (progressive or veinteañistas), which had begun in the Liberal Triennium, formed the two major trends that would dominate Spanish politics in the following decades. The Crown and the formerly privileged supported the moderates and maneuvered to keep them in power despite successive changes of government. But the need to secure strong social support and financial resources against the Carlists forced the monarchy to overcome their reluctance and accept a progressive government to initiate a profound liberal reform process.

2.2 Liberals in Power

Liberals, unhappy with the timid reforms initiated, had their strength in the domain of the popular movement and their strong influence in the National Militia and revolutionary boards. In the summer of 1835, and again in 1836, liberals led a wave of urban riots across the country. The riots began with attacks and the burning of convents in various cities, and most of the boards drafted proclamations expressing their main demands:

• Meeting of the Cortes
• Freedom of the press
• New electoral law
• Termination of regular clergy recruitment
• Reorganization of the National Militia
• Levy of 200,000 men to deal with the Carlist War

Given the situation, in 1835, Maria Cristina called upon Mendizábal, a liberal, to form a government. He quickly started the reform of the Royal Statute and took steps to secure the financial resources needed to organize and assemble an army against the Carlists. He decreed the confiscation of Church property, a measure that led Maria Cristina to dismiss him in the summer of 1836. Riots erupted in many cities for the restoration of the Constitution of 1812. Faced with such pressure, in August 1836, Maria Cristina restored the Constitution of Cadiz and handed over power to the progressive Calatrava.

2.3 The Dismantling of the Ancien Régime

In the period between August 1836 and late 1837, the progressives took over the task of dismantling the institutions of the ancien régime and implementing a liberal, constitutional, and parliamentary monarchy. One of their first acts was the so-called liberal land reform, which enshrined the principles of private property and free availability of land.

The liberal land reform took place in 1837 based on three major measures:

• The dissolution of the manorial system begun in the Cortes of Cadiz, with the loss of jurisdictional powers of the Lords, although they maintained ownership of land that farmers could not prove their own. The old lord became the new owner, and many farmers went to the status of tenants or day laborers.
• Desvinculación (abolition of primogeniture) meant that inherited property was no longer necessarily united in perpetuity to a family or institution, and its owners were free to sell it freely in the market.
• The confiscation of Church property and lands.

2.4 The Constitution of 1837

The progressive government convened a special Cortes to draft a constitution that would adapt the 1812 Constitution to changing times. The constitution was approved in June 1837. It was short and left room for several issues to be regulated by organic laws, with the aim of establishing a stable text that could be accepted by progressives and moderates.

The 1837 Constitution proclaimed some of the basic principles of liberalism:

• National sovereignty
• A comprehensive statement of civil rights (freedom of press, opinion, association, etc.)
• The division of powers (the executive power is vested in the King, the legislature in the Cortes with the King, and the judiciary in the courts and tribunals)
• The Establishment Clause of the State

It also included some moderate elements:

• It provided for two legislating chambers, Congress and the Senate (bicameralism) – (the latter non-elective and appointed directly by the King).
• Granted wide powers to the Crown (legislative veto, the power to dissolve parliament, the power to appoint and dismiss ministers, etc.).

As the seizure and suppression of the tithe had left the clergy without their heritage and without their traditional sources of funding, the Constitution included the commitment to fund Catholic worship. Other laws completed the constitutional legal framework: The Printing Law eliminated prior censorship, and the Electoral Act established a voting system based on census and extremely restricted. Thus, Spanish men 25 years of age or older who paid a minimum of 200 reales in direct taxes had the right to vote.

2.5 The Alternation in Power (1837-1843)

From this point on, a first two-party system was configured based on moderate and progressive parties that alternated in power during the reign of Isabel II. But the political model was strongly mediated by the constant interference of the military, which had increased their power through the Carlist Wars. Thus, Generals Espartero (progressive), Narváez (moderate), and O’Donnell (moderate, evolving towards centrist ideas and founder of the Liberal Union party) played a decisive role in the operation of all governments that existed in Spain between 1837 and 1843.

The Moderates in Government (1837-1840)

Having adopted the Constitution, new elections were called for October 1837, which were won by the moderates. At this stage, the moderates tried, without departing from the constitutional framework, to undermine the more progressive elements of the 1837 legislation:

• They enacted a more restrictive electoral law.
• Limited freedom of the press.
• Passed a Municipalities Act that gave the Crown the power to appoint mayors of provincial capitals.
• Legislation began to return expropriated property to the clergy.
• A draft for the redeployment of tithing was presented.

The Municipalities Act confronted liberals and moderates, with liberals advocating for the direct election of mayors. The moderate government’s support for the proposal led to progressive opposition, which prompted a broad insurrectionary movement, with the formation of revolutionary committees. In 1840, before giving her support to a new progressive government, Maria Cristina resigned.

Sectors related to progressivism gave their support to General Espartero, the victor of the Carlist War and with widespread popular support, who took power and became Regent in 1840.

Espartero’s Regency (1840-1843)

Espartero dissolved the revolutionary committees and called for new elections, which gave a majority to the progressives. During his regency, he acted with strong authoritarianism: he was unable to cooperate with Parliament and ruled without partners other than those related to his military clique known as the ayacuchos. Thus, Espartero became increasingly isolated from the progressive environment and lost the popularity that had brought him to power.

One of his most significant actions was the adoption, in 1842, of a tariff that opened the Spanish market to British cotton fabrics. The Catalan textile industry felt seriously threatened, and the measure provoked an uprising in Barcelona, in which the bourgeoisie and the working classes, who feared for their jobs, were involved. Espartero sent troops to bomb the city to obtain its submission, turning much of Catalonia and his former supporters against him.

Moderate progressivism took advantage of Espartero’s division and isolation to launch a series of conspiracies led by Generals Narváez and O’Donnell. Espartero left the regency, and the Cortes proclaimed Isabel II queen at the age of thirteen.

2.6 The Moderate Decade (1844-1854)

Configuring the Moderate Regime

The 1844 elections gave a majority to the moderates, who formed a new government led by General Narváez, who promoted a policy based on the principles of moderate liberalism (or doctrinaire). The first moderate governments carried out a crackdown on liberals, whose main leaders chose exile. The regime was established on the predominance of the landed gentry, composed of former aristocrats who had accepted the new bourgeois liberalism and rural landowners. The Crown and much of the army became the most faithful guarantors of a system that did not hesitate to distort electoral mechanisms to ensure the victory of the ruling party, leaving the opposition with no alternative other than conspiracy as the only way to achieve power.