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Kingdom of Spain Reino de España | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1874–1931 | |||||||||
.svg) Flag | |||||||||
| Motto: Plus Ultra (Latin) "Further Beyond" | |||||||||
| Anthem: Marcha Real (Spanish) "Royal March" | |||||||||
 The Kingdom of Spain and itsoverseas colonies in 1898 | |||||||||
| Capital | Madrid | ||||||||
| Common languages | Spanish | ||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism (state religion) | ||||||||
| Demonym | Spaniards | ||||||||
| Government | Unitaryparliamentaryconstitutional monarchy
| ||||||||
| King | |||||||||
• 1874–1885 | Alfonso XII | ||||||||
• 1886–1931 | Alfonso XIII | ||||||||
| Regent | |||||||||
• 1885–1902 | Maria Christina | ||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||
• 1874–1875(first) | Antonio Cánovas | ||||||||
• 1931(last) | Juan B. Aznar | ||||||||
| Legislature | Cortes Generales | ||||||||
| Senate | |||||||||
| Congress of Deputies | |||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 29 December 1874 | |||||||||
| 30 June 1876 | |||||||||
| April–August 1898 | |||||||||
| 1909–1910 | |||||||||
• Rif War | 1920–1926 | ||||||||
| 14 April 1931 | |||||||||
| Currency | Spanish peseta | ||||||||
| |||||||||
TheRestoration (Spanish:Restauración) orBourbon Restoration (Spanish:Restauración borbónica) was the period inSpanish history between theFirst Spanish Republic and theSecond Spanish Republic from 1874 to 1931. It began on 29 December 1874, after apronunciamento by GeneralArsenio Martínez Campos in Valencia ended the First Spanish Republic and restored theBourbon monarchy underKingAlfonso XII, and ended on 14 April 1931 with the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic.
After nearly a century of political instability and several civil wars, the Restoration attempted to establish anew political system that ensured stability through the practice ofturno, an intentional rotation of liberal and conservative parties in leadership, often achieved throughelectoral fraud. Critics of theturnismo system includedrepublicans,socialists,communists,anarchists,Basque andCatalan nationalists, andCarlists. However, the relative stability to theturnismo system outlived its creator, the Conservative politicianAntonio Cánovas del Castillo, and characterised the era with comparative peace, despite great social inequalities in the agricultural areas of Spain, and sporadic unrest relating to military defeats abroad.
During theinterwar period, the Bourbon monarchytied itself to the dictatorship of GeneralMiguel Primo de Rivera in 1923, an event that succeeded by means of both amilitary coup d'état and the acquiescence ofKingAlfonso XIII.[1] It took the protracted political turmoil in the wake ofeconomic depression, caused by theaftermath of the First World War, and theSpanish defeat at the Annual inMorocco for the restored monarchy to beswept away with Rivera's dictatorship, ending with the general being forced to resign in 1930 and the king's voluntary dethronement and exile toFascist Italy in 1931.
The Restoration period was characterized by political instability, economic challenges, and social unrest. Key issues that defined the period include:[2][3]
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On 29 December 1874, GeneralArsenio Martínez Campos'spronunciamiento overthrew theFirst Spanish Republic by triumphal entry on behalf of Alfonso XII into Valencia, and thereby restored the monarchy, crowningAlfonso XII, son of the exiledIsabella II, asKing of Spain. Having returned from Paris where his mother had abdicatedde jure in 1870 in exile, he was crowned early in 1875. Having been educated at theTheresianum in Vienna andSandhurst in Britain, he was cosmopolitan and well groomed to reign.
