Alfonso XII of Spain: Reign and Political Landscape

Alfonso XII of Spain (1857-1885)

Alfonso XII of Spain (born in Madrid, 1857 - died in El Pardo, 1885) was King of Spain from 1875 to 1885. The reign of Alfonso XII marked the return of the House of Bourbon to Spain shortly after the interruption that began in 1868, which included the reign of Amadeus of Savoy and the First Spanish Republic. With the fall of the monarchy of King Amadeus I of the House of Savoy, and the First Republic, a document was signed stating that a parliamentary monarchy would ascend to the throne (1874). The following year, Alfonso arrived in Madrid and was crowned king. During his brief reign, three main lines of action were pursued:

• Ending the conflict between Carlism and Isabelism: The Third Carlist War ended, and Alfonso was recognized by broad sectors of Carlism. The Conservative Party carried out the work of pacification and the drafting of the military constitution of 1876.
• Restrictive measures affecting academic freedom: Professors not loyal to the government were expelled.
• Administrative centralization: This was manifested in the abolition of Basque immunity, a consequence of the end of the Third Carlist War.

Between 1881 and 1883, a pact was made with the liberal Sagasta, which initiated the system of alternating between two dynastic parties. The government re-established academic freedom of expression. The international politics of the period were very prudent, appropriate, according to Cánovas, for a country in decline. There was no isolation, as there was an interest in giving a good image of the Spanish monarchy, nor was there a commitment to taking unnecessary risks.

Carlism

Militarily defeated in 1876, Carlism failed to recover the importance it previously had, due mainly to the support that the Vatican and the Catholic hierarchy gave to Alfonso XII. Carlism was reduced to an ideological point, socially circumscribed to the Basque Country and Navarre, large areas of Catholic foralism. It was divided into two trends:

• The Fundamentalists: Led by Ramón Nocedal, they criticized the excessive liberalism of the pretender Charles VII and exalted the values of Catholicism and its influence in all spheres of public life.
• The Traditionalists: Ideologically influenced by Juan Vázquez de Mella, they evolved towards regionalist positions.

Republicanism

Republicans were grouped into several common doctrinal and political environments of the former leaders of democratic administration:

• Federalists: Led by Francisco Pi i Margall, they leaned towards socialist positions and found an echo in popular sectors and urban areas.
• Unionists: Nicolás Salmerón formed the Centralist Party (1891). They were supporters of territorial and state politics, and their liberalism represented a sector of the bourgeois intelligentsia.
• Radicals: They formed the Progressive Republican Party, led by Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla.
• Possibilists: A conservative minority group, led by Emilio Castelar, who supported the regime to achieve some of their objectives.