Democratic Six-Year Period in Spain

• The era known as the Democratic Six-Year Period, or Revolutionary Sexennium, began with La Gloriosa
• This was initial attempt to establish a democratic political system in Spain.
• There were three stages to this period:

Provisional Government (1868-1870)

• Serrano was in charge as regent with Prim as head of the government.
• The Constitution of 1869 was enacted by the government.
• This was the first democratic constitution in Spanish history, inspired by those of 1812 and 1837.
• It affirmed national sovereignty, separation of powers, constitutional monarchy, and universal male suffrage.
• It also recognized individual rights and freedoms, like religious and educational freedom on all levels.
• Two conflicts conditioned this period: the colonial war in Cuba and the lack of consensus among political groups over the form of government.
• Unionists and progressives favored a constitutional monarchy, while Democrats favored federal republicanism.
• The assassination of Prim in 1870 caused a definitive split between progressives and Democrats.

Constitutional Monarchy (1871-1873)

• A king was sought for Spain who was not from the House of Bourbon.
• The Italian Amadeo of Savoy (Amadeo I) was chosen.
• The Third Carlist War broke out during his reign because his candidacy, Carlos VII, had not been accepted by the government as king.
• Amadeo I eventually abdicated, after being rejected by the supporters of Alfonso (Isabel's son and heir) and by the Republicans.

First Spanish Republic (1873-1874)

• The Cortes proclaimed the Republic as the form of government, following Amadeo I's resignation.
• The Republic's main issues included the ongoing Third Carlist War, rejection from Alfonso's supporters, and disagreement among Republicans over the form of state, as some supported a federal republic and others a centralist republic.
• There were four presidents in a year: Figueras, Pi y Margall, Salmerón, and Castelar, due to the instability of this period.
• The Republic made a significant contribution to modernizing Spain's liberal political ideas.
• General Martínez Campos carried out a coup in Sagunto in December 1874, proclaiming Alfonso XII (Isabel II's son) as king of Spain.

The Spanish Cantonal Movement

• Francisco Pi y Margall(1824-1901), a leader in federal republicanism, advocated a federalist Constitution for Spain.
• The most radical federal Republicans didn't wait for legislation and began declaring cantons, or small, nearly autonomous regional states led by revolutionary juntas.
• The cantonal movement expanded across regions of La Mancha, Levante, and Andalusia and was put down violently by the army.
• Although it lacked obvious labor backing or a national agenda, the cantonal movement seriously hurt the Republic.

Andalusian and the Liberal State

• In the consolidation of the Liberal State's structures, Andalusia took center stage.
• Liberal ideas and the people who championed them circulated throughout the region.
• The Constitution of 1812 was declared in Cádiz, where the Revolution of 1868 also occurred.
• The Riego Uprising, which created the Liberal Triennium, occurred in the Seville village of Cabezas de San Juan.
• The coast of Málaga served as the site of Torrijos's uprising against Fernando VII's absolutist government.
• Andalusian politicians and soldiers like Martínez de la Rosa, Javier de Burgos, Narváez, and Cánovas del Castillo played a key role in the Liberal State's formation, as did Mariana Pineda, who was born in Granada and executed for her liberal views by Fernando VII.
• Andalusian society, which was transitioning to a liberal system, had significant differences between the city and the countryside.
• There was a rising commercial bourgeoisie in touch with traders from foreign corporations in cities, including the one exploiting the Riotinto Mines, which promoted the flow of liberal ideas.
• Connection to liberal ideals was weaker in the countryside, where there were significant social disparities.
• The nobility and upper bourgeoisie, who were landowners of vast estates that grew as a result of the purchase of new lands during disentailment, were one side. Their economic clout translated into political power through caciquismo.
• The Andalusian peasantry, the majority of whom were day laborers or landless peasants, were the other. Ideologies like anarchism and federalism, which would support numerous cantonalist uprisings during the First Republic, were prevalent in this social group.

