Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
landing in Mexico, as well as the renewed occupation of the Dominican
Republic (1861-65). All of these were undertaken while the United
States was caught up in its own civil war, but even with the Monroe
Doctrine inoperative Spain could not sustain itself in these endeavors.
Even those outposts that had survived the tumults of the 1820s, Cuba
and Puerto Rico, were becoming increasingly restless in the 1860s, as
were the far-off Philippines.
Spain's prestige in Europe fared no better during this period. The
complex diplomatic negotiations surrounding the marital prospects of
the queen and her younger sister, Luisa Fernanda, led to a crisis in
Anglo-French relations (“the affair of the Spanish marriages”), but in
these matters Spain was a mere bystander. Isabella eventually married
her cousin Francisco, which satisfied the competing Great Powers, if
not the queen herself.
The ever-growing antagonisms among political and military leaders
came to a crisis in 1868, fed by the scandalous stories about the queen's
alleged amours and the appointment of her latest favorite, a former
actor, as minister of state. Declarations of public indignation and repu-
diations of loyalty by senior commanders made it impossible for Isabella
to sustain her position, and she departed into exile.
The next eight years were as disordered and destructive as anything
Spain had seen since the 1830s. While a newly ascendant leftist major-
ity in the Cortes passed a series of anticlerical and populist laws, a clique
of generals enforced the retention of constitutional monarchy. They
then began hunting for a new monarch. A series of offers to various
European princes and even to the veteran general Espartero were all
rejected. Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen accepted, but he
subsequently withdrew (though the affairs of Spain once again precipi-
tated a European crisis and brought on the Franco-Prussian War of
1870-71). In the meantime the duke of Aosta, son of Italy's newly
established king, was persuaded to accept the throne of Spain. His
resolve was undoubtedly shaken when the leading member of the junta
in Madrid, General Juan Prim, was assassinated on the day of the new
sovereign's arrival. King Amadeo I endured two years of hostility, abuse,
and even outright danger before abdicating. His departure from Spain
was followed almost immediately by the proclamation of a republic and
the outbreak of revolt in the north, where the supporters of another
Carlos saw their opportunity. The First Republic and the Second Carlist
War came to an end, successively, by 1875, although now without
much bitterness and bloodshed. Republicanism had not been stamped
out in Spain, but the episode had clearly revealed the problem of rec-
onciling centrists and anarchists to a common republican policy. Carlism,
Search WWH ::
Custom Search