TheConstitution of 1876 was soon established; it remained in force throughout the Restoration. This constitution established Spain as aconstitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature (Cortes Generales) consisting of an upper house (Senate) and a lower house (Congress of Deputies). The King held the power to appoint senators and to annul laws at his discretion. He was given the honorific title ofCommander-in-Chief of the army. TheLiberal Party, led byPráxedes Mateo Sagasta, and theConservative Party, led byAntonio Cánovas del Castillo, alternated in power through thecontrolled process ofturnismo, orel turno pacífico. Local figures, known ascaciques, manipulated the election results, fueling growing resentment of the system.[4] This led to the formation of major nationalist movements and unions inCatalonia,Galicia, and theBasque Country. However the relative stability of this system after the upheavals of theLiberal Sexennial (1868–1874) gave him the nickname ofEl Pacificador ("the Peacemaker").
Alfonso XII had lost his first wife,María de las Mercedes of Orléans, in 1878, mourning her at the royal hunting lodge of the Palace of Riofrio, and then died in November 1885 from a recurrence ofdysentery.[5] At that time, his second wifeMaria Cristina was pregnant. Their sonAlfonso XIII was born on 17 May 1886, and a Regency was formed, headed by the Queen Mother Maria Cristina.
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Thenew reign was initially popular with the subjects ofel rey niño ("the child-king"), and aLe Figaro article describedAlfonso XIII in 1889 as "the happiest and best-loved of all the rulers on Earth".[6] However,wars of national liberation fought byanti-imperialistrevolutionaries in theCaribbean (Cuba andPuerto Rico) andPacific Ocean (Guam andthe Philippines) against theSpanish Empire (1833–1898) continued to drain resources, and domestic discontent meant thatAntonio Cánovas del Castillo, architect of theturnismopolitical system, was assassinated by aSpanish anarchist in 1897. Eventually, theSpanish–American War led to the loss of Spain's last majoroverseas colonies in 1898. This rapid collapse devastated Spain and damaged the credibility of the government and its associated ideologies. It also nearly caused a military coup d'état led by GeneralCamilo García de Polavieja. This event marked the beginning of the country's political and economic decline, giving rise to numerous conflicting opposition movements at local and national levels.[7] Alfonso XIII came of age in May 1902 and was crowned on 17 May 1902, ending the regency of the Queen Mother.[8]
Spain began her international rehabilitation by selling her remaining colonial possessions to theGerman Empire in 1899, and being awarded the mainland ofSpanish Guinea, theRío Muni, in a common agreement withRepublican France in 1900. This took off after theAlgeciras Conference of 1906. Spain was accorded by common consent of theEuropeanGreat Powers against the sabre rattling foreign policy ofKaiserWilhelm II, aSpanish sphere of influence in northern Morocco that became a formal protectorate in 1912 by theTreaty of Fez, giving the Spanish military a new outlet after the loss of 1898 to expend itself upon and thus was born the"Africanist" ideology, which Alfonso became a leading supporter of up until his abdication.[9] In 1907, it signed thePact of Cartagena with France andGreat Britain, a defensive alliance against theTriple Alliance. The Spanish government was able to begin rebuilding its fleet and built theEspaña-class battleship and theReina Victoria Eugenia-class battleship. The last was named after Alfonso's new British wife,Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg (nicknamed Ena), granddaughter ofQueen Victoria. Their marriage produced two haemophiliac sons, however, and Alfonso never forgave his wife, starting numerous affairs with other women.
In 1909,failed attempts to conquer Morocco led to domestic discontent, culminating in a revolt known as theSemana Tragica inBarcelona,Catalonia. The rebellion, led mainly by lower-class citizens and supported byanarchists,communists, andrepublicans, was a response to what they saw as unfair practices in recruiting soldiers. The government declared a state of war and sent in troops to put down the uprising, which resulted in more than a hundred deaths and the execution of the anarchist educatorFrancisco Ferrer. The socialistUnión General de Trabajadores (UGT) and the anarchistConfederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) attempted to organize a national general strike, but the unions were only able to mobilize urban workers.