Industrialization and Labor Movement

• Spain's industrialization started in the nineteenth century, somewhat later than the UK and northern Europe.
• This was a sluggish process with a low average income of the population limited consumer demand and made industrial investing less attractive for the bourgeoisie.
• This was made worse by political instability and a deficiency in technology.
• In 1848, the construction of the railway system started with the opening of the Barcelona-Mataró line.
• The General Law of Railroads established the legal framework in 1855, allowing for a substantial expansion over the following decade, and the expansion of the railway network aided the growth of the iron and steel industries and made trade with Madrid easier.
• Spain's primary industrial hubs were located in:
• Catalonia was a major hub for the cotton and wool textile industries, and raw cotton imports rose tenfold between 1834 and 1876.
• The Basque Country was home to a growing iron and steel industry, Altos Hornos de Vizcaya, 1902) and the establishment of the Euskalduna shipyards (1900), both connected to the shipping industry.
• Andalusia saw a period of growth in the textile and iron and steel industries, particularly in Cádiz and Málaga, as well as in mining. Several foreign corporations invested in mineral mining, including the acquisition of the Riotinto mines in Huelva by a group of British firms in 1873.

19th Century Spanish Society

• Social shifts were not as dramatic as in other parts of Europe.
• By the late nineteenth century, crop land yields were substantially lower than in other parts of Europe, and the majority of families continued to work in agricultural activities, and the working class was less influential, urbanization was less significant and concentrated in major industrial hubs.
• The middle class was made up of officials, professionals, medium-sized landowners, and some factory owners, but their numbers were limited.
• The ancient landowning aristocracy and Catholic Church retained considerable political, economic, and social power, and the wealthiest bourgeoisie rose to political prominence with Isabel II and established social and marital connections with the rentier aristocracy.

The Labor Movement and Peasant Revolts

• The Luddite protests and Mutual Aid Societies established in Catalonia, a major textile industrial hub, were precursors to the labour movement.
• Due to Spain's unique industrialization process, the labour movement began in the second half of the nineteenth century and was largely confined to major industrial cities.
• The first general strike occurred in Barcelona in 1855, calling for higher salaries and a 10-hour workday.
• Spanish Marxist workers and thinkers took part in the First International, and Pablo Iglesias founded the PSOE Socialist Workers' Party of Spain) (1879) and the UGT General Union of Workers) (1888).
• Anarchist ideals triumphed among Andalusian peasants and the majority of Catalan workers, and the poor working conditions of rural workers resulted in violent rural revolts.
• The CNT National Confederation of Labor), which promoted worker struggle without violence, was founded by anarchists who supported it and grew to be the organization with the most members.

Spain: The Bourbon Restoration (1874-1923)

• In December 1874, Spain's First Republic came to an end with a military coup that declared Isabel II's son, Alfonso XII, king.
• With the definitive demise of Carlism in 1876, the Bourbon Restoration ushered in a time of political stability and social peace although it primarily benefited the aristocratic, latifundist, and bourgeois oligarchy, while the great majority of the populace remained impoverished and illiterate.
• Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, a conservative politician, was the primary architect of the Restoration, and he oversaw the return of the Bourbons to the throne.
• A new Constitution was proclaimed in 1876 to ensure stability, declaring Spain to be a parliamentary monarchy with sovereignty shared between the king and the Cortes (Congress and Senate).
• Cánovas devised a system of alternating power in the government between the Conservative Party, led by himself, and the Liberal Party, led by Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, and both parties supported the Constitution, the monarchy, and the centralized State.
• The Conservative Party and the Liberal Party rotated power under the "peaceful transfer" system, a agreement that needed election manipulation. They relied on the help of caciques to buy votes and rig election results, often using intimidation and violence.
• The Pardo Pact, signed by conservatives and liberals after Alfonso XII's death in 1885, cemented the system of rotation, and they agreed to support María Cristina de Habsburg's regency (1885–1902).
• The disaster of '98, the initial significant crisis of the system.
• Cuba, seeking economic autonomy, began a new uprising in 1895, and the United States, which desired to trade with the Caribbean nation, backed it.
• The sinking of the Maine battleship in Havana provided the United States with the justification it needed to declare war on Spain, and the Spanish government signed the Treaty of Paris 1898 after a swift defeat, ceding Cuba's independence and ceding Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the United States
• The disaster of '98, the loss of Spain's final colonial holdings, sparked a major crisis, and the people, disappointed, demanded political, economic, and social reforms. The Regenerationists and the Generation of 98, cultural currents, called for the termination of the Restoration system, caciquismo, and corruption.

