Ebook: Monarchy and Liberalism in Spain: The Building of the Nation-State, 1780-1931

As the French Revolution ended and modern politics was born, liberalism emerged as a major political force. The opposition the fledgling movement faced from those who sought a return to the Old Regime was perhaps nowhere stronger than in Spain, a country with a centuries-old absolutist government. Spain’s reactionary reputation throughout Europe usually obscured the fact that – thanks precisely to the intense strife between left and right – Spanish liberalism was pioneering for its time. Indeed during the Napoleonic invasion, Spain produced what was then the most avant-garde constitution in the world.

When Ferdinand VII, Spain’s last absolutist king, died leaving a three-year-old daughter whose throne was challenged by her uncle, the fragile monarchy had no choice but to forge an alliance with the liberals. It was an arrangement with mutual advantages, as the liberals themselves could not establish their political ideals without the stabilizing and legitimating support that only the Crown could provide. A partnership between two such enemies might seem strange, but it presided over Spain’s first experiments in democratic government. Over the years, it proved so close that – as the twentieth century would show – neither partner was able to survive its dissolution.