After the overthrow of the Spanish monarchy in the 1860s, Antonio Cánovas del Castillo led the restoration of the monarchy in the 1870s. He established a stable, conservative political system with two main parties - the Conservative and Liberal parties - that accepted the monarchy and alternated in power. However, opposition forces like republicans and workers' organizations grew as well. The late 19th century saw conflicts like the Cuban War of Independence and demands to reform and modernize Spain in response to losses like the Spanish-American War of 1898.

1. RESTORATION (1875-1902)

2. After the Democratic Sexenio experience,
monarchy was re-established and the Bourbons
came back. Antonio Cánovas del Castillo was
the main responsible for restoration and the
design of a stable and conservative political
system, based on the assumption of some
principles by the main parties that accepted
monarchy and alternated in power (dynastic
parties). Although opposition forces were
excluded from power, they didn’t disappear.
Republicanism and workers’ organizations
grew up. Reaction to governmental
centralization also caused the appearance of
nationalist forces in some peripheral regions.
The 19th century ended with the 1898 Disaster
and the demands for the regeneration of the
country.
Soy de Vuestro afectísimo, Don Antonio, satirical
cartoon appeared on El Loro, 1882

3. Cánovas del Castillo’s efforts to restore monarchy through a wide consensus came down with
General Martínez Campos uprising at the end of 1874. Alphonse XII’s enthroning was achieved
again violating the law.
Martínez Campos “restoring” Alphonse XII’s monarchy Alphonse XII
Isabella II and her
son Alphonse when
they were exiled in
France
Alphonse XII and his
first wife and cousin
Mª de las Mercedes
of Orléans. She died
6 months after their
marriage in 1878
Alphonse XII with his second
wife Mª Christina of Habsburg.
They got married in 1879 and
when Alphonse XII died, she
acted as regent until their son
Alphonse XIII’s coming of age
in 1902

4. Canovas’ main objectives were:
- Subordination of the Army to political power
- End of the wars: 3rd Carlist War and Great
Cuban War
- A new Constitution accepted by those who
supported Alphonse XII’s monarchy
- A bipartisan political system
After Alphonse XII’s arrival in Spain in the first
days of 1875, Cánovas was appointed prime
minister of the Ministry-Regency (Ministerio –
Regencia), in charge of organizing the political
system and getting the support needed by the
monarchy. Cánovas worked to establish a stable
system that avoided the mistakes of the past:
- preference of the monarch for only one party
with the exclusion of the opposition from
government, which obliged them to conspire
to access to power
- constant intervention of the military in politics
- continuous changes in legislation…
Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, the
main architect of the political
system of Restoration

5. A royal order from 1875 established
that the army’s role was defending
national independence and keeping
out from politics. In exchange for
this, the army received a huge
budget (18%). Alphonse XII’s figure
was publicized as the military king
(rey soldado) and he was called the
Peacemaker.
However, the subordination of the
army to the civil power was not
completely achieved. The military
continued to participate in politics.
SUBORDINATION OF THE ARMY
General Martínez Campos
General Polavieja
Alphonse XII as head of the army
Generals Martínez Campos and Polavieja actively intevened in
politics in the last years of Mª Christina’s regency

6. - The 3rd Carlist War (1872-1876) finished with
more than 50,000 dead and the pretender’s flight
from Spain in 1876. The fueros of the Basque
Provinces and Navarre were abolished, but the
Basque Provinces received a special economic
treatment with the Basque Economic Agreement
(concierto económico), which allowed the
Provincial Councils (Diputaciones Provinciales) to
collect the taxes directly.
- The Great Cuban War (1868-1878) ended with
the signature of the Peace of Zanjón in 1878,
with around 190,000 dead. The peace meant a
wide amnesty for the fighters, the promise of the
abolition of slavery (not approved until 1888) and
political and administrative reforms for the island
that were not fulfilled. These breaches of
agreement provoked a new war in 1879 (Little
War or Guerra Chiquita, which lasted until 1880)
and the final independence war in 1895.
END OF THE WARS
Charles VII,
the Carlist
pretender to
the throne
Press report about the Peace of Zanjón

