Spain’s Liberal State Building: 1833-1873
Liberal State Building in Spain (1833-1873)
This period of the twentieth century, ranging from the death of Fernando VII in 1833 until the year 1873, is characterized by the many political changes that account for the final transition to a liberal state and the complete abolition of the Old Regime in Spain.
Before he died, Fernando VII promulgated the Pragmatic Sanction, which abolished the Salic Law that prevented women from reigning. Thus, after his death, the legal heir to the throne was his daughter, Elizabeth. This resulted in a civil conflict, as his uncle, Carlos, felt that he had rights to the throne and brought together around his figure a political group, the Carlists, whose political principles were based on political absolutism. The “Carlist Wars” took place mainly in the Basque Country due to the large number of Carlists who did not want to lose the Old Regime; they disappeared with the privileges that endowed the territory with privileges that the rest did not have.
The Regency of Maria Cristina (1833-1840)
Queen Elizabeth was three years old when her father died, so her mother, Maria Cristina, was proclaimed regent until her majority. During this period, the government took the moderate liberals. The most important actions of this period were:
- Development of the Royal Statute (1834), which sets out the functions of the courts but increased the power of the monarch.
- The Confiscation of progressive liberal Mendizabal, with which nationalized church property to be sold at public auction in order to get money to pay for the war and reduce the public debt. Secularization failed in its initial objectives, and the lots auctioned were barred from smallholders and were in the hands of large landowners, creating a system of land ownership paralyzing any attempt at reform.
- The Constitution of 1837. Prepared by the government after the “mutiny of the sergeants of La Granja.” The main features of this new constitution were: national sovereignty, declaration of rights, courts are divided into two chambers, the elected Congress and Senate by census suffrage appointed by the King, does not establish an official religion, and proposed the abolition of privileges.
The Regency of Espartero (1840-1843)
The Liberal victory in the Carlist wars awarded a prestigious political Espartero General, who became regent in 1840, after the exile of Maria Cristina to France. The most important events in the regency of the general were the bombing of Barcelona after a popular uprising and the complete abolition of the Basque privileges. This resulted in his dismissal as regent and the restoration of her privileges in the Basque Country.
Espartero’s dismissal marks the end of the period of regency and the beginning of the reign of Isabel II (1844-68).
The Moderate Decade (1844-1854)
This period was presided over by General Narvaez, who prepared a new constitution in 1845, more in keeping with the ideals of the political group that ruled at that time, the moderates. The new constitution expanded the power of the king, who shared the sovereignty of the nation’s courts, and said the confessional state, establishing one religion as Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman. At this time, relations with the church were also recovered, the Concordat of 1851, which had broken with the confiscation and the Constitution of 1837. Other works of the period were drafting a civil code and penal code, the territorial reform of Javier de Burgos, the creation of the Civil Guard, and the 2nd Carlist War (1846-49).
The Progressive Biennium (1854-1856)
With a military coup led by General O’Donnell in 1854, the progressive biennium (1854-56) began in which the queen decided to give the government back to General Espartero. They disabled the Constitution of 1845 and began to develop another that was not promulgated. Other important events of this period are the Confiscation of Madoz, applied to goods of municipalities (1855), the desire to promote industrialization and progress with the Railways Act, and the creation of the Bank of Spain. Progressivism emerged from the new political currents as Democrats and Republicans, and the latter, in turn, socialism and federalism.
Political Conservatism (1856-1868)
In 1856, O’Donnell staged a new coup ending the work of the biennium and the presidency of Espartero, beginning a new stage of political conservatism (1856-1868). The new prime minister was O’Donnell, who supported himself in a game created by the same Liberal Union, attempted to create a party that would unite the moderate liberals and progressives.
He said the Constitution of 1845, returning to the general political function of Narvaez. O’Donnell’s political action focused mostly on foreign policy; he attempted to create a colonial empire and unite all political action groups to support a war against Morocco. The war highlighted the progressive ideology of General Prim. In 1866, the worsening economic crisis in Spain led to popular discontent with the actions of governments and the queen herself. General Serrano, close to overthrowing the government, agreed at Ostend to an alliance with the Democrats who led the uprising that began in Cadiz, leading to the “Glorious Revolution” in 1868, ending the reign of Elizabeth II, who went into exile in France.
The Democratic Sexennium (1868-1874)
After the revolution of 1868, a provisional government was established whose main objective was the development of a new Constitution (1869). This new text is characterized by being the first democratic constitution because it established the election of courts, municipalities, and county councils by universal suffrage; sovereignty resided in the nation, the system of government remained a parliamentary monarchy, and the legislature was divided into two chambers. The executive is for the king’s ministers and the judiciary in independent courts. It has an extensive bill of rights.
The purpose of the two strong men, Serrano and Prim, of the government focused on finding a new king and the country’s development. Prim sought a candidate who was of royal blood but not Bourbon, and after many disputes between members of the court, elected Amadeus of Savoy, son of the Italian king. He accepted the position but on reaching the country on December 30, 1870, met with the murder of Prim, his only supporter in the country, opposed by the Spanish aristocracy, who would not accept a king of foreign blood, the industrial sectors, the clergy, the Carlists, and Republicans. During his reign, the Third Carlist War (1872-76) began, numerous workers’ protests occurred, and the Cuban revolution started. This made the king unable to continue and abdicate in 1873, so Congress and the Senate decided to proclaim the First Spanish Republic, which only lasted a year. The Republic did not succeed because the Republicans clashed unitary and federal. Castelar turned the republic to the right in an attempt to restore order. The First Republic ended with the coup of General Pavia, supported by the Civil Guard forces.