Cádiz Cuts

We explain what the Cortes of Cádiz were. In addition, the proclamation of the Constitution of 1812 and its historical importance.

What were the Cortes de Cádiz?

The Cortes of Cádiz were a legislative and constituent assembly that was formed in response to the emptiness of authority generated by the Napoleonic occupation of Spain in 1810. The Cortes of Cádiz met until the return to the throne of Spain of Fernando VII, who dissolved them and restored the absolutism in May 1814.

The Cortes de Cádiz were initially convened by the Supreme Central Board of Sevillewho did not know the authority of José I (brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, appointed king of Spain by the French emperor), and then by the Council of Regency of Spain and Indies, which settled in Cádiz and replaced the Central Board as a governing body.

The main activity of the Cortes of Cádiz was the writing of a liberal constitution for Spainpromulgated on March 19, 1812. Although it was annulled by Fernando VII in 1814, the Constitution of Cádiz exerted a lot of influence in the Spanish political life of the nineteenth century (it was even restored in 1820-1823 and 1836-1837) and in the American territories during revolutionary and independence processes.

See also: Spanish Empire Crisis

The historical context

At the beginning of 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops, emperor of the French, occupied Spain. In March, An uprising known as Aranjuez Motor forced the abdication of King Carlos IV and allowed his son to access the throne, Fernando VII.

However, in May 1808 the Napoleonic pressure led Fernando VII to abdicate Already return the crown to his father, who in turn had renounced the throne in favor of Napoleon. These episodes are known as Bayona’s abdications. In June 1808, Napoleon appointed King of Spain to his brother, José Bonaparte, who assumed with the name of José I.

Bayonne’s abdications created an authority void In occupied Spain. Although the Bourbons had ordered the authorities to obey the new king, José I, many Spaniards refused to obey an authority that was seen as illegitimate. To fill that void and organize the insurrection against the French (which took the name of War of Independence) Provincial meetings were organized that assumed sovereignty.

The provincial meetings sought from the beginning to coordinate. Thus, in September 1808, the Central Board was established Based in Seville that, in the absence of the legitimate king, he assumed all the sovereign powers and established a maximum governing body. Fruit of this new situation, The Central Board convened, in the name of King Ferdinand VII, a Meeting of extraordinary cuts in Cádiz, an act that began a revolutionary process. Finally, en January 1810, the Central Board moved to the island of León (in Cádiz) and He gave power to a Regency Council, which maintained the call for Cortes.

See also: Spanish Monarchy

The first session of the Cortes de Cádiz

The celebration of elections for deputies in the context of the War of Independence and the French occupation of most of Spain led to the Courts to have predominantly deputies Bourgeois and instructed from the commercial cities of the Spanish coast.

The sessions of cuts began on September 24, 1810 on the island of León (in the Bay of Cádiz), although in February 1811 they moved to the city of Cádiz. At the first meeting, the deputies signed a decree in which they declared that:

• The deputies were legitimately constituted in general and extraordinary courts.
• The Cortes were depositories of national sovereignty.
• The abdication of King Fernando VII was annulled and recognized him as a single and legitimate king.
• The Courts recognized the separation of powers, the exercise of the legislative power were reserved and enabled the Regency Council to assume the Executive Power in the absence of the King and under oath of fidelity to the laws of the Courts.

The reforms introduced by the Cortes de Cádiz

Coming soon, In the Cortes of Cádiz three groups of confrontated deputies were formed:

• Liberals: supporters of revolutionary reforms, inspired by the principles of the French Revolution.
• Moderate or “Jovellanistas”: supporters of mesurated reforms that allow the Courts and the King to share sovereignty.
• Absolutists or “servile”: supporters of the maintenance of the old regime, that is, the absolute monarchy, the state society and the mercantilist economy.

The liberal tendency imposed And the liberal deputies took advantage of the absence of the king to initiate what historians usually consider the first bourgeois liberal revolution in Spain. Its two objectives were to adopt reforms that end the structures of the old regime and approve a constitution that changed the political regime of the country.

The main political, economic, social and legal reforms adopted by the Cortes of Cádiz were:

• Political Freedom of Printing (1810). All people became the freedom to write and publish their political ideas without the need for prior approval.
• Abolition of the stately regime (1811). The jurisdictional manors originating in the feudal order that allowed the feudal lords to administer justice in their lands were eliminated. However, the nobility maintained the property of almost all its lands.
• Inquisition suppression (1813). The Spanish Inquisition was abolished.
• Abolition of the guilds (1813). Labor corporations were eliminated and economic freedom (commercial, work and manufacturing) was affirmed
• Confiscation (1813). The confiscation of some church assets was decreed to sell them at auction, although this measure was applied very limitedly.

The Spanish Constitution of 1812

The most important initiative of the Cortes of Cádiz was the writing of the first Spanish Constitution. The 1812 Constitution was promulgated by the Cortes of Cádiz on March 19, 1812at a time when most of the Spanish territory continued under French occupation.

Among the articles of the Constitution of Cádiz were those who affirmed the following principles:

• The sovereignty of the nation
• The recognition of nationality to all Spaniards, both from the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America (although revolutionary processes in America promoted the formation of their own governments).
• The protection of property and political and civil freedoms of individuals.
• The formula by which the king was monarch for “the grace of God and the Constitution.”
• The separation of powers.

