2. 1808: The Napoleonic Wars and the Loss of the American Colonies

The carlists were the supporters of Carlos Maria Isidro, the brother of the dead king, who wanted to maintain the Ancien Régime. Their opposition to the isabellines led to a civil war (the First Carlist War, 1833–1840), which brought about the pact between the nobility and the bourgeoisie to defeat the carlists and establish a liberal regime.

Between 1808 and 1876, patriots waged a war against the Francophiles (1808–1814); followed by liberal forces against Ferdinand VII (1814–1833); then liberals against carlists (1833–1840) and, finally, the coups d’état and revolutionary revolts of the Progressive Party against the Moderate Party, which were both liberal.

In October 1807, a French army of 28,000 soldiers crossed Spanish territory to invade Portugal, with reinforcements of 350,000 men arriving in July 1811; these forces of Napoleon suffered heavy losses due to the resistance of the Spanish people (Bell 2007).

The Mesta was a guild-type institution, created in 1273 to protect transhumant herding.

In these extraordinary circumstances, the peasants openly defaulted on the payment of their tithes and feudal dues, and ploughed municipal lands, in violation of the municipal ordinances and the privileges of the Mesta pastures. For their part, the municipalities, the provincial juntas and the regional councils not only legitimized this uncontrolled appropriation of land, but also sold off and distributed common land to raise funds with which to finance extraordinary war expenses.

This situation can be related to the loss of the Spanish navy and the ships of the marine guard in 1804, in Trafalgar, to the disorganization of the resguardos de rentas (a guard made up of revenue officers) at the borders, and, in general, due to the chaos ensuing from the war. While the political instability continued, smuggling remained commonplace, although levels dropped with the creation of the Civil Guard in 1844, and the reorganization of the resguardos de rentas (Comín 1996).

In Murcia, in April 1810, the general in command of the French troops demanded that the business owners pay a ransom in advance to prevent the looting of the city.

The liberal revolution in Spain experienced both advances and setbacks over a prolonged period of time. This period included two constitutional regimes—the Cortes of Cádiz from 1808 to 1813, and the Constitutional Triennium between 1820 and 1823—which were overthrown by two absolutist restorations of Fernando VII (in 1814 and 1823), before the liberal revolution finally prevailed during the First Carlist War (1833–1840).

The financiers and owners backed Mendizábal’s disentailment rather than the proposal of Flórez Estrada, which was more favourable to the peasants.

From 1835 on, the pact between the progressives and the nobility (later going on to form the Moderate Party) favoured the former feudal lords in the distribution of seigniorial property, and in terms of compensation for the old public debt bonds, for the alienated incomes of the Crown, and for the participation of the laity in the tithes.

In an attempt to enlist the support of the Church, in 1841 the Moderate Party approved what was known as the Presupuesto de Culto y Clero (the budget for religion and the clergy) to subsidize the clergy. Moreover, in 1844 it even called a halt to the church disentailment.

Emphyteusis, one of the most widespread forms of land leasing in Spain before the liberal revolution, established a perpetual lease of the land.

This Minister of Finance copied the taxes in force in France, adapting them to the Spanish tax situation.

The term Progressive Biennium is used to refer to that established by the progressives between 1854 and 1856, in order to move forward with the reforms that had stalled under the Moderate Party. The Revolutionary or Democratic Sexennial is the name given to the period that started with the revolution of 1868 and lasted until the Bourbon Restoration of 1874. During this period the First Spanish Republic was briefly established (1873–1874).

Although Ferdinand VII restored absolutism in 1814 and 1823.

The “pro-agrarian” theory holds that agriculture was not responsible for the failure of the industrial revolution and the slow economic growth in Spain, as farmers responded to the increase and changes in demand and contributed to the growth of agricultural production, within the limits of the insuperable environmental constraints imposed by the Spanish geography (see Pujol et al. 2001).

From 1820 on, the liberals of the Constitutional Triennium endorsed the prohibition model of mercantilism, although it was ineffective because the Spanish State was unable to stop the flow of contraband. The wars had destroyed the ships of the navy and the marine guards, which, just as with the terrestrial guards, lacked personnel and were not fully operational. In addition to the poverty of the Treasury, which handicapped the State in its fight against smuggling, the absolutist and liberal governments showed no interest in pursuing the matter and were unsuccessful in doing so. Furthermore, the smuggling was fuelled by prohibition itself and by banditry. A rise in banditry was caused by the guerrillas during the War of Independence, and by the poverty in the areas where contraband was traditionally rife—poverty which was exacerbated by the agrarian reforms of the liberal revolution that created so many unemployed day labourers.

The railway and banking bubble burst and triggered an economic (1864–1868) and political crisis (the Glorious Revolution of 1868) that led to Queen Isabella II being deposed.