Pastafaris

19th CENTURY SPAIN

In 1808 Napoleon forced the Spanish king to abdicate and he made his brother Joseph king of Spain. However the Spanish people refused to accept him. So in November 1808 Napoleonled an army into Spain and in December he captured Madrid. Yet the Spaniards fought a guerrilla war against the French. This time the British were their allies.

In 1812 the Cortes, the Spanishparliament, published a constitution. It stated that the king was to be a constitutional monarch. Then in 1813 the French were driven out of Spain.

Ferdinand became king in December 1813 but in 1814he declared the 1812 constitution null and void and made it clear he intended to rule as an absolute monarch.

However in 1820 there was an uprising in Spain and a general Rafael de Riego forcedFerdinand to accept the constitution. Yet in 1823 the French king sent an army to restore Ferdinand to absolute power.

Meanwhile Spain's colonies in Central and South America rebelled and between 1818and 1824 they gained their independence. Furthermore in 1819 Spain was forced to cede Florida to the USA.

Furthermore in 1808 the French abolished the Spanish Inquisition. Ferdinand restored it in1814 but it was finally abolished in 1820.

Ferdinand died in 1833 and Spain was plunged into a civil war between liberals and conservatives. Ferdinand wanted his daughter Isabella to succeed himbut Spanish conservatives wanted his brother Carlos to become king. The war went on till 1839 when the Carlists (conservatives) were finally defeated.

In 1835 to raise money the liberals sold landbelonging to the Church. In 1851 the Pope accepted the situation. In return the state became responsible for paying the clergy.

However Queen Isabella alienated the liberals and in 1868 a revolutiontook place. Isabella was forced to abdicate. In 1870 she was replaced by Amadeo I but he too abdicated in February 1873. For a short time Spain was a republic but Alfonso XII became king in 1874. A...