| Cantonal Revolution | |||||||
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 Foci of cantonal uprising and main battles (over current borders) | |||||||
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 Spanish Republic | |||||||
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TheCantonal Revolution (Spanish:Revolución cantonal)[a] was an attempt to establish arevolutionaryfederal republic, based on adecentralised system ofcantons, inSpain in 1873.
Following theGlorious Revolution of 1868, Spain was thrown into political instability which culminated in the establishment of theFirst Spanish Republic. TheFederal Democratic Republican Party (PRDF), led byFrancesc Pi i Margall, waselected to reconstitute the country as a federal republic, but internal divisions within the party led to further conflict.Left-wing "intransigent" republicans advocated for the formation of the federal republic from the bottom-up, rather than the top-down constitution proposed by the Pi i Margall government.
On 17 July 1873, intransigents inCartagena established theCanton of Cartagena, aiming to transform the country into a federal republic based on the model of thecantons of Switzerland. Cantons were established throughout southern and eastern Spain, where government forces had little presence due to the ongoingCarlist War in the north. The Pi i Margall government collapsed and was replaced by thepolitical moderateNicolás Salmerón, who sought to put down the uprising. Members of theInternational Workingmen's Association (IWA) also joined the uprising, with the aim of escalating thepolitical revolution into asocial revolution. By the following year, the rebellion was suppressed by the forces ofManuel Pavía andArsenio Martínez Campos.
The repression of the Cantonal Revolution resulted in the strengthening of the political influence of theSpanish Army, which carried out acoup d'état against the Republic, established amilitary government and eventuallyrestored the monarchy. The experience radicalised many federal republicans towardsanarchism, which progressively grew in influence over the course of the late 19th century.
In 1868, thereign of Isabella II inSpain was overthrown in theGlorious Revolution, which resulted in the promulgation of anew constitution byliberals andprogressives. On 16 November 1870, theprovisional government led byFrancisco Serrano andJoan Prim electedAmadeo of Savoy as the new King of Spain.[1] But the reign of Amadeo was marked by persistent political instability,[2] beginning with the assassination of Prim and culminating in the outbreak of theThird Carlist War in 1872.[1] Amadeo also presided over several changes in government, with multiple elections ending in inconclusive results.[3]
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Widespread discontent with the monarchy provoked Amadeo's abdication on 11 February 1873 and the formation of theFirst Spanish Republic.[2] Like the monarchy before it, the new republic was also subject to internal divisions: theRadical Democratic Party (PDR), largely supported by theupper middle class inMadrid, advocated for acentralisedunitary state along the lines of theFrench Republic; and theFederal Democratic Republican Party (PRDF), supported by thelower middle classes in the peripheralprovinces, advocated for adecentralisedfederation along the lines of theSwiss Confederation.[4] The federalists themselves were also internally divided into two factions: the benevolents (Spanish:benevelos), who believed in the constitution of a republic through legal means; and the intransigents (Spanish:intransigentes), who rejectedparliamentary politics in favour of establishing a federal republic through agrassrootsrevolution.[5]
Despite the federalists lackingmajority support, no other political force could sufficiently oppose them, as the anti-federalists had already been marginalised after a failed coup attempt,[6] while theCarlist rebels were largely confined to the mountains inCatalonia.[7] An attempt to proclaim aCatalan State, which many federalists hoped would result in the creation of a federal republic from the bottom-up, was also short-lived.[8] Rank-and-file soldiers deserted the armyen masse after receiving assurances that the federalists would abolish conscription, andparamilitaries were established throughout Spain as a replacement to the hierarchicalSpanish Army.[6] Following the victory of the FDRP in the1873 Spanish general election, aConstituent Cortes begandrafting a constitution for a federal republic, based on a decentralised system ofcantons.Estanislao Figueras was also replaced asprime minister of Spain byFrancesc Pi i Margall, the founder of the federalist movement.[9] Although brought to power by the influence of the intransigent faction, he advocated for conciliation between theleft-wing andright-wing factions of his party, and attempted to convince the intransigents to concede topolitical moderation.[10] But disagreements over whether the federal republic should be constituted from the top-down, as proposed by Pi, or from the bottom-up, as advocated by the intransigents, resulted in the latter rising up to establish a cantonal republic.[11]
