The Cortes of Cádiz: Spain’s First Liberal Revolution
The Cortes of Cádiz
The Provincial Boards and the Central Board
The abdication of Bayonne had created a vacuum of authority in occupied Spain. Although the Bourbons had ordered the authorities to obey the new king Joseph I, many Spanish people refused to obey an authority that was seen as illegitimate. To fill this vacuum and organize spontaneous uprisings against the French, Provincial Boards were organized to assume sovereignty.
The Provincial Boards felt from the outset the need for coordination. Thus, in September 1808, the Central Board was established that, in the absence of the legitimate king, assumed all the powers of sovereignty and established itself as the supreme governing body. As a result of this new situation, the Central Board convened an extraordinary meeting of the Cortes in Cádiz, an act that clearly began the revolutionary process. Finally, in January 1810, the Board handed over power to a Regency.
Las Cortes de Cádiz
The elections in a war situation led to a Cortes meeting with a preponderance of bourgeois elements and cults from the coastal trading towns.
Cortes sessions began in September 1810 and soon formed two groups of deputies:
- Liberal supporters of revolutionary reforms, based on the principles of the French Revolution.
- Absolutist or “subservient” supporters of maintaining the Old Regime (absolute monarchy, stratified society, mercantilist economy).
The Liberal majority, taking advantage of the absence of the king, began the first bourgeois liberal revolution in Spain, with two objectives: to adopt reforms that would adjust the structures of the ancien regime and adopt a Constitution to change the country’s political regime.
These were the main political, economic, social, and legal measures taken by the Court of Cádiz:
- Freedom of the press (1810)
- Abolition of the seigneurial regime: suppression of jurisdictional domains, reminiscent of feudalism. However, the nobility retained ownership of almost all their lands.
- Abolition of the Inquisition (1813)
- Abolition of the Guilds. Freedom of economy, trade, labor, and manufacturing (1813)
- Limited confiscation of some church property.
The Spanish Constitution of 1812
Adopted on 19 March 1812 and popularly known as “La Pepa”, this piece of legislation was the first liberal constitution in the country. The constitution of 1812 is one of the great liberal texts of history and was very famous in its time.
Liberal members Agustín Argüelles, Diego Muñoz Pérez de Castro Torrero are the leading figures in its development.
These are the main features of the Constitution:
- National sovereignty. The power resides in the nation, an idea opposed to monarchical sovereignty.
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Division of Powers.
- Legislative branch: unicameral Cortes
- Judiciary: Courts
- Executive branch: King, but with significant limitations:
- His orders must be validated by the signature of the Minister concerned.
- It may dissolve the Cortes
- Veto temporary suspension for two years after this decision of the Parliament becomes law.
- He appoints the ministers, but they must be countersigned by the Cortes (“double trust”)
- New right of representation. The nation exercises its sovereignty through its representatives in the Cortes.
- Complicated electoral procedure by indirect universal male suffrage in fourth grade. Voting rights: all men over 25 years, who chose some commissioners who in turn elected the deputies.
- Equality of citizens before the law. This represented the end of privileges for certain estates.
- It omits any reference to territories with privileges, equivalent to its non-recognition. However, foral schemes in the Basque provinces and Navarre were not explicitly repealed.
- Recognition of individual rights: to education, freedom of the press, inviolability of domicile, liberty, and property.
- Catholicism is the only permitted religious denomination. The need for collaboration of the clergy in the fight against the French explains this intolerant feature that clashes with the advanced spirit of the constitution.