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The 'Sexenio Revolucionario'

In 2023 and 2024 we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the First Spanish Republic (1873-1874), which was the culmination of the revolutionary six-year period known as the Sexenio Revolucionario (1868-1874, also known as the Sexenio Democrático).

The 1868 democratic revolution, known as the Glorious or September Revolution, led to the deposition of Isabella II and the expulsion of the Bourbon dynasty.

The erosion of the authoritarian monarchical regime represented by Queen Isabella II, aggravated by a deep economic crisis and bad harvests in the years 1867-1868, led sectors of military and political society to join a revolutionary plot against the Isabella’s regime, which began in Cádiz in September 1868.;

Those driving the triumphant revolution (monarchist Liberals and Progressives) sought to make Spain a truly democratic, parliamentary and constitutional monarchy. The movement was led by the Progressive Party and the Liberal Union, with the support of the Republicans, while in Catalonia it was led by the Federal Democratic Republican Party. Barcelona underwent a genuine democratic revolution, inspired by the widespread desire for structural transformation to the Spanish political system.

A provisional government was formed under the leadership of Generals Serrano and Prim, and the assembly of the constituent Cortes was convened and approved a new democratic, although monarchical, constitution in 1869. In November 1870, the Cortes proclaimed Amadeo I of Savoy as king, but shortly afterwards his main supporter, general Prim, was assassinated.

Political instability during Amadeo’s short reign (1871-1873), in which there were six governments and three general elections, social, political and economic turmoil and two active wars (the Ten Years’ War in Cuba, which began in 1868, and the Third Carlist War, which began in 1872), led to Amadeo’s abdication and proclamation of the Republic on 11 February 1873.

The leaders of the Glorious Revolution drove through a number of reforms with the aim of modernising the country, some of which were maintained by the Republic.

The First Republic was short-lived and turbulent, but it sowed the seeds for several projects that would reach fruition half a century later in the Second Republic (1931).

Further information on the Sexenio Revolucionario

After the triumph of the Glorious Revolution, Generals Francisco Serrano and Joan Prim were appointed Regent and President of the Council of Ministers, respectively. Serrano was appointed while the search for a new monarch continued.

Supported by the Progressives (who split into Progressives and Radicals after the assassination of Joan Prim), Liberals and Republicans, the new regime introduced universal male suffrage (over 25 years of age). In 1869, elections for the constituent Cortes were called to choose the representatives for the National Assembly (Congress and Senate). Once the new 1869 constitutional monarchy had been approved, the process of selecting the new monarch began. Amadeo, a young Piedmontese noble from the House of Savoy, was selected out of the proposed candidates. But on 30 December 1870, a month and a half after Amadeo was proclaimed king by the Cortes, General Prim, President of the Government at the time and one of the main supporters of the new monarch, was assassinated in Madrid. Now without Prim, Amadeo’s reign began in January 1871 already much weakened. He was a monarch with little support, who barely spoke Spanish and who was considered a foreigner. His governments were unable to tackle the political divisions and tensions among the different majority parties. Furthermore, 1868 saw the start of the Ten Years’ War in Cuba, while the Third Carlist War broke out in 1872, fuelled by the Church’s discontent over its loss of influence. There were also frequent revolts by the Federal Republicans, while further revolts by Internationalist workers also began, especially in opposition to forced recruitment (the so-called quintas). Amadeo abdicated on 10 February 1873, after reigning for just over two years.

Since the early 1860s, Europe had been evolving from the First Industrial Revolution to the Second. The period was characterised by the colonisation and exploitation of new territories, mainly in Africa, the emergence of new sources of energy, a decline in demand for the railways, competition from American cereals and a shortage of cotton due to the American Civil War, while free trade was greatly curtailed by protectionism. In Spain, the main cities were Madrid, with just over 600,000 inhabitants, and Barcelona, the capital of an industrially developing territory, with less than 250,000 inhabitants. However, Catalonia would become the Spanish economic powerhouse over the following decades.

In the second half of the 19th century, Catalan culture was in crisis, as most well-off Catalans accepted that the Catalan language was a dialect of Castilian Spanish, surviving only among the working classes. In this period, Catalan society moved from enthusiasm created by the African War of 1860 between the Kingdom of Spain and the Moroccan Empire to gradually reclaiming its own identity, especially after the triumph of the 1868 democratic revolution and in the context of the Renaixença (the Catalan Renaissance). However, during the Sexenio Democrático, more specifically during the Republic, this recovery was not mirrored politically. Republicans in Catalonia defended decentralising federalism, a federal state, within the Spanish nation. Except for certain newspapers, most political writing was in Spanish. It would not be until after the Restoration in the 1880s that Catalan and political Catalan nationalism would emerge.

Images:
The outbreak of the Glorious Revolution in Barcelona, September 1868. Citizens of Barcelona burning portraits of the Bourbon kings. Barcelona Provincial Council General Archive.
General Joan Prim, President of the Council of Ministers, died following an assassination attempt on 27 December 1870. Engraving published in La Ilustración Española y Americana of 5 January 1871. Library of Catalonia.
The leaders of the 1868 September Revolution. From left to right, Joan Prim i Prats, Juan Bautista Topete and Francisco Serrano y Domínguez. Drawing by Tomàs Padró. La Madeja, 14 March 1875. Library of Catalonia.
King Amadeo I had a very short reign. In the picture, with Manuel Ruiz y Zorrilla and Cristino Martos Balbi. Below, the new Spanish 5-peseta coin. Drawing by Tomàs Padró. La Madeja, 14 March 1875. Library of Catalonia.
Floral Games in Catalan in 1868. Frederic Mistral, surrounded by Catalan and Provençal poets. Photographer unknown. Barcelona Provincial Council General Archive.
Spanish society was illiterate. According to the 1860 census, only three out of every ten citizens could read and write. Illiteracy was more prevalent among women. La Carcajada, 3 October 1872. Library of Catalonia.

Proclamation of the Republic

Amadeo I’s resignation caught the political leaders off guard, most of all the Republicans, who had advocated conquering the federal republic from the bottom up. However, the sudden abdication of the monarch meant the Federal Republican leaders now defended the top-down creation of the Spanish Republic by legal means. Immediacy was the key factor in the proclamation. On 11 February 1873, the Congress and Senate were constituted in the National Assembly, which proclaimed the Republic, even though the Republicans were in the minority. Finding themselves without a candidate for the throne, some of the monarchists, the Radical Democrats, voted for the Republic as a lesser evil, possibly hoping that the social, political and economic situation in Spain would allow them to restore the parliamentary monarchy at a later date. The Republic was launched within the framework of the monarchical, although democratic, constitution of 1869.

The new Spanish Republic was recognised only by the USA and Switzerland. The rest of the European chancelleries turned a blind eye. 

News of the proclamation of the Republic was greeted with celebrations in the main Catalan towns, starting with Barcelona, and great expectations of proclaiming the Federal Republic. 

The first provisional Government of the Republic was presided over by the Catalan lawyer Estanislau Figueras i de Moragas (1819-1882). Figueras, a renowned Federal Republican, was President of the executive branch of the Republic from 12 February to 11 June 1873. Initially, he presided over a Republican-Radical coalition government (February-April 1873). After two attempted coups by the Radicals (one of the two main tendencies springing from the former Progressives) on 24 February and 23 April, the Radicals left the Government and went into opposition. The Federal Republicans formed a government alone and called elections for the constituent Cortes (now just the Congress), for May 1873. The elections, which were boycotted by the other political forces (who called for abstention), produced an overwhelming majority for the Republicans, with a very low turnout.

Further information on the proclamation of the Republic

The first Federal Democratic Republican Party (PRDF) government, with Figueras as its President, and Francesc Pi i Margall as its strong man, had to confront an extreme economic crisis: an indebted state with a failed treasury facing pressure from the working classes, day labourers and workers, who demanded land and work. Politically, in addition to the monarchists, the President faced the opposition of the Radicals (initially from within the Government), who were profoundly anti-federal, the distrust of the unitary Republicans themselves, the intransigence of the Federal Republicans, confrontations in the streets with the labour movement, associated with the First International, known as the Internationalists, and the war with the Carlists. To bring the situation under control, the Government initially dissolved the provincial revolutionary committees and re-established the republican town councils, which had been abolished by the governments under Amadeo. Waging two declared wars, in Cuba and the Third Carlist War (which started in 1872), required reforming the army and recruiting new troops, when the Republican programme had always advocated replacing the army with voluntary militias and abolishing enforced recruitment.

