The Moderate Decade in Spain: Politics and Reforms (1844-1854)

Posted on Dec 13, 2024 in History

When it took office, Espartero’s rival, Narvaez, dismantled the urban rebellion and progressive movement. He was ahead of a possible protest from Colonel Prim, who was given the title of Count of Reus. Narvaez inaugurated a decade of tight control of moderate liberalism. Queen Elizabeth II, barely a teenager, was declared of age and raised to the throne ten years after the death of her father. When Fernando VII died in 1833, his successor, Elizabeth II, was only three years old. Ten years later, when she swore to the Constitution, she was, in the words of the receiver of religion, Rodrigo Valdes, “a girl with few lights and no experience.” Her immature personality had much to do with her mother, Queen Regent Maria Cristina, and court intrigue with its continuous changes of taste in party politics. The trend towards palace conspiracy that interfered with the management of government, influenced the thinking of people like Father Claret or Sister Patrocinio of the Sores. These events brought on political developments, and finally, separating the Queen from her husband, D. Francis of Assisi (who retired in Epinay and lived devoted to his hobbies of reader and art collector until his death in 1902). These facts conditioned the fervent politics of the period.

When the revolution of 1868 led to Queen Isabella’s exile, her behavior continued repeating the mistakes of the past reign. She engaged in multiple projects and conspiracies preparing to return to the throne, only to resign in favor of her son Alfonso XII. One can well understand the reservations of the future architect of the restoration of the monarchy, Antonio Canovas del Castillo, regarding Isabel II’s return to Spain with her son. He said that “the lady was able not only to overthrow a throne, but her own, along with the very kingdom of heaven.” The defeat of Espartero by the coalition of progressives and moderates created a situation only moderate in two phases: the first corresponding to the elimination of the most radical elements, and the second to the breakup of the partnership itself. The two have a significance that transcends the historical moment in which they occur. Following the success of the coup against Espartero, the divisions within the progressive party rushed against events. In the absence of alternatives, the deputies and senators voted for the advancement of the age of Elizabeth II, who was proclaimed Queen on November 8, 1843. Even then, the moderate leaders, returned from exile, had taken key positions in the vicinity of the Queen, easily controlled because of their youth and lack of political education. General Narvaez, the leader of the August revolution, became the strongman of the moment within weeks. Two attacks against anti-tank weapons and himself served as a pretext to launch a series of arrests and replace the main control by progressive men of his confidence. Meanwhile, a new insurrection in Barcelona, between September and November, this time more radical and popular even than the previous year, was put down with exceptional hardness by the young General Prim.

First, in 1843, the rebels put the power in the hands of a government headed by the progressive Joaquin Maria Lopez. Normalization began with the call for elections to parliament, which, in turn, served to end the transitional power centers (again, the Boards, who had accompanied the uprising against the ruler, as in 1808). The boards were clearly contrary to such a solution because they had no security of revolutionary authenticity of the interim Cabinet. They opposed it, in fighting that, in practice, demonstrated the truth of their fears. The fact is repeated in 1854 and 1868. In 1843, it translated into an armed uprising against the government, which it extinguished. As for the coalition, it dissolved at once. It presented itself as such to the September general elections, which got a comfortable majority, said to be split equally between the two. Beyond it, a moderate minority was not a collaborator, chaired by Gonzalez Bravo, and a progressive minority defending Espartero, for reasons that are not consistent, supported the formation of a Ministry exclusively progressive, headed by Olózaga. She dissolved the coalition and therefore recovered instead the unity of the two parties. In the vote to appoint the President of Congress, Olózaga’s Cabinet was defeated. The latter was accused of forcibly compelling the Queen to sign the subsequent decree of dissolution of parliament, with the intention of replacing it by other courts, new elections, and on the immediate crisis, Isabel instructed Gonzalez Bravo to form a new government.

For most of the reign of Isabel II (1843-1868), moderate liberals achieved control of governments and dominated the political scene. The queen always entrusted them with the formation of the government, and liberals were never elected. The response of the latter, to be permanently excluded from power, was to opt for the withdrawal from the political game (a form of protest in the form of denying their participation in elections, considering them rigged by moderates) or resort to violent measures — such as the military coup or popular uprising — to force Elizabeth II to surrender the government. Since December 1843, the new head of government, Gonzalez Bravo, undertook a clearly regressive policy. He ordered the disbanding of militias, increased the size of the army to 100,000 men, and restored the Municipal Act of 1840, debugging the municipalities. Orders were issued for the arrest of leading progressive politicians, most of whom managed to escape in time. The clubs and left-wing newspapers were closed. Summary executions ensued, and the army violently crushed two attempted military uprisings in Cartagena and Alicante, which resulted in more than 200 executions. On May 1, 1844, the Queen appointed General Narvaez as president of the government, and undisputed leader of the moderate party.

Key Features of the Moderate Decade

The Moderate Decade (as called by historiography) will be characterized by three facts in particular:

• The replacement of progressive institutions with moderate ones, some of obvious importance.
• The final strengthening of the international.
• The final detachment of the opposition, making the ending bi- or multi-party system unviable.

