Pronunciamientos: Early Spanish Liberalism and Controlled Revolutions. · BARRICADES PROJECT

Title

Pronunciamientos: Early Spanish Liberalism and Controlled Revolutions.

Description

The French invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 1808 put Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother Joseph on the Spanish throne. As the reactive war of Independence broke out, from May 1808 the political élites of the cities and provinces of Spain established juntas, which could form political and military authorities. A central junta in Seville was established in 1810, deputies from Spain and the colonies in the Americas were invited to participate in the Cortes (parliament) and the process of drawing up a new liberal constitution began. These juntas claimed to represent the sovereignty of the nation and the will of the people in opposition to the usurper Joseph Bonaparte. They created a precedent by which a group of individuals through the publication of proclamations, pseudo –legal decrees and eventually a constitution claimed to be the legitimate authorities. The Cádiz Constitution was inaugurated on 19 March 1812 and was one of the most liberal constitutions of the day. The people and the nation were the locus of sovereignty, powers were given to the regions through ayuntamientos (town councils) as representatives of the people and recourse to the right to insurrection could be used to defend the social pact. When the French were finally defeated, Ferdinand VII was restored to the throne in March 1814 on the back of a coup, sometimes referred to as a proto-pronunciamiento. This coup was the result of conspiracy and was accompanied by the Manifiesto de los Persas, signed by a group of individuals. It resulted in the abolition of the Constitution of Cádiz and the restoration of absolutism in Spain. This created a precedent by which a group of individuals through the bureaucratic procedure of drawing up and proclaiming a political plan authorised themselves to participate in politics and to determine the form of the state. Between 1814 and 1820, through a process of conspiracy in Masonic lodges, liberal officers worked continually to restore the constitution using strategies similar to those used in the proto-pronunciamiento and the Manifiesto de los Persas. It was in this context that a new bureaucratic, liberal and subversive form of demanding political change was developed, the pronunciamiento. The first intervention to be called a pronunciamiento was launched by Rafael Riego in January 1820 calling for the restoration of the Cádiz constitution. Due to the abolition of the constitution, Spanish liberal officers were obliged to resort to extra-constitutional methods in order to restore representative government. On 1 January 1820, after an extended process of conspiracy, Rafael del Riego launched his grito (cry) and pronunciamiento in Cabezas de San Juan, which demanded the reestablishment of the Constitution of 1812. In the text of the pronunciamiento, Riego gave himself powers to establish an ayuntamiento (town council) in Cabezas de San Juan thus creating a precedent by which the power to establish new laws or new authorities lay in the hands of the people. Riego and his co-conspirators rode through the towns of Andalusia to garner more support and garrisons in other parts of the country in Zaragoza, Pamplona, Cartagena and Murcia launched supporting plans or actas de adhesión. In March, the King recognised and swore in the Constitution justifying his actions with the contractual argument that he was responding to the petitions of his subjects. With the restoration of the 1812 constitution a provisional governing junta was formed, elections to the Cortes were called and the Supreme Court was restored. Riego and his co-pronunciado Antonio Quiroga had set a powerful precedent for the use of pronunciamientos as a way of effecting political change in Spain. Through the use of a pronunciamiento it was possible to bring about revolutionary change with little bloodshed and without major social upheaval. For this reason, pronunciamientos became a feature of political life in Spain. Most of the major political changes in Spain between 1820 and 1874 would be precipitated by a pronunciamiento including; the introduction of the Estatuto Real in 1834, the instigation of the development of the constitution of 1837, the declaration of Isabel II as being of age to rule in 1843, the process which led to the progressive government of Leopoldo O’Donell and the constitution of 1856, the overthrow of Isabel II and the constitution of 1869. The parliamentary republic was brought to an end and the monarchy restored through the pronunciamientos of 1874. The majority of the pronunciamientos launched were unsuccessful in effecting political change. After the liberal government of 1820-23 had failed and Ferdinand VII had abolished the Cádiz constitution once again, José María Torrijos and his co-conspirators in 1831 made the last of a long line of attempts to reinstate the constitution via a pronunciamiento, which they aimed to launch from Malaga. However, they were betrayed by Vicente González Moreno who set an ambush, which led to their capture and execution. Pronunciamientos generally followed the format of Riego’s 1820 plan. A group of individuals gathered to draw up and sign a pseudo-legal, petition-like document outlining their demands with which they aimed to represent the will of the people and challenge the legitimacy of the existing authorities who had broken the social contract. The plan would be carefully circulated in an extensive period of conspiracy to garner support. Once the conspirators were convinced of sufficient support the pronunciamiento would be declaimed in a grito (cry) in a public space. Pronunciados would travel to neighbouring towns and villages for further support. The rebels would then wait for supporting documents known as actas de adhesión to emerge from other regions. The desired effect was that a domino effect of actas de adhesión from military and civilian authorities would provide enough evidence of political and military support to hold the government to ransom, force negotiation with the pronunciados and thus coerce the government into acquiescing to their demands without the need to resort to the threatened use of military force. This formula for bloodless revolution inspired liberal revolutionaries throughout Europe, in Naples, Greece and Russia and in the newly independent nations of Latin America, particularly Mexico.

Contributor

Rosie Doyle

Spatial Coverage

Spain

Temporal Coverage

1808-1831

Bibliographic Citation

1. Execution of Torrijos and his Companions on the Beach at Málaga, Antonio Gisbert 1888, Museo del Prado.
https://www.museodelprado.es/en/whats-on/exhibition/a-painting-for-a-nation-the-execution-of-torrijos/686a080c-0e4d-2e38-77e6-8213c618f9a6

2. Monument to Torrijos Monumento a los fusilados en la playa de la Misericordia. Rafael Mitjana, 1843, Plaza de la Merced, Málaga. Photo: Rosie Doyle

3. “To the 49 victims, who for their love of patriotic liberties were sacrificed in this city on 11 December in the year of 1831.” On the Monument to Torrijos Monumento a los fusilados en la playa de la Misericordia. Rafael Mitjana, 1843, Plaza de la Merced, Málaga. Photo: Rosie Doyle