Talk:Contemporary Age
Spain on maps. A geographic synopsis
Compendium of the National Atlas of Spain. New content
Thematic structure > History > Historical overview > Contemporary Age
The population increased and exceeded ten million inhabitants in the 18th century, but changes in the territorial distribution took place. The inland areas, except for Madrid, suffered continuous negative rates for more than a century (The Urban World and Population Density at the late 18th Century map and Population and Population Density in the First Third of the 19th Century maps) while the outskirts were thriving: Gijón, Ferrol, Vigo, Cartagena, Jerez de la Frontera, San Fernando, etc. This was possible thanks to the progress in medicine, hygiene, increased agricultural production, new towns founded by the State, the arrival of technicians and foreign residents, the creation of industries, among other reasons. The Spanish War of Independence, the Carlist War and the continuous guerrillas, absolutist or liberal, reinforced the demographic blow, either due to deaths (500,000? 1808-1814) or to those exiled; some for their Francophile progressivism (the afrancesados, like Goya), others for their liberal activism. Also due to the plagues from 1800, 1814, 1833. In 1833, the country reached 12,162,000 inhabitants, which still meant a very weak density: just 1,636 inhabitants per square mile, as opposed to 4,659 inhabitants in the Netherlands, 3,875 in the United Kingdom, 3,085 in France or 1,815 in Portugal. With the provincial reorganisation by Javier de Burgos (1833), the new provincial capitals grew, as well as the mining areas, such as Asturias and Ciudad Real. The inland rural exodus expanded towards the industrial areas, which developed on the outskirts, and to the cities of the Basque Country (Biscay), Catalonia (Barcelona) and Madrid. Thus, a bourgeoisie of civil servants, industrialists and merchants emerged, who supported great urban projects: districts such as Ensanche in Barcelona (Cerdà Plan, imposed by the central government) and Salamanca district, in Madrid. The war against Napoleon, who came to Spain to place his brother on the throne in Madrid (The Spanish War of Independence map, also known as Peninsular War), brought the emergence of the first Constitution of Spain, in a besieged, progressive and liberal Cádiz. It also led to the appearance of guerrillas (a term that was made universal) against the French invader, in favour either of the absolutist king or of the liberals. The guerrillas from one side or the other continued until the mid-twenties, according to the ruling ideology. In the thirties, Infante Don Carlos, who supported a monarchy that was absolutist, foralista and with a male sucession line, refused to accept his niece Isabella as the Queen. His reluctance was even increased because she was beign supported by de liberals. He proclaimed himself King (Charles V). A long and cruel seven years war started (The Great Carlist War map). The Convention of Bergara that ended it, started a liberal and two-party monarchy in Spain. There would be two other Carlist wars, in 1846-1849 and 1872-1876, and many attempts in 1855, 1860, 1869 and 1870. In 1853 the prohibition of emigrating to America was lifted (Emigration in the 19th Century map). Cuba, still Spanish, attracted the Catalan emigration. Later on, the emigration was directed to Mexico, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina. Between 1853 and 1882, there was a high Galician emigration rate (325,000, 60% of the total), and afterwards of Canarians, Asturians and Basques. The population of the Mediterranean and Balearic coastline headed for Morocco or Algeria (about 114,000, most of all, to Oran) and of the Northeast Peninsula to Europe.
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The Ecclesiastical Confiscations
The objective of the ecclesiastical confiscations, known as desamortizaciones, was the nationalisation of all the assets (buildings, land, works of art, books, etc.) from the so-called manos muertas, most of which were property of the religious communities, except for the educational and health care ones. There were precedents: assets belonging to the expelled Jesuits, some attempts by Godoy, the assets confiscation to the liberals and the Francophiles, or the nationalisation of the Inquisition property and of the military orders, decreed by the Cortes de Cádiz. The ecclesiastical confiscation of Juan Álvarez Mendizábal, who was the progressivist Treasury Minister during the regency of María Cristina, started in 1835. The goods from religious orders were confiscated and sold to the highest bidder to pay off public debt, finance the Carlist War and create an agrarian middle class with the peasants, who would then purchase the cultivated land. He also wanted to get supporters for liberal ideas and persuade the Carlist War towards the child Queen, apart from promoting the agrarian production and its trade. Between 1836 and 1837, 3,600 millions of reales (Spanish currency) were raised (Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizabal map). The execution of the Mendizábal confiscation decrees was paralysed during the moderate decade (1844-1854, Narváez government). However, Pascual Madoz, Treasury Minister during the progressive biennium (1855-1856, government of Espartero), reactivated them with more intensity: he applied them not only for the confiscation of church property, such as in the first confiscation, but also for the communal properties from the municipalities and the ones from the State itself (Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Madoz map). They were aimed at financing railway works, promoting agrarian production and modernising the countryside. In general, the peasants were unable to buy the confiscated land, which fell into the hands of, either the former owners (through figureheads) or the wealthy urban bourgeoisie, transformed into the landlord's bourgeoisie. On the other hand, many municipalities remained without rents and had to increase the tax burden. It is relevant to point out that provincial museums were created with the works of art, and monastic libraries were transferred to the newly created provincial secondary schools and to some universities.
