The Reign of Ferdinand VII and the Emancipation of Spanish America

Posted on Nov 4, 2024 in History

Fernando VII: Absolutism and Liberalism. 11.4. The Emancipation of Spanish America.

The Reign of Ferdinand VII (1814-1833)

The end of the War of Independence and the return of Fernando VII resulted in the cancellation of liberal reforms and the restoration of the Old Regime. His reign is divided into three stages:

The First Restoration (1814-1820)

In 1814, Fernando VII returned to Spain from France, acclaimed by the people. He soon came under pressure from senior army officers, the Church, and conservative politicians to overturn the Constitution of 1812 and dissolve Parliament. The most important action of this group was the Manifesto of the Persians, a document signed by several lawmakers and presented to the king in Valencia in April 1814. The text called for restoring traditional institutions and the collaboration of the monarch with the aristocracy, rejecting all the work of the Cortes of Cádiz. The manifesto ideologically justified a coup, which the king carried out on May 4, 1814, in Valencia by enacting a decree that annulled all the reforms approved in Parliament, including the Constitution. The most important liberals were pursued and arrested; others went into exile.

Meanwhile, the king proceeded to re-establish monarchical institutions from 1808. The councils and the Inquisition were restored, along with feudal rights, and the confiscation of 1803 was suspended.

The monarchy faced a series of problems:

• Instability in government due to frequent interventions by the Camarilla (a group of people who enjoyed royal favor).
• Crisis in the Treasury: debts incurred before the War of Independence were compounded by the war itself and the Emancipation of the American territories, which deprived the Crown of income and crippled trade and industry development. The monarchy also couldn’t impose a tax system that wouldn’t alter the privileges of certain groups. The most ambitious project was due to Martín Garay, Minister of Finance (1816-1818), who attempted disentailment measures that were rejected.
• Conspiracies and military rebellions carried out by the Liberals: the plots were funneled through secret societies like the Freemasons, and the military rebellions were expressed in pronouncements that were common throughout the 19th century. It was the pronouncement of Rafael del Riego in January 1820 that sparked a political change and began a new stage.

The Liberal Triennium (1820-1823)

After Riego’s pronouncement, Fernando VII signed a decree promising to swear to the Constitution of 1812 (March 1820). A new stage began in which the government attempted to implement the reforms adopted in the Cortes of Cádiz. The Liberals were now governing and had an armed militia at their disposal. During this period, they would be divided into two factions: the exaltados (radicals) and the moderados (moderates). Alongside these developments, the birth of public opinion must be added, brewing an opposition that would trigger absolutist military rebellions.

The government program aimed to restore the laws passed in Cádiz, such as the abolition of the Inquisition (1820) and the abolition of the seigneurial regime. Confiscation was resumed and applied to primogeniture, which was abolished. A church reform was addressed to reduce the number of monasteries and religious orders; the property of religious orders was nationalized and sold. The tithe was halved. During this period, legislation on education was also adopted, including the General Rules of Public Instruction, the first Criminal Code, and a new division of the Spanish territory into 52 provinces.

The Liberal government created a National Militia, conceived as a civilian body composed of armed citizens ready to defend the Constitution and the liberal regime, outside the regular military. It was organized in every town and city, with councils bearing arms and allowing the incorporation of the urban popular classes. Thus, the militia became an ally of the left wing of liberalism and an instrument for disseminating the ideas of the liberal program.

Liberals in this period were divided into moderados or doceañistas, who believed it was enough to apply the laws passed in Cádiz, and the exaltados, supporters of more radical reforms. The first governments until August 1822 were moderate. The exaltados led several urban protests in late 1821, such as the “battle of Platerías” in Madrid, which inaugurated the popular urban movements characteristic of 19th-century liberalism, culminating in the overthrow of the government in 1822.

The Liberal Triennium generated public debate due to the constitutional freedoms of the press, assembly, and expression. The debate was channeled through patriotic societies, which were political discussion clubs, cafés, and a free press. There were up to 200 societies; “La Fontana de Oro” was famous, and among the political press, the satirical newspaper “El Zurriago” (1821-1823) stood out. Absolutist newspapers were also published, and political songs and tunes became popular, such as “El Trágala” and “Himno de Riego.”

