Key Political Events and Constitutions of 19th Century Spain
Side of the Mayor of Repository
The French have taken Madrid and abducted the King. “We must fight the French, armed, and once rebellious, facts.
Constitution of Bayonne
Joseph had a weak position from the beginning because the War of Independence prevented action affecting the whole territory. French generals acted autonomously, and his brother’s actions were continuous. The Royal Charter of Bayonne was a Charter granted (a political code in the Restoration era, imitating constitutions but not meriting such consideration. It is made by the monarch to govern political relations with subjects in a semi-absolutist regime, allowing some freedoms and slight parliamentary participation). This Charter imposed key laws:
- Confessionalism for the Roman Catholic religion in all Spanish possessions.
- Establishment of Courts or Boards of the Nation, composed of 172 individuals.
- Use of a single code of civil and criminal laws in Spain and the Indies.
- A single Commercial Code for Spain and the Indies.
- Internal customs are deleted from game to game, province to province in Spain, and the Indies.
- A system of equal contributions throughout the Kingdom.
- Real freedom of the press would be established within two years of the statute’s passage.
Afrancesados and Patriots in the War of Independence
Spain is ruled by a party fighting against the Inquisition to keep the concerns in the interest of some grandees of Spain and England.
Constitution of 1812
Adopted after the War of Independence (began May 2, 1808) by the Courts of Cádiz. Significant laws:
- The Spanish nation encompasses all Spaniards in both hemispheres.
- Sovereignty resides in the Nation, and therefore the right to establish its fundamental laws.
- The nation is bound to preserve and protect civil liberty, property, and other legitimate individual rights.
- All Spaniards must be faithful to the Constitution, obey the laws, respect the established authorities, contribute to government expenditure proportionally, and defend the country with arms when called upon by law.
- The religion of the Spanish nation is and will be Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman only, prohibiting any other.
Manifesto “The Persians”
The text was written when Ferdinand VII returned to Spain. In previous years, Spain was ruled by Joseph I, brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. Democracy advocates are based on instability and inconstancy, while the absolutist monarchy is a work of reason and intelligence. It proclaims the holding of new courts and suspends the effects of the 1812 Constitution and the decrees held in Cadiz.
Manifesto of Ferdinand VII
It happens after the military takeover of Irrigation heads of San Juan (Seville). There is a reassessment of positions after listening to the people, allowing Ferdinand VII not to govern in an absolute way.
Mendizábal’s Disentailment
When there was a Liberal Progressive Government, Spain was immersed in large public debt, which they attempted to solve with desamortizaciones. The following year, in 1831, this Royal Decree was published. There is a call for Constitutional Courts to develop the 1837 Constitution.
Vergara Convention
The Convention was signed in Guipúzcoa, Vergara, in August 1839. Before this, and almost at the end of the First Carlist War, the Carlists were divided into two groups: ultra-absolutists, who wanted to continue the war against the Elizabethans, and moderates who sought a peaceful solution. For this last reason, Don Carlos went into exile in France. This peace agreement is signed, represented by the embrace of Espartero and Maroto, including jumping jacks and the Elizabethans. Senior officials and soldiers under Maroto’s command could continue working for the army (and be released) if they served the Constitution of 1837, defended the throne of Elizabeth II and the Regency of Maria Cristina, or withdrew to their homes if they did not want to continue serving. The latter, if generals, would get their barracks where they wanted and a salary per regulation. In short, the author defends the union of primarily Spanish people who can grow together despite having different ideologies that triggered a war.
Proclamation of the Provisional Revolutionary Board of Seville
From 1863 to 1868, the Elizabethan crisis was in effect, in which power alternated between unionistas and moderates. The Revolution of 1868 emerged in the Democratic Sexenio (1868-1874). In what was a provisional government, headed by General Serrano, Prim would occupy the post of Minister of War. The main task of the government was the dissolution of industrial revolutions and convening the Constituent Cortes, validated by universal suffrage, where the liberals won. They made the Constitution of 1869. After the Regency, the Provisional Government and the Serrano-Prim Government’s most important mission was to find a king or regency for Spain. Economic reforms were undertaken, and the preferred candidate to become king was Amadeo.
Constitution of 1869
The stage is the Six Democratic Years (1868-1874), in which the Elizabethan political system crisis discredited the monarchy, along with the death of O’Donnell and Narváez and the economic crisis resulting in the Summer Revolution. The chairman of the Interim Government was General Serrano, with Prim occupying the post he left free. The government found the revolutionary juntas and accepted their requests. Among the main tasks of the government, creating the Constitution of 1869 was one of the most important, along with other very liberal measures.
Constitution of 1876
Marks the beginning of the first Restoration (1875 to 1902). The political system was created by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, based on the English model (monarchy), which was the most advanced country. It is a monarchy, liberal and bourgeois (oligarchical: power in the hands of a few). Democracy will disappear. He introduces the work of the Alfonsino party’s belief and conviction for Alfonso to be king (Manifesto of Sandhurst). It was based on four pillars: The Crown, the Constitution of 1876, Bipartisanship, and Cortes-turnismo.
PSOE Program
It happens during the early labor movement in Spain, characterized by poor working conditions, low wages, very long working days, and precarious living conditions. The first movement in the 1820s was related to utopian socialism, arising in Catalonia and Cadiz and concerned with the destruction of machines. In the late 1830s, workers’ societies emerged, mutual aid funds, and reivindicalistas (predecessors of unions). In the 1840s (governing the moderates), they were much persecuted, and there were no major protests. In the 1850s (governing progressives), there was a significant revolt in 1855. During the Liberal Union government, no revolt was allowed.