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How did the workings of the Cortes of Cadiz frame a new political reality?

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The Treaty of Fontainebleau, signed on 17 October 1807, authorized Napoleon to cross Spain with his troops on his way to conquer Lisbon.1 His real intention, however, was to gain control over Iberian territory to make his Continental System effective.2 In doing so, he would also secure the Spanish crown for his brother Joseph. In fact, Joseph I was made king by Napoleon after the latter got Charles IV and Ferdinand VII to abdicate at Bayonne in April of the following year. By January 1810, French troops were sweeping through Andaluca, unstoppable. Marshal Soult, Chief of the Imperial troops in Spain, was presented with the choice of advancing to conquer either Seville or Cadiz, which at the time was only being defended by 8,000 men. 3 If Soult had been able to see how things would turn out and the significance of his choice for Spain, Europe and America, he would not have gone for Seville first because by the time he turned his attention towards Cadiz, the Atlantic port had become unconquerable. The Duke of Albuquerque had reinforced Cadiz on 4 February with 12,000 troops and Thomas Graham contributed with 5,000 British men on the 15th.4 It is not possible to know how the War of Independence would have developed had Cadiz been taken by the French in early 1810. What is clear, nonetheless, is that even with the Spaniards eventually winning the war, if Cadiz had been conquered and the centre of Spanish resistance had moved elsewhere, the aftermath of the conflict would have been of a completely different nature. This is because what took place during the workings of the 1810-1813 Extraordinary and General Cortes of the Spanish Nation summoned at Cadiz could only have happened there. Cadizs exceptional status as the centre of Spanish overseas trade made of it a major commercial port with links to America and Europe. This meant that the city was highly influenced by new ideas from abroad, especially those coming from France and England.5 The already bourgeois and liberal character of Cadiz was further reinforced by the arrival during the war of more than 50,000 refugees from areas under French control, most of them professionals
1 2

Carr (1966), p.81 Plumb (1950), p.210 3 Lovett (1965), p.361 4 Ibid., p.365-6 5 Ibid., pp.363-5

How did the workings of the Cortes of Cadiz frame a new political reality?

Enrique Requero

of the middle classes.6 Hence, although later on the conservatives would be right when arguing that liberals were only a minority in Spain,7 that was not so in Cadiz. There, liberals enjoyed widespread support on the streets. All these factors intermingled to produce a very specific and unique set of circumstances in Cadiz which facilitated the triumph of a liberal revolution in the Cortes. Through the promulgation of a Constitution in 1812 and a series of decrees to compliment it,8 the liberal-dominated Cortes aimed to introduce a series of reforms that would dismantle the ancien rgime and replace it with a modernized model of state and society based on the principles of a free market economy.9 Although the restoration of Ferdinand VII in March 1814 brought to an end the Cortes reforms,10 these reforms were significant because they brought liberalism into play in the Spanish political arena for the first time. The Cortes set in motion a liberal revolution which would eventually prevail in the mideighteenth-century. The novelty of the Cortes is highlighted by the fact that the constitutional text of 1812 was adopted as the constitution in Naples and Sicily in 1820. It also influenced the constitutions of Colombia, Mexico and Chile. Liberal activists in Germany and Russia were inspired by the Constitution of 1812 as well.11 The Cadiz Cortes, although willy-nilly, also contributed to a large extent in the framing of a new political reality in the Spanish dominions across the Atlantic. When the War of Independence broke out the metropolis found it difficult to maintain the supply of merchandise to the American colonies.12 Moreover, as also happened in the Peninsula, the confusion created by the collapse of the monarchy led some creoles to seize power from Crown officials. 13 For instance, creoles in Buenos Aires ousted the Viceroy arguing that they only intended to preserve the Viceroyalty for Ferdinand VII.14 The eventual collapse of Spanish America was not the product of a mounting nationalism among creole elites, but was rather a direct consequence of the peninsular crisis.15 Once creoles were in control, they demanded more autonomy from the Cadiz Cortes so as to secure their position during the war. They also demanded authorization to establish commercial relationships with Britain, as this was seen as the only way of keeping their
6 7

Palacio (1978), p.53 Carr, p.94 8 Palacio, p.74 9 Artola (1978), p.179 10 Esdaile (2000), p.38 11 Palacio, p.57 12 Carr, p.102 13 Lynch (2000), p.825 14 Carr, p.102. 15 Fisher (1981), p.191

How did the workings of the Cortes of Cadiz frame a new political reality?