Conservative opposition formed during this period, composed of the king, who clashed several times with his ministers and Parliament, a sector of army officers, the elite of the ancien régime, most of the clergy, and the peasantry. The latter perceived that the government favored the private property of landlords, and tenants became mere employees and taxpayers. This opposition, known as absolutist, conservative, realist, apostolic, or servil (coined from the motto “God, Country, and King”), expressed itself in various urban and military rebellions, such as the one on July 7, 1822, where the Royal Guard staged a coup d’état with the complicity of the king. The rebellion was thwarted by the City Council, the Courts, and the Militia, with the passivity of the government, which was subsequently replaced. The realists also organized a rural guerrilla war that lasted until 1823, active in Catalonia, the Basque Country, Navarre, and northern Castile.

In the Catalan Pyrenees, an absolutist government was formed, parallel to the liberal one, known as the Regency of Urgel (1822), which was dissolved by the military.

Finally, the Liberal Triennium ended due to foreign intervention. France, within the ideology of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, organized an expedition known as the Hundred Thousand Sons of St. Louis, led by the Duke of Angoulême, which entered Spain in April 1823. Once the monarch, who had traveled with the government to Cádiz, was released, a new conservative period began.

The Ominous Decade (1823-1833)

The early absolutist period, ominously called the “Ominous Decade” by liberals, was not simply a return to the positions of Fernando VII before 1820. Although absolute monarchy institutions were restored (except for the Inquisition), it gradually evolved into moderate reformism. The toughest opposition came from the absolutists (including an extremist group, the Carlists), and the repression of liberals continued.

During this decade, technical measures were taken to improve government administration.

Liberals suffered severe political repression. Clearance committees began operating, and in some dioceses, boards of faith were established against liberal “heretics.” Those who managed to escape went into exile, first to England and then to France after 1830.

As an alternative to the National Militia, the Royalist Volunteers were established.

There were several insurrection attempts that were suppressed, and their protagonists executed, such as José María de Torrijos. María Pineda was also executed for embroidering the motto “Law, Liberty, Equality.”

Among the reforms undertaken were: the creation of the Council of Ministers (1823), the new Ministry of Development (1832) aimed at promoting economic development. In the Ministry of Finance, Luis López Ballesteros (1823-1832) stands out, who developed the first State Budget. He also promoted the implementation of the Commercial Code (1829) and created the Royal Bank of San Fernando (1829), heir to the old Bank of San Carlos, and the Madrid Stock Exchange (1831).

There was a radicalization of the royalists, with a faction promoting ultra movements and conspiracies against the more moderate ministers of Fernando VII. The most important was the revolt of the Agraviados (Aggrieved) or Malcontents in Catalonia (1827), led by peasants dissatisfied with taxes, who joined the Spanish royalists. The army and the king had to intervene to quell the rebellion.

Exalted realists became Carlists due to the lawsuit triggered by the succession of Fernando VII in 1830. Until the birth of Isabel II, the king’s brother, Carlos María Isidro, was considered the heir to the throne. Months before Isabel’s birth, Fernando VII had issued the Pragmatic Sanction, adopted by his father in 1789, which allowed a woman to reign.

Supporters of Carlos María Isidro took advantage of the king’s illness in 1832 to lead the event called “The Farm”: they pressured Queen María Cristina and the king himself to abolish the Pragmatic Sanction. Faced with the monarch’s refusal, Carlos María Isidro went to Portugal. The queen took over the government and declared an amnesty that allowed the return of moderate liberals. Fernando VII died in 1833, and shortly after, the Carlist War (1833-1840) broke out between the supporters of Carlos María Isidro and Queen María Cristina and her daughter Isabel.

The Emancipation of Latin America

Emancipation was carried out by native and white minorities. Although its leaders, Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín, were of liberal ideology, the rebellions had an authoritarian, caudillo character, backed by the army and outside popular demands. Independence showed scrupulous respect for the existing social class order in colonial society.