On 12 July 1873, intransigent federalists inCartagena seized control of theCity Council [es] and proclaimed the establishment of an autonomousCanton of Cartagena.[12] They established a new Cantonal government, which concerned itself with the defense of Cartagena, under the leadership ofJuan Contreras [es] andRoque Barcia, two members of the city's lower-middle class.[13] They also seized the warships docked in the port of Cartagena, which together represented the majority of theSpanish Navy.[14] These Cantonalists aimed to accelerate political reforms and establish a new federal republic from the bottom-up,[15] based on the model of thecantons of Switzerland.[16] They published their political programme in the newspaperEl Cantón Murciano, which notably lacked any programme for social reform beyond political questions.[8]
The uprising caused parliamentary support for the Pi government to collapse, as the right-wing came to regard him as asocialist, the left-wing criticised him for failing to support revolutionary action, and the centre ground evaporated.[12] On 18 July, Pi resigned as prime minister and was replaced byNicolás Salmerón, who aligned himself closer with the right-wing.[17] Pi's resignation accelerated the spread of the uprising. From 19 to 22 July, Cantonalists armed themselves and seized cities and towns throughout Spain: inAndalusia, Cantonalists took overAlgeciras,Andújar,Bailén,Cádiz,Granada,Seville andTarifa; inLeón, they took overSalamanca; inMurcia, they took overAlmansa; and in theValencian Country, they took overCastelló,Torrevella andValència.[18] The rebellion mostly gained traction in southern and eastern Spain,[19] as government forces had largely abandoned these regions in order to pacify the Carlist rebellion in the north.[18] Unlike the other cities of Andalusia,Córdoba never joined the insurrection, as its militia had earlier been disarmed and federalist leaders arrested by the provincial military governor, who had anticipated a revolt.[20]
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The uprising was joined by theSpanish Regional Federation of theInternational Workingmen's Association (FRE-AIT),[21] which had established clandestine cells throughout southern and eastern Spain to prepare for the event of an insurrection.[22] Of its 45,633 members, 27,894 were reported to be rural workers from Andalusia, which became the epicentre of the Cantonalist uprising.[23] ManySpanish anarchists, includingRicardo Mella andJoan Montseny, considered anarchism to be the natural extension of federal republicanism, although others within the FRE warned that the Republic was a "bourgeois myth" that would not advance the position of the workers in Spanish society.[24] The FRE ultimately encouraged workers to participate in the Revolution, but warned them not to lay down arms until they had achieved their objective of bringing themeans of production undercollective ownership.[25] Observing the collapse of the Spanish state, the anarchist leaderMikhail Bakunin commented that the conditions were ripe for transforming the lower-middle class political revolution into asocial revolution.[26]
In the Valencian Country, internationalists ledan internationalist uprising inAlcoy,[27] and in Andalusia, they rose up inSanlúcar de Barrameda.[28] Internationalists led the cantonalist movement in the Andalusian cities of Málaga,[29] Granada andSeville [es].[30] They also convinced sailors in Cartagena to join the uprising, and fought under the intransigents in Valencia. InBarcelona, the capital of Catalonia, members of the FRE carried out ageneral strike and worked together with intransigents to seize control of theCity Council and establish a Committee of Public Safety.[31] But the events in Barcelona failed to escalate into a revolution,[32] withFriedrich Engels later commenting that "Barcelona was the only town whose participation [in the cantonalist movement] could have provided firm support for the working-class element".[33] The Swiss anarchistJames Guillaume held the Marxists responsible for the Catalan workers' refusal to join the revolution.[8] In its report to the Geneva Congress of theAnti-authoritarian International, the Federal Council of the FRE expressed its worry that the cantonalist revolution would result in the suppression of the workers' movement. In an August 1873 letter to their Italian counterparts, the FRE reported that their organisation was being portrayed as the instigators of the Cantonalist uprising, rather than supporters, which they declared had resulted in them being "persecuted like wild beasts".[34]
