Proclamation of The Republic
King Amadeo I abdicated from the Spanish throne on 11 February 1873. His decision was mainly due to the constant difficulties he had to face during his short tenure, as the Ten Years' War, the outbreak of the Third Carlist War, the opposition from alfonsino monarchists, which hoped for the Bourbon Restoration in the person of Alfonso, son of Isabella II, the many republican insurrections and the division among his own supporters.
The Spanish Cortes, which were assembled in a joint and permanent session of both the Congress of Deputies and the Senate, declared themselves the National Assembly while waiting for any final notice from the King. The overwhelming majority was with the monarchists from the two dynastic parties that had exercised the government until then: the Radical Party of Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla and the Constitutional Party of Práxedes Mateo Sagasta. There also was a small republican minority in the National Assembly, ideologically divided between federalism and centralism. One of them, federalist parliamentarian Francisco Pi y Margall moved the following proposal:
| “ | The National Assembly assumes powers and declares the Republic as the form of government, leaving its organization to the Constituent Cortes. | ” |
In his speech for the proposal—to which he was a signatory along with Figueras, Salmerón and other opponents—Pi y Margall, himself a federalist, renounced for the moment to establish a federal republic, hoping the would-be-assembled Constituent Cortes to decide over the issue, and announced his acceptance of any other democratic decision. Then another republican, Emilio Castelar took the floor and said:
| “ | Sirs, traditional monarchy died with Ferdinand VII; parliamentary monarchy with the flight of Isabella II; democratic monarchy with the abdication of don Amadeo of Savoy; nobody has finished it, it has died on its own; nobody brings the Republic, save all circumstances, a cabal of society, nature and history. Sirs, let us greet it like the sun rising with its own strength on the sky of our nation. | ” |
After Castelar's powerful speech, amidst passionate applause, the Republic was declared with a resignation of the monarchists, with 258 votes in favour and only 32 against:
| “ | The National Assembly assumes all powers and declares the Republic as the form of government of Spain, leaving its organization to the Constituent Cortes. An Executive Power shall be elected directly by the Cortes, and it shall be responsible to the same. | ” |
In the same session, the first government of the Republic was elected. Federal republican Estanislao Figueras was elected the first "President of the Executive Power", an office incorporating the heads of State and Government. No "President of the Republic" was ever elected, as the Constitution creating such office was never enacted. In his speech, Figueras said that the Republic "was like a rainbow of peace and harmony of all Spaniards of good will."
The passage of these resolutions surprised and stunned most Spaniards, as the recently-elected Cortes (now National Assembly) had a wide majority of monarchists. Ruiz Zorrilla spoke in these terms:
| “ | I protest and will keep doing so, even if I'm left on my own, against those representatives that having come to the Cortes as constitutional monarchists feel themselves authorized to make the decision to turn the nation from monarchist to republican overnight. | ” |
For most monarchists, though, the impossibility of restoring Isabella II as Queen, and the youth of the future Alfonso XII made the Republic the only, though transitory, viable course of action, particularly given the inevitable failure that awaited it.
Read more about this topic: First Spanish Republic
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