Antonio Cánovas del Castillo | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Prime Minister of Spain | |
| In office 24 March 1895 – 8 August 1897 | |
| Monarch | Alfonso XIII |
| Regent | Maria Christina of Austria |
| Preceded by | Práxedes Mateo Sagasta |
| Succeeded by | Marcelo Azcárraga |
| In office 8 July 1890 – 13 December 1892 | |
| Monarch | Alfonso XIII |
| Regent | Maria Christina of Austria |
| Preceded by | Práxedes Mateo Sagasta |
| Succeeded by | Práxedes Mateo Sagasta |
| In office 20 January 1884 – 28 November 1885 | |
| Monarch | Alfonso XII |
| Regent | Maria Christina of Austria |
| Preceded by | José Posada Herrera |
| Succeeded by | Práxedes Mateo Sagasta |
| In office 11 December 1879 – 10 February 1881 | |
| Monarch | Alfonso XII |
| Preceded by | Arsenio Martínez Campos |
| Succeeded by | Práxedes Mateo Sagasta |
| In office 3 December 1875 – 8 March 1879 | |
| Monarch | Alfonso XII |
| Preceded by | Joaquín Jovellar |
| Succeeded by | Arsenio Martínez Campos |
| In office 10 January 1875 – 12 September 1875 | |
| Monarch | Alfonso XII |
| Preceded by | Himself (as President of the Ministry-Regency) |
| Succeeded by | Joaquín Jovellar |
| President of the Ministry-Regency[1] | |
| In office 31 December 1874 – 10 January 1875 | |
| Preceded by |
|
| Succeeded by |
|
| President of the Congress of Deputies | |
| In office 26 December 1885 – 8 March 1886 | |
| Monarch | Alfonso XIII |
| Regent | Maria Christina of Austria |
| Prime Minister | Práxedes Mateo Sagasta |
| Preceded by | Francisco de Borja Quiepo |
| Succeeded by | Cristino Martos y Balbí |
| Minister of State of Spain | |
Interim | |
| In office 20 January – 19 March 1880 | |
| Monarch | Alfonso XII |
| Prime Minister | Himself |
| Preceded by | Francisco de Borja Queipo |
| Succeeded by | Marquess of Pazo de la Merced |
| Minister of Governance of Spain | |
| In office 1 March – 16 September 1864 | |
| Monarch | Isabella II |
| Prime Minister | Alejandro Mon y Menéndez |
| Preceded by | Antonio de Benavides y Fernández de Navarrete |
| Succeeded by | Luis González Bravo |
| Minister of Overseas of Spain | |
| In office 21 June 1865 – 10 July 1866 | |
| Monarch | Isabella II |
| Prime Minister | Leopoldo O'Donnell |
| Preceded by | Manuel Seijas Lozano |
| Succeeded by | Alejandro de Castro Casal |
| Minister of the Navy of Spain | |
Interim | |
| In office 9 February – 8 June 1875 | |
| Monarch | Alfonso XII |
| Prime Minister | Himself |
| Preceded by | Mariano Roca de Togrores |
| Succeeded by | Santiago Durán Lira |
Interim | |
| In office 5 July 1890 – 23 November 1891 | |
| Monarch | Alfonso XIII |
| Regent | Maria Christina of Austria |
| Prime Minister | Himself |
| Preceded by | José María Beránger |
| Succeeded by | Florencio Montojo y Trillo |
| Under Secretary of the Governance | |
| In office 22 August 1860 – 21 January 1863 | |
| Monarch | Isabella II |
| Prime Minister | Leopoldo O'Donnell |
| Minister of Governance | José Posada Herrera |
| Preceded by | Juan Lorenzana |
| Succeeded by | Nicolás Suárez Cantón |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Antonio Cánovas del Castillo (1828-02-08)8 February 1828 |
| Died | 8 August 1897(1897-08-08) (aged 69) |
| Resting place | Pantheon of Illustrious Men |
| Political party | Conservative Party |
| Signature |  |
| Nickname | El Monstruo |
Antonio Cánovas del Castillo[2] (8 February 1828 – 8 August 1897) was aSpanishpolitician andhistorian known principally for serving six terms asprime minister and his overarching role as "architect" of the regime that ensued with the1874 restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. He was assassinated by ItaliananarchistMichele Angiolillo.[3]
As leader of theLiberal-Conservative Party—also known more simply as the Conservative Party—the name of Cánovas became symbolic of the alternate succession in the Restoration regime along withPráxedes Mateo Sagasta's.[4]
_Antonio_C%25C3%25A1novas_del_Castillo.jpg)
