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Spanish-Philippines First
Spanish Republic 1873 -
1874 Nigel Gooding Collection
First
Spanish Republic The First Spanish Republic lasted
two years, between 1873 and 1874, and had four presidents during this time: Estanislao Figueras (February
12, 1873 to June 11, 1873), Francisco Pi y Margall
(June 11, 1873 to July 18, 1873), Nicolas Salmeron
(July 18, 1873 to September 6, 1873), and Emilio Castelar
y Ripoll (September 7, 1873 to January 3, 1874). The First Spanish Republic
was formed immediately after the abdication of King Amadeo
I of Spain on February 11, 1873 following the Hidalgo Affair, when he
had been required by the radical government to sign a decree of dissolution
of the artillery corps. The Frist Spanish Republic was declared by a
parliamentary majority made up of Radicals, Republicans and Democrats. The Republican leaders planned
the establishment of a Federal Republic, but did not declare it immediately
and instead planned a Constituent Cortes to write a federal constitution. The
Radicals preferred a unitary Republic, and once the Republic had been
declared the two parties turned against each other; initially the Radicals were
largely driven from power, joining those who had already been driven out by
the revolution of 1868 or by the Carlist War. Subversion in the army, a
series of local Cantonalist risings, instability in
Barcelona, failed anti-federalist coups, calls for revolution by the
International, the lack of any broad political legitimacy, and personal
in-fighting among the Republican leadership all weakened the Republic. The
Cortes met on January 2, 1874, with the intransigent majority refusing to
listen to a last eloquent appeal that President Emilio Castelar
made to their patriotism and common sense, they
passed a vote of censure (disapproval). The Cortes went on wrangling for a
day and night until, at daybreak on January 3, 1874, the Captain-General of
Madrid, Manuel Pavia y Rodriguez, forcibly ejected the deputies, closed and
dissolved the Cortes, and called on all parties except Federalists and Carlists to form a national government. Pavia turned
power over to General Francisco Serrano whose task it was to form a coalition
government. Emilio Castelar resigned as the last
president of the First Republic on January 3, 1874. Carlist
forces managed to expand the territory under their control to the greatest
extent in early 1874, though a series of defeats by the Republic's northern
army in the second half of the year might have led to the end of the war had
it not been for bad weather. However the other monarchists had taken the name
of Alfonsists as supporters of Alfonso,
the son of the former Queen Isabella II, and were organised by Antonio Canovas del Castillo. Another pronunciamento
(military rebellion) finally put an end to the First Republic in the last
week of December 1874, when Brigadier-General Arsenio Martinez Campos at
Sagunto, "declared" Alfonso XII king of Spain; with support from Brigadeir-General Joaquin Jovellar
y Soler at Valencia, General Fernando Primo de
Rivera at Madrid and General Laserna at Logrono.
The government collapsed, leading to the end of the Republic, the restoration
of the monarchy, and the proclamation of Alfonso XII as king on December 29,
1874. |
