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From revolution to our days.
The Gloriosa: the revolution
that could have been
In September 1868 the Gloriosa put an end to the reign of Isabel II, who
left the country towards France, where she abdicated in favour of her son. The
so-called Democratic Six-Year Period was started, where different solutions
were attempted in order to establish a liberal system. The first measure that
was proposed was to proclaim a constitutional monarchy. The chosen king
was Amadeo I of Savoy, but his reign was brief, since he did not have any
support. With the failure of the monarchic way, it was chosen the proclamation
of the First Republic, which since the beginning had to face the existence of two
irreconcilable tendencies: a centripetal and unifying one, and another, centrifuge
and federal. The impossibility to reach a consensus and the growth of the tension
were the perfect breeding ground for the planning of the return of Alfonso XII by
those in favour of the Bourbon Restoration, something that finally happened in
1874.
The Restoration
Alfonso XII, son and heir of Isabel II, started a process of restoration of the
royal power. The established system was an institutional monarchy. In order
to ensure control and stability, he resorted to a Portuguese-like solution: the
alternation of two parties in the power, the Progressive Party and the Conservative
Party. The initial success of the Bourbon Restoration started to come apart
since the 1898 disaster. The loss of the last colonies felt like pouring cold water
over a country that was very attached to this past of overseas control. This left a
mark in the whole 98 generation. But not only that: the apparent calm also started
to teeter and the solutions that had been taken only made the problem worse.
Seeking to recover the lost prestige and fame, Spain decided to get involved in
the scramble for Africa. The area that it got was part of the current Morocco.
What Spain did not take into account was the expense in men and resources that
were necessary to achieve an effective control.
This was the situation that Alfonso XIII found when he was declared of legal age
in 1902. The two-party system also started to give signals of exhaustion and
the ideas related to the need to adopt force measures were gaining more and
more support. In this context took place the Annual disaster, where the Spanish
army suffered a severe defeat against the Riffs. The happenings rushed and with
the general discontent, the king entrusted the power to general Miguel Primo de
Rivera, who had just staged a coup d’état. The first years of his government had
a relative success, especially in the military sphere. But after the initial victories,
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