Born inMálaga as the son of Antonio Cánovas García and Juana del Castillo y Estébanez, Cánovas moved toMadrid after the death of his father where he lived with his mother's cousin, the writerSerafín Estébanez Calderón. Although he studiedlaw at theUniversity of Madrid, he showed an early interest in politics and Spanish history. His active involvement in politics dates to the 1854 revolution, led by GeneralLeopoldo O'Donnell, when he drafted theManifesto of Manzanares, which accompanied the military overthrow of the sitting government, laid out the political goals of the movement, and played a critical role as it attracted the masses' support when the coup seemed to fail. During the final years ofIsabel II, he served in a number of posts, including a diplomatic mission toRome, governor ofCádiz, and director general of local administration. That period of his political career culminated in his being twice made a government minister, first taking the interior portfolio in 1864 and then the overseas territories portfolio in 1865 to 1866. After the 1868 Glorious Revolution (Revolución Gloriosa), he retired from the government, but he was a strong supporter of the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy during theFirst Spanish Republic (1873–1874) and as the leader of theconservative minority in theCortes, he declaimed againstuniversal suffrage andfreedom of religion. He also drafted theManifesto of Sandhurst and prevailed upon Alfonso XII to issue it, just as he had done years previously with O'Donnell.
Cánovas returned to active politics with the 1874 overthrow of the Republic byGeneral Martínez Campos and theelevation of Isabell II's sonAlfonso XII to the throne. He served as Prime Minister (Primer presidente del Consejo de Ministros) for six years starting in 1874 (although he was twice briefly replaced in 1875 and 1879). He was a principal author of theSpanish Constitution of 1876, which formalised the constitutional monarchy that had resulted from the restoration of Alfonso and limited suffrage to reduce the political influence of the working class and assuage the voting support from the wealthy minority becoming the protected status quo.
Cánovas del Castillo played a key role in bringing an end to the lastCarlist threat to Bourbon authority (1876) by merging a group of dissident Carlist deputies with his own Conservative party.[specify] More significantly, his term in office saw the victory achieved by the governmental Spanish troops in theThird Carlist War, the occupation of theBasque territory and the decree establishing an end to the centuries-longBasque specific status (July 1876) that resulted in its annexation to a centralist Spain. Against a backdrop of martial law imposed across theBasque Provinces (and possiblyNavarre), heated negotiations with Liberal Basque high-ranking officials led to the establishment of the firstBasque Economic Agreement (1878).
An artificial two-party system designed to reconcile the competing militarist, Catholic and Carlist power bases led to an alternating prime ministership (known as theturno pacifico) with the progressivePráxedes Mateo Sagasta after 1881. He also assumed the functions of the head of state during the regency ofMaría Cristina after Alfonso's death in 1885.
By the late 1880s, Cánovas' policies were under threat from two sources. First, his overseas policy was increasingly untenable. A policy of repression against Cuban nationalists was ultimately ineffective and Spain's authority was challenged most seriously by the 1895 rebellion led byJosé Martí. Spain's policy against Cuban independence brought her increasingly into conflict with the United States, an antagonism that culminated in theSpanish–American War of 1898. Second, the political repression of Spain's working class was growing increasingly troublesome, and pressure for expanded suffrage mounted amid widespread discontent with thecacique system of electoral manipulation.
