Political Opposition to the Restoration in Spain (1874-1902)
Political Opposition to the Restoration Scheme (1874-1902)
A) Antidynastic Movements
1. The Carlists
Initial Carlist Supports:
The Carlists were enemies of liberalism and its measures, such as economic freedom, and political and social reforms. Carlist traditionalism advocated for the extreme right, the Old Regime, the monarchy of divine origin, and *foralism*. According to foralism, regions should maintain their autonomous government institutions, their own justice system, and tax exemptions. Conscription for military service, the peasants, and the Church, affected by alienation, initially supported Carlism.
Progressive Loss of Supporters:
The increase of beneficiaries of the liberal regime, due to the moderate and non-revolutionary policies of Isabel II, led the nobility to adapt to liberalism. The Church was offset by the Confiscation.
The Final Fall with the Restoration:
In 1876, after an attempt during the Six-Year Period (3rd Carlist War), Carlism only survived in the Basque-Navarre region, due to the Catholicism of the Basques and the defense of classic foralist Carlism.
It was a time of ideological change: there was a traditional non-Carlist faction, a non-ultra-Catholic Carlist faction (which aligned with the right wing of the Cánovas party), and regionalism began to find different policy areas within Carlist traditionalism.
Thus, a minority Carlism in crisis would not have any significant role in the civil war of 1936.
2. The Republicans
The Republican ideology was derived from democratic liberalism, meaning it was fundamentally liberal. Republicans defended advanced liberal ideas, including universal suffrage and the need for profound social and economic reforms for the benefit of the masses. They believed the authorities had to assume the character of a welfare state for the disadvantaged classes.
In relations with the Church, they advocated for a secular state, in which church and state were separate. The Republicans accused the Church of being an obstacle to freedom, modernization, and progress of Spanish society, along with the aristocracy who owned most of the land.
Among the supporters of the republic, there were two main trends:
* The *unitarians*, led by Castelar, were more conservative in their political and social ideas and believed that Spain should have a unitary or centralized administration. * The *federalists* conceived Spain as a federation of regional states based on historical pacts. In turn, they were divided into: * Volunteers, followers of Pi y Margall, who accepted legality and opposed armed insurrection. * The uncompromising, who advocated for violence and insurrection to achieve the federal state; their leader was Jose Maria de Orense.
The Republican social bases were in the petty bourgeoisie and working classes of the worker and peasant movement.
After the failure of the 1st Republic, republicanism went underground until the 1887 law on associations, enacted by the Sagasta government, which legalized it. However, the basic feature of republicanism in the Restoration was fragmentation and irreconcilable internal divisions.
The distance between the conservative Castelar, the radical federalists Zorrilla or Figueras, and Pi y Margall was significant. Zorrilla had to go into exile because of his co-conspirator activities.
Various Republican parties were established, but these small groups were limited in their ability to meet and participate in subsequent elections. Although the dynastic parties were always suspicious, the prospects of electoral success were minimal: the workers were now clearly aligned with the socialists and anarchists, and the Catalan and Basque bourgeoisie relied on regional and national movements.
In the 1890s, the Republicans improved their election results with universal suffrage, in addition to victory in the municipal elections of 1892.