7. Elections to Constituent Cortes were called
in January 1876 with the Sexenio universal
suffrage law. The elections were
manipulated, as usual, and the alfonsinos
(Cánovas followers) got the majority in both
chambers, although there were 40 seats for
the opposition parties. Cánovas also got the
acceptance of the monarchy by Práxedes
Mateo Sagasta, leader of the Constitutional
Party.
A group of 39 deputies (Comisión de
Notables, Committee of Prominent Men)
presided by Manuel Alonso Martínez, wrote
the draft of the text, approved in June 1876.
1876 CONSTITUTION
Manuel Alonso Martínez, president of the
Committee of Prominent Men
Results of the different elections from 1876 to 1903
It was a short text (only 69 articles) which
drew inspiration mainly from the 1845
Constitution, although it included many
individual rights that had been reflected in
the 1869 Constitution, but they could be
regulated by future laws, which meant
their restriction.

8. - Ideology: conservative liberalism (liberalismo
doctrinario), with shared sovereignty between the
monarch and the Cortes
- The monarch was considered to be above the rest of
the institutions, was the head of the army, had an
arbitrary role in political life in order to guarantee the
pacific alternation of political parties, got veto power,
could appoint the ministers and call, suspend and
dissolve the Cortes.
- Cortes formed by two chambers, Congress (formed by
elected deputies) and Senate (only 1/2 of the deputies
were elected).
- The Constitution didn’t include any reference to
suffrage, but a later law imposed census suffrage.
- Religion: confessional State, although the other
religions were tolerated, but their public
demonstrations were forbidden.
CONTENT

9. BIPARTISAN SYSTEM
Once the Constitution was passed, Cánovas’ effort
oriented to build two parties that could alternate in
power. His model was the British bipartisan system, with
two main parties accepting the monarchy and the basic
institutions of the State.
- The Conservative Party was formed around Cánovas
and it included former moderates or alfonsinos,
former members of the Liberal Union and some
former Carlists who had decided to abandon violence
and accepted the system. Its main support came
from the big landowners and the upper bourgeoisie.
- The Liberal Party (first called Liberal-Fusionista) was
formed around Sagasta and included former
progressives from the two branches (Constitutional
Party and Radical Party). As time went by, it also
included former members of the Liberal Union, some
democrats and conservative republicans. Their main
support came from the middle bourgeoisie, small
merchants and landowners.
Both parties accepted the monarchy, the 1876
Constitution, the defense of private property and a
unitary and centralized State.
Cánovas convincing Sagasta to accept
the bases of the new regime

10. MODERATES
(ALFONSINOS)
LIBERAL UNION
CONSTITUTIONAL
PARTY
RADICAL
PARTY
PROGRESSIVES
DEMOCRATS
DEMOCRATIC SEXENIO
CARLISTS
CONSERVATIVE PARTY
LIBERAL PARTY
part of them
RESTORATION
REPUBLICANS
EVOLUTION OF THE POLITICAL PARTIES

11. ELECTORAL MANIPULATION
As the dynastic parties only represented the
interests of a minority of the population,
electoral manipulation was the only way to
guarantee that they would be elected. The
Constitution gave the monarch an arbitrary
role in the alternation in power:
- When the party in the government went
through a crisis, the other dynastic party
went to the royal palace and asked the
monarch for the decree of dissolution of
the Cortes and formed a new government.
- The new government, without a
supporting majority in the Parliament,
“cooked” the results of the elections. This
process took place in two different stages:
encasillado (allotting) and pucherazo
(vote-rigging)
Although these
cartoons don’t
belong to the
Restoration, but to
the Sexenio, they
represent the
electoral fraud
very well

12. - Encasillado: the minister of Gobernación
(Interior) assigned the deputies who had to
be elected in every province: a majority for
his party, but some deputies for the other
dynastic party and even some seats for the
opposition forces (Carlists, republicans).
Once all the seats were assigned, the
minister sent the orders to the civil
governors of every province. The civil
governors transmitted the government’s
will to the caciques (local political bosses)
of every circumscription.
- Pucherazo: the caciques were in charge of
getting the expected results in the areas
they controlled. They used all the methods
at their reach to assure the votes: they
promised favours or jobs to the people who
voted in the right way, they bought votes
and if this was not possible, they
manipulated the results in many ways: they
included dead people in the electoral roll,
moved or hid the ballot boxes or used thugs
to threaten those who wanted to vote
freely…