Thegovernment of Spain quickly dispatched its troops to suppress the uprising.Manuel Pavía led 3,000 soldiers to Seville, which he pacified after two days of fighting, before continuing on to suppress the rebellion in other parts of Andalusia. The Canton of Valencia fought against the forces ofArsenio Martínez Campos for two weeks, before it was also pacified.[31] The Cantons in Almansa, Castellò, Salamanca and San Lucár were also pacified by the military.[35] By mid-September 1873, the rebellion had largely been suppressed, with only the Canton of Cartagena continuing to hold out,[36] protected by its largedefensive walls and naval base.[31] During the siege, one of the canton's leaders appealed to theUnited States for protection.[16] After four months under siege, military officers in Cartagena surrendered the city.[31]
By the time the uprising was suppressed, Nicolás Salmerón had lost the confidence of the Cortes, as the left-wing was alienated by his repressive policies and the right-wing judged him for his reluctance to upholdmilitarism.[35] Salmerón was subsequently replaced as prime minister by the right-wing politicianEmilio Castelar, who oversaw the further strengthening of the Spanish Army,[37] theprorogation of parliament and the suspension ofconstitutional rights.[35] The position of the Spanish Army inSpanish politics had already been strengthened by the rebellion, with General Manuel Pavia coming to be known as the "Saviour of Spain",[38] but was now definitively the main political force in the country.[37] On 3 January 1874, Pavía deposed Castelar in acoup d'état and installed the conservative military officerFrancisco Serrano as prime minister.[38] Parliament was dissolved,[35] bringing the country firmly under the control of amilitary government.[39] On 7 January, the FRE-AIT organised ageneral strike against the government and erected barricades inBarcelona, but by 9 January, the rebellion was repressed and the FRE-AIT was dissolved by order of theCaptain General of Catalonia.[35] The government intensified its crackdown against Cantonalists, with the anarchist newspaperEl Orden [es] reporting that prison authorities had drowned 66 participants in the Canton of Cádiz.[40] The Cantonalist mayor of Cádiz,Fermín Salvochea, was court martialled and sentenced tolife imprisonment inLa Gomera, where he converted to anarchism.[41] Serrano's government ultimately lasted less than a year, before Arsenio Martínez Campos led another coup torestore the Bourbon monarchy and installAlfonso XII on the throne.[38] Spain remained under Bourbon rule for the next five decades.[1]
Federalism went into a decline in the wake of the Cantonalist uprising and the Bourbon Restoration. Many within the federalist movement turned towards anarchism, which they saw as the logical conclusion of their desires for decentralisation, and Pi i Margall's federalism was later reconceived as aprecursor to anarchism.[42] Some anarchists, includingJosé García Viñas, responded to the repression of the Cantonalist uprising by criticising the FRE-AIT's strategy of strike actions.Tomás González Morago wrote about the need for "a long period of preparation and propaganda" before any revolutionary general strike could be carried out.[43]Francesc Tomàs characterised the uprising as a whollypolitical revolution and criticised it for its middle-class character, which he believed to have harmed the working-class.[44] On the other hand,Juan Serrano Oteiza identified the Cantonalist revolt and the prior uprising of theParis Commune with the anarchist conception of theautonomousmunicipality.[45] In his own analysis of the cantonalist revolt, Friedrich Engels criticised the anarchists themselves for failing to take a leading role in the movement.[46] He denounced the FRE for itsapoliticism, its refusal to support the Pi i Margall government and its alliance with the intransigent republicans.[47] The Cantonal Revolution also alienated many other republicans from the model of federalism,direct democracy and political autonomy. Instead they began to advocate for acentralised government, which would be elected according torepresentative democracy and would make political decisions through parliament.[15]
During the early years of the Bourbon Restoration, the Spanish government took steps to repress the federalists and internationalists, and their support base among organised workers.Freedom of association was repealed, prohibiting trade union activity and driving the organised labour movement underground.[48] The remnants of the FRE-AIT reorganised into a looser structure, establishing small clandestine cells to carry outdirect action against the state.[49] In Andalusia, the Cantonalist insurrection resulted in the spread of anarchist ideas from the major cities to rural areas, where peasants began revolting against their landlords.[50] Following its involvement in the Cantonalist movement, the anarchist movement became more violent during the 1880s and 1890s, as many adopted the tactic ofpropaganda of the deed.[51]
