Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
beacon that would guide Spaniards to a harbor in which they would
preserve their distinctive identity while adjusting to the winds of
change.
Alfonso XIII, born a king in 1886, was proclaimed of age in 1902.
Although his mother, the regent, continued to guide and assist him for
a time, his marriage in 1906 (to a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of
Great Britain) marked his definitive assumption of full royal authority.
Trained both in political and military institutions and imbued with a
sense of his role and responsibility as king, Alfonso was a well-inten-
tioned sovereign, although neither his intellectual gifts nor his judg-
ment would prove equal to the task that lay before him. Under the
latest version of Spain's many constitutions, he still held powers that
had disappeared from the repertoire of many “limited” monarchs. By
temperament and his own understanding of duty he would have no
hesitation in exercising such power, either openly or by indirect
means.
If the young king required any dramatic introduction to the situation
in which he found himself, it came during the festive procession of
royal carriages and mounted guards that carried him and his bride from
the cathedral to the royal palace after their wedding in 1906. A bomb
hurled at the royal couple exploded short of its target, covering the
English princess with the blood of soldiers and horses. Anarchists, to
whom this outrage was ascribed, had found in Spain a particularly fer-
tile ground for their doctrines ever since the 1860s and had already
applied their “propaganda of the deed” to a prime minister and many
other dignitaries in recent years. They made a twin appeal to the down-
trodden peasantry of Andalusia and to the industrial workers of Catalo-
nia. During Barcelona's “Tragic Week” in 1909 they would confront the
security forces with a mixture of straightforward violence and anticleri-
cal atrocity that shocked the country and the world. Although their
insurrection at the time frightened off many Catalan businessmen who
had hitherto supported disruptive regionalism, neither this outcome
nor the brutal behavior of the Civil Guard and army prevented further
outbreaks.
While the twin specters of socioeconomic disorder and regional sepa-
ratism were perhaps the most serious problems on the domestic front,
Alfonso also was faced by the need to shape a foreign and colonial pol-
icy. The Liberal ministers whom he chose to cope with internal issues
did not provide him with much relief. In matters of European policy
their advice and Alfonson's own links to Britain drew Spain into friend-
ship with London and its new ally, Paris. While this tendency threat-
ened to draw Spain into the Allied camp during World War I, the
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