Spanish Political History: Parties, Constitutions, and the Cortes of Cádiz
Spanish Political Parties
Republicanos Federales
Also known as the Federal Party, the Republicanos Federales was a Spanish political party with Federalist and Republican characteristics. It was created after the September Revolution of 1868 and was represented in parliament until the elections of 1872.
Carlists
Carlism is a traditionalist and loyalist political movement of an illiberal and anti-revolutionary nature that emerged in Spain in the nineteenth century. It aims to establish an alternative branch of the Bourbon dynasty on the Spanish throne, originally advocating for the Old Regime.
Democrats
The Democratic Party, also known as the Democratic Progressive Party, was a political formation that emerged in Spain in April 1849 as a breakaway from the Progressive Party. They demanded full recognition of civil rights and individual freedoms, universal suffrage, the confiscation of all Church property (including civilian property), and the abolition of the fifth.
The Constitution of 1812
Adopted on March 19, 1812, and popularly known as “La Pepa”, this statute was the first liberal constitution in Spain. The Constitution of 1812 is considered one of the great liberal texts of history and was highly influential in its time.
Liberal deputies Agustín Argüelles and Diego Muñoz Pérez de Castro Torrero are considered the most important figures in its development.
Main Features of the Constitution
- National Sovereignty: The power resides in the nation, an idea opposed to monarchical sovereignty.
- Division of Powers:
- Legislative Branch: Unicameral Cortes
- Judiciary: Court
- Executive: King, but with significant limitations:
- His orders must be validated by the signature of the Minister concerned.
- Courts cannot be dissolved.
- Veto power with a temporary suspension for two years, after which the decision of the Parliament becomes law.
- He appoints the ministers, but they must be countersigned by the Courts (“double trust”).
- New Right of Representation: The nation exercises its sovereignty through its representatives in parliament.
- Complicated Electoral Procedure: Indirect universal male suffrage in the fourth grade. Voting rights were granted to all men over 25 years old, who chose a few electors who in turn elected the deputies.
- Equality of Citizens Before the Law: This represented the end of privileges for estates.
- Omits Any Reference to Territories with Privileges: Equivalent to their non-recognition. However, the provincial regimes of the Basque provinces and Navarra were not explicitly repealed.
- Recognition of Individual Rights: To education, freedom of the press, inviolability of domicile, liberty, and property.
- Catholicism as the Only Permitted Religious Denomination: The need for collaboration of the clergy in the fight against the intolerant French explains this feature, which clashes with the advanced spirit of the constitution.
The Cortes of Cádiz
The Constituent Assembly inaugurated in San Fernando on September 24, 1810, and later moved to Cádiz (Andalusia) in 1814 during the Spanish War of Independence is known as the Cortes of Cádiz.
Background
During the War of Independence (1808-1814), popular revolts led to the creation of Local and Regional Boards of Defense. These boards were intended to defend against the French invasion and fill the power vacuum (as they did not recognize the figure of Joseph I). They were composed of military representatives, higher clergy, officials, and teachers, all of them conservatives. In September, they gave supreme direction to the Supreme Central Junta.
The elections held during the war led to a preponderance of bourgeois elements and cults from the coastal trading towns.
Sessions and Divisions
The Cortes sessions began in September 1810 and soon divided into two groups of deputies:
- Liberals: Supporters of revolutionary reforms, based on the principles of the French Revolution.
- Absolutists or “Serviles”: Supporters of maintaining the old regime (absolute monarchy, estate society, mercantilist economy).
Liberal Reforms
The liberal majority, taking advantage of the king’s absence, started the first bourgeois liberal revolution in Spain, with two objectives: to adopt reforms that would dismantle the structures of the ancien régime and to adopt a constitution that would change the country’s political regime.
Main Measures Taken by the Cortes of Cádiz
- Freedom of the Press (1810)
- Abolition of the Manorial System: Abolition of the feudal courts, reminiscent of feudalism. However, the nobility kept almost all their land ownership.
- Abolition of the Inquisition (1813)
- Abolition of the Guilds: Freedom of economy, trade, labor, and manufacturing (1813)
- Shy Confiscation of some church property.