13. The comedy of the elections, La
Campana de Gràcia, 25th August
1884

14. The republican newspaper El Motín (1881) criticizes the different ways the parties use to get
votes

16. Partida de la porra, thugs who threatened those
who wanted to vote freely

17. MAP OF THE CACIQUES IN SPAIN, PUBLISHED BY THE NEWSPAPER GEDEÓN IN 1897
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JIlnaJ9Q7rY/UwIqvUeia2I/AAAAAAAAAqs/
Qif9Rl7PCXI/s1600/08+Vin%CC%83eta+Mapa+caciques+provinciales.jpeg

18. Electoral results during Restoration

20. With the electoral manipulation, the dynastic
parties alternated periodically and pacifically in
power, depending on their internal stability or
some unexpected events, like Alphonse XII and
Cánovas’ deaths. The Conservative Party ruled
during the first years of the Restoration (1875-
1881), most of the time headed by Cánovas. In
1881 the Liberal Party became ready to access to
power, when Sagasta could present a unified
party to the king, while the Conservative Party
was going through an internal crisis. The liberals
ruled from 1881 to 1884, but when they started
showing signs of disunion, the conservatives
came back to power.
ALTERNATION IN POWER

21. Sagasta distributing parts of the cake among
the members of his party
Cánovas and Sagasta alternate at the table,
while Spain is the permanent servant
Si tú no tienes ya más apetito, déjanos, por favor, un
pedacito. Some politicians ask Cánovas to leave power

22. The Pact of El Pardo according to Don Quijote, 5th October
1894
But when Alphonse XII died in
1885 conservatives and liberals
reached the conclusion that the
liberals had to come back to
power in order to avoid a possible
destabilization of the system. This
agreement was called Pact of El
Pardo.
After Alphonse XII’s death, his
wife Mª Christina of Habsburg
acted as regent until Alphonse
XIII’s coming of age in 1902. As it
had been agreed on the Pact of El
Pardo, the liberals assumed
power and ruled from 1885 to
1890 (“Long government”).
Mª Christina swearing the 1876 Constitution after Alphonse XII’s death

23. LIBERAL LONG GOVERNMENT (1885-1890)
In this period the liberals made several
reforms to increase the support to the
regime and introduced some of the ideas
vindicated in the 1868 Revolution: Law of
Associations (1887), definitive abolition of
the slavery in Cuba (1886), Law of Trial by
Jury (1888), Civil Code (1889), Law of
Universal Suffrage (1890), which gave the
right to vote to all men aged 25 and above
and increased the electoral roll
considerably. But the manipulation of the
elections continued, although it became
more and more complicated in cities.
The liberal reforms allowed the integration
of the republicans in the system. They
abandoned the conspiracy strategy to reach
power, started participating in the elections
since 1886 and got very good results in the
main cities, although they continued to be a
minority in the Cortes with respect to the
dynastic parties.
With the Law of Universal Suffrage 25% of the Spanish
population could vote
Sagasta juggling with
the different currents
of his party

24. In 1890, after the approval of the law of universal suffrage, the Liberal Party was divided
and the regent called the conservatives back to power. Alternation in power continued to
work without much trouble until 1898, although the serious problems of this decade
made the changes in the government more frequent. The conservatives ruled from 1891
to 1893 and the liberals came back between 1893 and 1895. In 1895 the beginning of the
Cuban Independence War provoked the fall of Sagasta’s government and the return of the
conservatives. The republicans didn’t participate in the 1895 elections in protest against
the government policy in Cuba. In 1897 Cánovas was killed by an anarchist terrorist and
the liberals came back to power in order to assure the stability of the system. The liberals
were in charge of managing the loss of the colonies in 1898.

25. POLITICAL OPPOSITION
The political system of the Restoration
marginalized wide sectors of Spanish society. The
social base of the system was very much
reduced. Two strategies were followed with
those who opposed the system:
- On one side, they tried to integrate the most
pliant members in the political game, even
offering them the possibility of being
included on the lists of the deputies to be
elected (encasillados) and giving them
parliamentary representation
- On the other side, they marginalized and
persecuted the most radical elements
(workers’ associations)
The main opposition forces were the Carlists,
the republicans, the workers associations and
the nationalist and regionalist movements,
which had appeared as a reaction to
centralization.

