Restoration Era in Spain: Cánovas, Sagasta, and Political Shifts
The Restoration Era in Spain
The regime of the Restoration is the brainchild of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, who believed the nation needed stability after the turbulent Sexenio Democrático. Cánovas’s ideas were based on:
- Forming strong parties that take turns in power (as in the British model). In this sense, a pact was signed between Cánovas, Sagasta, and Pardo.
- Involving a maximum of political forces in the system, constituting a “representative opposition”: Republicans, Carlists, progressives, etc.
- Converting the figure of the King into a balancing element of politics. The King should not take sides with a political force but hold together the political forces.
- Keeping the army away from politics, thus avoiding possible military intervention. Cánovas was mindful of figures like Martínez Campos or Pavia, who were determinants in the previous period.
To this end, Cánovas created his Conservative Liberal Party (commonly called Conservatives) in 1875, a strong political bloc with traditional leanings. In 1880, the opposition, the Liberal Fusion (called Liberal), was established, led by Mateo Práxedes Sagasta, which brought together the forces of the Revolution of 1868. From the moment these two parties were formed, a shift of parties took place, either through elections or simply through a change of government, maintaining the chambers. These two parties remained in peaceful shift until 1923, the year in which the coup of Primo de Rivera occurred.
It is the longest such period in the history of Spain’s constitutional type. These parties took turns with the establishment of a network that secured the votes of caciques, as the oligarchies benefited from the governments. The failure of the party system was produced by the wear of the parties, for they failed to evolve toward more democratic practices, not being able to provide solutions to new problems that the twentieth century brought with it.
The Constitution of 1876
The first step Cánovas del Castillo took was the convening of a Constituent Cortes through universal male suffrage (as in the constitution of 1869). This resulted in the Constitution of 1876, which featured:
- Sovereignty: King and Cortes.
- Separation of Powers:
- Executive: King
- Legislature: Senate and Congress
- Judiciary: Judges
- Census suffrage: only 5% of the voting population.
- Religion: official Catholic, but religious tolerance.
- A bill of rights.
The parties took turns peacefully: in 1876 and 1880, Sagasta and Cánovas ruled, respectively. The main innovations of this system occurred during the “Long Parliament” of Sagasta, which approved the following laws:
- 1881: Partnership Act, which allowed workers’ associations (PSOE, UGT).
- 1886: Abolition of slavery in Cuba.
- 1890: Universal male suffrage, which hindered the caciquismo in the most populous provincial capitals but did not substantially alter the outcome of elections.
Conflicts and Challenges
The Carlist War: Completed in 1876 after an armed intervention by Martínez Campos. Ramón Cabrera recognized King Alfonso XII of Spain, and the Basque charters were canceled.
Cuba’s War: Also ended following the intervention of Martínez Campos, who signed the Peace of Zanjón. However, this did not truly end the conflict, and from that time, what began was called “The Little War,” an unrecognized or undeclared war that kept Spain with problems until a new period of recognized war began in 1895.
Anarchism: Experienced a dispersion with the practice of individual attacks.
Regionalism and Nationalism
In recent years of the nineteenth century, nationalism developed under the Constitution and, above all, thanks to the Law of Associations, which made the legal existence of nationalist parties possible.
Catalonia
Both nationalist and federalist ideas developed, based on the average industrial bourgeoisie, but not the large capitalists linked to Madrid and Cuba. Nationalism had as its main representative Prat de la Riba and the creation of the League of Catalonia. Prat de la Riba wrote the Bases de Manresa, the “founding text of the Catalan autonomy program.”
Basque Country
Nationalism was closely linked to tradition and fuerista Carlism. His chief deputy was Sabino Arana, who in 1892 published his Independence of Vizcaya. In 1897, he founded the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), with membership from the petty bourgeoisie and professionals.
Galicia
Political parties did not form. There was a revitalization of the Galician language and culture with the figure of Rosalía de Castro. Alfredo Brañas was a representative of the Galician movement inspired by foralismo.