Under a change in appearance, Queen Elizabeth II’s reign presented some common characteristics that remained unchanged over 25 years. First, maintaining a system of conservative-leaning liberal monarchy, whose embodiment is the moderate constitution of 1845, in force throughout the period despite political ups and downs. Secondly, Queen Elizabeth invariably supported the more conservative, and clearly aligned with conservatism. Since 1863, the alignment and the inability of the Queen to connect with the real country led to the progressive departure towards its people and the fall of the monarchy in 1868. Third, the reign was a constant permanent military presence among the country’s rulers: Narvaez, Espartero, O’Donnell, and in the background, but no less actors, Fernandez de Cordoba, Serrano, de la Concha, Prim, etc.

The common aspects that characterize the period are economic improvements and trends towards a unitary state. In a way, the moderates gathered some aspects of the ancien regime, such as the spotlight of peerages and outreach to religious principles (although replaced land ownership, feudal property, participation in power through the census suffrage). His political revolution was that the social significance of the feudal barons moved the men from the industry. With the general government of the Decade starts Narvaez moderate. Although there were a total of sixteen governments in ten years, with about seventy ministers alternating positions, in reality, the stage is dominated by the figure of Narvaez, the real strong man of the match, and to a lesser extent, by Luis Bravo Murillo. Narvaez controlled political life, both as mayor and when he left to chair the cabinet, under governments of others. A good organizer, with a clear vision of the problems of state, he was partly the architect of the Constitution of 1845 and some of the major legal reforms of the period. He knew, moreover, how to control the army and keep it out of political life, except at the end of the decade. He suppressed with extreme hardness popular protest movements, which won him the support of the Crown and landowners.

Political Developments and Conflicts

The first months of Narvaez’s rule showed continuity with the political line taken by Gonzalez Bravo. Measures to ensure absolute control of political power by the moderates included arrests, closure of clubs and periodicals, and attempts to crush rebellion, like that of General Zurbano, and harsh repression in the streets. These were simultaneous to the call for elections to parliament and the development of a new constitution that would establish a political system based on the principles of conservatism. As for the political development of the Decade, in the early years, the biggest problem was the marriage of the Queen, who finally married her cousin Francisco de Asis. It was a politically convenient link, but it made the life of both bitter and negatively marked the character of Elizabeth II and her political behavior. Another serious conflict was the so-called Second Carlist War or War dels Matiners. In 1846, after failing the attempt to marry Elizabeth II with the Carlist pretender, there was an insurrection in Catalonia. The lack of resources and the inability to extend the war led the attempt to fail, but for three years the items were kept in the Principality, in part thanks to the support they received from the peasant population.

Major Policy Actions by the Moderates

The most relevant policy actions undertaken by the moderates were:

• The creation of the Civil Guard in 1844. The main functions of this rural police force (consisting of about 6,000 staff led by the Duke of Ahumada) involved the maintenance of public order, protection of the safety of people, defense of property, the fight against banditry, and the suppression of social unrest.
• The adoption of a new law on municipalities in 1845. This law introduced the gubernatorial appointment of all mayors among those councilors who had been previously elected by the residents of each municipality according to a restrictive electoral system by limited suffrage. Thus, the government, which could also easily replace the mayors at their convenience, managed to strengthen control over municipal life with the intention of avoiding local insurrections and manipulating at will the conduct of elections.
• The reform of the tax system developed in 1845 by the Minister Alejandro Mon, an economist, and an expert named Ramon Santillan. This reorganization was intended to improve the efficiency of the tax system to obtain increased state revenue, reduce the deficit, and fund the implementation of new modern infrastructure and public services (such as building canals and roads, the telegraph network, and the canalization of water to supply the cities).
• The development and adoption of a constitution in 1845. The moderates were divided on this topic. Some leaned towards the reimposition of the Royal Charter, known as the “monarchist party.” At the other end, called “Puritans,” remained committed to upholding the Constitution of 1837. It is imperative, however, the third fraction, the reformist, middle, calling for a new Constitution and the drafting of the Cortes. The government called general elections for June 1844. A bulky reformist majority triumphed, partly thanks to the abstention of progressivism. And she is the producer of the fundamental law of the period: the Constitution of 1845, which sets out the principles of doctrinaire liberalism.

Key Features of the Constitution of 1845

The Constitution of 1845, in theory, a reform of 1837, is actually a new text that was in force until 1869. Its basic contents are:

a) The principle of shared sovereignty: the legislative power resides in Parliament with the King.

b) A declaration of rights very theoretical, which delayed its realization to the laws, laws that limit are likely to moderate over the period.

c) The exclusivity of the Catholic religion, with the state’s commitment to maintain the cult and clergy.

d) Removal of the limits that the Constitution of 1837 had established regarding the powers of the King.

e) A Senate of life members appointed by the Crown from among the high level of Nobility, the Church, the Army, the Administration, and people with large fortunes. In addition to serving as a check against possible radical reform of Congress, the Senate assumed judicial functions, acting by a single court to try ministers and senators themselves. It suppressed the primacy of Congress in financial matters. The composition of this latter house shall be conducted pursuant to the Electoral Act of 1846 that, with increasing levels of income or contribution for voters and candidates, reduces significantly the number of voters and the representative level.

f) Under Provincial Councils and central government, mayors and presidents elected by the King.

g) The power of the Crown to dissolve Congress, with the obligation to reconvene within three months.

h) The abolition of the National Militia.