26. CARLISTS
Charles VII and Cándido Nocedal
Ramón Nocedal
After their defeat in the 3rd Carlist War, the
Carlists opted for the confrontment against the
government. Some of them, like Cabrera,
acknowledged Alphonse XII’s monarchy, but the
pretender Charles VII took up exile in France and
continued to conspire from there.
In 1888 there was a split in their ranks: a
fundamentalist group headed by Ramón
Nocedal separated from the Carlist Party and
denied their obedience to the pretender, who
had planned the adaptation of Carlism to the
political liberal system (Act of Loredan, 1886).
Nocedal created the Traditionalist Party, anti-
liberal, defender of tradition and Catholicism.
After the introduction of the universal suffrage
in 1890, the Carlists got some seats in the
Cortes. The last Carlist attempt of armed
insurrection in October 1900 failed.
At the beginning of the 20th century their
paramilitary groups started being called
Requetés
Cross of Burgundy, flag of
the Requetés. The origin
of this name comes from a
tune sung by the Carlist
soldiers during the 1st
Carlist War

27. They suffered the biggest defeat with the
restoration of the monarchy, had to face
the disappointment of many of their
followers, a strong repression from the
authorities (press censorship, prison) and
internal divisions. They got the support of
the middle and low bourgeoisie of the cities
and industrial workers.
Several groups were formed:
- Castelar, unitarian republican, founded
the Democratic Party (Partido
Democrático Posibilista) in 1876, later
called Possibilist Democratic Party.
They became quickly integrated in the
system, participated in the elections
and in 1893 they finally joined the
Liberal Party.
REPUBLICANS
This is the constant desire of the
opposition forces: sweeping the
politicians of Restoration, El
Motín. 1882
Emilio Castelar

28. - The rest of the unitarian republicans
followed Salmerón and Ruiz Zorrilla, who
created the Reformist Republican Party
in France. From there, Ruiz Zorrilla
conspired and prepared several
pronunciamientos: the ones in Badajoz,
Santo Domingo de la Calzada and Seu
D´Urgell in 1883 and the last republican
pronunciamiento in 1886, led by
brigadier Villacampa in Madrid. In 1885
Salmerón and Ruiz Zorrilla came back
from exile and created the Progressive
Republican Party. In 1886 this group split
up, due to Salmerón’s opposition to
violence. His followers created the
Centralist Republican Party.
- The most numerous group were the
federal republicans, who continued to be
led by Pi y Margall in the Federal
Republican Party.
Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla Nicolás Salmerón
Francisco Pi y Margall
Brigadier Villacampa,
the last military man who led
an uprising in the 19th century

29. From 1886, during the liberals Long Government,
the republicans participated regularly in the
elections and got deputies in the biggest cities
without the government’s intervention, especially
after the approval of the universal suffrage. In
1891 they got 22 deputies. In 1893 all the
republican groups except the possibilists formed
an electoral coalition called the Republican Union
(Unión Republicana), headed by Salmerón and got
34 deputies, mainly in the big cities.
Their main support came from the petty and
middle bourgeoisie and their influence was strong
in culture and educational renovation (Giner de
los Ríos’ Institución Libre de Enseñanza).
However, the fact that most of the voters lived in
rural areas, where the manipulation of the
elections conditioned the results, made the
republican triumph impossible. In this way,
republicanism was never a real threat for the
Restoration system.
Manuel Bartolomé Cossío, Francisco Giner de los
Ríos and Ricardo Rubio, founders of the Institución
Libre de Enseñanza, a private educational
institution which had big influence in the
modernization of Spain’s public education in the
first decades of the 20th century and especially
during the 2nd Republic

30. Images of Spain as a woman
attacked by reactionary forces, from
republican newspapers La Mosca
(1882) and El Motín (1885)