Enrique Requero

economies running.16 Although the Cortes proclaimed in the 1812 Constitution legal equality between American and Peninsular Spaniards,17 their denial of more local autonomy and free trade to the creoles meant that for many across the Atlantic, due to the difficulties imposed by the war, independence was seen as the only feasible solution. Ultimately, while liberals in the Cadiz Cortes carried out a real revolution in the Peninsula to overturn absolutism, they were way too keen on maintaining the old imperialistic relationship with the dominions.18 Artola backs the terming of the workings of the Cortes as revolutionary by arguing that a revolution takes place only when the ruling sector is displaced and there follow a series of changes in the social organization, which can be considered enough so as to distinguish and contrast them conceptually with the previous situation.19 Revolution is thus understood as the emergence of a new social model. In this particular case, the Cadiz Cortes was significant in framing a new political reality that was part of a wider social and legal model. This model was shaped by the liberal principles of free market economy and would lead in the long run to the emergence of the modern Spanish nation-state. Prior the implementation of the revolutionary process, Artola argues, it is necessary for the reforming party to conquer power.20 The liberals in Cadiz conquered it with the promulgation of a decree on 24 September 1810, the opening day of the Cortes. This decree proclaimed the principle of national sovereignty, proposed by Muoz Torrero in his programmatic speech.21 The principle was made definitive with article 3 of the 1812 constitution, which stated that The Sovereignty resides essentially in the nation, and the right of enacting its fundamental laws belongs exclusively to it from this same principle.22 Although national sovereignty was only constitutionally proclaimed then, in actual fact it had been claimed by the Juntas formed all over Spain after Ferdinands abdication. Both conservatives and liberals agreed on the principle of national sovereignty because they saw it as the only possible way of challenging the coronation of Joseph I, which although legal, was done, they argued, with falta de consentimiento de la nacin.23 The hesitations of preabdication royal institutions such as the Council of Castile and their collaboration with the invaders also moved the resistance to take this move so as to fill what they saw as a vacuum of
16 17

Ibid. Constitution 1812, arts.5&21 18 Carr, p.104 19 Artola, p.159 (my own translation) 20 Ibid. 21 Lovett, p.373 22 Constitution 1812, art.3 23 Carr, p.96

How did the workings of the Cortes of Cadiz frame a new political reality?

Enrique Requero

power. Finally, the Constitution also read that the Spanish nation is free and independent, and is not, nor cannot be, the patrimony of any person or family,24 which effectively implied that the status of Spain as a territorial entity depended on the will of its inhabitants and was no longer subjected to a specific dynastic family. This was to avoid episodes such as that of Bayonne, but also to prevent kings from trading with territories in dynastic negotiations on the European stage, as had been the case in previous centuries. Apart from the fact that this way of seizing of power could be considered an authentic coup detat legitimized by popular will,25 it also implied a severe limitation of the kings prerogative to dispose of his land, which in the future would be subjected to the Cortes approval.26 Royal supremacy was also greatly limited in the Constitution through the separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers.27 Although the King preserved full executive power as head of state and government,28 article 172 introduced a thorough list of restraints on the authority of the King. This effectively subjected any royal decision to the consent of the Cortes, even the Kings own abdication. The King could be forced to remain on the throne against his own will!29 Among the mistakes made by the liberals in the Cadiz Cortes which cost them the nullification of their reforms in 1814, one that can be identified is their treating the King as a constitutional beast, as Carr puts it.30 Blanco White wrote that the problem of the Constitution of 1812 was that, due to the strict control it imposed on the executive, it was a constitution that gave no chance of a monarch accepting it.31 Nonetheless, the proclamation of the principle of national sovereignty did allow the liberals to seize power to complete their revolution. From their position in the Cortes, liberals created, through decrees and the Constitution, a whole new social model for Spain. They moved away from the complex and confusing administrative and juridical set up of the old regime and declared Spain a unitary state ruled by seven ministries that substituted the former network of councils. The territory was divided in uniform provinces and these subdivided in ayuntamientos for local government.32 This territorial uniformization allowed for the introduction of a new

24 25

Constitution 1812, art.2 Artola, p.161 26 Lovett, p.377 27 Palacio, p.71 28 Ibid. 29 Constitution 1812, art.172, clause 2 30 Carr, p.97 31 Hamnett (1977), p.1104 32 Esdaile, p.33

How did the workings of the Cortes of Cadiz frame a new political reality?

Enrique Requero

nation-wide progressive income tax the Contribucin nica and a unitary system of law courts, abolishing thus seigniorial jurisdictions (seoros).33 The liberal constitution also diminished the privileged position enjoyed by nobles until then by declaring all Spaniards equal before the law, by establishing one mode of [judicial] practice for all ranks of persons.34 This introduced a first glimpse of the modern understanding of citizenship. Other rights were proclaimed through decrees and the constitution: freedom of expression, right of representation in the Cortes and the right of memorial or peticin, among others.35 Nonetheless, among all the rights granted to citizens in 1812, a key element in the liberal programme of reform was that of respect of property. Liberals saw the granting of access to property to peasants as a sine qua non condition to increase agricultural productivity, because rights over their land would grant them security and thus act as an incentive.36 Liberals defended the respect of individual property, even that of the nobles. Nonetheless, they attacked with their reforms the bondage privileges which were attached to some lands, because they saw them as a hindrance to economic development. Thus, they declared the individual personality of property, defending ones right to dispose of it as one saw fit. This was followed by the abolition of any sort of corporate property, be it from the state, the municipalities (commons), ecclesiastic lands, encomiendas of the military orders or seigniorial estates. These measures dramatically augmented the availability of land to the populace. With this and the liberation of labour, which the abolition of guilds brought, the liberals attempted to promote the establishment of a free market in agricultural production and commercialization, which would speed up the process of industrialization.37 However, all these measures prompted opposition from different quarters. Conservative deputies looked at liberal measures with increasing resentment, arguing that these opened the doors to the revolutionary spirit which had destroyed France in 1789.38 Nevertheless, the revolution at Cadiz was a liberal and not a popular one. In fact, the Constitution of Cadiz did little to solve social problems. The abolition of guilds worsened the conditions of small artisans.39 The disamortization of feudal land hardly benefited peasants, since land was sold to the highest bidder. Peasants also opposed the sale of commons,