Cánovas' policies included mass arrests and a policy oftorture:
During a religious procession in 1896, at Barcelona, a bomb was thrown. Immediately three hundred men and women were arrested. Some were Anarchists, but the majority weretrade unionists and Socialists. They were thrown into the notorious prison at the fortress ofMontjuïc in Barcelona and tortured. After a number had been killed, or had gone insane, their cases were taken up by the liberal press of Europe, resulting in the release of a few survivors.Reputedly it was Cánovas del Castillo who ordered the torture, including the burning of the victims' flesh, the crushing of their bones, and the cutting out of their tongues. Similar acts of brutality and barbarism had occurred during his regime in Cuba, and Canovas remained deaf to the appeals and protests of civilized conscience.[5]
His attempts to stabilize Spain's parliamentary system achieved a measure of success untilWorld War I in which Spain was not spared the disturbances that ravaged much of the European continent. According to some views, his regime was a welcomed change fromSpanish liberalism, considered by some to deny equal participation to political rivals. The restoredparliamentary monarchy recognized the principle of allowing rival political opponents within the framework of aconstitution. Yet, it would be decades before universal male suffrage and other typical characteristics of modern democratic systems were implemented; it was still very much an electoral system dominated by parties of established local elites.[6]
At the same time, Cánovas remained an active man of letters. His historical writings earned him a considerable reputation, particularly hisHistory of the Decline of Spain (Historia de la decadencia de España) for which he was elected at the young age of 32 to theReal Academia de la Historia in 1860. That was followed by elevation to other bodies of letters, including theReal Academia Española in 1867, the Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas in 1871 and theReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in 1887. He also served as the head of the Athenaeum in Madrid (1870–74, 1882–84 and 1888–89).
In 1897, he was shot dead byMichele Angiolillo, an Italiananarchist, at the spaSanta Águeda, inMondragón, Guipúzcoa.[7] Angiolillo invoked vengeance on Canovas on behalf of the execution ofJose Rizal and other Barcelona anarchists.[8] He thus did not live to see Spain's loss of her final colonies to theUnited States after theSpanish–American War.
He married María de la Concepción Espinosa de los Monteros y Rodrigo de Villamayor on 20 October 1860; he was widowed on 3 September 1863.[9] He married Joaquina de Osma y Zavala on 14 November 1887.[10][11] No progeny survived him.
Cánovas was the chief architect of theRestoration regime, that strived for bringing stability to the Spanish society.[12] It has been emphasized that the two figures most influential to his political ideas wereEdmund Burke (from whom he derived a brand of traditionalism with a historicist rather than religious matrix) andJoaquín Francisco Pacheco.[13] Cánovas embraced anessentialist, metaphysical and providentialist conception of the nation.[14] A staunch opponent touniversal suffrage, he held the view that "universal suffrage begets socialism in a natural, necessary and inevitable way".[15]
A supporter ofslavery, he declared in November 1896 in a press interview: "Blacks in Cuba are free; they can enter into contracts, work or not work, and I think that slavery was much better than this freedom which they only took advantage of to do nothing and form masses of unemployed. Anyone who knows the blacks will tell you that in Madagascar, the Congo, as in Cuba, they are lazy, savage, prone to misbehavior, and that you have to lead them with authority and firmness to get anything out of them. These savages have no owner other than their own instincts, their primitive appetites".[16]
In reference to his political and intellectual stature, Cánovas was nicknamed asel Monstruo ("The Monster") by his peers.[17]
_01.jpg)
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(July 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The policies of repression and political manipulation that Cánovas made a cornerstone of his government helped foster the nationalist movements in bothCatalonia andthe Basque provinces and set the stage for labour unrest during the first two decades of the 20th century. The disastrous colonial policy not only led to the loss of Spain's remaining colonial possessions in the Pacific and Caribbean but also seriously weakened the government at home. A failed postwarcoup byCamilo de Polavieja set off a long period of political instability, which ultimately led to the collapse of the monarchy and the dissolution of the constitution that Cánovas had authored.
His white marble mausoleum was carved byAgustí Querol Subirats at thePantheon of Illustrious Men, in Madrid.[18][19]
The original version of this article draws heavily on thecorresponding article in the Spanish-language Wikipedia, which was accessed in the version of 6 September 2007.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of the Governation 1864 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of the Overseas 1865–1866 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded byas President | President of the Minister-Regency 1874-1875 | Succeeded byas King of Spain |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Spain 1875 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Spain 1875–1879 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Spain 1879–1881 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Spain 1884–1885 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Congress of Deputies 1885–1886 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Spain 1890–1892 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Spain 1895–1897 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Party created | Leader of theConservative Party 1874–1897 | Succeeded by |