31. LABOUR MOVEMENT
The International Workingmen’s Association ,
declared illegal in 1874, continued to be
forbidden during the Restoration and obliged
the workers’ organizations to act as an
underground movement. The Federación de la
Región Española de la AIT (FRE-AIT) changed its
name to Federación de Trabajadores de la
Región Española (FTRE) in 1881, in order to
become legal when the freedom of association
was approved by Sagasta’s government. The
FTRE continued to keep its anarchist
orientation, with its main support in Catalonia
and Andalusia. But the impact of the episode of
the Black Hand (Mano Negra) was a setback
for the organization: the government accused
the FTRE of several crimes and destruction of
property in Western Andalusia, arrested
thousands of its members and seven workers
were executed by garotte in Jerez in 1884. The
anarchists denied their involvement in these
facts, but repression affected them seriously
and the FRTE was dissolved in 1888.
Rafael Farga Pellicer, anarchist
printer and one of the main
promoters of the FTRE
Workers executed for being members of the
Black Hand and responsible for Jerez crimes

32. From then on, two trends coexisted inside
anarchism:
- Most of the anarchists opted for
association and education
- A minority opted for direct action or
propaganda by the deed and used
violence to destroy the State. They
launched a campaign of terrorist attacks
against the most representative
institutions of capitalism (the State, the
bourgeoisie, the army, the Church). The
most virulent period took place from
1892 to 1897:
•- In 1892 anarchist peasants occupied
Jerez cheering anarchy and killed two
bourgeois before the government troops
recovered the control. Four anarchists
were sentenced to death. These
executions triggered a dynamics of
action-reaction (terrorist attack at the
Plaza Real in Barcelona, with one victim).
Anselmo Lorenzo and Federico Urales belonged to
the associative branch of anarchism and were
among the founding members of the CNT in 1910
Workers executed as a consequence
of the Jerez events in 1892

33. - In 1893, terrorist attack against General Martínez Campos by Paulino Pallás and bomb attack in the
Liceu Theatre of Barcelona (with 20 dead people and numerous injured) by Santiago Salvador. Both
Pallás and Salvador were executed, liberties were suspended and persecution against unions
intensified.
- In 1896 there was a terrorist attack against the Corpus procession in Canvis Nous Street, with 12
dead and 35 injured. The anarchists were accused and more than 400 people were arrested. The
Montjuïc Trials, without any judicial guarantee, sentenced five people to death and 20 to life
imprisonment.
Terrorist attack against Martínez Campos
in Barcelona . One guardia civil was killed
Paulino Pallás
Terrorist attack at the Liceu
Threatre
Santiago Salvador Franch
Attack on El Corpus Procession at Canvis Nous
Street

34. - In 1897 the Italian anarchist Michele Angiolillo
killed the prime minister, Cánovas del Castillo, at
Santa Águeda Spa in revenge for the Montjuïc
shootings. He was sentenced to die by garotte.
Michelle Angiolillo’s execution at
Vergara
Reconstruction of Cánovas’ killing at Santa Águeda
Spa, Guipúzcoa
The Montjuïc shootings had an important
international repercusion
All these terrorist attacks provoked a strong
repression from the government, which also
affected the other workers’ organizations, like
the Marxist ones (PSOE and UGT).

35. The main facts related to the Marxist workers’
organizations were the following:
- 1879: Founding of the PSOE by Pablo Iglesias
in Madrid. The party defined itself as Marxist
and in favour of social revolution
- 1886: creation of El Socialista, PSOE’s official
newspaper
- 1888: Creation of the UGT, trade union also
founded by Pablo Iglesias. Initially the
organization was defined as apolitical.
- 1889: affiliation of the PSOE to the Second
International.
- 1890: participation in the 1st of May
demonstrations and decision of participating
in the elections as Partido Republicano
Obrero Socialista
Pablo Iglesias
Casa Labra, restaurant where the PSOE was created

36. NATIONALIST AND REGIONALIST MOVEMENTS
They appeared as a reaction against the
State centralization and a political and
administrative system that didn’t take the
specific cultural and linguistic features of
other regions into account. In some way, it
was a reaction against Spanish
nationalism, which tried to impose a
Castilian official culture, ignoring the plural
reality of the country. These movements
developed mainly in Catalonia, the Basque
Provinces and Galicia
The main figures of Galician Rexurdimento: Rosalía de Castro, Eduardo Pondal and Curros Enríquez
Floral games were an important mean of recovery of
the different languages of Spain

