Oligarchy and Caciquism in Spain: A Critical Analysis of the Restoration Period
Oligarchy and Caciquism
This text is a passage from the book “Oligarquia y Caciquismo,” written by Joaquin Costa and issued in 1901. Even if it is a primary source, it could be considered also secondary as he gives his views and opinion, analyzing the political system of the Restoration period in Spain at that time. Also, it was 4 years after the Disaster, when Spain lost its last colonies (Cuba, Puerto Rico and Philippines).
Firstly, I am going to analyze the main ideas of the text to understand it properly. The text is a clear analysis of the current political system in Spain:
- First, he lists the elements that constitute the system: the oligarchs (members of the nobility that held power), caciques (local political bosses that used their influence to change citizens’ will and manipulate the elections) and civil governor (the medium and instrument of communication).
- Then, he evaluates the leading class as a foreign faction that by force occupied ministries, captains, railroads… to impose taxes and collect them.
- Finally, he denounces the corruption of the electoral system: he describes the manipulation in the elections, declaring that the ones that falsified the voting had the power and authority. So, they did it abusing the power.
Secondly, I am going to contextualize the text to understand how we reached to it. After the Queen Isabel II was quitted from the power because some issues that had happened (the crisis of 66 and La Gloriosa revolt) there was a lack of power. Prim was chosen as the provisional head of government. But then, Amadeo was elected as the King, which came from the royal family of Italy. However he resigned and the First Spanish Republic started (1873-1874). There were a lot of head of state during the republic but it ended quite early, so due to a coup d’etat of Martinez Campos Alfonso XII was the King. These years (1868-1874) is known as the democratic sexenio, where there were a lot of political movements and also 3rd Carlist War (When Spain did not have King carlists proposed Carlos VII as the King, however they lost and Alfonso XII was elected). The failure of the democratic sexenio triggered the restoration during the following years.
The government of Alfonso XII started with the idea of the restoration, which was developed by Canovas (conservative). He wanted to bring stability to Spain and so he did a lot of reforms: he placed the army under the King, quitting them their power so that pronunciamientos and riots would stop, as there had been plenty of in the past. During Alfonso XII’s government the 1876 Constitution was released in which an attempt to represent every Spaniards was made. It was directed by Canovas. In that constitution and among the laws of it, it was remarkable the one which claimed that despite the official religion was Catholicism, any other religion could be practised in private. This law was based on the Cadiz Constitution (1712) and law was needed because in the Constitution written during the sexenio (1869) it was sanctioned a free religion country, which did not represent most of the Spaniards.
After the death of Alfonso XII in 1885, his widow wife Mª Cristina of Hasburgo was the regent and took Sagasta (liberal) as Prime Minister. At that time the Prado Pact was agreed in which both liberal (Sagasta) and conservative (Canovas) parties accepted that they would take turns in the government (Bipartidism), which will make the system corrupt. Moreover, the suffrage at the beginning was exclusive but in 1890 it was accepted the universal male suffrage. There were three main methods in order to corrupt the voting system:
- Firstly, the one called “pucherazo”, which consist of saying that the paper of the vote is damaged and can not be counted as valid.
- Secondly, the caciquism, with this method the caciques (the social leader) of a rural area buys the votes of the people.
- And finally, the “encasillado”, by which people go voting providing a name of a death person.
Although the government was corrupted the economy went by properly until the 1898 disaster, when, after the death of Canovas (the head of the bipartidism) Spain entered and lost a war against America. And Spain signed the Paris Peace Treaty in which it lost the colonies of Puerto Rico, Cuba and Filipinas. This caused the dragging of economy of the country. In this text, which was written in 1901 after all this happened, it is reported by Joaquin Costa this corruption and it is tried to find a solution claiming that a change in the system is needed.
When Alfonso XIII inherited the crown in 1902, there still is the bipartidism, but the government was going to be shared periodically by other two different representatives: Maura (conservative) and Canalejas (liberal). However, due to the disaster of 1898 the Regenerationism started. This movement, headed by Joaquin Costa, was trying to improve the political situation by making a criticism, and finding solutions. It was different to the Generación del 98, because with the Regenerationism they tried to give alternatives (they also created a party) and the Generacion of 98 was more critic, but they did not give alternatives. At this period there were a lot of social movements: the workers movement and nationalism in Catalonia, Basque Provinces and Galicia. In addition, in that period the Wars of Morocco took place, where a lot of lives were lost. The situation was more and more corrupted, complex and unstable as the years went by, until we reached to the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in 1923.
In conclusion, this text was one of the most interesting and influential sources of the period as it describes the corrupted political system that Spain had at that time. However, Costa did not only criticise the failures of the restoration, he tried to find out solutions in order to make Spain more developed. For that reason, his analysis helped writers, politicians and historians to identify the problems of Spain and many tried to implement the solutions he proposed. This corrupted period was very stable for a long period since its 1876 Constitution was in force for a long time. However, it triggered the regenerationism which had a little success and caused the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and Berenger later in order to try to keep the King Alfonso XII.