Spain’s Restoration Era: Monarchy, Politics, and Colonial Loss

Posted on Dec 9, 2024 in History

The Canovas System: The Constitution of 1876 and the Shift of Parties. The Political Opposition. Regionalism and Nationalism

Factors influencing the return of the Bourbon dynasty to the Spanish throne were the fragility of the First Republic and its inability to resolve wars (colonial, cantonal, and Carlist), the passivity of social opposition to the Restoration due to disenchantment suffered after the Revolution, and the power of social groups favorable to change. These groups included the big bourgeoisie, who claimed stability for its activities; the planters of Cuba, who feared the Republican reforms suppressing slavery and autonomy; large landowners, who also wanted security and feared Republican reforms of land distribution; Army officers, who were liberal but thought that the consequences of the Revolution had been too traumatic; and the Church, which held antidemocratic and anti-social ideas aligned with Pope Pius IX.

The political system of Canovas: Canovas del Castillo, a historian and curator from Malaga, had been a minister under the Liberal Union during the reign of Elizabeth II. During the First Republic, he became head of the Alfonsine cause. In 1874, he drafted the Sandhurst Manifesto, signed by Alfonso XII. To achieve the return of the Bourbon monarchy and establish the old liberal system, without equal rights and with restricted suffrage, he had to make the following changes: place Alfonso XII on the throne to replace his mother, Elizabeth II; associate the monarchy with one party; and end the war.

His new political system was based on two couples: a) The King and the Cortes, and b) Two bourgeois political parties taking turns peacefully: the Canovas (Conservative Party) and the Sagasta (Liberal Party).

The most important features of the 1876 Constitution are:

• Shared sovereignty between the Cortes and the King.
• Bicameral Courts: Congress of Deputies and Senate, with some members “in their own right,” others “lifetime” appointed by the king, and the rest elected by the largest contributors.
• The Crown extending its powers: the executive, electing ministers, the power to summon, suspend, or dissolve the Parliament, and supreme command of the army.
• Formal recognition of rights and freedoms, in practice very restricted.
• Restricted suffrage (until 1890, when Sagasta restored universal male suffrage).
• Trimmed religious freedom.

At first, Cánovas assumed the functions of government, and his actions were:

• End of the armed conflicts in Cuba and the Carlist War.
• Adoption of measures to abolish totally centralized Basque-Navarrese charters and the appointment by the king of the mayors of towns with more than 30,000 inhabitants.
• New Customs Tariff, which marked the triumph of protectionism.
• Electoral Act, which imposed restricted suffrage.
• Measures to reduce rights and freedoms, such as academic freedom, freedom of association, freedom of speech, and the press.

Canovas wanted Alfonso XII to be identified with the European model of the warrior king to remove the leadership of the generals who had invaded political life throughout the century. Now, the army would have a professional role, and the king alone had command.

During the 1880s, the turn of the parties worked. When Sagasta succeeded, some of the aspirations of the Glorious Revolution were realized, although caciquismo also persisted. Voter fraud was consistent in putting on the electoral lists the names of the candidates selected by the government to be Members, counting on the intervention of the chiefs, who were powerful and influential individuals in local life and who manipulated the vote through violence, cheating, and perks in exchange for votes.

The Opposition to the System: The Labor Movement

• Anarchism: Legally constituted in 1909, the CNT (National Confederation of Workers) had anarchist ideology. Its features were: rejection of any imposed authority, defense of individualism, utopian abolition of the state with its institutions, abolition of private property, defense of collectivism where ownership is collective, defense of violent revolution, use of strikes and terrorism to destroy the bourgeois state, apolitical stance, rejection of the electoral system by considering it a hoax, anticlericalism, and denial of religion and the Church.
• Socialism: Pablo Iglesias, a follower of Marx and Engels, organized the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Democratic Party in 1879 (called shortly after PSOE), taking advantage of the opening of Martinez Campos’ government. Inspired by the party, he created the union Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT). The socialist program included: total emancipation requirement for workers to transform private property into social, political power for the working class through revolution (but first, they should participate in democracy and disseminate their ideas), rejection of terrorism, and opposition to wars and colonialism.
• Confessional Unionism: Some church workers’ associations were created for cooperation and promotion. These included the National Catholic Agrarian Confederation (CNCA) of Father Vincent and the Basque Workers’ Solidarity, a union version of the Basque Nationalist Party. They were called “yellow.”

The triumph of the Soviet Revolution of 1917 served as an example to the workers of all industrialized countries, raising high hopes. At the same time, it resulted in the apprehension and fear of the oligarchy and the petty bourgeoisie, strengthening their organizations. After the general strike of 1917, the struggle continued until the arrival of the dictatorship. Social struggles intensified, and the Spanish Communist Party was created in 1920 from a Leninist splinter group of the PSOE.

Regionalism and Nationalism

Nationalism is based on having a language, historical rights (privileges), a culture, and customs, so they have the right to govern themselves.

