The 1868 Revolution in Spain: Causes, Events, and Aftermath
Causes of the Revolution
In 1866, during the reign of Isabel II, a major economic crisis occurred, manifesting at financial, industrial, and subsistence levels.
The financial crisis was triggered by a stock market crash caused by the railway sector. Spain’s limited industrial capacity meant that the demand for both freight and passenger transport was not as high as expected.
The industrial crisis primarily affected Catalonia, following the American Civil War. The region had stocked up on U.S. imports, leading to a cotton shortage.
The subsistence crisis began in 1866 with a wheat shortage due to crop failures, causing price increases and civil unrest.
Political deterioration also played a role. In 1866, the revolt of the sergeants of the San Gil headquarters and its harsh repression, the continued rule of the moderates, and the refusal of progressives, led by Prim, to participate in elections, all contributed to the unrest. Democrats signed the Ostend Pact in 1867, aiming to unify forces to end the moderate rule and the Elizabethan monarchy. The Union joined this pact in November 1867.
The Revolution of September 1868
On September 19, 1868, Brigadier Juan Bautista Topete staged a military uprising against Isabel II’s government. Prim and Serrano met with the rebels in Cadiz, quickly gaining popular support. Prim then led revolts in Malaga, Almeria, and Cartagena.
Isabel II sent an army from Madrid to confront the rebels. The two forces clashed at the Battle of Alcolea Bridge on September 28th, which the rebels won. The government resigned, and the queen was exiled, finding refuge with Napoleon III.
Popular forces, led by progressives, played a significant role. Revolutionary committees were formed in many cities, calling for uprisings. In early October, after entering Madrid, the rebels proposed the appointment of an interim centrist government. General Serrano was proclaimed regent, and General Prim became president of the government. The government dissolved the Councils and the National Militia.
The new interim government issued decrees addressing popular demands and called for a Constituent Assembly, elected by universal male suffrage (over 25). In January, the coalition government (progressive unionists and Democrats) won the elections.
In 1869, the first democratic constitution was created, guaranteeing a wide range of rights and freedoms: freedom of assembly, expression, and religion. The Constitution also proclaimed national sovereignty, with laws residing in the courts and the king only enacting them, without veto power. The courts were composed of a Congress and a Senate.
The courts established Serrano as regent and Prim as head of government. This new government faced a serious economic situation and a new Carlist insurrection.
The goal of the “Glorious Revolution” was to reorient economic policy. The government defended free trade and opened the Spanish market to foreign capital.
Laureano Figuerola, the finance minister, abolished the consumption tax and introduced a personal income tax. He also established the peseta as the monetary unit (4 reales).
The Treasury had a high public debt and had to subsidize the railway. This was addressed with the Mining Act of 1871, which sold mineral deposits to foreign companies. The liberalization of foreign trade, with the Base Tariff Act approved in July 1869, faced opposition from the cotton and grain industries.
The 1869 Constitution consolidated a political regime based on liberal-democratic principles. However, it frustrated some political aspirations and popular groups. The monarchical form of government was disliked by republicans, and social inequalities persisted for laborers, peasants, and workers.
The peasantry demanded better land distribution, while the labor movement sought improved wages and working conditions.
Republicans were the most dissatisfied, leading them towards more radical and apolitical (international) movements.
The Rise of Republicanism
The new political landscape was dominated by four major trends. On the right were the Carlists and moderates, in the center was a combination of monarchical democrats, and on the left was the Federal Republican Party.
The Federal Republican Party had two factions: the volunteers and the hard-liners. Some did not support armed insurgency, while hard-liners supported popular insurrection. Federal republicanism had the support of the petty bourgeoisie and urban working classes, and they created laws protecting workers. This rise was due to the population’s disenchantment with the progressives and Democrats. Republicanism focused on improving the conditions of the working classes, addressing issues such as working conditions, wages, and land distribution. The first surveys of the federal republic were in Cadiz in December 1868 and spread throughout the Mediterranean coast, Galicia, Badajoz, and Madrid. They created a Federal Council in Madrid, but the army, under General Prim, contained the uprising.