In Catalonia, all the elections held during the Sexenio Democrático were won by the Federal Republicans. However, in the rest of Spain, monarchist liberal forces were winning, with the Republicans in a minority. It is not surprising, therefore, that when news of the proclamation of the Republic reached the main Catalan towns, including Barcelona, early on 12 February, it was greeted with exuberant expressions of joy and expectations.

On receiving official news of the proclamation, the monarchist Mayor of Barcelona, Francisco de Paula Rius i Taulet (1833-1890), ordered the hoisting of the Federal Republican flag: red with a white triangle and white stars, with the words democracy and Catalonia. Rius i Taulet resigned once the Republic had been proclaimed. A crowd of people gathered in Plaça Sant Jaume to celebrate the Republic with speeches and chants. A Catalan coat of arms with a Phrygian cap on top was hung in the Barcelona Provincial Council palace. The day was joyous and festive. There was the same festive atmosphere in most Catalonia towns.

Images:
Proclamation of the Republic at the National Assembly in Madrid on 11 February 1873. Engraving published in La Ilustración Española y Americana on 16 February 1873. Library of Catalonia.
From the outset, the Republic received support only from the USA and the Swiss Confederation. The rest of the European states turned their backs on it. Engraving published in La Flaca on 28 March 1873. Library of Catalonia.
Plaça Sant Jaume in Barcelona was the scene of several demonstrations in February 1873, after the proclamation of the Republic on the morning of the 12th. A few days later, on 21 February, the Republicans rallied to proclaim the Catalan State within the Spanish Federal Republic and demand the dissolution of the army. Engraving published in La Ilustración Española y Americana on 8 March 1873. Library of Catalonia.
First Council of Ministers of the Republic, chaired by Estanislau Figueras. La Flaca, 10 June 1873. Library of Catalonia.

Political trends (I)

Political trends and the party panorma during the Republic (I)

Political parties in the second half of the 19th century were very weak, unstable, poorly structured and had little territorial presence. The insurrectionism of the time was in their DNA. They included broad ideological spectrums and were divided into warring factions. They had no democratic experience or culture and were more parties of cadres and strongmen.

This was the panorama of the political parties at the time of the First Republic, from right to left.

Carlists

There were the legitimist and traditionalist monarchists who favoured re-establishing the monarchy with the descendants of Prince Charles, the brother of King Ferdinand VII. Originally absolutist and supporters of the Ancien Régime, they opposed liberalism and parliamentarism. During the Sexenio Democrático, they created a party, the Traditionalist Communion (1869), with an ultra-Catholic ideology. They alternated participation in the elections with their habitual insurrectionist strategy. During the First Republic, they took up arms against the Government (from 1872, in the time of King Amadeo), led by the pretender Charles VII.

Conservatives

These were monarchists with conservative or moderate liberal tendencies. The Conservative Party (Liberal Conservative) as such was not founded until after the Bourbon Restoration in 1875. During the First Republic, the Conservatives were a mixed bag of deputies in the Cortes, some of them from the Moderates and the Liberal Union, sympathetic to the interests of the landowning, colonial (slave-owning) and industrial oligarchy, with the support of the gentry and aristocracy, the army and the Church. Initially, they waited to see how the Glorious Revolution would develop, but during the First Republic they the supported restoration of the official Bourbon dynasty, in the person of Alfonso, son of Isabella II (hence they were known as Alfonsinos). The main Conservative leader during the Republic was Cánovas del Castillo.

Radicals and Constitutionalists

The Progressive Party represented the advanced progressive liberals during the reign of Isabella II. It became the main driving force behind the Glorious Revolution and the early years of the Sexenio Democrático under the leadership of General Prim, but then split in two after the general’s assassination in December 1870. The right wing became the Constitutional Party led by Sagasta. The left wing formed the Radical Democratic Party in 1871, led by Ruiz Zorrilla.

The two parties were originally monarchist parties, although anti-Bourbon, and after the abdication of King Amadeo they accepted the Republic. They defended universal suffrage, rights and freedoms, as well as the democratic constitution of 1869. They opposed federalism. The Radical Party took part in the first provisional Government of the Republic alongside the Federal Republicans, until the former were expelled after organising two attempted anti-federal coups. The Radical Party went into opposition, and quickly disintegrated due to infighting.

Further information on political trends (I)

Political parties in the second half of the 19th century were unlike those of today. They were very weak, unstable, poorly structured and had little territorial presence. All the parties (not only the Carlists and Republicans) had insurrectionism in their DNA as the political dynamic of the period. They followed the endemic trend in 19th-century Spain, with constant coups and military pronunciamientos involving both the parties and the army. There were military men in all political groupings, and they alternated between parliamentary politics and armed uprisings.

Moreover, the parties included broad ideological spectrums. Thus, they were characterised by grand ideological debates, internal struggles, personal rivalries and enmities, warring factions, continuous splits and chronic indiscipline. Lacking democratic experience and culture, they resisted alliances and pluralism, creating a very weak, chaotic and fragmented landscape, both between and within parties. Withdrawal, i.e. non-participation in elections was common practice, which announced the possible organisation of an insurrection. Many of these parties had clubs, societies, newspapers and even armed militias.

The parties differed mainly in the scope of reforms (more or less liberal, or openly democratic). The monarchy-republic polarisation appeared later on. Only the Republicans defended the republican option, but there were liberal and democratic sectors who, during the Glorious Revolution, considered the most important thing to be the framework of liberties, and that the Cortes would decide the form of state, so they accepted the Republic as inevitable once it was proclaimed.

During the Sexenio Democrático, there were numerous elections by universal (male) suffrage, but they failed to mobilise the masses: voter turnout was low.

Let us explore a little further the origins and positions of the different political parties at the time of the First Republic, from right to left.

Carlists

The movement arose in 1833, when Ferdinand VII died and his daughter, Isabella I, succeeded to the throne, opposed by Charles, the king’s younger brother. The Bourbon branch of his descendants had claimed the throne throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, through numerous insurrections and three Carlist Wars (1833-1840, 1846-1849 and 1872-1876). During the Sexenio Democrático, they integrated the neo-Catholics into their political formation, i.e. the Catholic fundamentalists who did not consider the dynastic dispute between two branches of the Bourbon family to be a priority.

The main Carlist leaders during the First Republic were Alfonso Carlos, brother of Charles VII, and the Catalan generals Tristán, Cabrera and Savalls.

Conservatives

The Conservatives had the support of the landowners’ leagues and, above all, the colonial National League, which was the lobby for the slave-trade and the West Indies, with interests in Cuba, which sought to maintain slavery on the island. They were counter-revolutionaries and anti-reformists, opposed to universal suffrage and in favour of restricting individual liberties. They were also deeply centralist and opposed to federalism.

The Conservatives were the direct heirs of the Liberals in the Moderate Party (the main party from 1833 to 1868), led by General Narváez, and did not survive the Glorious Revolution, and of the Liberal Union, a party created by General O’Donnell in 1854 and led in 1868 by General Serrano. The Malaga lawyer and politician Antonio Cánovas del Castillo was one of its main civilian leaders.

The Liberal Union, which also formed part of the Isabella II governments (O’Donnell), was created as a centrist option between Moderates and Progressives, integrating puritan Moderates and moderate Progressives. The party, which participated in the Glorious Revolution (1868) under the leadership of General Serrano, had little influence during the Republic. Its most right-wing faction, the Conservative Circle (Cánovas), turned to Bourbon legitimism after the abdication of Queen Isabella in favour of her son Alfonso in July 1870 and the crowning of Amadeo in November of the same year. Another section had joined the Radical Party, and later the Constitutional Party.

Radicals and Constitutionalists

The Radicals and the Constitutionalists were the heirs of the Progressives, who governed during the Progressive Biennium (1854-56) and during a good part of the Sexenio.

The Progressives, led by the Reus general Joan Prim, were the main driving force behind the Glorious Revolution (1868), together with the Liberal Union, led by General Serrano, with the support of the Democrats. In 1870 the Democratic Progressive Party (led by Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla and Joan Prim) was founded, which had incorporated the cimbrio Democrats (led by Nicolás María, a monarchist split from the Democratic Party) in 1869. With the assassination of Prim (December 1870), the party cracked, with the right wing bordering the Liberal Union (Serrano), a democratic wing on the left (Martos, Rivero), and in the centre, the bulk of progressive radicalism with a centre-right (Sagasta) and a democratic centre-left (Ruiz Zorrilla). In 1871, the split was consummated by the founding of two parties: the conservative or moderate Constitutional Progressive Party or Constitutional Party (Sagasta, Serrano), which incorporated part of the former Liberal Union; and the Radical Democratic Party or simply the Radical Party (Martos, Rivero, Ruiz Zorrilla). The two parties formed Amadeo I’s government. As monarchists, although deeply anti-Bourbon, they were the prime movers in the search for a non-Bourbon king and were the main supporters of King Amadeo I, until he abdicated in February 1873.

