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Spain THE LIBERAL ASCENDANCY
The Cadiz Cortes
From the first days of the War of Independence, juntas,
established by army commanders, guerrilla leaders, or
local
civilian groups, appeared in areas outside French control.
They
also existed underground as alternatives to the
French-imposed
government. Unity extended only to fighting the French,
however.
Coups were frequent, and there was sometimes bloody
competition
among military, partisan, and civilian groups for control
of the
juntas. A central junta sat in Cadiz. It had little
authority,
except as surrogate for the absent royal government. It
succeeded, however, in calling together representatives
from
local juntas in 1810, with the vague notion of creating
the
Cortes of All the Spains, so called because it would be
the
single legislative body for the empire and its colonies.
Many of
the overseas provinces had by that time already declared
their
independence. Some saw the Cortes at Cadiz as an interim
government until the Desired One, as Ferdinand VII was
called by
his supporters, could return to the throne. Many regalists
could
not admit that a parliamentary body could legislate in the
absence of a king.
The delegates at the Cortes at Cadiz formed into two
main
currents, liberal and conservative. The liberals carried
on the
reformist philisophy of Charles III and added to it many
of the
new ideals of the French Revolution. They wanted equality
before
the law, a centralized government, an efficient modern
civil
service, a reform of the tax system, the replacement of
feudal
privileges by freedom of contract, and the recognition of
the
property owner's right to use his property as he saw fit.
As the
liberals were the majority, they were able to transform
the
assembly from interim government to constitutional
convention.
The product of the Cortes' deliberations reflected the
liberals
dominance for the constitution of 1812 came to be the
"sacred
codex" of liberalism, and during the nineteenth century it
served
as a model for liberal constitutions of Latin nations.
As the principal aim of the new constitution was the
prevention of arbitrary and corrupt royal rule, it
provided for a
limited monarchy which governed through ministers subject
to
parliamentary control. Suffrage, determined by property
qualifications, favored the position of the commercial
class in
the new parliament, in which there was no special
provision for
the Church or the nobility. The constitution set up a
rational
and efficient centralized administrative system based on
newly
formed provinces and municipalties rather than on the
historic
provinces. Repeal of traditional property restrictions
gave the
liberals the freer economy they wanted.
The 1812 Constitution marked the initiation of the
Spanish
tradition of liberalism; by the country's standards,
however, it
was a revolutionary document, and when Ferdinand VII was
restored
to the throne in 1814 he refused to recognize it. He
dismissed
the Cadiz Cortes and was determined to rule as an absolute
monarch.
Spain's American colonies took advantage of the postwar
chaos
to proclaim their independence, and most established
republican
governments. By 1825 only Cuba and Puerto Rico remained
under the
Spanish flag in the New World. When Ferdinand was restored
to the
throne in Madrid, he expended wealth and manpower in a
vain
effort to reassert control over the colonies. The move was
unpopular among liberal officers assigned to the American
wars.
Data as of December 1988
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