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Further Reading

1875-1931 - Bourbon Restoration

The constitution of the First Republic (1873-74) provided for internally self-governing provinces that were bound to the federal government by voluntary agreement. Jurisdiction over foreign and colonial affairs and defense was reserved for Madrid. In its eight-month life, the federal republic had four presidents, none of whom could find a prime minister to form a stable cabinet. The government could not decentralize quickly enough to satisfy local radicals. Cities and provinces made unilateral declarations of autonomy. Madrid lost control of the country, and once again the army stepped in to rescue the "national honor." A national government in the form of a unitary republic served briefly as the transparent disguise for an interim military dictatorship.

A brigadier's pronunciamiento that called Isabella's son, the able British-educated Alfonso XII (r. 1875-85), to the throne was sufficient to restore the Bourbon monarchy. Alfonso identified himself as "Spaniard, Catholic, and Liberal," and his succession was greeted with a degree of relief, even by supporters of the republic. He cultivated good relations with the army (Alfonso was a cadet at Sandhurst, the British military academy, when summoned to Spain), which had removed itself from politics because it was content with the stable, popular civilian government. Alfonso insisted that the official status of the church be confirmed constitutionally, thus assuring the restored monarchy of conservative support.

British practices served as the model for the new constitution's political provisions. The new government used electoral manipulation to construct and to maintain a two-party system in parliament, but the result was more a parody than an imitation. Conservatives and Liberals, who differed in very little except name, exchanged control of the government at regular intervals after general elections. Once again, caciques delivered the vote to one party or the other as directed--in return for the assurance of patronage from whichever was scheduled to win, thus controlling the elections at the constituency level. The tendency toward party fracturing and personalism remained a threat to the system, but the restoration monarchy's artificial two-party system gave Spain a generation of relative quiet.

It is no exaggeration to say that for a long series of years Spain had been steadily drifting to financial disaster. The pace has varied, but the course had never changed. Her balance sheets exhibited a dismal sequence of deficits-some of them comparatively small, but many of them appalling in their amount. Only once or twice for nearly half a century had a Spanish minister of finance realized a surplus - so seldom that the events might almost be counted as lucky accidents. The debit balances were represented by a floating debt so huge in its proportions that to restore the finances of the nation to a healthy basis would in itself prove an onerous task.

The mother of Alfonso XIII, another Maria Cristina, acted as regent until her son came of age officially in 1902. Alfonso XIII (r. 1886-1931) was the posthumous son of Alfonso XII. On May 31, 1906, the king married Princess Victoria Eugenie, daughter of Prince Henry of Battenberg, and niece of King Edward VIII, of England. On their way from the church of San Jeronimo, where the marriage took place, a bomb was thrown at the carriage containing the king and queen. The royal pair were unhurt, but more than twenty persons were killed and about a hundred wounded. The assassin, a Barcelona anarchist, on being discovered some days later near the capital, killed a police officer and then himself. In the following May [1907] a son and heir, who received the title of the Prince of the Asturias, was born.

Spain's loss of Cuba, the Philippines and Porto Rico as a consequence of the military defeat by the US Navy in 1898 was considered by the public opinion not only as a tragic humiliation, but also as a national disaster. The turn of the century and the personal involvement of King Alfonso XIII in Spanish politics once he reached his majority in 1902 caused a complete reappraisal of Spain's international position. Two choices confronted the monarchy. First, the recogimiento supported by a majority of monarchists, meant to withdraw from the international scene and reflect on the implication of the defeat. Spain would abandon its traditional foreign policy of grandeur, face the reality and accept that maybe it was not even a "middle class" power, anymore. This "contemplation" would entail going back to the metropolitan boundaries and giving up any dream of conquest abroad. The second way, supported by the republicans, democrats and liberal intellectuals, belonging to the later called "generación del 98" or "disaster generation", like Joaquín Costa, spiritual father of the "regenerationnism", or the philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, favored the economic and social modernization of the country based on the European pattern and in due course the revitalization of the old alliance policy with Great Britain and France.

In spite of the subsequent political and moral crisis, the Spanish government and the young King Alfonso XIII intended nevertheless to rebuild the Army according to their strong belief that Spain still remained a great power. But very soon the conscience of the poor technical level of the national industry forced the Spanish government to gain the support of the foreign knowledge and financial resources. Because of the traditional links between Spain and Great Britain, the domination of the British interests in the new military industry turned to be almost complete before and even more after the First World War.

Spain was neutral in World War I, but the Spanish army was constantly engaged from 1909 to 1926 against Abd al Krim's Riff Berbers in Morocco, where Spain had joined France in proclaiming a protectorate. Successive civilian governments in Spain allowed the war to continue, but they refused to supply the army with the means to win it. Spanish losses were heavy to their fierce and skillful enemy, who was equipped with superior weapons. Riots against conscription for the African war spread disorder throughout the country, and opposition to the war was often expressed in church burnings. Officers, who often had served in Morocco, formed juntas to register complaints that were just short of pronunciamientos against wartime inflation, low fixed salaries for the military, alleged civilian corruption, and inadequate and scarce equipment. Conditions in Morocco, increased anarchist and communist terrorism, industrial unrest, and the effects of the postwar economic slump prompted the pronunciamiento that brought a general officer, Miguel Primo de Rivera (in power, 1923-30), into office. His authoritarian regime originally enjoyed wide support in much of the country and had the confidence of the king and the loyalty of the army. With the Primo de Rivera's dictatorship and the end of the democratic spirit in 1923, thhe "Iron Surgeon" expressed his will right away to put an end to the British hegemony in the vital military sector of the economy and to open the military industry to new competitors. After a short time of expectation and the insistence of German agents, the German industry, eager to escape its obligations and the Versailles military limitations, decided to cooperate with the Spanish Army on two specific issues; firstly, the construction of a new submarine prototype; secondly, the supplying of chemical weapons so important in the conduct of the war against the Riff insurgents in Morocco.

The government lacked an ideological foundation; its mandate was based on general disillusionment with both the parliamentary government and the extreme partisan politics of the previous period. Once in power, Primo de Rivera dissolved parliament and ruled through directorates and the aid of the military until 1930. His regime sponsored public works to curb unemployment. Protectionism and state control of the economy led to a temporary economic recovery. A better led and better supplied army brought the African war to a successful conclusion in 1926.

The precipitous economic decline in 1930 undercut support for the government from special-interest groups. For seven years, Primo de Rivera remained a man on horseback. He established no new system to replace parliamentary government. Criticism from academics mounted. Bankers expressed disappointment at the state loans that his government had tried to float. An attempt to reform the promotion system cost him the support of the army. This loss of army support caused him to lose the support of the king. Miguel Primo de Rivera, dictator of Spain, was thrown from power in 1930, and died shortly afterward in exile.

Elections were held, in which the right-wing parties performed poorly throughout Spain; and the Anti-monarchist Republicans won a landslide. A coalition of Republicans and Socialists won the municipal elections of April 1931. It became clear that the armed forces would not support the king against the will of the people. Amid growing civil unrest, after years of sponsoring a failed military dictatorship, King Alfonso XIII went into exile and Spain became a republic in April 1931. On January 15, 1941, King Alfonso XIII abdicated his dynastic rights in favor of his third (of four), but second-surviving, son, the Infante Don Juan. Six weeks later the King was dead.