Both parties defended universal suffrage, rights and liberties and the 1869 democratic constitution, but opposed the social and federalist programme of the Democrats and Republicans. They advocated that the Cortes should decide the form of state, monarchy or republic, but always on a unitary basis. Amadeo’s abdication prompted their acceptance of the Republic, but not federalism. The Radical Party joined the first provisional governments together with the Federal Republicans, until they were removed after attempting two coups to gain total control of Government. The Radical Party went into opposition, suffered internal disputes and did not stand in the 1873 elections. In 1874, the Constitutionalists formed the backbone of Serrano’s republican but authoritarian governments.

With the Restoration, the Radical Party dissolved, and the Constitutional Party gave rise to the future Liberal Party of the Restoration, led by Sagasta. The Catalan deputy and writer Víctor Balaguer was a member of Sagasta’s Constitutional Party.

Images:
Portrait of the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne, Carlos María de los Dolores de Borbón y de Austria-Este (1848-1909), Charles VII for the Carlists. Drawing by S. M. Tersa published in El Lío, no. 7 (21), 18 April 1874, pp. 2-3. Library of Catalonia.
Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, leader of the conservatives. Colored drawing on photograph, extracted from the booklet published in Barcelona at the beginning of the 20th century, within the series «Hombres Célebres», with a brief biography of Cánovas written by Augusto Riera. Vinyes-Roig Family Collection.

Political trends (II)

Political trends and the party panorama during the Republic (II)

Republicans

The Federal Democratic Republican Party, the hegemonic party during the Republic (despite lacking a majority in the Cortes that proclaimed it), was founded as such in 1868, after the triumph of the Glorious Revolution, as a continuation of the Democratic Party founded in 1849. Numerous tendencies coexisted within the party, which aggravated the political instability of the Republic.

Initially, the federalists were the majority group (divided between the benevolents, or possibilists, and the intransigents), but the impotence of the first Republic governments, led by Figueras and Pi i Margall, faced with the onslaught of the Carlists and Cantonalism, driven by the intransigents themselves, gradually pushed the Government towards the more moderate Republicans, led by the philosopher Nicolás Salmerón, and the more conservative and explicitly Spanish nationalist ones, led by Emilio Castelar.

The latter preferred to postpone the federation, provided the Government with extraordinary powers and limit individual rights to deal with the Carlist and Cantonal uprisings. However, the intransigents sought a bottom-up proclamation to federalism, through mobilisation in the street.
The Republicans had a clearly democratic political programme: universal (male) suffrage; individual freedoms (press, assembly and association; freedom of religion; free trade; private property), far-reaching social reforms, and reform of the army. Their federal programme implied creating the State from the federation of provinces, from the bottom up. The main leader of the party was Francesc Pi i Margall.

Workers movements (Internationalists)

In 1870, several workers’ and farm labourers’ societies founded the Spanish Regional Federation (FRE) of the International Workingmen’s Association (IWA), or simply the First International. The Bakuninist or anti-authoritarian wing, as opposed to the Marxist wing, pushed to organise the FRE of the IWA, initially closely linked to the Federal Republicans. The Bakuninist Internationalists were profoundly insurrectionist, and in this they found common ground with the intransigent Republicans. Yet although the IWA advocated political abstention, many Internationalists voted for the Republicans. The Internationalists were in favour of collectivism and opposed private property; in this they differed from the Republicans, whom they identified as bourgeois as they were more in favour of individualism and cooperativism. During the Republic, they led strikes and insurrections (the most important being the Alcoy events or Petroleum Revolution in July 1873) and took part in the Cantonalist revolts.

Further information on political trends (II)

Democrats and Republicans

The Democratic Party, founded in 1849 when it split from the Progressive Party, became the Federal Democratic Republican Party (PRDF) in 1868.
During the 1850s and 1860s, the Democrats worked closely with the Progressives, especially the more left-wing Advanced Progressives, in a tactical alliance, even forming electoral coalitions.

From the beginning, the Democratic Party was a heterogeneous group in which there coexisted different tendencies: these included monarchists (anti-dynastic and anti-Isabella) and Republicans. The Republicans were divided between the unitarians (especially Krausists, such as Salmerón) and federalists. The federalists were also divided between benevolents (more gradualist and pacifist; Castelar) and intransigents (who wanted to implement federalism immediately and by force; General Contreras or Orense). On the right-left axis, the party ranged from Democratic Liberals or Conservatives (Castelar) to Philo-Socialists (Proudhonians or Cabetians; Pi i Margall). The former, individualists, defended property and measures of public order; the latter, more interventionist, had affinities with the workers’ (Internationalist) sectors, especially those who called themselves intransigents.

From 1868, the PRDF declared itself unanimously republican and officially federalist.

At the end of 1868, when the party had already declared itself republican, the monarchist Democrats left the formation. They were the so-called cimbrios (led by Martos and Rivero), supporters of a popular, parliamentary and democratic monarchy. They would later participate in founding the Radical Democratic Party (1871).

From 1870 onwards, the PRDF, with its insurrectionist origins and tradition (like all the other parties), adopted a legalist path and created a more organic structure that included provincial committees. They also had a network of newspapers, societies and schools, as well as republican militias (volunteers for freedom) throughout the country.

The proclamation of the Republic by the Cortes (with a monarchist majority) in 1873, more due to lack of candidates for the monarch (opposition to the Bourbons was almost unanimous) than out of republican convictions, caught the Republicans unaware. Although they had adopted a legalistic and parliamentary strategy in 1870, their insurrectionist tendency still weighed heavily. They had defended establishing the federal republic from below and now proclaimed it from above, which Pi i Margall rectified in Government, by adopting a gradualist top-down policy, which was boycotted by the intransigents. 

During the Republic, the party was deeply divided between a federalist and reformist centre (Pi i Margall); a right wing, which was moderate or liberal democratic, which demanded a strong central government and little economic intervention, and favoured an iron fist against the intransigents and the workers’ movement, and sought to postpone federalism (Salmerón and Castelar); and the intransigents, who sought to implement bottom-up federalism with mobilisations and uprisings, maintain the militias, and apply more advanced social reforms (Ourense, Roque Barcia and Almirante).
Democratic Republicans defended the federal republic, universal (male) suffrage and individual freedoms (press, assembly and association, of religion, teaching, free trade and private property). Traditionally anti-clerical, they pursued the separation of Church and State. Their model was small individual property ownership: a society of citizen-owners, a paradigm of productivity. Thus, they advocated land redistribution, cooperativism and profound social reforms, based on: reducing working hours and limiting child labour; the abolition of slavery, still in existence in the Spanish West Indies, and the death penalty; the professionalisation and depoliticisation of the army and the abolition of the forced conscription; elimination of certain taxes, such as consumption taxes, and the introduction of progressive taxation; the reform of both the legal and prison systems; the introduction of the jury and civil marriage; and the creation of a system of public instruction. 

Their federal model was fundamentally practical, decentralising, assembly-based and participatory, and they saw it as a way of conducting politics. They were mainly localists (mostly defending municipal autonomy). To prevent oppression from State and army, they sought to build the federal republic from the bottom up, through the individual, family, municipality and province, and to do so through alliances, so that the provinces would freely federate to constitute the State. This State would be decentralised, with few powers in the hands of central Government, and would be made up of provinces, cantons or regions. There were also regional federalists, supporters of the historical regions.

The main leaders of the Democrats were Rivero (the overall leader in 1849), Orense (their historical leader) and Martos, while the Federal Republicans included Figueras, Pi i Margall (the leading figure from 1870 onwards), Salmerón and Castelar. In Catalonia, the Republican leaders included Abdó Terrades, Monturiol, Joarizti, Sunyer i Capdevila, Lostau, Cerdà and Almirall. The latter was the main leader of the Catalan intransigent federalism.
Republicanism openly in favour of establishing a centralist republic was led by the journalist and politician Eugenio García Ruiz and was a very minority movement. General Pavía pressed for him to become Minister of the Interior in the first Government of the authoritarian Republic headed by General Serrano.

Republicanism was most firmly established in Catalonia and Andalusia.

