Spain in the 19th and 20th Centuries: Key Events
Key Events in Spain During the 19th and 20th Centuries
Spanish afrancesados admired the ideas of the French Enlightenment. They supported Joseph Bonaparte (Jose I) because they believed that with this king, reforms would be implemented.
Important Concepts and Events
- Coup d’état: Aims to obtain political power.
- Wars between liberals and Carlists: A Carlist conflict. Supporters of the latter were opposed to absolutism and the liberal system. The first Carlist war occurred between 1833 and 1839, the second from 1846 to 1849, and the third from 1872 to 1876.
- Debt: The state emitted debt to tackle the shortfall between income and expenditure.
- Cacique: A person in a town or county who exercised political influence on affairs. Generally, the chief gave work to laborers and peasants in exchange for voting as he required.
- Cantonal Uprising: An insurrection where cantons, or administrative units similar to municipalities, demanded greater autonomy.
- Phylloxera: A vine disease that caused plant death. It spread through the south of Europe from Almeida in the 19th century, but it came later to other areas. Resistant American vines were used to combat the plague.
- Regenerationism: A school of thought that developed as a result of the crisis of 1898. Led by the petite and medium bourgeoisie, it opposed the oligarchy’s hegemony with the intention of carrying out reform. Regenerationists advocated for the reform of education and agriculture.
- The Restoration: Began with the arrival of Alfonso XII. It was a time of stability and slow policy changes until 1931. With the death of the king, the regency of his wife, Maria Cristina of Habsburg, began.
- Lliga Catalana: A regionalist party created in 1901 with the objective of obtaining some autonomy for Catalonia. It had the support of the conservative Catalan bourgeoisie.
- Popular Front: A political coalition that joined the Republican parties, communists, and socialists.
- Falange: A national socialist political party founded in 1933 by José Antonio Primo de Rivera (son of the dictator Primo de Rivera), modeled after the Italian Fascist movement and German Nazism.
- CEDA (Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right): A conservative and Catholic political coalition. It accepted the Republican system and was led by José Maria Gil Robles.
- CNT (National Confederation of Labor): An anarchist union founded in 1910.
- Basic Institutional Status: Given to an autonomous region by the state.
- Esquerra Republicana: A Catalan nationalist political party founded in 1931. It defended Catalonia’s autonomy and had an advanced left-wing social agenda.
- International Brigades: Volunteer military units of foreigners, recruited to fight in favor of the government of the Republic (they fought for their ideas).
- Protectorate: Exercised sovereignty over a territory without fully incorporating it, and respecting its authorities.
- Conference of Algeciras: An international meeting held in 1906 in this city, attended by France and Spain, among other countries, to share the Moroccan territory.
- Tragic Week: In July 1909, the war in Morocco made the government send reservist troops. This caused a general strike and protests, which became an insurrection (barrels in the streets, fires in churches, etc.). It had to be stifled by the army, causing numerous deaths.