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Spain Liberal Rule
The regency had come to depend on liberal support
within the
army during the first Carlist war, but after the end of
the war
against the traditionalists, both the Liberals and the
army tired
of Maria Cristina. They forced her to resign in 1840, and
a
liberal government assumed responsibility for the regency.
The Liberals were a narrowly based elite. Their
abstract
idealism and concern for individual liberties contrasted
sharply
with the paternalistic attitudes of Spain's rural society.
There
was no monolithic liberal movement in Spain, but
anticlericalism,
the touchstone of liberalism, unified the factions. They
theorized that the state was the sum of the individuals
living
within it and that it could recognize and protect only the
rights
of individuals, not the rights of corporate institutions,
such as
the church or universities, or the rights of the regions
as
separate entities with distinct customs and interests.
Because
only individuals were subject to the law, only individuals
could
hold title to land. As nothing should impede the
development of
the individual, so nothing should impede the state in
guaranteeing the rights of the individual.
Liberals also agreed on the necessity of a written
constitution, a parliamentary government, and a
centralized
administration, as well as the need for laissez-faire
economics.
All factions found a voice in the army and drew leadership
from
its ranks. All had confidence that progress would follow
naturally from the application of liberal principles. They
differed, however, on the methods to be used in applying
these
principles.
The Moderates saw economic development within a free
market
as the cure for political revolution. They argued for a
strong
constitution that would spell out guaranteed liberties.
The
Progressives, like the Moderates, were members of the
upper and
the middle classes, but they drew support from the urban
masses
and favored creation of a more broadly based electorate.
They
argued that greater participation in the political process
would
ensure economic development and an equitable distribution
of its
fruits. Both factions favored constitutional monarchy. The
more
radical Democrats, however, believed that political
freedom and
economic liberalism could only be achieved in a republic.
The army backed the Moderates, who dominated the new
regency
in coalition with supporters of Isabella's succession.
Local
political leaders, called caciques, regularly
delivered
the vote for government candidates in return for patronage
and
assured the Moderates of parliamentary majorities. The
Progressives courted the Democrats enough to be certain of
regular inclusion in the government. State relations with
the
church continued to be the most sensitive issue
confronting the
government and the most divisive issue throughout the
country.
Despite their anticlericalism, the Moderates concluded a
rapprochement with the church, which agreed to surrender
its
claim to confiscated property in return for official
recognition
by the state and a role in education. Reconciliation with
the
church did not, however, win the Moderates conservative
rural
support.
Modest economic gains were made during the
administration of
General Leopoldo O'Donnell, an advocate of laissez-faire
policies, who came to power in 1856 through a
pronunciamiento. O'Donnell had encouraged foreign
investors to provide Spain with a railroad system, and he
had
also sponsored Spain's overseas expansion, particularly in
Africa. Little economic growth was stimulated, however,
except in
Catalonia and the Basque region, both of which had already
possessed an industrial base. Promises for land reform
were
broken.
O'Donnell was one of a number of political and military
figures around whom personalist political parties formed
in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most of
these
parties failed to survive their leaders' active political
careers. O'Donnell, for example, formed the Liberal Union
as a
fusion party broad enough to hold most liberals and to
counter
the drift of left-wing Progressives to the Democrats.
After
several years of cooperating with the one-party
parliamentary
regime, the Progressives withdrew their support, and in
1866 a
military coup toppled O'Donnell.
In 1868 an army revolt, led by exiled officers
determined to
force Isabella from the throne, brought General Juan Prim,
an
army hero and popular Progressive leader, to power.
Isabella's
abdication inaugurated a period of experimentation with a
liberal
monarchy, a federal republic, and finally a military
dictatorship.
As prime minister, Prim canvased Europe for a ruler to
replace Isabella. A tentative offer made to a Hohenzollern
prince
was sufficient spark to set off the Franco-Prussian War
(1870-
71). Prim found a likely royal candidate in Amadeo of
Savoy, son
of the Italian king, Victor Emmanuel II. Shortly after
Amadeo's
arrival in Spain, Prim was assassinated, leaving the new
king,
without a mentor, at the mercy of hostile politicians. The
constitution bequeathed to the new monarchy did not leave
Amadeo
sufficient power to supervise the formation of a stable
government. Mistrustful of Prim's foreign prince,
factional
leaders refused to cooperate with, or to advise, Amadeo.
Deserted
finally by the army, Amadeo abdicated, leaving a rump
parliament
to proclaim Spain a federal republic.
The constitution of the First Republic (1873-74)
provided for
internally self-governing provinces that were bound to the
federal government by voluntary agreement. Jurisdiction
over
foreign and colonial affairs and defense was reserved for
Madrid.
In its eight-month life, the federal republic had four
presidents, none of whom could find a prime minister to
form a
stable cabinet. The government could not decentralize
quickly
enough to satisfy local radicals. Cities and provinces
made
unilateral declarations of autonomy. Madrid lost control
of the
country, and once again the army stepped in to rescue the
"national honor." A national government in the form of a
unitary
republic served briefly as the transparent disguise for an
interim military dictatorship.
Data as of December 1988
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