Workers movements (Internationalists) 

In the IWA, there was a struggle between one of its founders, Karl Marx, identified by his rivals as a supporter of authoritarian socialism, and his rivals, who called themselves anti-authoritarian socialists, led by Bakunin, called anarchists by the Marxists. The Bakuninists were the ones who drove the organisation of the FRE of the IWA. It was initially closely linked to the PRDF, since the First Internationals came from the ranks of the Republicans. The Spanish International soon drifted towards syndicalism, apoliticism and united resistance, influenced by Fanelli, Bakunin and the Paris Commune. By the end of 1872, the FRE had already held three congresses and had 29,000 members, growing to 50,000 by 1873. Forty per cent of national trade unions and local federations were from Catalonia. They were also strong in the Valencian Community and Andalusia. Alongside the Internationals, however, there coexisted other local and trade resistance societies, which was how non-Internationalist trade unions identified themselves in the 19th century.

The split between Bakuninists and Marxists began when Marx’s son-in-law Lafargue arrived in Spain in December 1871. In 1872, the Internationalists split into two: the Alliancist or Bakuninist wing, and the Marxist wing (also described as anti-authoritarian and authoritarian). In January 1873 a split took place, producing two federal leaderships, an Alliancist one in Alcoy and a Marxist one in Valencia. When the Republic was proclaimed, the former did not collaborate (because it was bourgeois) while the latter supported it. The Marxists were torn between creating a new class-based party or participating in Republicanism. Many workers’ societies chose apolitical and moderate trade unionism and legalism and abandoned insurrectionism, especially in Catalonia, choosing to prioritise the struggle against the Carlists and participate in the elections with the Republicans. Bakuninism would not become hegemonic again in the IWA for decades. The IWA, which had already been banned in 1872, was again banned in January 1874, when General Serrano became President of the authoritarian Republic.

Its main leaders were Anselmo Lorenzo and Francisco Tomás.

Images:
Republican-Federal candidacy in Barcelona, in the elections on 11 May 1873. Engraving published in La Campana de Gracia on 11 May 1873. Library of Catalonia.
The main political leaders in the different periods of the Sexenio Democrático. The first frame shows the Glorious Revolution and the Provisional Government (1868-70); the second, the monarchy of Amadeo I (1870-73); the third, the democratic Republic (1873), and the fourth, the authoritarian Republican period (1874). The sum of the four IIIs is XII, i.e. Alfonso XII, the monarch who would end up ruling the kingdom of Spain in 1875. Drawing published in La Madeja (30 January 1875), pp. 2-3. Library of Catalonia.

The Third Carlist War in Catalonia

The Republic suffered a period of war and instability, making it unable to control all the territories in Spain. It was involved in the Ten Years’ War in Cuba from 1868, the Third Carlist War from 1872 and, from July 1873, the Cantonal rebellion.

After Amadeo I was proclaimed King of Spain, the supporters of the Carlist dynasty, led by the pretender known to his supporters as Charles VII, launched a new attack on the monarchical regime. On 21 April 1872, the Third Carlist War broke out with shouts of “Down with the foreigner!” and “Long live Spain!”, and there were uprisings in the Basque Country, Navarre and Catalonia, as well as small pockets in the Valencian Community, Aragon and Andalusia. In Catalonia, however, the Carlist uprising had begun a few days earlier, on 7 and 8 April 1872. 

The war was particularly important in Catalonia, given that a large part of Catalan territory was in the hands of the Carlists. The civil war pitted the anti-clericalism prevalent in a large part of the urban population against the supporters of fundamentalist Catholicism. Furthermore, the Carlists also supported the old charters and, in Catalonia, the reversal of the Nueva Planta decrees of 1716. The Carlists came to occupy cities such as Berga, Vic, Olot and La Seu d’Urgell, and raided and looted towns near Barcelona, such as Igualada, Manresa, Granollers, Sabadell, Castellterçol, Molins de Rei and Mataró. This helped moderate attempts to proclaim a federal state in Barcelona, given the overriding priority of combating the Carlists.

In the spring of 1873, the war continued with considerable intensity. On the Carlist side, General Francesc Savalls Massot (1817-1885) won a number of important victories. On the liberal side, General Josep Cabrinetty i de Cladera (1822-1873), who was very popular in Catalonia, died in the battle of Alpens on 12 June 1873.

On 3 April 1873, a protest was organised in Barcelona demanding that Barcelona Provincial Council, in the name of the people, call a general mobilisation to put an end to the Carlist War.

The columns of Catalan Federal Republican volunteers, armed by the provincial councils, fought the Carlists in a ferocious civil war.

The war ended in Spain in February 1876 and in Catalonia in the summer of 1875, during the reign of Alfonso XII. The civil war had lasted three years in Catalonia.

Further information on the Third Carlist War in Catalonia

The Carlist conflict had been dragging on since the 1830s, when Isabella II, daughter of King Ferdinand VII, became queen. Before her death (1833) she abolished the Salic law and named her daughter heir to the throne, instead of her brother Charles. His supporters, the Carlists, proclaimed the old order, based on defending Catholic fundamentalism and restoring lost traditions and privileges, and, in Catalonia, the constitutions abolished with the Nueva Planta decrees of 1716. The two sides in the war were, on the one hand, the Carlists, supporters of traditionalism and absolutism, and on the other, the Liberals, defenders of the constitutional parliamentary regime. The Carlist pretender was known to his supporters as Charles VII. He was the nephew of the first Carlist pretender.

The Carlists gathered support from conservative European governments, reluctant to accept Amadeo’s liberal monarchy. The Carlists’ provisional capital was Estella, where a complete ministerial and administrative structure was organised, along with services, such as the post office, courts, education and university. Factories were also founded. A penal code was even established.

The pretender to the throne appointed his brother Alfonso Carlos as Commander-General of Catalonia. Alfonso Carlos did not exercise this position until he crossed the Spanish-French border at the end of 1872. Until then, General Rafael Tristany had provisionally held the post. At first, the Carlists operated through independent groups, but with the arrival of Alfonso Carlos the military strategy was unified under a single command.
Barcelona Provincial Council led the war effort against the Carlists, intervening in the command of the army (which it distrusted) and creating voluntary and paid militias. According to the historian Borja de Riquer, the repercussions of the war on the functioning of [Barcelona] Provincial Council were considerable. Most towns were unable to pay their taxes, many road works came to a standstill and, furthermore, the provincial corporation would have to contribute financially to supporting the army and improving town and city defences (La Diputación revolucionaria 1868-1874, 2003, p. 57).

The most notable figure on the Carlist side was General Francisco Savalls Massot (1817-1885), who won a number of major victories and led the Carlist troops in the Girona regions. On the Liberal side, General Josep Cabrinetty i de Cladera (1822-1873), hero of the liberation of Puigcerdà from the Carlist siege (1872), was shot in the back of the head as he entered the main square in Alpens on 12 June 1873. Cabrinetty was very popular among the Republicans and his death shocked Catalonia.

Images:
The main Carlist military commanders in Catalonia. Illustration published in La Flaca on 6 February 1873. Library of Catalonia.
Allegory of the civil war in Catalonia during the Republic. Drawing by Tomàs Padró. Illustration published in La Flaca on 24 April 1873. Library of Catalonia.
Charles, the pretender to the throne, with the army staff of the Carlist army. Unknown photographer. Barcelona Provincial Council General Archive.
Call to the demonstration of Democratic and Federal Republicans in Barcelona on 3 April 1873, demanding Barcelona Provincial Council implement a general mobilisation and create volunteer columns to fight against the Carlist army. Barcelona Provincial Council General Archive.
Republican volunteers called by a young Republic to fight against the Carlist army. Illustration published in La Flaca on 31 May 1873. Library of Catalonia.
The Republic calls for people to do their duty in the civil war and Ten Years’ War. Illustration published in La Flaca on 3 April 1873. Library of Catalonia.
Josep Cabrinetty i de Cladera, a leading figure in the Liberal army. He was the liberator of Puigcerdà after the Carlist siege, on 10 and 11 April 1873. He died in the Battle of Alpens against the Carlists on 12 June 1873. La Flaca, 31 July 1873. Library of Catalonia.

The Figueras Presidency

The Figueras Presidency. The attemps to proclaim a Federal Catalan State

The newly born Republic had not yet defined the form its state would take. There were two main camps among the Republicans: those who defended a federal republic and those who defended a unitary republic. As the latter was considered a lesser evil, it was supported by the monarchists and Radicals, still in the majority in the National Assembly. Once elected in May 1873, the new constituent Cortes, with a republican and federal majority, proclaimed the Federal Republic on 8 June. Its implementation depended on the new republican constitution, which the Assembly began to draw up, although it was never adopted.

When news of the proclamation of the Republic reached Catalonia, the federalists pushed for a proclamation of the Catalan State (initially Barcelona) to ensure the Republic would be federal from the outset. Numerous attempts were made and fostered by Barcelona Provincial Council. But a large sector of the Catalan Republicans advocated, first and foremost, stabilising the new government and dealing with the Carlist threat.