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The Bourbon Restauration
The restauration paved the way for a period of socioeconomic stabilisation, of consolidation of the goals achieved during the Elizabethan period and the creation of new ones. The offer of agricultural land, because of the confiscations, increased the cultivated land surface, the agricultural production and consumption. Until 1882, the economic agricultural conditions facilitated the inland cereal production. The Crimean War and the subsequent conflicts in Eastern Europe facilitated exports, to the extent that there was an emergence of a flour milling bourgeoisie in the two Castile regions, whose motto was: “Water, sun and war in Sebastopol”. Nevertheless, from that moment cereal imports started, favoured by the railway and a very benign climate that increased production. As a result, prices decreased and the countryside, once again, went into crisis and a new cycle began of rural exodus to the large industrial cities. The cotton shortage due to the North American Secession War (1861-1885) contributed to the decline of the old textile industry, which gave way to metallurgic and steel factories. As iron needed coal as a source of energy, those places that catered for both (Ojén, Málaga, 1826), initiated the heavy industry process. But due to mining fatigue, this activity was moved to other regions such as Asturias (1864) and the Basque Country (1876), where a fruitful exchange of iron and coal with Cardiff was established. At the end of the 19th century, 70% of the national production of iron was located in the Basque Country, so Spain became the main iron supplier for the rest of Europe. There was a huge increase in production from 43,000 tons of iron ingots, 37,000 tons of soft iron and steel, which were produced in 1868, to 310,000 and 190,000 tons, respectively manufactured in 1900. The iron exploitation was important for the railway expansion. The benefits from the Madoz confiscation decrees and a series of laws that promoted its financing, such as the Ley General de Ferrocarriles de 1855 (General Railway Act), which attracted foreign capital, contributed to it (French capital in the Northern rails and British in the Sourthern ones). The first railway in the Iberian Peninsula was the Barcelona-Mataró line in 1848, followed by the Madrid-Aranjuez one in 1851. In 10 years (1856-1866) 460 km were built per year, reaching 5,000 km. In a second 23-year-stage, (1873-1896) it reached 12,000 km. The 20th century started with 15,000-km-railway lines, some of which were international: Madrid-Lisbon (1881) and Lisbon-Madrid-Paris (1887).
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Restauration crisis and first dictatorship
Alfonso XIII assumed full authority as king on his 16th birthday, among a general historical pessimism provoked by the Desastre del 98 (98 Disaster), that marked the Generation of 1898. Foreign colonial companies owned the raw materials (Large Foreign Corporations map). Germans, Belgians and French had the mining concessions and the English controlled more than 50% of the foreign capital in many industries: forestry (cork), food (Suchard), and, of course, mining (Riotinto). From 1868 onwards (Mining Law), the State had improved its commitment with them. Zinc, copper, mercury and lead were extracted. The Spanish capital, with exceptions, such as the Marquis of Salamanca years before, settled for its agricultural latifundia (The Large Rural Property map). Despite that, the agri-food industry sector was emerging timidly. The unresolved agricultural issue (66% of the active population) with a high number of jornaleros (landless day labourers), temporary unemployed and mostly illiterate, caused the appearance of the revolutionary agricultural labour unions. The social issues also remained unresolved. In 1916 there were 237 strikes; in 1920 more than 1,000. The repression of the 1917 Spanish general strike (Strikes and Social Conflicts map) left dozens of deaths and thousands arrested. Under the Primo de Rivera dictatorship there was a decrease in conflict due to the big public works and the collaboration of the General Union of Workers (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT). But the situation blew up again in 1929. The National Confederation of Labour (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, CNT) reached 700,000 affiliates during that year, and in the first years of the Republic, the UGT doubled that number. In Andalusia the peasants alliances exceeded 100,000 affiliates on the strike of 1934, wich anticipated the general revolutionary strike (Affiliation to National Confederation of Labour and Affiliation to the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party maps).