Opposition and New Political Groups

• Alfonso XIII took the throne in 1902 when he came of age.
• The opposition to the Restoration was fueled by the start of his reign, which coincided with the disaster of 98 and the rise of industry and population.
• The rise of industrialization and opposition to the centralism of the Canovist system aided the emergence of political regionalism in the Basque Country, where Sabino Arana founded the Basque Nationalist Party PNV) in 1895, and in Catalonia, where Francesc Cambó founded the Lliga Regionalista in 1901.
• A regionalist movement, the Rexurdimento, arose in Galicia, although it was more cultural than political.
• The labour movement was divided into two mainstreams, and the anarchists, were structured in the National Confederation of Labor CNT) union.
• The socialists had a union, the General Union of Workers UGT) and a political party, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party PSOE), were founded by Pablo Iglesias. In 1921, the more radical sectors split off and formed the Spanish Communist Party.
• The Republicans united to increase their presence in Parliament and formed the Republican Radical Party in 1908, led by Alejandro Lerroux.

The War in Morocco

• The failure of colonialist policy in Africa has been made in addition to these criticisms and demands.
• Post-disaster of 98, Spain attempted to regain overseas reputation by adding new territories.
• He participated in the Algeciras Conference 1906), which determined the territory of Morocco, and France and Spain, which split influence zones, were the recipient countries.
• In 1909, Spanish occupation of northern Morocco began with objections to from sectors and labour parties/ unions.
• A decree to send reservists urgently into Morocco caused disturbance in Barcelona, known as Tragic Week - protests by those who would go to war had poor backgrounds.
• In 1921, a serious military defeat occurred, known as the Annual disaster, in which more than 13,000 Spanish soldiers were massacred. This event was a major scandal as it discovered the poor strategy and decisions of the crown. In 1923 General Primo de Rivera to take over with king support.

Spain: From Dictatorship to Democracy

• Spain experienced a military dictatorship and a democratic period with the establishment of the Second Republic.
• The Spanish Civil War concluded this period, establishing a new dictatorship.

The Primo de Rivera Dictatorship

• In 1923, General Primo de Rivera launched a coup d'état.
• Backed by conservatives, the middle class, and King Alfonso XIII that he was able to seize power as a Military that led to the suspension of the constitution and parliamentary rule.
• Nation policies was to install the Union Patriótica as the political party and suppressing national identity/freedom, particularly in Catolonia and other provinces .
• Foreign relations put an end to the War of Morocco in the operation known as the Alhucemas landing.
• Genernal Primo de Rivera implemented expansion and modernize roads. In additional expansion telephone services and the petroleum industry were implemented.
• At first, Primo de Rivera had broad support because the economy improved. He replaced the regime with a civil military to make a new stable constitution.
• As Primo de Rivera lost military support, opposition came when the economy shifted in 1929.
• Alfonso XIII named General Berenguer as head of government with the goal to move that supported dictatorship into normality.

The Second Republic

• The republican period was separated into 3 stages: Leftist biennium, Center-right biennium and the Popular Front.

Leftist Biennium (1931-1933)

• The reformer was comprised of many republican parties and Niceto Alcala-Zamora and Manuel Azaña became president.
• Progress for the 1931 Constituition stated that the approved suferage and the separation of liberty for women.
• Also attempted to modernize country:

Autonomy

• The Statute of Autonomy to Cataluina in 1932 to move countries such as Vasco.

Religious

• Abolishing the religion budget and remove clergies.

Agrarian - Agrarian

• To increase small farm owners large non cultivation were seized.

Educational

• School education grew across all sectors.

Military -Military

• The law decreased those with allegiance and modernize officers whom have academic merit.

The 1936 Civil War

• The Northern African troupes revolted on July 17, 1936 against the Government and soon spread throughout spain that would start as a Coup d'ta swift led by the government.

International Aid

• The public would support republicans, union and front of workers.
• The army was dissolved for lack of preparation.
• USSR and Mexico that provided assitance and health.

Characteristics

• The Spanish Civial War sparked international interest in Europe.
• Neutral countries wouldn't prevent international crisis
• Totalist regimes would use military to find ways to mobilize.
• Italian and German armies helped allies while soviet armies helped those whom were in need.
• Shortage, famine was grave in the republic due to meat production was in the zone
• Reserved tradition women helped and those with milita assisted from armement Economic and long term impact Infrastructures were destroyed and transportation for farm and industrial.
• After the war the spanish would impose dictatorship of military and limitations of those whom didn't support
• No reconcilation in either party and repressions came that destitued the culture and caused political exile.