Consequently, in February and March, Barcelona Provincial Council agreed to control and even disband the army (the latter measure being approved but never implemented) and replace it with a corps of volunteer militias (the Guies de la Diputació) in the service of the Republic. Throughout the period, the Council armed and organised several volunteer battalions to fight the Carlist columns.

Faced with the situation in Barcelona, Figueras travelled to the Catalan capital to stop the proposed proclamation of a Catalan State and resolve the split between the army and the Council. On 12 March, Figueras presided over an extraordinary session of Barcelona Provincial Council, attended by delegations from the other Catalan provincial councils and the Balearic Islands, which were not in favour of disbanding the army for the duration of the war against the Carlists. The deputies, fearful of the fall of Figueras and the Republic, froze the proclamation of the Catalan State and expressed their confidence in the central Government.

Given the political instability, on 11 June, Estanislau Figueras left his written resignation in his office and went to Paris. Figueras reportedly told the Government, in Catalan: “Gentlemen, I’ve had enough of all of us”. In the end, Figueras’ resignation/escape meant that Francesc Pi i Margall, also a Catalan, became the second President of the Republic.

Further information on the Figueras Presidency

Barcelona was the capital of Federal Democratic Republicanism. The intransigent Federal Republicans, who wanted to proclaim the Catalan federal state immediately, were very strong in Catalonia. Among its promoters were Valentí Almirall i Llozer (1841-1904) and the society he chaired, the Federalists Club. At that time, Almirall was the director of the Casa de la Caritat charity home, linked to Barcelona Provincial Council. The intransigents considered the Republican Government in Madrid to be centralist, and wanted to speed up the abolition of forced conscription and conversion of the army into voluntary militias, as well as the abolition of both slavery and the tax on consumption, in addition to carrying out far-reaching economic and labour reforms.

According to Almirall and the intransigent federalists, the transformation of Spain into a federation was to be brought about by a bottom-up revolution, i.e. through the initiative of the working classes in the territories. The federalists looked to the Swiss or US model; thus, Spain would be a nation, but made up of states, such as Catalonia. This was not a separatist proposal, but a decentralising organisational project that gave most of the powers to the provinces, which together would constitute the State. They thought this would prevent the arbitrariness of the central Government.

It is not surprising that attempts to there were frequent attempts proclaim the Catalan or Barcelona federal state in Barcelona (on 12 February, 21 February, 2 March, 5-9 March, 23 April, July, and more). Most were driven by a majority of intransigent Federal Republican deputies in Barcelona Provincial Council and sometimes as a result of grassroots protests. Baldomer Lostau i Prats (1846-1896) was one of their main promoters, but who like others eventually preferred to postpone it until the Carlist front had stabilised. In fact, the proximity of the front and the need to consolidate the Republic led the deputies to postpone the federal state in order to concentrate on the fight against the Carlists. The Carlists already dominated a large part of Catalonia and were approaching Barcelona. In addition, the other Catalan provincial councils, dominated by benevolent Republicans, were not in favour of proclaiming the federal state.

The civil war and disorganisation of the army in Catalonia meant that Barcelona Provincial Council prioritised maintaining the armed mobilisation against the Carlists. In March, the Council’s efforts were mainly aimed at building and arming the militias it had created (the Guies de la Diputació), led by Lostau, to fight the Carlists. A Salvation and Defence Board was set up in July to centralise the anti-Carlist response, but it was to have little effect.

One month after the provincial deputies renounced proclaiming the federal state after the visit of Figueras, on 23 April in Madrid there was a further attempt by the Radicals to exert their strength against the federal government. Consequently, the intransigent federal Catalans, seeing that they might succeed, once again proposed proclaiming the Catalan State by Barcelona Provincial Council. But once the Radicals’ proclamation failed, the measure did not materialise.

The elections to the constituent Cortes in May once again gave Catalonia an undisputable victory for the Federal Republicans. And for the first time, this was the case in Spain too. The elections saw a low turnout throughout Spain. In Catalonia, only 25% of male voters over the age of 21 voted. Monarchists and unitary Republicans did not stand and the incipient workers’ societies urged abstention. Only the Federal Republicans, divided between government supporters and intransigents, took part.

The President of Barcelona Provincial Council, Benet Arabio i Torres, was elected to Congress. He was replaced by the engineer Ildefons Cerdà i Sunyer (1815-1876), a moderate Federal Republican, who was highly regarded in the different Republican sectors.

During the Republic, from February to December 1873, the Catalan Federal Republicans played a very important role in the Government in Madrid: two Presidents (Figueras and Pi i Margall) and five ministers (Pi i Margall, Soler i Pla, Tutau, Nouvilas, and Sunyer i Capdevila).

Images:
Unitary or Federal Republic. The Catalan Republicans were in favour of federalism as a means of organising the young Republic. Illustration by Tomàs Padró published in La Flaca on 1 May 1873. Library of Catalonia.
Stamp of the Federal Democratic Republican Provincial Committee of Barcelona. Barcelona Provincial Council General Archive.
Illustration of the masses supporting the Federal Republic. This is one of the first graphic representations of a tricolour flag, which was never the official flag of the First Spanish Republic (the red and yellow flag was maintained). La Flaca, 2 July 1873. Library of Catalonia. In Barcelona, a tricolour flag with the colours blue, white and red is known to have flown.
Insignia of the deputies of the Republican Barcelona Provincial Council, created in 1873 by the artist Francesc Soler i Rovirosa. Barcelona Provincial Council General Archive.
The three premises of Estanislau Figueras’s presidency: order, freedom and justice. La Flaca, 20 March 1873. Library of Catalonia.
Masthead of El Estado Catalán, a newspaper founded by Valentí Almirall. Saturday, 8 March 1873. Madrid Digital Newspaper Archive.
Allegory of the Federal Democratic Republic. Engraving published in La Campana de Gracia on 2 March 1873. Library of Catalonia.
Federal flag kept by the Museum of History of Barcelona - MUHBA (inv. no. 11469). Its colours are blue, white and red. Photo: Jordi Puig (MUHBA).

The Pi i Margall and Salmerón Governments

The Pi i Margall and Salmerón Governments. The Cantonal Insurrection

Francesc Pi i Margall (1824-1901) was the second President of the Republic and his term of office lasted a little over a month, from 11 June to 18 July 1873. Pi i Margall had already been the main asset of Figueras’ presidency as Minister for Governance. Now, with the Cortes in his favour, he pushed through the new federal constitution and accelerated his reform plan, without success. His goal was to build the federal state from the top down, without fuss, but he had the intransigent Federal Republicans against him.

In the end, Pi i Margall lost the leadership of the Government because he was unable to control the workers’ mobilisations led by the Internationalists, some of which were violent, such as the events in Alcoy (the Petroleum Revolution from 8 to 12 July), or the attacks by the intransigents and the Cantonal movement that broke out on 12 July. Pi i Margall did not want to use a heavy hand against the rebellious cantons.

The cantons were the realisation of the intransigents’ desire for a bottom-up transformation of Spain, i.e. one initiated by the country’s territories. On 12 July, the city of Cartagena proclaimed itself a federal canton, with the support of the army and navy stationed in the port. The Cantonalist movement spread to Murcia and several Valencian and Andalusian cities, and briefly to some Castilian towns. However, the Catalan Republicans did not join, as they prioritised the civil war against the Carlists, who controlled a large part of Catalonia. The movement was put down by the army, and by September, only Cartagena was holding out, enduring a very heavy siege until it surrendered on 14 January 1874.

The civil wars with the Carlists and Cantonalists once again gave prominence to the military. The army gained prominence, while the country became more divided and support for the democratic Republic waned.
On 18 July 1873, Nicolás Salmerón y Alonso (1838-1908) replaced Pi i Margall as President and head of Republican Government. Salmerón was a Republican and centralist, linked to the philosophical current of Krausism. During his time as head of Government, he postponed the reforms proposed by his predecessor and prioritised restoring order. His priority was to quell the rebelling cantons with the army, while continuing the war against the Carlists.

The Government had abolished the death penalty in August 1873, but the Constituent Assembly reintroduced it shortly afterwards to restore order in the army. President Salmerón opposed this, and on 7 September he resigned as head of the Republic after refusing to sign death sentences.

Further information on the Pi i Margall and Salmerón Governments

Among the proposals of Pi i Margall’s new government was the project to reform the State along federal lines and making changes in the colonies, while at the same time he wanted to bring the Carlist War to an end. Also on his agenda was free, compulsory education, the definitive abolition of slavery in Cuba, improving working conditions, especially for women and children, and ending Catholicism as the official religion. These reforms failed.