• Catalan Nationalism: During the Middle Ages, Catalonia had been a separate entity. It lost its rights and privileges under Philip V. In the 19th century, these feelings of cultural differentiation were rekindled, in part due to greater economic development in Catalonia. With a history of the Renaixença, an apolitical, intellectual, and bourgeois movement for the recovery of language, published in 1830, nationalism was brewing. Key events include the creation in 1882 of the Center Catala, a Catalan political association that claimed its autonomy within the Spanish State; the activity of the Catalan Union (1891), created by Prat de la Riba, with a conservative and Catholic character calling for self-government; and the formation of the Regionalist League in 1901, led by Cambo, demanding political autonomy and defending their economic interests.
• Basque Nationalism: The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) was founded by Sabino Arana, born into a Carlist family. He made the foundation of the Party (supported by the petty bourgeoisie and the rural world): Basque independence, separation from Spain with their own government and international borders. Euskadi comprised the six Hispanic-French Basque territories (Vizcaya, Guipuzcoa, Alava, Navarra, and Soule Laburdi). It was radically anti-Spanish, with an exaltation of Basque ethnicity, Catholic religious fundamentalism, promotion of language, advocacy of Basque rural life, conservative ideology, and denunciation of the Spanish character.
• Other: In Galicia, there was a resurgence of the language first, and later and more slowly, in politics. In Valencia, in 1904, after the founding of the organization “Valencia Nova,” there were calls for the autonomy of the country.

The Liquidation of the Colonial Empire: Cuba and the Philippines. The 98 and its Impact

In 1885, King Alfonso XII died, and the regency was assumed by his second wife, Maria Cristina of Habsburg, who had two girls and was pregnant with the future Alfonso XIII. Cánovas resigned and advised the mayor to instruct the government to the Liberals. Sagasta held the presidency for nearly five years, and his work is embodied in the abolition of press censorship and the extension of freedom of expression and academic freedom. The Associations Act favored the legalization of the activities of all workers’ organizations and unions. Universal male suffrage for those over 25 years (1890) was implemented, but after his government, the practice of cyclical turns between the conservative and liberal parties continued, thanks to the pact between the two party leaders. Through this, the regency was a politically very stable phase, achieving the consolidation of the system. Other works include the Civil Code, the abolition of slavery in Cuba, the jury, and so on. After Canovas was murdered, he was replaced by Francisco Silvela in the Conservative Party, and by the end of the century, republicanism emerged.

The Restoration coincided with the hegemony of Bismarckian Germany, the European showdown in two blocks, and colonial expansion in Africa and Asia. Cánovas conducted a policy of neutrality, but in 1885, Germany tried to occupy the Spanish islands of the Carolines and Palau in the Pacific, failing due to their troops and lack of authorities. The government reacted skillfully under Cánovas and reached an agreement preserving the islands while allowing commercial and fishing privileges for Germany.

The Liquidation of the Colonial Empire

In 1895, the second Cuban war of independence broke out under the leadership of José Martí, leader of the Cuban Revolutionary Party. The next year, anti-Spanish revolutionary movements began in the Philippines. Cuba was no longer economically dependent on Spain for sugar, as it traded directly in dollars or pounds (92% of sugar production was exported to the U.S., and 3% to the Spanish markets). In 1893, Antonio Maura, the Foreign Minister in the government of Sagasta, had attempted a reform project to grant autonomy to Cuba with the objective of avoiding a separatist uprising. It was well-received by the majority of Cuban society except for the Spanish and independence supporters, but he resigned when this proposal was rejected by Canovas and even those of his party in the Spanish Parliament.

The Cubans were active in small batches and with destructive tactics (burning of plantations and factories owned by Spanish and media), aimed at paralyzing the Cuban economy. The Spanish soldiers (about 200,000) were not prepared to fight in the jungle and were decimated by tropical diseases. At first, they attempted a policy approach, but the results were changed by the get-tough few, leading to misleading charts.

The international press, especially the U.S. (which had previously tried to buy the island of Cuba from Spain), launched a campaign against Spanish atrocities in Cuba. The U.S. helped Cuba with its army due to its economic interest in mines and sugar plantations and its geo-strategic location to control the Caribbean. The excuse to declare war on Spain was the odd explosion and sinking of the Maine. Although the causes were unknown, the U.S. government accused the Spanish without evidence and sent an ultimatum.

The Spanish government came under heavy pressure from the press, which maintained a hawkish anti-American opinion, and the army command refused to withdraw from Cuba, including any proposed attack on the U.S. coast. For all this, the government decided to go to war, knowing that victory was impossible. Its development was a cakewalk because the fleet was destroyed in only two naval engagements, in Manila Bay and in Santiago de Cuba, where Spanish wooden boats faced steel vessels with long-range guns.

The Paris Peace Agreement was signed between the two nations in 1898, by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States, the Philippines, and Guam, and recognized the independence of Cuba.

The people lived the defeat as a great collective trauma. The consequences of the disaster of ’98, as these facts were called, included popular demonstrations demanding responsibilities, nearly causing a coup led by General Polavieja, who wanted a military dictatorship; protest movements in the Chambers of Agriculture and Commerce; a national drama experienced with demoralization and inferiority; liquidation of the remnants of the empire with sales to Germany in 1899 of the Carolinas, Marianas, and Palau; and intellectually, the emergence of Regenerationism and the Generation of ’98.