Lecture 17: From absolutist restoration to the first republic Flashcards
What are the characteristics of the Cadiz Constitution
- Nationhood: spain defined as a single nation
- Sovereignty: resides in the Spanish ppl, not the monarch
- Constitutionalism: law derived from popular will
- Citizenship extended to all free ppl (not slaves)
- Representation: Cortes Parliament
- Separation of Church and State
- Rejection of absolutism
What does Ferdinand VII do to alienate liberals upon his return in 1814?
- Repeals the 1812 Cadiz Constitution
- Aims to reclaim American colonies by force
- Reinstates absolutism: no more limits on royal power
- Reinstates special status for church, nobility, and crown
- Persecutes liberal opponents
- Imposes conscription: drafted lower and middle classes to fight in Americas
Who lead the uprising liberal trieno from 1820-1823?
Rafael de Riego
What is a pronunciamiento?
Military rebellion aiming to force policy change without seizing power
What was the successes of Riego’s 1820 pronunciamiento?
- Manages to reinstates 1812 constitution
- Reconvene Cortes Parliament
- Reform legal codes
- Consider colonial representation
Who cut short Riego’s pronunciamiento and why?
The french intervene in 1823 to restore absolutism
What characterizes Ferdinand VII’s reign from 1833-1843?
Comprised absolutism –> Ferdinand VII is forced to adopt certain liberal policies due to weakened authority
No male heir –> changes law so that his daughter Isabel can inherent the throne when he dies
What happens upon Ferdinand VII’s death?
Isabel should inherit the throne, but ultraconservatives/traditionalists believe that Carlos (ferdinand’s brother) should be king
This triggers the First Carlist War from 1833-1839
What is the Carlist vision? Where are its strongholds?
Absolutism, Catholicism, regional rights (fueros)
Popular in Basque country and parts of Catalonia
What does Isabel support?
- Reduced church influence
- standardized administration
- centralization
- constitutional monarchy
- limited representation
- unified market
Who wins the Carlist wars?
Liberal victory (Isabel becomes queen in 1844)
What characterizes the liberal state between 1839-1868?
Constitutional system
Two party system
- Moderates: conservative liberals
- Progressives: reform-minded liberals
What characterizes Isabel’s reign?
- Constitutional monarchy
- Parliamentary representation
- Unified national market
- Reduced church and nobility privileges
- Spanish as a cultural force (cultural/linguistic standardization)
- Established civil guard as national entity (resented in Basque country)
- Expanded education and military service
What were the causes of the popular revolt in 1868 against Queen Isabel II?
- Queen favoured moderates (was not neutral) → antiliberal
- Many pronunciamientos
- Limited representation
- Colonial contradictions
- Democratic challenge: New movement emerged demanding universal male suffrage
- Isabel II’s controversial personal life undermined royal legitimacy (misogyny)
What characterizes the democratic sexenio from 1868-1874?
Period of democratic experimentation
Divided into two periods
- Democratic monarchy
- First Spanish Republic
What is the Radical Party?
Coalition with the progressives and Democratic Party
What is the Radical Party’s vision?
- Liberalism
- Centralization
- Secularism
- Democratic monarchy
What characterized the first democratic monarchy (1868-1873)?
Radical party kept the institution of the monarchy while removing Queen Isabel II and attempted to remove the Bourbon Dynasty (Spain is still a bourbon dynasty)
Who was the king during the first democratic monarchy?
Instate italian liberal aristocrat as democratic king → Amadeo de Savoya 1871
- Receives criticism from both sides
Why was the monarchy retained during the first democratic monarchy?
- Historical continuity
- Need for neutral arbiter
- Desire for modernizing figure independent of church and nobility
What were the progressive reforms put in place by Amadeo de Savoya?
- Popular sovereignty
- Universal male suffrage
- Expanded civil rights
- Limited royal powers
- Church-state separation
What were the causes of Amadeo de Savoya’s abdication?
- Never had strong popular support
- General Prim (his close ally) is killed
- Radical party split between democratic monarchists and republicans
- Carlist resurgence → restores regional fueros
- Cuban insurrection
What characterizes the first Spanish Republic?
First non-monarchical government in Spanish history after Amadeo’s abdication
Republic collapsed after only 11 months
What caused the collapse of the first spanish republic?
- Insufficient republican majority
- 4 presidents in rapid succession
- Disagreements over federal structure
- Multiple crises: intensified Carlist War, worsening cuban rebellion, cantonal revolution
What characterizes the Cantonal Revolution?
- Radical republicans rejected Madrid’s centralized approach and established autonomous “cantons” (independent local republics) across southern Spain
- More than a dozen cantons declared independence
- “federalism from below” rather than imposed from central authority
- Cantonal Revolution represented one of history’s most ambitious attempts to implement anarchist-federalist principles in practice
What was the Cantonal Revolution’s political vision?
- Rejected hierarchy and centralization
- Sought direct democracy at local level
- Aimed to replace national state with voluntary federation of municipalities
- Emphasized workers’ control and local autonomy
What is the Oriamendi March?
- anthem of the Carlist movement
- epitomized the ideals of the Catholic soldier fighting for God, Country, and King
- strong in Basque country
Who is Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer?
Post-romantic writer
Main topics: love, passion, and beauty
What is Zarzuela?
- theatrical play that contains musical acts linked to the most traditional Madrid
- usually represent the working classes: chulos (men wearing peculiar clothes and making extravagant gestures), ratas (thieves), nannies, policemen
