The Bourbon Restoration in Spain: Alfonso XII and the 1876 Constitution
1. Sources and Bases of the Bourbon Restoration
The main protagonist of the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in the figure of Alfonso XII was Antonio Cánovas del Castillo. The most important diplomatic move was the abdication of Isabella II in favor of her son. On the other hand, the moderate ruling party led by General Martínez Campos wanted a restoration of the monarchy by the civil courts. Finally, the Sandhurst Manifesto, written by Cánovas and signed by Don Alfonso, collected the basic ideas of the restoration project.
Bases
The 1876 Constitution was a short text, with only 89 articles, which reflected the ideological foundations of the Restoration system. It emerged as a synthesis and a midpoint between the two previous constitutions: 1845 and 1869. Its key features are:
- Shared sovereignty between the King and the Cortes.
- The right to vote was left pending.
- Religious freedom was introduced.
The basic characteristic of this constitution is the role of the monarchy, which represents a threefold role:
- It was an expression of historical continuity.
- It was a guarantee of social order.
- It was the cornerstone of the system.
The political project of Cánovas argued that political parties were a tool for the monarchy. These parties were the Conservatives, led by Cánovas, and the Liberal Party, chaired by Sagasta. Following the signing of the Pact of El Pardo, the turn of the previous parties was consolidated to provide stability to the government.
2. System Operation
Turnismo was one of the key elements of the system of the Restoration, which followed these steps:
- The first step was to have the support of the Crown.
- The new government needed the support of the Parliament, for which the king dissolved the Parliament and manipulated the elections so that the new government obtained an absolute majority.
Electoral fraud was the key to this system of Restoration and was obtained through the use of rigging (direct manipulation of election results) and the presence of the *caciques*. *Caciquismo* is the political system based on patronage, where senior staff, governors, and *caciques* granted favors in exchange for votes and political support.
3. The Reign of Alfonso XII
It started with the dominance of the Conservative Party, but in recent years the Liberal Party also agreed to the government, which began the practice of the political shift of parties, in which each set their own laws. This stage of the Cánovas government led to the conclusion of several unresolved conflicts from the previous six years: The Cuban Revolution (1868) took a new turn with the sending of troops under Martínez Campos and ended with the signing of the Peace of Zanjón (1878). The Carlist problem resulted in the defeat of Charles VII and the law of July 21, 1876, by which the privileges of the Basque Country were abolished. The death of Alfonso XII had caused the problem of succession because although the queen was pregnant, the king was still without a male heir and there was a possibility that Isabella II would claim the throne again. To prevent her return, his wife, Maria Cristina, was appointed regent, and the Pact of El Pardo was signed. The regency of the dowager queen was a period of continuity of the system under the Constitution of 1876 and lasted until the coming of age of her son Alfonso XIII. The “long government” of Sagasta undertook a series of reforms: the law of associations, the law of the jury, universal male suffrage, the civil code, the law on administrative procedure, and the reform of the army. These reforms had a conciliatory effect on the democratic tradition.
4. Restoration in Castilla-La Mancha
With the Restoration system designed by Cánovas del Castillo, a peaceful turnover was achieved, and one of its classic phenomena was the *encasillado*, where candidates for Congress and/or the Senate who lacked any relationship with the district for which they were presented were imposed by the leadership of the dynastic parties. The most famous case is that of Sigismund Moret. As far as the church administration is concerned, in March 1876, the diocese of Ciudad Real was created. The regency of Maria Cristina was used to prepare the system for the labor movement, but in 1898, there were numerous subsistence riots in several points of Castilla-La Mancha because of the colonial war.