|
Spain Rule by Pronunciamiento
In 1820 Major Rafael de Riego led a revolt among troops
quartered in Cadiz while awaiting embarkation to America.
Garrison mutinies were not unusual, but Riego issued a
pronunciamiento or declaration of principles, to
the
troops, which was directed against the government and
which
called for the army to support adoption of the 1812
constitution.
Support for Riego spread from garrison to garrison,
toppling the
regalist government and forcing Ferdinand to accept the
liberal
constitution. The pronunciamiento, distributed by
barracks
politicians among underpaid members of an overstaffed
officer
corps, became a regular feature of Spanish politics. An
officer
or group of officers would seek a consensus among fellow
officers
in opposing or supporting a particular policy or in
calling for a
change in government. If any government were to survive,
it
needed the support of the army. If a
pronunciamiento
received sufficient backing, the government was well
advised to
defer to it. This "referendum in blood" was considered
within the
army to be the purest form of election because the
soldiers
supporting a pronunciamiento--at least in
theory--were
expressing their willingness to shed blood to make their
point. A
pronunciamiento was judged to have succeeded only
if the
government gave in to it without a fight. If it did not
represent
a consensus within the army and there was resistance to
it, the
pronunciamiento was considered a failure, and the
officers
who had proposed it dutifully went into exile.
French intervention, ordered by Louis XVIII on an
appeal from
Ferdinand and with the assent of his conservative
officers,
brought the three years of liberal government under the
1812
constitution--called the Constitutional Triennium
(1820-23)--to
an abrupt close. The arrival of the French was welcomed in
many
sectors. Ferdinand, restored as absolute monarch, chose
his
ministers from the ranks of the old afrancesados.
Ferdinand VII, a widower, was childless, and Don
Carlos, his
popular, traditionalist brother, was heir presumptive. In
1829,
however, Ferdinand married his Neapolitan cousin, Maria
Cristina,
who gave birth to a daughter, an event followed closely by
the
revocation of provisions prohibiting female succession.
Ferdinand
died in 1833, leaving Maria Cristina as regent for their
daughter, Isabella II (1833-68).
Don Carlos contested his niece's succession, and he won
the
fanatical support of the traditionalists of Aragon and of
Basque
Navarre (Spanish, Navarra). The Carlists (supporters of
Don
Carlos) held that legitimate succession was possible only
through
the male line. Comprised of agrarians, regionalists, and
Catholics, the Carlists also opposed the middle-class--
centralist, anticlerical Liberals who flocked to support
the
regency. The Carlists fielded an army that held off
government
attempts to suppress them for six years (1833-39), during
which
time Maria Cristina received British aid in arms and
volunteers.
A Carlist offensive against Madrid in 1837 failed, but in
the
mountains, the Basques continued to resist until a
compromise
peace in 1839 recognized their ancient fueros.
Sentiment
for Don Carlos and for his successor, remained strong in
Navarre,
and the Carlists continued as a serious political force.
Carlist
uprisings occurred in 1847 and again from 1872 to 1876.
Data as of December 1988
|