37. CATALANISM
- It had a cultural origin. During the 1830s the
Renaixença, a cultural and literary
movement had developed, in the context of
Romanticism. Their goal was recovering the
Catalan language and culture, but they didn’t
have political expectations.
- The first political approach took place in
1880, when Valentí Almirall, a former
federal republican, called the 1st Catalanist
Congress and tried to unify the two
catalanist currents: the republican and
progressive one and the literary current,
more conservative and apolitical.
- In 1882 Almirall created the Centre Català
(Catalan Centre) with the objective of making
the citizens aware of the necessity of an
autonomous government.
Valentí
Almirall
Bulletin of the Centre Català

38. - In 1885 Almirall wrote the Memorial of
Grievances (Memorial de Greuges), a
document signed by businessmen,
industrialists, workers’ delegates,
intellectuals and professionals. It
denounced the oppression Catalonia
suffered due to the centralist policy of
the government and claimed for a better
treatment for the interests of the rest of
the Spanish regions and was presented
to King Alphonse XII, but it didn’t have
any relevant consequence.
Presentation of the Memorial of Grievances to
Alphonse XII
Memorial de Greuges

39. - In 1891 Unió Catalanista was created, a
federation of catalanist associations
opposed to Almirall’s progressivism.
Their program was defined in the Bases
de Manresa (1892), where they
defended the organization of Spain as a
confederation of states, political
autonomy for Catalonia, the re-
establishment of ancient institutions, like
the Audiencia and the Cortes and Catalan
as the official language.
- As Unió Catalanista rejected to
participate in politics, a group of
catalanists like Enric Prat de la Riba,
Francesc Cambó or Lluís Puig I Cadafalch
demanded political involvement to
mobilize the Catalan society. In 1901 this
group created the Lliga Regionalista
Catalana, a conservative alternative to
the dynastic parties in Catalonia. In the
1901 elections to Cortes the Lliga got 6
deputies and broke the alternation of
the dynastic parties for the first time.
Meeting where the Bases de
Manresa were written
Enric Prat de la Riba Francesc Cambó

40. BASQUE NATIONALISM
- In the Basque Provinces there was also a
wide movement of recovery of Basque
culture in the 2nd half of the 19th century.
- The abolition of the fueros after the 3rd
Carlist War triggered the appearance of a
current that claimed for their re-
establishment.
- The industrial development of the Basque
Provinces deeply changed the traditional
Basque society and many immigrants
arrived there to work in the industries. As
a reaction to these changes, a current of
defense of the Basque language and
culture consolidated, opposed to the
process of castilianization derived from
the arrival of workers from other regions
of Spain.
Spain cutting down the fueros, La Madeja Política, 1874

41. Sabino Arana, a former Carlist, created the
PNV (Partido Nacionalista Vasco- Basque
Nationalist Party) in 1894.
Its ideology was based on the “racial”
superiority of the Basques, their rejection of
the invasion of the “maketos”(immigrants
from other regions), the defense of the
fueros and Catholic religion. Their motto was
“God and the old law” (“Dios y antiguas
leyes”) and they wanted to restore the
ancient traditional society from an anti-
liberal point of view. They attacked both the
ruling class (for having destroyed the
traditional society with industrialization) and
the socialists (very influential in the
immigrant workers’ groups and considered to
be alien to the Basque traditions).
Arana invented the name Euskal Herria to refer to the territory they wanted to make independent
from Spain and also the ikurriña (Basque flag, inspired on the British Union Jack). However, as time
went by, the need for the support from the well-off class made Arana’s speech more moderate and
Basque nationalism evolved to the demand for autonomy. When Arana died in 1903, his movement
was divided into these two tendencies: independence or autonomy.
Sabino Arana
Jaun-Goikua eta Lagi Zarra (“God and
the old law”)
Euskal Herria
Ikurriña

42. The last years of the 19th century were presided by the intensification of the terrorist attacks
from the anarchists who followed the “propaganda by the deed” strategy and the crisis
derived from the war in Cuba, the USA intervention and the loss of the last colonies (Cuba,
Puerto Rico and the Philippines). The dynastic parties were unable to solve these problems,
but the Restoration system resisted without much problem.
THE 1898 CRISIS
Over Cuba, which is shipwrecking, an eagle is
stalking!Spaniards, be on the alert! Havana is going to
be lost! , La Campana de Gràcia, 14th March 1891
Voluntary soldiers embarking to Cuba