WhenWorld War I broke out in 1914,Spain remained neutral; as a result, its economic and industrial growth largely derived from exporting arms tothe Entente from the armaments sector in towns likeEibar,Basque Country, located nearby theSpanish–French border.[10][better source needed] Spain profited too by diplomatically taking over the consulates of warring nations and acting as an intermediary. Notwithstanding a brief war scare when the German high command resumed tounrestricted submarine warfare in Spring 1917, which saw theUnited States enter the war (April 1917) and Spain nearly do the same, Alfonso XIII offered to mediate peace on several instances, offered the dispossessedRomanov family shelter in Spain after theBolshevik Revolution (October 1917), established in theRoyal Palace of Madrid an office for finding lost relatives that earned him aNobel Peace Prize recommendation, and theSpanish Consul in Jerusalem, Antonio de Ballobar, negotiated thehandover of the Holy City to the British forces led by General SirEdmund Allenby (December 1917). Theleft-wing strikes of 1917–1918 and theeconomic bubble's bursting after the end of the war left Spain rocked byfinancial crisis, while the1918–1920 flu pandemic resulted in the death of 200,000Spaniards (1% of the population).[11][12]
The King and the conservatives shifted increasingly in reaction away from stability inturnismo after the entry ofradical republicans andfar-left groups into theCortes Generales, such as the creation of theSpanish Communist Party (1920–1921), and became more and moreauthoritarian. In 1921, conflict inSpanish-ruled Morocco escalated, beginning theRif War (1920–1926). A group of Moroccan militants from theRepublic of the Rif launched a surprise attack on theArmy of Spanish Morocco. Led by the Moroccan chieftainAbd el-Krim, a coalition ofRiffians andJebala nearly annihilated the Spanish forces numbering some 10,000-13,000 men and pushed them back towardMelilla in thebattle of Annual. The top military officers were blamed for the Spanish defeat due to poor planning. This led to lowered morale among the military, who felt misunderstood as they were ordered to advance inland without adequate resources to occupy the difficult terrain. A parliamentary inquiry was launched, and the purported role of the King in insisting on advance even in spite of advice to the contrary was seized upon by theRepublican Party as proof of his incompetence as late as 1931. Prime MinisterEduardo Dato was assassinated by motorcycle-riding gunmen in March as well, the third such minister to be so killed in three decades, and Spain reeled from one crisis after another crisis.
Military and civil unrest grew, amplified by fears of anarchist terrorism or proletarian revolution and the rise of nationalist movements. On 13 September 1923,Miguel Primo de Rivera,Captain General of Catalonia, staged acoup d'état and deposed Prime MinisterManuel García Prieto after issuing a manifesto blaming Spain's problems on the parliamentary system.Alfonso XIII supported the general and appointed him the new prime minister.
Primo de Rivera suspended the constitution and assumed absolute powers as a dictator. Despite his backing of abandonismo, he was the one who defeated Abd el-Krim after he attacked the French zone, obliging French marshalPhilippe Pétain to enter into joint military operations with the Spanish atAlhucemas Bay in 1925 that led to the defeat of theRif Republic. He created theUnión Patriótica Española, the only recognized political party, and banned all others. He increased spending on businesses and public services, which led to the bankruptcy of his government. As a result of these actions, the military withdrew their support. Alfonso XIII did the same and forced him to resign in January 1930.[13]
Alfonso XIII attempted to gradually restore the previous system and bolster his prestige by enlisting GeneralDámaso Berenguer asPrime Minister. However, due to the king's perceived support of the dictatorship, this proved unsuccessful and led to growing calls for the establishment of a republic. On 17 August 1930, republican groups formed thePact of San Sebastián, forming a revolutionary committee that would later become the leadership of theSecond Spanish Republic.
Berenguer eventually resigned, and the king appointed AdmiralJuan Bautista Aznar-Cabañas in his place. On 12 April 1931, Aznar called forlocal elections to appease the democrats and republicans, replace the local governing bodies of the dictatorship, and gradually restore the restoration.
Although the monarchists still had some support, the republican and socialist parties won an overwhelming victory. Their victory led to street riots and demands for the abolition of the monarchy. On 14 April, the king fled Spain after the army announced it would not defend him. A provisional government led byNiceto Alcalá-Zamora immediately established theSecond Spanish Republic.
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