33 34

Ibid. Constitution 1812, art.248 35 Artola, pp.165-6 36 Ibid., p.175. 37 Ibid., p.179 38 Carr, p.94 39 Ibid., p.100

How did the workings of the Cortes of Cadiz frame a new political reality?

Enrique Requero

and the establishment of new ayuntamientos led to fights between local oligarchic factions aiming to gain control over them.40 Liberals and conservatives had initially been united for reforming the realm. This was due to a series of constituent stimuli such as the widespread grave economic situation ultimately caused by absolutist excesses under Godoy, the need to seize the reforming initiative which Napoleon attempted to monopolize with the Bayonne Constitution, and the vacuum of power resulting from Ferdinands abdication.41 As the workings of the Cortes progressed and the new liberal regime started to get a more definitive shape, conservative opposition increased due to the fear that liberals might eventually give birth to a radical creature of the likes of the French Revolution. Liberal leaders such as Argelles, however, consciously rejected French models and saw the revolution of 1789 as a pernicious example because it was a disaster which led to the overthrow of all laws and rights.42 Although the influence of French ideas on the Cadiz liberals is undeniable, it is true that the 1812 liberal revolution was of a completely different character, which is proved by the fact that it did not lead to popular seizure of power but rather to an increase of resentment within the lower classes. The increase of popular grievances accompanied the revival of conservative fortunes.43 This explains why the only popular disturbances which followed Ferdinands nullification in May 1814 of the liberal workings at Cadiz were the looting of the Cortes buildings in Madrid. Carr concluded, maybe overdramatically, that although the liberal Constitution of 1812 was made entirely for the people, it became entirely unpopular because it imposed freedom on a people accustomed to absolutism.44 This, however, fails to explain what it was that united Spaniards of all classes to resist the absolutism of Napoleonic rule. Maybe it was just anti-french xenophobic feeling, as some argue, or maybe there was more to it. Spaniards united against the invaders because they genuinely felt like a nation that needed to be defended. Liberals seized the opportunity to grant this nation a modernized structure of state. Although Carr might be right in implying that it probably was too early for Spanish stomachs to digest this new dish and it is true that liberalism at the time could have triumphed in Spain nowhere else other than in Cadiz, the Cortes still succeeded in opening new horizons. Concepts proclaimed there, such as that of national sovereignty, the separation of
40 41

Esdaile, p.34 Palacio, pp.66-9 42 Hamnett, p.1097. 43 Ibid., p.1109 44 Carr, p.141.

How did the workings of the Cortes of Cadiz frame a new political reality?

Enrique Requero

powers and the liberal principles of a free market economy, succeeded in injecting into the fabric of society a new set of political and social ideas that were to stay there for good. In the short term, the Cadiz Cortes started a new liberal revolutionary process which would in the following decades prevail over counter-revolutionary absolutist movements such as Carlism. In the long term, the workings of the Cadiz Cortes gave rise to a sharp division between the left and right political wings. The reality of the famous Two Spains was to be latent during the following decades under different names, leading to nasty events such as the 1936-9 Civil War, and which still subsist nowadays in Spanish politics and society.

Bibliography The Spanish constitution: proclaimed at Cadiz, March 19th, 1812 : re-proclaimed at Cadiz, March 19th, 1820 : and adopted as the constitution of Naples and Sicily, July 4th, 1820. Source: Hume Tracts, (1820), published by: UCL Library Services. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/60212333 . CARR, R., (1966) Spain, 1808-1935 PLUMB, J.H. (1950), England in the Eighteenth Century. PALACIO, V., (1978) La Espaa del Siglo XIX, 1808-1898. ESDAILE, C.J., (2000) Spain in the Liberal Age. From Constitution to Civil War, 18081939. LOVETT, G.H., (1965) Napoleon and the Birth of Modern Spain. Volume I, The Challenge of the Old Order. ARTOLA, M., (1978) El Antiguo Rgimen y la Revolucin Liberal. HAMNETT, B.R., (March 1977) Constitutional Theory and Political Reality: Liberalism, Traditionalism and the Spanish Cortes 1810-1814, The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 49, No. 1, On Demand Supplement. LYNCH, J., (Oct., 2000) Review: J.E. Rodriguez, The Independence of Spanish America (1998), Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 825-826. FISHER, J., (May, 1981) Review: M. Rodriguez, The Cadiz Experiment in Central America (1978), Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 191-193. ANNA, T.E., (Aug., 1992) Review: M.L. Rieu-Milln, Los Diputados Americanos en Cadiz (1990), The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 72, No. 3, pp. 424-425.

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