• The dissolution of the National Militia (in 1845), in whose ranks included many laborers and urban workers jobless and was always seen by moderates as a dangerous armed body under the influence and control of more radical progressives.
• The amendment of the electoral law in 1846, through which doubled the amount of money required in direct taxes to acquire the right to vote with the intention to reduce the number of voters to 97,000 men (only 0.8% of the total Spanish population).
• The neutralization of an attempted revolution carried out by the Democrats and Republicans in March 1848. Produced in Spain, as throughout Europe, a wave of riots, demonstrations, and protests revolutionary. In the Spanish case, it was due more to the economic crisis, with its attendant hunger and misery, than to political motives, although it is true that progressives were behind Republican and Carlist. Narvaez’s response was to seek and obtain full powers of the Parliament, to suspend constitutional guarantees and undertake a harsh repression in the streets, culminating with dozens of shootings. The result of revolutionary failure was to accentuate the division between the progressives, some of which created in 1849 the Democratic Party.
• The resolution of outstanding issues with the Vatican with the signing of the Concordat of 1851. The Spanish government agreed to halt sales and auctions of property disentailed, allowed to return to the Peninsula of various religious orders suppressed completely above and gave the clergy control over the education of children and young people (in all public schools, universities, and private) under the purest religious values. He also won state recognition of marriage as the only legitimate canonical. For its part, the Vatican accepted as a fait accompli disentailed land sales made years ago, forgave buyers of these properties by suspending his excommunication, and made no objection to the Crown recovering its traditional and ancient prerogative right of patronage with intervening in the election of bishops. Moreover, it regulated in detail the quantities of money that the state should give the clergy in compensation for past confiscations. As a result of the Concordat, the Church distanced itself from the Carlist yy and managed to regain much of its influence on Spanish society, while the moderate Liberals managed to get the important support of the clergy. At the same time, the government banned and set fines for any book, newspaper article, or cartoon that “made fun of the Catholic dogmas or excited to irreligion.”
• State deficit reduction by converting the debt made by Bravo Murillo in 1851. Through this financial transaction, which was raised to cover insolvency and economic bankruptcy of the state, the government unilaterally cut the payment of interest and value of the debt securities of the public (and therefore lowered and the amount money to reimburse the State on loan). This caused great harm to purchasers of debt securities, which lost more than half of their money invested years earlier. At that time, other countries such as Turkey, Mexico, Greece, Portugal, and Italy also met financial predicament and were often on the verge of bankruptcy.
• The establishment of public primary education, free and compulsory for all children in 6 to 9 years old. Minister Moyano Claudio moderate in 1857 was the promoter of the education law, whose application was frustrated because the state lacked the resources and expressed indifference to the cost of funding. On the contrary, the law required each municipality to pay for schools and the results were very disappointing: 60% of children remained out of school in 1890, most schoolchildren were in private Catholic schools and rural teachers were paid always delay their meager salaries.
• Spanish foreign activity during this period was marked by a dependence on the interests of France and Britain, and the priority given to maintaining our colonies: Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, islands of the Marianas, Carolines, and Palau in the Pacific Ocean, and other small enclaves in Africa (the Guinean coast of Rio Muni and the islands Elobey, Annobon, Corisco, and Fernando Poo). All these territories were of small size and were difficult to defend for their dispersion and remoteness of the peninsula.
• A task that governments put more effort was moderate and the unification of legal codification. Its most significant result was the Criminal Code of 1851 and the draft Civil Code which, although never approved, was the basis for later in 1889.
• Strong finances were set to publish newspapers in an attempt to control the press, the subsequent restricted Printing Law freedom to publish and established censorship.

The Decline of Moderantismo

Moderantismo political crisis would precipitate after the attempt on the part of Bravo Murillo, head of government between 1851 and 1852, to amend the Constitution. Female conservative and distrustful of party politics, introduced a reform bill which practically meant the elimination of parliamentary life, to give all power to the government in a system that would have meant almost a return to absolutism. For Bravo Murillo the task of governing was a technical matter, to be performed by experts and not politicians. The hardness of the proposal managed to unite against all groups of conservatism, in addition to the few Members progressives. Three weeks after submitting their project in December 1852, before the avalanche of criticism and protest to the Queen, Bravo Murillo had to resign. Since then a succession of governments, increasingly ineffective, isolated and provoked discontent with corruption, political intrigue and the discrediting of the ministers. The memory of the repression of 1848 encouraged progressives and Democrats to join forces once again to use the military coup against a government, Sartorius, which in late 1853 had dissolved the Parliament and ruled as a dictator.