In addition, the new republican constitution, another Federal Republican milestone, would not be adopted. This constitution drew up a federal state with 16 federated states. However, the Federal Republican project proposed by Pi i Margall and drafted by Castelar was a top-down conception, i.e. developed by the Constituent Assembly, and bottom-up, arising out of the territories that would form the Federation. This contradicted Federal Republican thought and the federal theory previously formulated by the now political leader Pi i Margall, which the intransigent Federal Republicans still defended.

On 12 July, the city of Cartagena, then the ninth largest Spanish town in terms of population and site of one of the main Spanish naval bases, proclaimed itself a federal canton, under the leadership of the federal deputy Antonio Gálvez y Arce (1819-1898) and General Juan Contreras y San Román (1807-1881). The movement was supported by the workers’ societies linked to the Republicans and Internationalists, as well as a large part of the army and navy, which meant the canton controlled the most important naval base of the Spanish war fleet. The proclamation had a domino effect and the movement spread to other Valencian, Andalusian and Castilian cities, with varying intensity. The only two cities that the Cantonalists were initially able to control were Valencia and, especially, Cartagena, which was the first to be declared a canton and also the last to fall, on 14 January 1874, after a heavy bombardment by the army and subsequent fierce repression. Cartagena was also the only canton to receive support from part of the army.

The war with the Carlists in Catalonia was the overriding priority of the Catalan authorities, which is perhaps why they did not join the Cantonalist movement. The territory occupied by the Carlists was not limited to rural areas, as they even reached the plain of Barcelona. In response, Barcelona Provincial Council divided the province into 10 territories, with the aim of defending itself against the enemy, and created civil guards to collaborate with the battalions or Guies de la Diputació militias and the army of the Republican.

During his time in office, Salmerón postponed his predecessor’s proposed reforms and the drafting of the constitution, to prioritise empowering the army and restoring order. He introduced the law of forced taxation, to tackle the ravages of the civil wars being waged and introduced forced military recruitment, which meant a return of the quintas, which the Republicans had so strongly opposed. It also allowed the provinces directly affected by the war to establish an extraordinary tax, which further damaged local economies.

Images:
Francesc Pi i Margall, unable to cope with the many problems facing the Republic, resigned as President on 18 July 1873. Figures: 1. Emilio Castelar. 2. Francesc Pi i Margall. 3. Juan Contreras. Illustration published in La Flaca on 9 July 1873. Library of Catalonia.
The Cartagena Cantonal proclamation had a domino effect in several Spanish cities. Figures: 1. Santiago Soler i Pla, Minister for Overseas Territories. 2. Emilio Castelar. 3. Nicolás Salmerón. 4. Juan Contreras. At the bottom, the intransigents. In the middle, the “petroliers” (arsonists); on the left, the Republic weeps; on the right, the Cuban independence fighters. Illustration published in La Flaca on 6 August 1873. Library of Catalonia.
Illustration mocking the Cantonal revolts as theatre. Figures: 1. Roque Barcia, intransigent Republican and Cantonalist. 2. Francesc Pi i Margall. 3. General Juan Contreras. La Flaca, 14 August 1873. Library of Catalonia.
Nicolás Salmerón looks at the state of the country in awe. He resigned on 7 September 1873; he had been in office for less than two months. Figures: 1. Emilio Castelar. 2. Nicolás Salmerón. 3. Roque Barcia. 4. General Juan Contreras. Illustration published in La Flaca on 28 August 1873. Library of Catalonia.

The Castelar Presidency

The Casterar Presidency and the end of the Democratic Republic

President Salmerón was replaced by Emilio Castelar y Ripoll (1832-1899), at the proposal of Salmerón himself, on 18 September 1873.

Castelar was a conservative and centralist Republican who followed the policies of his predecessor, reinforcing the Government’s authoritarian drift by granting it full powers, with the excuse of the Cantonal revolts. He launched a series of reforms to further concentrate power in the central Government. For example, he restored the army’s organisational structure and ordinances from before the Republic and introduced further forced recruitment to fight the Carlist and Ten Years’ Wars. At the same time, he disbanded the Republican volunteer militias. Many local corporations were also dissolved and the federalists were replaced by monarchists, Radicals and unitary Republicans. Control over the press was also increased. At the same time, relations between workers and employers worsened. On 20 September 1873, the Government decreed the suspension of the Assembly and the constitutional guarantees. Castelar governed by decree with special powers until 2 January, when the Cortes was re-established.

In Barcelona, on 7 September, the new civil Governor-General, Alejo Cañas, dissolved the Provincial Council and replaced the Federal Republican deputies with an interim corporation made up mainly of monarchists.
On 3 January 1874, General Manuel Pavía led a coup and dissolved the Republican Cortes, which had met to debate a vote of no-confidence in Castelar, which he lost. General Pavia, a Republican, wanted a government of national unity, leaving out both the Carlists and the Republican left and federal wings. Both he and General Francisco Serrano vetoed Cánovas del Castillo’s proposal to restore Alfonso de Borbón, who was in exile in Paris, as king. On the same day, Serrano formed a provisional government, giving rise to a new dictatorial Republican regime, with a majority of monarchist ministers. The change was met with indifference on the streets, while demonstrations and riots against the coup were few in number and easily suppressed.

Further information on the Castelar Presidency

In Catalonia, General Pavia’s coup was met with a moderate response. There were only a few barricades in the Sants, Sarrià, Gràcia and El Raval districts of Barcelona, and in cities such as Mataró and Tarragona, which General Martínez Campos easily repressed. In Sarrià, the Republican guerilla and colonel Joan Martí, the “Boy of the Barricades”, held out until 12 January. It ended with numerous arrests and several federal newspapers and societies were closed. By July, either out of fatigue or because the fight against the Carlists was absorbing all available energy, the federal mobilisations in Catalonia had diminished. The anti-federal changes in Madrid, under the presidencies of Salmerón and Castelar, also failed to generate opposition in the streets of Catalonia.

Antoni Feliu i Codina (1846-1917), a contemporary Republican, in his memoirs published in the federal newspaper El Diluvio in 1917, repeated Albert Llanas’s famous aphorism, describing the misfortune of the Republic in these words:

«In the course of life we all have an open hand, where the future, our fate, is placed on its palm, and all the talent of man consists in closing the hand in time, for, if the chance is missed, farewell future, and farewell good luck! What Llanas said about the individual can and should be said and applied when it comes to peoples. On 29 September 1868 the Spanish people had luck in the palm of their hand, as they had done in July 1854 and February 1873; but they did not close their hand in time and their future, their good fortune, walked away.»

The memoirs of Joan Viñas i Sánchez (San Andrés de Palomar, 1853-1922), a Liberal soldier in the Third Carlist War, describe the Pavía coup and the first measure taken by the new Government (Finestrelles, 1991):

«It was at the beginning of the year 1874. The Carlist War was raging, when General Pavía, then Captain-General of New Castile, staged a coup, penetrating the Palace of the Cortes at the head of the army, and throwing out the Republican deputies, whom the nation had rightfully elected. This audacious action struck a mortal blow to the Republic, resulting in a new Government, which, although it called itself Republican, was composed entirely of monarchists. As soon as it took power, the first act of this Government was to call to armed service the replacement for that year, decreeing that all young men who attended were soldiers, except for the useless and those who could redeem themselves by paying the sum of 2,500 pesetas.»

Images:
Emilio Castelar continued his predecessor’s policy, reinforcing the Government’s authoritarian drift by obtaining full powers to deal with the Carlist War, the Ten Years’ War and the siege of Cartagena. The engraving highlights his speech of July 1873, in which he put the Fatherland before the Republic, the Federation and freedom. Illustration published in La Flaca on 21 August 1873. Library of Catalonia.
Emilio Castelar tries to save a Republic that is falling apart. Meanwhile, numerous events, depicted in the illustration by the Carlist Wars in Catalonia and Navarre and Cantonalism in Cartagena, complicate his presidency. Figures: 1. General Juan Contreras. 2. Emilio Castelar, taking the Republic by the hand to save it. La Flaca, 4 October 1873. Library of Catalonia.
On 3 January 1874, General Manuel Pavía staged a coup and dissolved the Cortes as soon as it was reinstated. Illustration published in La Madeja on 24 January 1873. Library of Catalonia.

The Serrano Presidency

The Francisco Serrano Presidency (1874)

General Francisco Serrano y Domínguez (1810-1885) became the new head of State and Government. Spain was still a republic, although General Serrano ruled with full dictatorial powers, without the Cortes and with a majority of monarchist ministers, mainly from the Constitutional Party, headed by Sagasta. In disarray, the Federal Republican Party went into semi-clandestinity.

