Spain’s First Republic, Restoration, and Colonialism
The First Republic (1873-1874)
The Republic was proclaimed by the courts in February 1873. Its first difficulty was that the result of the proclamation of the Republic was not real, since most of the deputies were monarchists. Its greatest achievement was to be imposed a federal state, i.e., the state is politically divided into separate cantons. A district is an independent entity with full powers of the Republic. The state had several problems such as the Carlist wars, the independence of the Cuban people, the division of political parties that led to social instability, and social uprisings independent surveys of the canton of Cartagena. Pavía gives a coup because he wants to hand power to keep the mountain and the Republican government, but most of the deputies who supported Serrano were conservative monarchists and what they wanted was the restoration of the Bourbons in 1874. So, the tradition of all nineteenth-century Spanish General Martinez Campos took out another statement in Sagunto and proclaimed as King Alfonso XII of Spain, son of Elizabeth II.
The Restoration of the Monarchy and the Canovas System (1874-1898)
The arrival of King Alfonso XII was a political opportunity for conservatives who saw in the young King someone in whom they could trust to be returned the state’s economic and political control, ensure the political and economic order of the state, and ensure social order.
Canovas and His Political System
Antonio Canovas was a conservative, monarchist, and religious man. He admired the stability of the English Parliament and, to avoid social unrest, devised a political system of alternation of power.
Canovas System
In Spain, there were two political parties: the Conservative Party (Canovas) was hardly a conservative bourgeois democratic party; the Liberal Party (Sagasta) was democratic, secular, and had a social character. They considered the country with a common idea: defending a state with a monarchy, advocated a centralized power, defending private property, and defending a constitution to avoid cuts in freedoms that the previous state of anarchy. Pacific Time is the alternation of power between conservatives and liberals. The Canovas system was possible because the system was corrupt and was prepared in advance: municipal rolls were falsified, census urban vote-buying, any type of coercive practices, and chieftaincy.
Imperialism and Its Causes
The second industrial revolution transformed the economy of the major European powers. Using its financial and technical superiority, European military domain is released to the outside world. The most advanced countries occupied Africa and Asia and established colonial empires. The settlement meant the economic exploitation of the resources of these lands and their political control.
The causes of colonialism
- Economy: European countries needed to sell the surplus and buy raw materials at the best price possible, and cheap labor.
- Demographics: European growth leading to overpopulation that causes difficulties finding jobs and social tensions. The colonial policy meant to emigrate to other lands and improve their quality of life and work.
- Political: The borders of Europe had stabilized and territorial expansion had to be done on extra-European regions.
- Ideological: The superiority of some nations and the right to impose these on other people, believing themselves culturally and technologically superior. All this leads to racism, considering white men superior to other ethnicities. Above all, socialists were opposed to colonialism and defended the right of these peoples.
Types of Colonies
The colony was controlled and administered by the metropolis.
- Colonies of exploitation were themselves colonies in the metropolis which is especially devoted to economic exploitation, had no self-government and the Europeans exerted on them a genuine policy of occupation and also prevented trade with other countries. The settlers were white settlers or companies based in Europe.
- Settler colonies were colonies that were white people who migrated to settle permanently. These colonies had a special unit with the metropolis, they recognized certain autonomy in internal government (domains). Examples include Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
- Protectorates were territories that held the Indian government and its own administrative apparatus. Examples include Morocco from Spain and France, Britain, and Egypt where he participated in the Suez Canal.