The Reign of Amadeo
After the 1869 Constitution established a democratic monarchy, a new monarch had to be found. Prim was in charge of finding the king. Amadeo was the strongest candidate, a man with a democratic conception of monarchy. He was twenty-six years old and was elected King of Spain by the Cortes in November 1870. He arrived on December 30th, three days after his most loyal advisor, General Prim, was murdered.
The monarchy had little support. The aristocracy, the clergy, and the cliques of Elizabeth II were in clear opposition. A large part of the army did not express loyalty to the new monarch, which was serious given the Carlist war and the situation in Cuba. Nor did he have popular support.
Universal suffrage and political freedoms were established, creating a democratic regime. However, there were continuing difficulties, including financial problems, the Carlist War, the war in Cuba, and republican insurrections.
The moderates remained faithful to the Bourbons and began working towards the restoration of Prince Alfonso, son of Isabel II. Canovas del Castillo was the main leader, and this option received the support of the Church and the moderates with the moneyed elite. The Carlists turned to armed insurrection in 1872 to settle the throne for Charles VII.
Republican sectors and popular groups did not support Amadeo I. In 1872, there were also new federalist insurrections.
The final crisis of Amadeo of Savoy’s reign was the result of the disintegration of the coalition government. In two years, six governments were formed, and elections had to be called three times. Finally, deprived of all support, Amadeo resigned his throne on February 11, 1873, and left Spain.
The First Spanish Republic (1873-1874)
On February 11, 1873, the First Spanish Republic was proclaimed, chaired by the federal republican Estanislao Figueras. This republic did not have the full support of the chamber and faced international isolation, except for the United States and Switzerland.
The Republic was received with enthusiasm by the masses. Federalists seized many municipalities and constituted revolutionary boards. In Andalusia, there was an insurrectionary movement to solve the distribution of land among the peasantry. In Catalonia, there were demands for the reduction of working hours, higher wages, and the implementation of a federal state.
Republican leaders were far from their revolutionary aspirations and sought to respect the law. The landscape was peaceful, and Constituent Assembly elections were called, which the Republicans won.
The courts opened on June 1, 1873, and on the 7th, the Federal Democratic Republic was proclaimed. The presidency was held by Estanislao Figueras, but he resigned and passed it to Francisco Pi y Margall. He wanted to undertake a great work of reform, but the republicanism of the time did not allow the development of that law reform.
The proposal of the Federal Republican Constitution of 1873 followed the line of the 1869 Constitution, with extensive rights and freedoms. The courts had two chambers, the Senate and Congress, and the Spanish nation was composed of seventeen states.
The First Republic had to face serious problems. One of them was a Carlist uprising, which spread through much of Catalonia, Teruel, and Cuenca, and consolidated in the Basque provinces.
The war in Cuba also continued to spread, and the Republic was unable to improve the situation.
The cantonal uprising was the most serious conflict that occurred during the brief republican period. The proclamation of independent cantons, with self-government, was the result of the direct application of the federal structure. All these areas with strong Republican establishments took up independent cantons. The protagonists of the cantonalist surveys were a social conglomerate composed of artisans, small traders, and employees, led by hard-liners, disappointed by the direction of the new republic.
Pi y Margall tried to quell the revolt by force of arms and resigned, replaced by Nicolás Salmerón, who initiated military action against the Cantonalist movement, ending the insurrection. Salmerón resigned because he felt morally incapable of signing death sentences against cantonalist activists.
The presidency then went to Emilio Castelar, the leader of republicanism unit, who had abandoned the Federalists and reformist pretensions. This authoritarian governance was backed by military commanders. At this point, Figueras, Pi, and Salmerón reached an agreement to make a motion to censure the Castelar government, to return to the initial approach of the republic.
On January 3, 1874, Castelar was defeated. Manuel Pavia demanded the dissolution of the Republican Parliament and invaded the chamber with Civil Guard forces, forcing them to leave. Power passed to the Union and Progress at the hands of General Serrano, who stabilized the Republican regime but opted for an Alfonsina solution, the return of Alfonso XII.
On December 29, 1874, in Sagunto, Arsenio Martínez Campos proclaimed Alfonso XII King of Spain. Before signing, Alfonso de Borbón issued the Sandhurst Manifesto.