How do you say 1814 in spanish

Prominent exaltados were brought into the government and made respectable. Opposition virtually disappeared. Under the circumstances, the ministry felt it unnecessary to suppress the patriotic societies as authorized by the Cortes following the demonstrations for Riego in September.

Ferdinand emerged from the Carvajal Affair unalterably opposed to constitutional government. Never enthusiastic about the revolution, he now worked to destroy liberal unity.

He was aided by the fact that not all revolutionaries were given patronage—there were far too many of them for that—and some of the disappointed pretendientes continued to agitate. Not only were the revolutionaries dissatisfied with the new moderado ministry; subsequent developments were even less to their liking. Unable to control Madrid—the demonstrations for Riego in September were a total failure—the exaltados turned to the provinces, where they were able to command considerable popular support.

Worsening economic conditions contributed to their appeal. Agricultural prices fell to new lows in , creating rural discontent.

In urban areas technological change created unemployment; in Alcoy workers burned textile machinery. They flooded the Cortes with petitions, and merchants in many of the port cities voiced their opposition to the liberal program.

As the party of opposition, the exaltados drew support from all those elements dissatisfied with the situation. Having won the elections, the exaltados felt sure that they would be asked to form the new government and therefore ended their opposition to Madrid.

The central government gradually brought the provinces under control. The newly elected deputies were obviously displeased, and during the legislative session they took every opportunity to embarrass the government. With cooperation between legislative and executive branches impossible, Spain approached political chaos.

Unable to work with the Cortes, the ministers offered their resignations in June, but Ferdinand refused to accept them. The crisis came with the revolt of the Royal Guards in July After the national guard, led by Riego and Evaristo San Miguel, defeated the rebels on July 7, the exaltados claimed credit for the victory and branded both Ferdinand and the moderados as traitors to the constitution.

Many citizens of Madrid became convinced that the ministry had planned the uprising in order to establish a new constitution providing for a bicameral legislature. Against the opposition of public opinion in Madrid and of the Consejo de Estado, Ferdinand appointed San Miguel to head a new cabinet composed exclusively of Masons.

When the French invaded Spain in the spring of the constitutionalists were already discredited. In general, the public welcomed the French as liberators. Even among the revolutionary officers only Mina offered determined resistance to the French. The constitutional experiment had clearly failed. In retrospect, it is apparent that this failure was inevitable. The public wanted economic recovery and financial stability in No ministry was capable of providing this.

Many of these seemed less concerned with fiscal responsibility than Ferdinand, a fact which the royalist opposition never ceased to point out. The treasury was usually destitute, yet government officials regularly rewarded themselves and their friends. Thus from the beginning most constitutionalists were guilty of promoting associational interests rather than the national interest. Although each faction professed a political ideology, the desire for power frequently took precedence over political principle.

In this way both exaltados and moderados were characteristic of opposition movements in underdeveloped countries. Where there are insufficient opportunities for talent only pronunciamientos can provide the spoils. Wellesley to Castlereagh, Madrid, March 25, , P. In general, the civil appointees of the Regency and the ministry during the war retained their positions, provided that they accepted the Decreto of May 4 and recognized Ferdinand as sovereign.

Of course, some officeholders were dismissed because their offices were abolished, but the government attempted to find other positions for them, so far as it was possible. No magistrates appointed by constitutional authorities, for example, were dismissed for political reasons. Although liberal historians have criticized Ferdinand for his harsh treatment of the constitutionalists, the reaction in was actually quite mild, as Comellas has pointed out Primeros pronunciamientos , True, the king did order the arrest of the regents and some liberal leaders in the Cortes, but even Wellesley, who thought the action unwise, admitted in his reports to Castlereagh that it was popular with the general public.

Primarily, it was the issue of popular sovereignty and the royal prerogative which caused Ferdinand to turn against a few of the constitutionalists.

See the Respuesta a los consideraciones In particular, War and Treasury appointments were divorced from political favoritism. Freyre, if not an ardent constitutionalist, at least had doubts about accepting Ferdinand and, according to Wellington, had to be persuaded to do so.

Francisco Espoz y Mina, Memorias, B. The Junta de comercio of Barcelona, for example, predicted the revival of commerce and manufacturing when it announced the reopening of tuition-free technical schools. Gaceta de Madrid , September 29, Even though specie was scarce, a new insurance company organized in Bilbao raised five million reales in hard currency through sale of stock.

There was actually some recovery. Agricultural commodity prices rose 13 percent in Perhaps the major problem was that recovery did not measure up to expectations. The Circular of January 31, , ordered local officials to accept and redeem all treasury bills. The issuance of this circular implies that local officials had been unable to redeem these bills.

Various provincial officials had notified Madrid that they had insufficient funds to make payments. Orders of April 23 and August 26, , S. On the Overseas Army see also Margaret L.

Wellesley reported to Castlereagh that even though there was much discontent with the government, there was complete indifference to the constitution.

