Workers’ Movements and Spain’s Old Regime Crisis (1808-1814)
Workers’ Associations and Early Labor Movements
The Rise of Workers’ Associations
The initial reaction of workers, due to their opposition to mechanization, which they considered responsible for low wages and protest strikes, often resorted to the destruction of equipment and the burning of industrial establishments (Luddism). To defend their interests, some sections of workers created the first mutual aid societies.
Workers’ societies were outlawed by liberal governments. However, in 1825, Britain repealed the laws that forbade them, and the first unions were founded. In 1834, the Great Trade Union was established, a union that grouped workers from different trades.
Ideologies of Change: Marxism, Socialism, and Anarchism
Marxism and Socialism
In the mid-19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels denounced the exploitation of the working class and defended the need for a workers’ revolution to destroy capitalism. They believed that the end of private property would lead to the disappearance of social classes and the state, thus achieving the ideal of a communist society. 19th-century Marxists proposed the creation of socialist labor parties.
Anarchism
Anarchism brought together a group of thinkers, including Proudhon, Bakunin, and Kropotkin, who shared three basic principles:
- The exaltation of individual liberty.
- The defense of forms of collective ownership.
- The rejection of authority.
Internationalism
Marxists and anarchists both defended the need to unite the efforts of the working class throughout the world to fight against capitalism. In 1864, the International Workers’ Association (First International) was created. In 1889, some Socialist leaders founded the Second International in Paris.
The Crisis of the Old Regime in Spain (1808-1814)
The Bourbon Monarchy Crisis
The reaction of the Bourbon monarchy under Charles IV against the French Revolution was to declare war on France (1793-1795), fearing the expansion of liberal ideas into Spain. The war was a failure, and in 1799, Minister Manuel Godoy adopted a radical foreign policy. He allied himself with Napoleon to confront Great Britain and authorized the French army to pass through Spain to attack Portugal (Treaty of Fontainebleau, 1807).
Public discontent with Godoy’s decisions led to the outbreak of the Mutiny of Aranjuez in 1808, which forced the resignation of the minister and the king’s abdication in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII. Napoleon decided to summon Charles IV and Ferdinand VII to Bayonne (France), where both had to abdicate and accept the appointment of his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as the new king of Spain.
The War of Independence (1808-1814)
On May 2, 1808, the people of Madrid rose up against French troops. Juntas were created to lead the resistance, coordinated by a Supreme Central Junta, while groups of patriots organized guerrillas to harass the French. The refusal of cities to surrender to the French (sieges) also contributed to the attrition of the invading troops.
The war changed in 1812 when Napoleon’s Russian campaign forced him to move his army to Russia. The assistance offered by Britain, led by Wellington, was decisive. By the end of 1813, the French began to leave Spanish territory. The Treaty of Valençay was signed, by which Ferdinand VII regained the crown, and Napoleon withdrew his troops from Spain.
The Cortes of Cádiz
The Abdications of Bayonne left a power vacuum since King Joseph I never enjoyed the acceptance of the Spanish people. Therefore, in 1810, the Central Junta convened a meeting of the Cortes in Cádiz. The first decision taken by the Cortes was revolutionary: all present, regardless of their origin, would meet in a single assembly, and their votes would have the same weight.
This assembly was established on behalf of the Spanish nation to draft a constitution, adopted in 1812, that reflected the basic principles of political liberalism:
- National sovereignty
- Separation of powers
- Universal male suffrage
Laws were also passed to abolish the Old Regime.