The new Government abolished the Constituent Assembly of 1873 and validated the democratic constitution of 1869. The unitary, centralist State was further strengthened and some of the Republican social reforms were reversed. The Catholic Church regained much of its influence.

As for Barcelona Provincial Council, it became even more conservative and pro-monarchist. Its management was purely administrative, lacking all political intention. The corporation faithfully obeyed the Serrano government’s instructions.

The Conservative monarchist leader Antonio Cánovas del Castillo (1828-1897) informed the former Queen Isabella II about Serrano’s government. Isabella had already abdicated in 1870 in favour of her son Alfonso, and Cánovas, who was gradually gaining influence and support, pushed for the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in the person of the future Alfonso XII, who was in exile in Paris.

The authoritarian Republic came to an end on 29 December 1874, with the pronunciamiento of General Arsenio Martínez Campos Antón (1831-1900), in Sagunto. Alfonso XII was proclaimed monarch on 14 January 1875. Thus began the long political period known as the Restoration.

The short, frustrated experience of the First Republic faded into the past. An experience that 20th-century historiography has labelled a chaotic, convulsive, anarchic and utopian failure. But, in reality, Federal Republicanism had a strong democratic programme, proposing and in some cases achieving truly efficient social and administrative reforms that would leave their mark. However, its socio-economic programme was ambiguous, because it gave the federal states full sovereignty in this respect. The First Republic was a school of responsible citizenship, direct democracy and political participation.

It would be another 58 years before Spain saw a new republican proclamation, the Second Republic. But that is another story.

Further information on the Serrano Presidency

Serrano’s new dictatorial government proclaimed its intention to convene the Cortes, which would decide on the form of state, monarchy or republic, once order had been re-established. This never took place.

His programme for government was notably centralist, while it dismantled some of the Republican social reforms: the length of the working day increased; the consumption tax was brought back and wages fell. On 10 January the IWA was made illegal. Press censorship increased and forced recruitment to wage the Carlist and Ten Years’ Wars intensified. The Catholic Church regained its influence: ecclesiastical property was returned, churches reopened and secularising measures were reversed. Spain broke out of its international isolation and, from September 1874, established diplomatic relations with several European and South American countries.
Once Cartagena surrendered (12 January), General Serrano personally directed the military campaign against the Carlists. On 2 May, Serrano liberated Portugalete and lifted the siege of Bilbao.

Barcelona Provincial Council became a merely administrative body, faithfully obeying instructions from the Serrano government. Instability in provincial posts was frequent throughout 1874, as many of those appointed as deputies did not want to serve, for various reasons. In April 1874, Salvador Maluquer i Aytés (1810-1887), who had already been Mayor of Barcelona during the first period of the Sexenio Revolucionario, was appointed President of Barcelona Provincial Council. The Catalan bourgeoisie supported Serrano, in the hope he would favour industry with protectionist measures and put an end to the Carlist nightmare.

On 29 December 1874, General Martínez de Campos started the coup that put an end to the authoritarian Republic. In the opinion of Cánovas, the main instigator, the time was not yet right, but the generals were in a hurry to restore the monarchy. Serrano was at the front, in Logroño, fighting the Carlists, and from there he went directly into exile in Paris. In Madrid, Sagasta surrendered power to Cánovas. Alfonso XII disembarked in Barcelona, where he received a warm welcome. He was proclaimed king in Madrid on 14 January 1875.

Images:
The new Francisco Serrano government. They still wear the Republican Phrygian cap. Figures: 1. José Echegaray y Eizaguirre. 2. Práxedes Mateo Sagasta. 3. Juan Bautista Topete. 4. Eugenio García Ruiz. 5. Juan Zavala de la Puente. 6. Víctor Balaguer i Cirera. 7. Francisco Serrano Domínguez. 8. Cristino Martos Balbi. Illustration published in La Madeja on 17 January 1874. Library of Catalonia.
The Republic cuts down the tree of absolute power of Francisco Serrano’s government. Figure: 1. Francisco Serrano. Illustration published in La Madeja on 2 May 1874. Library of Catalonia.
Antonio Cánovas del Castillo and Queen Isabella explain to the Republican dictator Francisco Serrano the choice of Alfonso de Borbón as the new Spanish monarch. Figures: 1. Francisco Serrano. 2. Antonio Cánovas del Castillo. 3. Alfonso XII. 4. Isabella II. 5. The Republic. La Madeja, 24 October 1874. Library of Catalonia.
General Arsenio Martínez de Campos, the architect of the Bourbon restoration in the person of Alfonso XII (portrait). The Sexenio Revolucionario was over and a new dynastic regime was beginning. La Madeja, 7 February 1875. Library of Catalonia.
The Serrano regime persecuted and censored the press. Illustration published in La Madeja on 12 December 1874. Library of Catalonia.

The Ten Year's War

Cuba, along with Puerto Rico, was one of the last, and the most profitable, of Spanish colonial possessions. Slavery, abolished in other colonies, remained in Cuba due to pressure from the colonial oligarchy, which constituted a very powerful lobby.

The Ten Years’ War took place between 1868 and 1878. The Republic inherited this war of liberation and civil war in Cuba from the governments prior to the Sexenio Revolucionario.

The highest authority on the Caribbean island was the Captain-General, appointed directly by the government of the day. The Captain-General ruled with virtually absolute power and sometimes without the consent of his superiors. The Spanish authorities on the island notoriously took advantage of their positions to enrich themselves.

The new Republican Government was unable to change this and continued to entrust government to the army, who carried on favouring the interests of the landowners and repressing the cause of independence.

On 31 October 1873, under Castelar’s presidency, a serious diplomatic crisis arose between Spain and the USA over an incident with the American ship Virginius, which was captured by the Spanish navy vessel Tornado, as it was carrying reinforcements and arms for the rebels. The captured ship was taken to Cuba, where 53 of its crew were shot without the consent of the Madrid Government. This crisis could have led to war between the Spanish Republic and the USA, one of the few countries to have recognised it. On this occasion, the crisis was resolved diplomatically.

The first Cuban War resulted in more than 100,000 casualties among Spanish soldiers, including the dead and wounded, mostly caused by disease. Many of the Spanish troops were conscripts, as they could not afford the fee to release them from duty. The governments of the Sexenio Revolucionario and the Republic failed to abolish forced recruitment, an old democratic demand, given the multiple military fronts they had to face, in Cuba and on the peninsula, against Carlists and Cantonalists.

The First Cuban War ended with the Peace of Zanjón (Camagüey, Cuba), signed on 10 February 1878 between the insurgents and the captain-general of Cuba, Arsenio Martínez Campos.

Further information on the Ten Year's War

Since various American territories under Spanish rule had become independent during the first third of the 19th century, Spain was left with just the colonial possessions of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, the Caroline Islands, the Marianas and some African enclaves. Of all these territories, the most economically profitable and fruitful was the island of Cuba, with large farms owned by the Spanish oligarchy, including many Catalans. Slavery, abolished in other colonies, was still in place in Cuba. The slave trade had been banned in 1817 and slavery on the mainland in 1837, but the slave and Spanish West Indies lobbies continued the practice, especially in Cuba. The Spanish wealthy classes opposed its abolition, in order to maintain the productivity of their plantations. This colonial lobby was represented by the National League, consisting of conservative landowners and businessmen. One of its leading members was General Serrano himself. The Progressives and Republicans were abolitionists. The governments of the Sexenio Revolucionario attempted it: in 1869 the Cortes agreed on the abolition of slavery, but it was not applied in practice. In March 1873, the Cortes abolished it in Puerto Rico. Castelar attempted to resume the abolitionist agenda, but the war in Cuba prevented him from doing so.

The soldiers sent to Cuba were men who had not managed to avoid the draft, lacking the money to pay the fee that freed them from compulsory military service. For many families, sending a child to war was a drain on the family economy. By contrast, the wealthy classes paid up and got off scot-free.

Forced recruitment generated widespread grassroots opposition, and democratic forces had always demanded their abolition. The revolts against it were continuous, especially among the Republicans and workers’ movements. The governments of the Sexenio Revolucionario and the Republic failed in introduce the alternative, a professional volunteer army, due to the war in Cuba and the Carlist and Cantonal uprisings.

In this context, in 1869, Barcelona Provincial Council organised two expeditions of volunteers to go and fight on the island of Cuba. Recruitment was remunerated. In doing this, the Council provided an alternative to conscription, which had produced significant opposition in the country. The initiative was welcomed by both the plantation owners in Cuba and the general population. Each volunteer, discharged after the war was over, was given the option of remaining and settling on the island.

