The Restoration in Spain: Alfonso XII and the Canovist Project
On January 3, 1874, after the defeat in Parliament Castelar, Pavia dissolved the Parliament by force. Ending the Republican experience (February 11, 1873 -3 January 1874). The power passed to Serrano, who presided over a coalition of progressives and unionists tried to stabilize a system a conservative Republican.
Throughout this year, Canovas del Castillo, leader of alfonsino, will prepare the Bourbon restoration through the figure of Alfonso, son of Elizabeth II, who had renounced the throne in June 1870. The events are precipitated, the December 29, 1874 Martínez Campos led a military coup in Sagunto that proclaimed King of Spain
Alfonso XII
A month earlier, had referred Cánovas Alfonso de Borbón Sandhurst Manifesto on his birthday (text subject of our commentary.) The text summarized the restoration project Canovist alfonsina:
a sign monarchy conservative Catholic who defended the social order, but would ensure the functioning of liberal political system. Cánovas thus sought to overcome some of the problems of the reign of Elizabeth II, as had been the partisan nature of the moderates, the intervention of the military in political life and to prevent popular uprisings, the latter being that had characterized the recent experience Republican (cantonalismo). The foundations of the system will be articulated in the Constitution of 1876.
In January 1875 Cánovas regency headed a ministry, be responsible for the preparation of a draft approved by the Constituent Cortes following the call for elections by universal male suffrage (the last time you used this method to vote until 1890). The text, short (89 articles, divided into 13 titles), is located halfway between the moderate constitution of 1845 and Democratic in 1869. Establishing shared sovereignty between the courts and the crown. Crown recognized as one of the pillars of the new regime to which granted the right to veto, legislative power shared with Parliament, and the ability to appoint ministers. Courts were organized into two chambers: the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. It proclaimed the Catholic confessional state and consequently, the budget was restored for worship and clergy. Also had a tidy bill of rights, but its realization is tucked to ordinary laws. The pillars that will support the restoration will be the crown, the military and dynastic parties. The monarchy should act as arbiter of political life and ensure the alternation in power of political parties should not forget that this institution was above any political decision. The king was also the head of the army command, whose actions would be subject to civil authority, but was given a wide autonomy in their internal affairs. As said power should be shared alternately between the two dynastic parties, the conservative (Canovas) and liberal (Sagasta). The coincidences, both ideological and in their social composition were numerous. Both liberal, defending the same principles: private property, the monarchy, centralism and the constitution, and both were nourished by the economic elite and the middle class, which would guide them towards a liberal oligarchic character. The two gave up power to shock (statements) as a mechanism to gain power by regulationTurno or regular alternation in power. Time was ensured that the electoral system’s own terms reversed the parliamentary system, based on census suffrage restored, rural districts received more favorable treatment than the urban and, above all, widespread electoral manipulation and cheating. When the ruling party suffered a process of political erosion and lost confidence in the courts, the king called the head of the opposition party to form government. Then, the new chief of staff to call elections in order to build a sufficient parliamentary majority to exercise power in a stable manner. Fraud in the results and the mechanism caciques claimed that these elections were always favorable to the government that convened. The disappointment of the opposition forces to participate in the electoral process, and particularly the very limited political mobilization of the population, finally guaranteed the success of the system to be definitively established with the Pact of Pardo, dynastic agreement between the parties after death of the King (1885). The regime’s stability was improved further by the end of the Cuban wars (with the Peace of Zanjón that closes the 10 years war, 1868 – 1878) and the
Third Carlist War (1872 – 1876). Immediate consequence of the Carlist defeat was the final abolition of the statutory scheme, the Basques being subject to payment of taxes and military service are common to the state. However, economic concerts (1878) came to ensure a degree of fiscal autonomy to regional governments, institutions addressed in a tax collection. The regency of María Cristina (1885 – 1902) barely changed the system restore. It is however noted the emergence in the political landscape of nationalist movements:
Catalonia (Unió Catalanista and Bases de Manresa, or the Regionalist League), Basque Country (PNV and Sabino Arana) and Galicia (in which nationalism came to have the political weight of the two previous cases) and, especially, colonial wars (1895 – 1898), which resulted in the loss, after the Paris Conference, the last vestiges of the empire (Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines ), just at the time when European powers were building vast colonial empires. The regeneration (Joaquín Costa), which advocated the dismantling of the Turno and modernization of Spanish society and economy as well as the emergence of a very remarkable group of intellectuals gathered around what is known as the Generation of 98 (Unamuno , Valle Inclán, Pío Baroja …); and the increasingly consolidated opposition of Republicans, socialists or anarchists, unveil the weakness of the regime Canovist.
1.1. Rating:
We are facing a text circumstantial and political nature. This is the Manifesto of Sandhurst (prince’s residence next to the Military Academy where he completed his training Yorkton) written by Cánovas and conservative politician Alfonso sent on 1 December in response to the many compliments received on his birthday. The text synthesizes Canovist restoration project with a clear intention alfonsina propaganda. The proclamation of the new king a month later after the coup de Sagunto starring Martínez Campos, gave more attention to this text, which became the programmatic basis of the new regime.