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The Republic, the Civil War and Franco’s Dictatorship
The republican parties had sworn allegiance to bring the republic through the Pact of San Sebastián (1930), as a consequence of the disrepute of the Monarchy. And they took advantage of the municipal elections in 1931 because, although the monarchists got more municipal councillors, the vote in the big cities was republican. Many people took to the streets and Alfonso XIII, abandoned by everybody, stopped his royal functions and left «Spain…the sole lady of its own destiny». The Republic faced all the problems simultaneously: agricultural, social, religious, military and territorial issues. In the meantime, a Constitution was elaborated in the middle of the Great Depression of 1929. All “these issues” were intended to be resolved, but how? Some wanted a bourgeois republic with reforms, but gradual and prolonged throughout time; others wanted radical political action that could even become revolutionary. The Second Republic emerged with great difficulties so that “the two Spains” could fit into it. Therefore, the Pact of San Sebastián was broken and not only the radicals but the liberal right also got out of the first Government. In May 1931, more than 100 convents were set on fire. The following year there was an anarchist revolutionary attempt, a monarchist uprising and even a failed coup d’état by General Sanjurjo. And while the Agrarian Reform, the army reorganisation, the generalisation of the education and the regional planning was faced by the Republican Courts, the strikes and revolts continued, resulting in a tough response with 25 deaths in the anarchist Casas Viejas uprising. The society was not ready for with some decisions: the divorce law, the recognition of the Soviet Union; others, like the expulsion of the Jesuits, seemed exaggerated. And some raised powerful enemies against the Republic, such as the agrarian reform or the one of the army. In 1933 the right-wing party won the elections (while Hitler came to power in Germany), the reforms were stopped and the PSOE attempted a general revolutionary action in October 1934 (1,800-2,000 deaths across Spain), with victory only in Asturias. The Sacred Chamber of the Cathedral of Oviedo was blown up and the University was set on fire (its old library was lost) amid looting and killings. The Republic sent the Legión and also the Army of Africa to Asturias, which acted with similar violence. During 1935 both Spains were prepared to settle their confrontation in the general elections held in February of 1936. There was a triumph of the Popular Front, and in July a great part of the army took up arms, led by General Franco. The rebellion only won in some parts of Spain. But the audacity and discipline of the rebels and the rulers’ indecision, who would rather arm the civil people than lean on the rest of the army, whose loyalty they doubted, derived into a civil war that would last until 1939. There were moments with as much violence at the rear as on the front-line. Once the war was over, General Franco established a personal military dictatorship, of a National Catholic nature, amidst violent repression. In its first years, given its international isolation, the dictatorship tried to govern autarchically and with the expected territorial actions: great public works without the possibility of resistance from those affected (entire villages were moved), such as the construction of more than 500 dams. In the meantime, land plots concentration plans, colonisation of new villages, and construction of grain storage networks (the silos), were promoted while the great property remained untouchable.The project known as Plan Badajoz was relevant, with thousands of people being resettled. From 1959 onwards, (the isolation had already stopped due to the cold war), technocratic programs were implemented (the Development Plans) with industrial parks and estates throughout the country. Undoubtedly there was economic progress, urban middle classes were created in large numbers and the active agrarian population decreased by 10% due to emigration to industrial areas. Spain was considered the tenth world economic power for a few years. But in 1975 nobody wanted to continue with a dictatorship and the country returned to a democratic system.
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The Arrival of Democracy
Once the dictator had died, the process known as “transition” began, which paved the way to a Western parliamentary democracy in Spain. The rulers he had appointed, trusting that the Francoist militarism would be perpetuated, understood that it was a senseless anachronism and the anti-Francoist rulers (from the exile or in captivity) coincided in the need to lead the country towards its identification with Europe; it was necessary to assume waivers from both sides. It could be said that the transition emerged in 1976 (Referendum on Political Reform map), culminated in 1978 (Constitution approval), consolidated in 1979 (Municipal Elections of 1979. Leftist Victory in Provincial Capitals map) and with the disappearance of the secular military leadership after the failed coup d’état led by Tejero, became a milestone. The Socialist Party came to power and Spain became a member of NATO and the European Community. But why is it said that it emerged? The historians study how, under the tense Francoist surface, since the end of the sixties, Spain had developed a confluence of social, economic or cultural “transitions”, from which the political transition, once the dictator had died, was the inexorable end. The country was leaving behind the bipolar social division, which the old politicians –unable to overcome it– preferred to agitate. Now, in contrast, the new politics were building a free democracy for everyone. And Spain stands itself in front of its own history, 500 years after 1492, as a united nation, free from grudges, transparent, powerful and open to the world. The current Spanish generations will thus know, with the faithful memory of a former divisive past, how to effectively face the 21st century.
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