43. After the signature of the Peace of Zanjón (1878),
the different governments didn’t make the
promised reforms in time:
- The only decision was the abolition of slavery
in 1886
- The different projects of autonomy proposed
by the liberals were rejected in the Cortes.
- Tensions increased since 1891 with the
adoption of a protectionist policy: Spain
continued to consider Cuba as a reserved
market, but the protectionist policy seriously
damaged the Cuban interests and their
relations with the USA, the main buyer of
Cuban sugar and tobacco. In 1894 around 88%
of the Cuban exports went to the USA, but the
tariffs established by the Spanish government
in Cuba complicated the sale of the USA
products in Cuba.
CUBAN INDEPENDENCE WAR (1895-1898)
The discovery of America: how it started and how it has
ended, La Campana de Gràcia, 1898, cartoon that
reflects the heroic arrival in America and the
humuliating return after the 1898 Disaster

44. José Martí was the ideologist of the Cuban
independence and the creator of the Cuban
Revolutionary Party.
In 1895 the Baire Cry (Grito de Baire) was the
beginning of a third Cuban Independence War..
The war started again in the Eastern part of the
island. Maceo and Gómez, the leaders of the
insurrection, soon extended the war all over the
island, using guerrilla tactics and taking
advantage of the support of the population.
The Spanish government sent an army
commanded by General Martínez Campos, who
was in favour of combining the military
operations with negotiations to end the war. The
initial 15,000 Spanish soldiers destined in Cuba
reached more than 200,000 in subsequent years.
José Martí
Development of the war, from East to West, as in the
Great Cuban War (1868-1878)

45. The lack of practical results forced Martínez Campos’ replacement for General Valeriano Weyler in
1896. Weyler defended the use of stronger methods:
- Harassment of the rebels, isolating them by the trochas (fortified lines that crossed the island
from North to South to contain the rebellion)
- mass executions
- Re-concentrations (forced confinement of peasants in closed towns and cities, in order to
prevent their contact with the fighters) and destruction of farms and crops.
General Weyler
Map of the main trochas
Cartoon criticizing Weyler’s inefficient policy to
end the war

46. Weyler’s re-concentration policy caused difficulties of supply of food and medical care, both for
the civil population and the soldiers and a high mortality rate. Hot and wet weather and epidemics
were the main enemies of the Spanish army. Only 4% of the soldiers who died in Cuba were victims
of war wounds. The news from Cuba and the continuous draft of soldiers who couldn’t pay to avoid
going to war provoked popular protests in the main Spanish cities in 1898, headed by the
republicans, who decided not to participate in the elections of that year.
The draft affected the poorest families, who
couldn’t afford paying to avoid going to the war.
There were companies which made business
with the war
General
Weyler riding
a snail. The
campaign in
Cuba advanced
slowly.
Failure of the
re-concentration
policy

47. The USA intervention arrived
after an incident with the
battleship Maine, apparently sent
in order to evacuate the USA
citizens from Cuba. On the 15th
February 1898 an accidental
explosion in the Maine at Havana
harbour killed 260 out of 350 US
sailors.
General Ramón Blanco
After Cánovas’ assassination in 1897, the new liberal
government replaced Weyler by General Ramón
Blanco and decided to give autonomy to Cuba and
introduce a series of reforms: universal suffrage,
equality of rights with the Spaniards and tariff
autonomy for the island. But the reforms arrived
too late for the Cubans, who continued to fight, with
the hidden support of the USA.
News of the explosion at the Maine in the USA press

48. The pressure of the press in the USA created the necessary warlike environment to send an
ultimatum to Spain on the 18th April 1898. Five days later Spain had no other option than
declaring war on the USA.
Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst,
dressed as the Yellow Kid (symbol of the
sensationalist press) the main USA press
magnates, manipulating the US public opinion
to go to war against Spain
The beginning of the war in the USA press

49. The war in the USA cartoons. Spain is presented as a bullfighter or a bandit
The war in the Spanish cartoons: Uncle Sam as a greedy tyrant

50. The Spanish army was clearly inferior
and it was quickly defeated by the USA
both in Cuba and the Philippines
(where an independence war had
started after José Rizal’s execution in
1896). The Spanish Armada was sunk in
Cavite (Manila Bay) on the 1st May and
in Santiago de Cuba on the 3rd of July
and Puerto Rico was occupied in
August. After 10 weeks of war an
armistice was signed on the 13th
August. 300,000 Cubans, 44,000
Spaniards and 2,500 USA soldiers died.
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR (April-August 1898)
Sinking of the Reina Mercedes in
Santiago de Cuba
José Rizal, leader of
the Philippine
independence
Katipunan fighters for the Philippine
independence from Spain
Cavite Disaster at Manila Bay