The dissolution of the Cortes of Cádiz

In 1813 the French troops began to go back in front of the pressure of the Spanish guerrillas. In December 1813, Napoleon admitted Fernando VII’s return to the throne of Spain in exchange for peace. The king was released and returned to Spain in March 1814. On April 12, almost seventy absolutist deputies signed the “Manifesto of the Persians”, in which they asked the king to return to the old regime.

In May 1814, Fernando VII decreed the cancellation of the Constitution of 1812the dissolution of the Courts, the persecution or imprisonment of the liberal deputies and the restoration of the absolute monarchy.

In this way, the reforms implemented by the Cortes of Cádiz, such as the freedom of printing, the separation of powers or the suppression of the Inquisition, were without effect.

However, The legislative experience of the Courts continued to influence Spanish political life to the point that the Constitution of 1812 re-entered into force in the so-called Liberal Triennium (1820-1823) and between 1836 and 1837. In addition, it was used as a model for the writing of some Republican constitutions of Latin America during the nineteenth century.

He Decree of Valencia by Fernando VII

In May 1814, King Fernando VII organized a coup d’etat to recover control of the government that had taken the Cortes of Cádiz during his absence. The coup was organized in Valencia and began with the publication of the Decree of Valencia (also known as the MAY 4 MANAGEMENT).

Through this document, written in the first person and signed by King Ferdinand VII, the divine origin of sovereignty (the fundamental principle of the Spanish absolute monarchy) was proclaimed and the actions of the Cortes of Cádiz were denounced as an attempt to appropriate the kingdom.

In the Decree of Valencia, King Fernando VII ordered the annulment of the Constitution of 1812 and all the legislation created by the Cortes of Cádiz. Thus, the absolute monarchy was restored (which in the decree was called “moderate monarchy”) and ended the brief period of the constitutional regime.

Royal Decree of Fernando VII repealing the Constitution of 1812

May 4, 1814

“Since the Divine Providence, through the spontaneous and solemn resignation of my august father, put me on the throne of my elders, of which I had a successor jury the kingdom through its attorneys together in cuts (…).

My first manifestations went to the restitution of several magistrates and other people who had arbitrarily separated from their destinations, because the hard situation of things and the perfidy of Bonaparte, whose cruel effects I wanted, passing to Bayona, preserving my peoples, barely gave rise to more.

Gathered there the Royal Family, it was committed throughout it, and significantly in me, an atrocious attack (…), violating at the top the sacred right of people, I was deprived of my freedom, and I was, in fact, of the government, of my kingdoms, and transferred to a palace with my very beloved brothers and uncle, serving us as a decoorous prison, almost for six years, those of six years.

With this, everything was available to the Courts, which on the same day of its installation (…) they stripped me of sovereignty (…) attributing it to the nation, to appropriate them themselves, and give to it (…) a constitution that (…) they themselves sanctioned and published in 1812.

This first attack against the prerogatives of the throne (…) was like the basis of the many who followed (…); They were sanctioned, not fundamental laws of a moderate monarchy, but those of a popular government (…).

Of all this, after I entered my reign, I acquired faithful news and knowledge (…). I swear and promise you, true and loyal Spanish that you have suffered, you will not be disappointed in your noble efforts (…).

Therefore, having heard what (…) I have been informed respectable people for their zeal and knowledge, and those that are contained here has exposed me in representations that of several parts of the kingdom have been addressed to me, (…) I declare that my real mood is, not only not just swear or access said Constitution, or to any of the general and extraordinary courts or of the ordinary ones currently open (…) null decrees and of any value or effect, (…) as if such acts had never passed and removed from the middle of time, and without obligation in my villages and subjects of any kind and condition to fulfill them and keep them.“

Continue with:

document.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”, (e) => {

var sliderContainer, slider;
sliderContainer = document.getElementById(‘block_1bd47f31de3a444ca95e8c48d634a351’);

if (typeof initSlider !== ‘function’) {

console.log(‘Swiper haven\’t been loaded’);
sliderContainer.className += ‘ fw scroll-snap’;
return;

};

options = {
direction: ‘horizontal’,
speed: 1000,

slidesPerView: ‘auto’,
// slidesPerGroup: 1,

centerInsufficientSlides: true,
// centeredSlides:true,

spaceBetween: 15,
breakpoints: {
720: {
// centeredSlides: false,
// slidesPerGroup: 2,
spaceBetween: 25
},
},

pagination: {
el: ‘.swiper-pagination’,
type: ‘bullets’,
clickable: true
},
}

slider = initSlider(sliderContainer, options);
})

References

• Artola, M. (ed.) (2003). The Cortes de Cádiz. Marcial Pons.
• Miguel Cervantes Virtual Library (2012). Royal Decree of Fernando VII repealing the Constitution (Valencia, May 4, 1814).
• https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/
• Carr, R. et al. (2022). Spain. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Congress of Deputies (SF). Constitution of 1812. Official Portal of the Chamber of Deputies. https://www.congreso.es/
• Congress of Deputies (SF). Cortes of Cádiz 1810-1814. Official Portal of the Chamber of Deputies. https://www.congreso.es/
• Pérez Garzón, JS (2007). The Cortes of Cádiz. The birth of the liberal nation (1808-1814). Synthesis.