A Crisis of Absolute Monarchy: Abdications and Napoleonic Occupation (PDF)

# A CRISIS OF ABSOLUTE MONARCHY: ABDICATIONS AND NAPOLEONIC OCCUPATION ## 1.1 Introduction The concept of the *Old Regime* refers to the political, social, and economic system in place in Europe from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Its main characteristics are absolute monarchy (the king holds all...

# A CRISIS OF ABSOLUTE MONARCHY: ABDICATIONS AND NAPOLEONIC OCCUPATION ## 1.1 Introduction The concept of the *Old Regime* refers to the political, social, and economic system in place in Europe from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Its main characteristics are absolute monarchy (the king holds all the powers of the state), a class-based society (divided into privileged and non-privileged estates), and an agrarian-based economy. It ends with the triumph of bourgeois liberal revolutions in Europe in the late 18th century in France and the first third of the 19th century in most of Western Europe. ## 1.2 THE REIGN OF CHARLES IV (1788 - 1814) One year after the beginning of his reign, the eruption of the French Revolution (1789) took place. This event caused panic among the Spanish authorities, fearing that the revolution would spread to Spain (known as the *panic of Floridablanca*). Spain's relations with revolutionary France went through the following phases: * **Neutrality (1789-1792).** Spain chose not to intervene in French internal affairs, leaving it to other absolutist powers to fight against France in the Wars of Coalition. Floridablanca, and later Aranda, led the government. * **War against France (1793 - 1795).** From 1793 until the end of Charles IV's reign, Manuel Godoy commanded the government. The execution of the King of France, Louis XVI, led Spain to declare war (the *War of the Pyrenees*). The conflict was a disaster for Spain's interests, as Spain's territories in Catalonia and Basque Country were occupied by French troops under the Treaty of Basel. * **Alliance with France (1796 - 1808).** Spain's possessions in America rebelled against the crown, following the ideas of the French Revolution. Many of these uprisings were supported by Great Britain. Under a mentality of "my enemy's enemy is my friend," Spain made a pact with France under the Treaties of San Ildefonso, with the goal of restoring order in America and weakening the British. This new Franco-Spanish alliance led to a war against one of Great Britain's allies, Portugal (the *War of Oranges*), and a direct confrontation with Great Britain resulting in Spain's defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). By the end of 1807, the situation in Spain was complicated. There was a national bankruptcy, widespread famine, and the monarchy's and Godoy's popularity fell drastically. These events, along with the alliance with Great Britain, triggered a series of events leading to war: * **The Treaty of Fontainebleau (1807).** This treaty allowed French troops to cross Spanish territory to invade Portugal, an ally of the United Kingdom. The treaty included the division of Portugal between Spain and France and the creation of the Kingdom of the Algarve for Godoy. The French took advantage of the situation to invade major Spanish cities. * **The Mutiny of Aranjuez (1808).** Fearing a French invasion, Godoy attempted to move the royal family to Seville to board a ship bound for America. At that moment, the prince Fernando took advantage of the discontent among the population, which had grown with the French occupation, to start the *Mutiny of Aranjuez* (1808), forcing Godoy's dismissal and the abdication of Charles IV. Napoleon managed to relocate Fernando VII and Charles IV to Bayonne (France), where Fernando VII abdicated in favor of his father, and he in turn abdicated in favor of the emperor, who ceded the crown to his brother, Joseph I Bonaparte (reign 1808-1813). They are known as the *Abdications of Bayonne*. ## 1.3 The War of Independence (1808 - 1814) With the new monarch, Joseph I Bonaparte, Spain was integrated into Napoleon's imperial project. The foundations of this new state would be laid out in the *Statute of Bayonne* (1808). It aimed to transform the absolute monarchy of the Bourbons into an authoritarian political system but including some liberal measures, such as equality before the law for all Spaniards or the abolition of feudalism. These measures were only accepted by a small minority of enlightened elites. Most of the Spanish people, very traditional, rejected Joseph I, turning him into an unpopular monarch who would need to govern a territory unwilling to accept his reformist measures. The French were perceived mainly as invaders, which became evident in the events of May 2, 1808, in Madrid, where part of the population rose up against the French army. While this uprising was unsuccessful, it marked the beginning of the War of Independence. To understand this conflict, you need to know who the "sides" were: * **Joseph I** relied on the support of his military forces and part of Spain's administration and army that remained loyal to him, as well as some high-ranking officials and intellectuals who saw in the French monarch a leader to expand the revolution to Spain. They were known as the *afrancesados*. * Fighting against them were a heterogeneous group of rebels that included absolutists, who wanted to see Fernando VII restored, and liberals, who sought to transform Spain into a liberal state, but without being controlled by Napoleon. The rebels organized themselves into *supreme juntas* at a provincial and local level. These were coordinated by a *supreme central junta* located in Cadiz and composed of representatives of other juntas. In the *Battle of Bailén*, the rebels prevented Napoleon from controlling Andalusia and forced Joseph I to flee to France. However, Napoleon would respond with a new invasion that defeated the juntas. With a disorganized army, the rebels were forced to fight against the invader through guerrilla tactics. It was only when Napoleon needed to send troops to the Russian front and with the support of England, that the rebels managed to seize control of Spain in 1814, the year that Fernando VII returned. ## 1.4 Conclusion. We should highlight the War of Independence and the Constitution of 1812 as two of the fundamental pillars in the construction of Spanish contemporary national identity. Both allowed a non-industrialized country with an absolutism that met with little opposition within its borders, to build a liberal state.