51. In December 1898 the Peace of Paris was
signed, with the following conditions: Spain
ceded the Philippines, Puerto Rico and the
island of Guam to the USA in exchange for 20
million dollars and gave the independence to
Cuba, which became a USA protectorate. This
treaty meant the loss of most of the remains of
the Spanish Empire. In 1899 the impossibility of
defending its last possessions in the Pacific, the
Spanish government sold the Mariana, Caroline
and Pelew Islands to Germany for 25 million
pesetas (German-Spanish Treaty)
Signature of the Peace of Paris
President Mckinley offering Uncle Sam different “dishes”
Critical cartoon of the Peace of Paris

52. The 1898 Disaster provoked a generalized sensation
of frustration and pessimism, because it meant the
assumption of the definitive end of the Spanish
Empire and Spain’s backwardness. A series of
movements critical to the situation of the country
and the awareness of the need for reforms to
modernize Spain appeared. These reform proposals
were called regenerationism.
Joaquín Costa was the most outstanding
representative of this regeneration movement. He
wrote a report called Oligarquía y caciquismo,
where he criticized the political system of the
Restoration, proposed the need for the economic
modernization of the country and the education of
the people (“School, larder and double-lock to the
tomb of El Cid”). He also proposed the necessity of
an “iron surgeon” to solve the problems of the
country in an authoritarian way and participated in
the National League of Producers (Liga Nacional de
Productores), a movement of the productive classes
(merchants and small businessmen) against the tax
reforms of the last years of the century.
REGENERATIONISM
Joaquín Costa Miguel de Unamuno,
member of the 1898
generation

53. In order to prevent a possible republican or
Carlist uprising or a military coup d’ État, the
government suspended the constitutional
guarantees, but nothing happened. Despite
all the criticism, the 1898 Disaster was more a
moral and ideological shock than a real
political or economic crisis: the political
system of the Restoration survived almost
intact, the pacific alternation in power
continued to work and the dynastic parties
adapted to the new situation, the public debt
could be reduced and the capitals repatriated
from the colonies were reinvested in Spain.
Critical cartoon about the members of the Church who
came back from the Philippines

54. In 1899 the conservatives, led by Francisco Silvela,
came back to power. The new government showed
a regenerating temper and included figures that
hadn’t participated in official politics up to that
moment: General Polavieja, a regenerationist
military man or the catalanist Manuel Durán y Bas.
Some reforms were launched:
- Project of administrative decentralization
- Labour legislation (Law of Labour Accidents and
Law of Regulation of Women and Children’s
Work Schedule)
- Tax reform promoted by Minister Fernández
Villaverde that increased the taxes on basic
products and created new taxes to reduce the
debt.
Durán y Bas
Francisco Silvela, leader
of the Conservative Party
after Cánovas’ death
General Polavieja
Raimundo Fernández
Villaverde

55. The new taxes caused the protests of
the producers in Catalonia, who
organized the so called tancament de
caixes (unregistering the industrial and
commercial companies to avoid paying
the new taxes) in 1899, and the
chambers of commerce and the
National League of Producers, which
formed the National Union (Unión
Nacional). Its main leaders, Joaquín
Costa, Basilio Paraíso and Santiago
Alba, organized different protests, like
the taxpayers’ strike in 1900, only
successful in Catalonia, where the
strike lasted for six months.
But Silvela’s government didn’t last
much: Polavieja and Durán y Bas
resigned and the Regent called the
liberals back to power in 1901.
Critical cartoons against Polavieja and Fernández Villaverde
Critical cartoon against the National Union, 7th March
1900, Gedeón. Basilio Paraíso and Joaquín Costa look at
themselves in a magic mirror and they see themselves
as politicians.

56. This was the last government presided by
Sagasta. In 1902 Alphonse XIII was
declared of age and during his reign the
limitations of the system of Restoration
became evident.
Sagasta’s last government
Alphonse XIII’s coronation