The political crisis in Spain between 1808 and 1814 affected the colonies, which were allowed to trade with neutral countries, given the difficulty of establishing good communication between the metropolis and its colonies. All this helped strengthen the autonomy of the American territories.

These territories were defended and funded by the same Creoles and Indians who were dissatisfied with the actions taken on the peninsula. To this discontent, we must add the ideas of American independence (1776) and the French Revolution (1789), which fueled the ideas of emancipation.

The War of Independence and the political crisis provided the pretext. In America, those who opposed Joseph I and those who felt entitled to establish themselves as an autonomous power also came together.

Emancipation had the following characteristics:

• In each region, revolutions broke out with no connection between them, but later, some coordination was achieved. Local political and social forces were instrumental in shaping the Spanish-American map. In this sense, the two oldest viceroyalties, New Spain (Mexico) and Peru, were more conservative regions, loyal to the mother country than others. In contrast, New Granada and Rio de la Plata, newly created, were the engines of independence. From these viceroyalties emerged the main warlords: Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín, respectively.
• The process was long and complex, lasting until 1825. In addition to rebellions, there were civil wars between Americans and conflicts between different regions. The indigenous and popular masses fought on both sides. In some cases, the bulk of Spanish troops was made up of Indians.
• The process of independence was linked to the vicissitudes of politics in the metropolis: during the first stage (1808-1814), given the war situation, it was used to declare independence; then (1814-1820), leaders relied on fighting liberalism against the Crown. Finally, in 1820, Spanish troops destined for America revolted, and no military reinforcements arrived in the colonies. The Liberal Triennium was decisive for the completion of emancipation.
• In the Viceroyalty of the Rio de La Plata, Buenos Aires became a hotbed of rebellion. In 1810, it established an independent Board, and after various vicissitudes, in 1816, the independence of Argentina was proclaimed. From Buenos Aires, an expedition started under the command of General José de San Martín, who conquered Chile, which became independent in 1818. The eastern part, the territories east of the Uruguay River, was annexed to Brazil, and Uruguay did not become an independent nation until 1828. Paraguay, meanwhile, declared independence in 1811.
• In the Viceroyalty of New Granada, since 1810, Caracas became the main focus of the first rebellion, led by Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Miranda. Faced with different projects, Bolívar proposed a military solution that overthrew the Spanish in a series of decisive victories that led to the independence of present-day Colombia (1819), Venezuela (1821), and Ecuador (1822). The three regions formed the Republic of Gran Colombia, which dissolved in 1830.
• The Viceroyalty of Peru became the center of the South American counter-revolution, and its troops suppressed any separatist movement that had emerged in Ecuador and Chile. It was San Martín from the south who proclaimed the independence of Peru (1821) and Bolívar from the north who defeated the Spanish troops in Ayacucho (1824). Upper Peru became independent in 1825 under the name of Bolivia, in honor of Simón Bolívar.
• The Viceroyalty of New Spain followed a different process. Between 1810 and 1815, a mass movement with social content (distribution of land, equal rights for ethnic groups, etc.) emerged, rebelling in the name of Fernando VII. It was led by rural priests, first Miguel Hidalgo, who was executed, and then by José María Morelos, who supported the Indians and mestizos. The radical and violent nature of the movement frightened the natives and landowners, who collaborated with the Spanish in the repression. Later, the realist Agustín de Iturbide proclaimed the independence of Mexico (1821), after reaching an agreement with Mexican elites. He was proclaimed Emperor Agustín I but was ousted to make way for the Federal Republic (1824). In this process, the regions of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica separated from Mexico and formed the Federal Republic of Central America (1823).

The process of emancipation did not solve the problems in America:

• Bolívar’s dream of creating a united and strong America was impossible. The interests of local warlords, landowners, and the commercial bourgeoisie led to many wars and the fragmentation of the territory. In this context, the power of the military in political life and its constant recourse to arms marked American history.
• The Creoles continued to marginalize most of the Indian, black, or poor population.
• Finally, the independence process did not lead to economic independence. Spanish rule was replaced by that of Great Britain and the United States, who were the first to recognize the new nations.