Spain’s Restoration (1874-1923): Politics, Society, and Conflicts

Posted on Oct 20, 2024 in History

The Restoration (1874-1923)

Constitution of 1876

Principles:

  • Shared sovereignty between the Courts (Chamber of Deputies and Senate) and the Crown.
  • Voting rights: Initially based on census (Cánovas’ Conservatives), later universal male suffrage (Sagasta’s Liberals, 1890).
  • Crown as a pillar of the regime.
  • Catholic confessional state with tolerated non-Catholic worship.
  • Extensive bill of rights.
  • Centralized administrative and political organization.
  • Alternation between two major parties (Liberals and Conservatives).

The Monarchy and Dynastic Parties

Constitutional and Parliamentary Monarchy (British model). King shared sovereignty with Parliament; the latter exercised executive power.

Bipartisanship: Both parties (Conservatives and Liberals) defended the monarchy, the 1876 Constitution, private property, the capitalist system, and a unitary centralist state. However, they differed on some issues:

  • Conservative Party (Cánovas): Supported by landowners, the financial and industrial bourgeoisie, the Church, the army, and the administration. Defended political stagnation, census suffrage, the Church, the established social order, press censorship, and restricted academic freedom.
  • Liberal Party (Sagasta): Supported by the industrial bourgeoisie and urban middle classes. Advocated for progressive reformism and secularism.

El Cacique

The Minister of the Interior manipulated elections through caciquismo (using local bosses to control votes). The Electoral Act of 1907 formalized this manipulation. Alfonso XII died in 1885. The Electoral Act of 1887 established restricted census suffrage. In 1881, the Pact of El Pardo saw Conservatives and Liberals agree to support Regent Maria Cristina. Sagasta’s long liberal government (1885-1890) abolished slavery in Cuba (1886) and introduced freedom of association (1887). Universal male suffrage was established in 1890.

Political Competitions

Republicanism

Weakened after the 1874 coup. Various factions existed, including Federal Republicans (Pi y Maragall), Unitary Republicans (Salmerón), Progressive Republicans (Ruiz Zorrilla), and Possibilists (Castelar). Salmerón’s electoral coalition won 47 deputies in 1893.

Nationalism (Catalonia, Basque Country, Galicia)

Factors:

  • Reaction against centralism.
  • Bourgeois ideology.
  • Decline of Carlism and Federalism.

Catalanism:

  • Renaixença (1830).
  • Valenti Almirall founded the Catalan Center (1882) and wrote the Memorial de Greuges (1885).
  • Unió Catalana founded in 1891 (Prat de la Riba, Cambó, Puig i Cadafalch). Bases de Manresa advocated for Catalan language use, restoration of Catalan institutions, and Catalan officials.
  • Regionalist League (1901).
  • Solidaritat Catalana (1906).
  • Commonwealth of Catalonia (1914).

Basque Nationalism:

  • Driven by abolition of privileges after the Carlist Wars and a cultural revival.
  • Sabino Arana founded the PNV (1894).
  • PNV gained political power in Biscay.

Labor Organizations

Anarchism:

  • Violent phase (1893-1897), including attacks on General Martínez Campos and Prime Minister Cánovas.
  • Procés de Montjuïc (1897).
  • Solidaridad Obrera (1907).
  • CNT founded (1910).

Socialism:

  • PSOE founded by Pablo Iglesias (1879). Aimed for worker control of power, collective ownership, and class abolition.
  • Joined the Second International and participated in May Day (1890).
  • First deputy in Cortes (1910).
  • UGT founded (1888).