The new Republican Government did not officially appoint a new Captain-General in Cuba, so the post was held by General Francisco de Paula Caballos y Vargas (1814-1883), until General Cándido Pieltain y Jove-Huergo (1822-1888) was appointed, also as Civil Governor and General-in-Chief of the island’s army. His term was characterised by repression of the pro-independence insurgents and their supporters.

The treaty that in 1878, in the middle of the Restoration, put an end to the war permitted pardons for the freedom fighters and the sending of Cuban deputies to the Spanish Cortes. The Government pledged to abolish slavery and grant a degree of political autonomy. The abolition of slavery did not become a reality until 1886. Cuba’s autonomy was discussed in the Spanish Cortes when the second Cuban War broke out in 1895, culminating in its independence, with US support, in 1898.

Images:
The black Republic flies a Spanish flag with the word “Freedom”. Figures: 1. Francisco Serrano. 2. Alfonso XII, still aspiring to the throne. 3. Carlists. 4. Cristino Martos. 5. Estanislau Figueras. Illustration published in La Flaca on 16 January 1873. Library of Catalonia.
The interests of the colonial elites on the island of Cuba had an impact on the society and politics of this Spanish territory. La Flaca, 25 September 1869. Library of Catalonia.
The Virginius affair, named after the US ship captured by the Spanish navy on 31 October 1873, depicted in four frames. Vignette 3 shows the American ambassador, Daniel Sickles, with the President of the Republic, Emilio Castelar. Vignette 4 shows Santiago Soler i Pla, Minister for Overseas Territories. Illustration published in La Madeja on 29 September 1873. Library of Catalonia.
Embarkation of Catalan volunteers for the Ten Years’ War in the port of Barcelona. Many would lose their lives. Oil painting by Ramon Padró i Pedret. Maritime Museum of Barcelona. Inv. no. 6118 (this oil painting was published in La Ilustración Española y Americana on 25 December 1869).

The Worker's Movement

The Worker's Movement during the First Republic

In the last third of the 19th century, Catalonia became the factory of Spain. Major industries were set up in the Catalan capital and the surrounding area. This led to a wave of migration from the hinterlands and other regions of Spain to the industrialised areas.

Most of the Catalan population were peasants in rural areas and workers and artisans in industrial areas. Working conditions were harsh, involving long hours and low wages. Child labour was abused and women were paid less than men.

The workers organised themselves and set up mutual societies, cooperatives and community centres to provide social assistance and facilitate access to general education for their members. These centres also raised class consciousness, hence the authorities, especially in periods of conservative dominance, monitored them and sometimes closed them down, as they also did with their newspapers.

Finally, in addition to the mutual and cooperative society movement, workers’ societies were created with the aim of fighting for better working conditions. Thus, the workers’ movement was forming new trade union organisations, known during those years as resistance societies, which were partly united in the Spanish Regional Federation of the International Workingmen’s Association (IWA), founded in 1870.

Initially, the anarchists (Bakuninists) were hegemonic in the IWA. But the Marxist wing spread with Lafargue’s arrival in Spain in December 1871. Soon two opposing factions were formed, the Alliancists or anti-authoritarians (Bakuninists) and the Authoritarians or Marxists, to the point that in 1873 two federal leaderships coexisted, an Alliancist one in Alcoy and a Marxist one in Valencia. The Internationalists were collectivists and opposed private property.

Workers’ unrest did not diminish during the First Republic, as for many workers the new political structure remained in the hands of the bourgeoisie. However, at first, most of the workers’ movement, especially in Catalonia, supported Federal Republicanism, which proposed improvements to labour, such as a shorter working day and the abolition of child labour, although these measures did not succeed.

Further information on the Worker's Movement

Industrial workers lived in small, unhealthy, poorly ventilated and ill-equipped homes with meagre furnishings and rudimentary kitchens. They had no access to education and most were illiterate. Food was very basic: vegetables, eggs, milk and, on rare occasions, meat, while fruit was scarce. Mortality among the working class was very high with a life expectancy in 1870 of 30 years. To all this must be added the yellow fever epidemic that affected Barcelona in 1870, especially the lower social strata. Meanwhile, the wealthy classes fled the city and settled in the outskirts, once the city walls had been demolished. Barcelona spread over the whole of the Barcelona plain and annexed the surrounding villages.

The Internationalists of the IWA were collectivists; they advocated the collectivisation of land and industry. In this they differed from the Republicans, who defended small property ownership. There were connections between the two groups; the first Internationals came out of the Republicans, and although the IWA advocated apoliticism (abstention from elections), quite a few Internationals voted for the federalists.

During the Republic, the Internationals called strikes and major street protests, often in conjunction with the intransigent Federal Republicans, threatening the republican governments, to be repressed by the army. The most significant episode was the events of Alcoy. The so-called Petroleum Revolution was a revolutionary libertarian strike called by the IWA which took place from 8 to 12 July 1873 in Alcoy, a city with a large working class due to its intense industrialisation. There was violent rioting, in which bosses and workers were killed, including the Republican mayor, who was assassinated. The army crushed the revolt and arrested many of the revolutionaries. This event contributed significantly to the fall of Pi i Margall as President of the Republic.

One of the first measures of Serrano’s republican dictatorship was to outlaw the IWA on 10 January 1874.

Images:
Barcelona Workers’ Congress, convened between 18 and 25 June 1870. It was the first workers’ congress held in Catalonia or Spain. Drawing by Tomás Padrón, published in La Ilustración Española y Americana on 13 July 1870. Digital Newspaper Library. National Library of Spain.
The German-born philosopher of Jewish background, economist and socialist theorist Karl Marx was one of the driving forces behind the International Workingmen’s Association (IWA). He soon became widely known in Catalonia. Engraving published in La Campana de Gracia on 26 November 1871. Library of Catalonia.
Satirical illustration showing those who go on strike, the workers, and those who never go on strike, the army. Published in La Campana de Gracia on 18 August 1872. Library of Catalonia.
Recreation of the assassination of the Republican mayor of Alcoy. Agustí Albors. during the events in Alcoy. A revolutionary libertarian strike called by the IWA took place in Alcoy from 8 to 12 July 1873, which the Republic was forced to repress using the army. Painting by J. Alaminos. Chromolithograph from the Vinyes-Roig Family Fund.

Credits

This exhibition was promoted by the Barcelona Provincial Council Democratic Memory Programme (Office of the Chair), in conjunction with the Barcelona Provincial Council General Archive and with the support of the States, Nations and Sovereignties Research Group (GRENS) of Pompeu Fabra University.

Texts and curatorship: Josep Pich i Mitjana, Pau Vinyes i Roig, F. Xavier Menéndez i Pablo and Alfonso Bermúdez Mombiela

Design and layout: la Negreta

Printed by: Arts & Muntatges Signage Team Scp

Language consultancy: Traducciones y Tratamiento de la Documentación, S.L.

Documentary sources and source of the images: Barcelona Provincial Council General Archive, Library of Catalonia, Museum of the History of Barcelona (MUHBA), Maritime Museum of Barcelona, National Library of Spain, Madrid Municipal Newspaper Archive, Family Vinyes-Roig Collection

Exhibition itinerary: Tot Història Cultural Association

Bibliography:

GABRIEL, P.; MOLAS, I.; RIQUER, B.; JANUÉ, M.; PICH, J. La Diputació revolucionària 1868-1874. Barcelona, Diputació de Barcelona, 2003.

GONZÁLEZ i SUGRAÑES, Miquel. La República en Barcelona. Apuntes para una crónica. Barcelona, Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2023. [1st ed. 1896].

HENNESSY, Charles Alistair Michael. La República Federal en España. Pi y Margall y el movimiento republicano federal, 1868-1874. Madrid, Catarata, 2010. [1st ed. 1966].

LÓPEZ-CORDÓN, María Victoria. La revolución de 1868 y la I República. Madrid, Siglo XXI, 1976.

MOISAND, Jeanne. Federación o muerte. Los mundos posibles del Cantón de Cartagena (1873). Madrid, Catarata, 2023.

NIETO, Alejandro. La Primera República Española. La Asamblea Nacional, febrero-mayo 1873. Granada, Editorial Comares, 2021.

PEYROU, Florencia. La Primera República. Auge y destrucción de una experiencia democrática. Madrid, Akal, 2023.

TOLEDANO GONZÁLEZ, Lluís Ferran. La muntanya insurgent. La tercera guerra carlina a Catalunya 1872-1875. Girona, Cercle d’Estudis Històrics i Socials, 2004.

VILCHES, Jorge. La Primera República Española (1873-1874). De la utopía al caos. Barcelona, Espasa, 2023. 

Traveling exhibition display (PDF in catalan)