Madrid, January 24, , P. A report of the Inquisitor General, dated February 29, , maintained that discontent stemmed from inequalities in taxation, injustices in the judicial system, and partiality in employment. The junta was first informed on March 25 that many of the provinces had stopped remitting taxes to Madrid.

The Archbishop of Toledo complained that many of the villages had stopped paying tithes. Session of July 8, , ibid. Session of March 21, , ibid. All magistrates who were serving on the constitutional tribunals in were restored to their positions on March 13, Members of the diputaciones provinciales in were also reemployed. The provisional junta also advised Ferdinand to appoint the jefes politicos who were serving in Sessions of March 13, 29, and 30, A. Former bureaucrats, of course, had to be dismissed if vacancies were to be created for the constitutionalists.

Madrid, May 5, , P. Most officeholders, however, retained their positions provided they took the prescribed oath to uphold the constitution. Session of March 13, , Junta Provisional, A. Junta de Galicia to the provisional junta, May 10, , ibid. The provisional junta informed Ferdinand that it was necessary to confer at least temporary military commands on officers recommended by the revolutionary juntas. Session of March 22, , A. Ferdinand was forced to follow this advice by the defiance of the provinces.

The entire cabinet knew of the decision, and it was approved by the Consejo de Estado before the orders were issued.

Consulta, July 19, , A. Amarillas was forced to resign by the other ministers. Ferdinand did not want to dismiss him. The Law of October 21, , placed severe restrictions on political meetings. In August, Wellesley and an expeditionary force of fourteen thousand men landed in Mondego Bay, marched on Lisbon, and defeated the French, ousting them from Portugal.

Never one to suffer defeat lightly, Napoleon turned his obsessive organizational skills to remaking the French Army of Spain.

He called up one hundred and forty thousand new conscripts and transferred three armies from Prussia. In November, Napoleon unleashed his wrath, shattering Spanish defenses and clearing the road to Madrid in just ten days. Still, the French found it difficult to subjugate conquered areas, as the Spanish reverted to guerrilla warfare, making the distinction between the front and rear meaningless.

With the retaking of Madrid in early December , Napoleon regarded victory in the Iberian campaign a fait accompli. All that remained was to occupy southern Spain and oust the British from Portugal. Throughout , the two French marshals, Soult and Victor, slugged it out with Wellesley across Portugal and northern Spain. As a reward for his narrow victory at Talavera in July, Wellesley was ennobled as Viscount Wellington, acquiring the name of legend.

He would become the Duke of Wellington in With no army left to defend it, southern Spain was ripe for French picking. Notice how the painting emphasizes the man in white striking a Christ-like pose. By taking Seville, the French gained control of two hundred cannon, immense magazines, and the only foundry in Spain. It also made them overconfident.

Charles Oman, author of the seminal multivolume A History of the Peninsular War, warns against the dangers of hindsight. The French, he says, only had eyes for Seville. It appeared probable that the whole of the scattered forces of the enemy would mass themselves to defend the insurgent capital. It could only be reached from the mainland by boat or by using a bridge and then walking five miles along the marshy isthmus to the city gates.

After Albuquerque had marched his Spanish troops across the bridge, he destroyed it and set up makeshift artillery batteries to prevent the French from building their own. Victor reported to King Joseph that in order to take the town, he needed heavy artillery and a fleet of boats for a landing party. King Joseph refused to believe that victory was not at hand and rode out to survey the situation himself.

Victor was right. Conveying the bad news to his brother, Joseph urged Napoleon to send the French fleet. Napoleon ignored the request. Victor and his men dug in. With the French setting up siege lines across the bay, the Junta invited Britain to station troops in the city.

Many of the citizens felt like they were letting the enemy in. After Spain aligned with France, the British navy blockaded the town, ruining its economy. Many families had also lost sons at Trafalgar. More British troops arrived that spring and summer. Trapped within the medieval stone walls, Spanish political and military factions vied for control. Graham had also been one of the few officers to serve with distinction at Walcheren, the disastrous expedition to seize the French fleet as it lay anchored off the Dutch island.

A country gentleman known for his horsemanship and interest in the classics, Graham did not become a soldier until the age of forty-three. The incident left him disillusioned with the French Revolution and determined to prevent its spread. The town had adequate troops, but its defenses were abysmal. If the French had been able to cross the bay, the town would have already fallen. Graham quickly set about correcting the situation, earning him the admiration of his men in the process.

When Graham asked if Britain could fill the needs, Wellington told him it could not. Wellington also warned Graham that Spain would not deal with a problem until it became a crisis. By the beginning of April, all signs pointed to the siege being a long one. A network of coast watchers kept him informed of British ships entering and leaving the harbor as well.

His men had to go as far as forty-five miles away to forage. The engraving is by H. Meyer from a painting done by Sir Thomas Lawrence. The siege had also settled down into the inevitable monotony that comes from looking across the bay at your enemy but not engaging them.

The closest the two sides came to fighting was the daily exchange of cannon fire. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website.

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