Carlism

It was at its strongest in the 1830s but experienced a revival following Spain's defeat in the Spanish–American War in 1898, when the Spanish Empire lost its last remaining significant overseas territories of the Philippines, Cuba, Guam, and Puerto Rico to the United States.It is not implausible that this change might have been enacted at the insistence of a hostile foreign power, as the scenario of such a union could impinge profoundly on questions of national importance (particularly among states that preferred to maintain their distance from policy positions occupied by the Franco-Spanish consensus, of which the Holy Roman Empire was one).Although the Spanish government made several attempts to revert to the traditional order, as in the Decree of 1789 by Charles IV (see below), the succession question became pressing only when, by 1830, Ferdinand VII found himself ailing, without any issue, but with a pregnant wife.[4] They formed the basis for the dynastic Carlist party, which only recognized the semi-Salic succession law that gave Infante Carlos precedence over Ferdinand's daughter, the future Isabella II.The perceived success of the uprising of 1808 against Napoleon left also a broad, if unconscious, belief in the validity of the right of rebellion, with long-lasting effects on the politics of Spain and Spanish America, extending through the 19th century and beyond.The so-called Liberal Triennium (1820–1823) re-instated the 1812 constitution after a military "pronunciamiento", but was followed by the Ominous Decade (1823–1833), ten years of absolute rule by the king, that left bitter memories of persecution in both parties.Besides this political evolution, the years before the Carlist wars were marked by a deep economic crisis in Spain, partly spurred by the loss of the continental American provinces, and by the bankruptcy of the state.The loss of prestige and subsequent fall of Isabel II in 1868, plus the staunch support of Carlism by Pope Pius IX, led a sizable number of former Isabelline conservative Catholics (e.g., Francisco Navarro Villoslada, Antonio Aparisi,[5] Cándido Nocedal, Alejandro Pidal) to join the Carlist cause.After the defeat,[clarification needed] a group (led by Alejandro Pidal) left Carlism to form a moderate, non-dynastic Catholic party in Spain, which later merged with the conservatives of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo.This tendency became so radical that in 1888, Carlos VII had to expel the group centred around Ramón Nocedal, Cándido's son, which thus gave rise to another small, but in clerical circles influential, Integrist Party.Meanwhile, Marquis de Cerralbo built up a modern mass party, centered around the local assemblies (called "Círculos", of which several hundred existed throughout Spain in 1936) and their social action programmes, and in active opposition to the political system of the Restoration (participating even in broad coalitions, such as 1907's "Solidaritat Catalana", with regionalists and republicans).From 1893 to 1918, Juan Vázquez de Mella was its most important parliamentary leader and ideologue, seconded by Víctor Pradera, who had wide influence on Spanish conservative thinking beyond the party.[citation needed] As the war ended and Don Jaime could again freely communicate with Spain, a crisis erupted, and Vázquez de Mella and others had to leave the party's leadership (the so-called "Mellists").Miguel Primo de Rivera's dictatorship (1923–1930) was opposed but ambiguously viewed by Carlism, which, like most parties, entered a period of slumber, only to be awakened by the coming of the Second Republic in 1931.The Comunión Tradicionalista (1932) showed an ultra-Catholic, anti-secular position, and plotted for a military takeover, while adopting far-right apocalyptic views and talking of a final clash with an alliance of alleged anti-Christian forces.From the initial defensive Decurias of Navarre (deployed in party seats and churches), the Requeté grew into a well-trained and strongest offensive paramilitary group in Spain when Manuel Fal Condé took the reins.In May 1936, the General met with Ignacio Baleztena, a Navarrese Carlist figure at the head of the Requetés, offering the participation of 8,400 voluntaries to support the uprising, turned into a counter-revolutionary reaction.Immediately the rebels, with a direct participation of the Requetés and the clergy (the Carlist core in Navarre), engaged in a brutal repression to stamp out dissent that affected all inconvenient, mildly progressive, or Basque nationalist inhabitants and personalities.[14] Henceforth, the mainstream kept an uncomfortable minority position inside the regime, more often than not at odds with its official policy, although the Ministry of Justice was thrice given to a loyal "Carlist" (who was accordingly expelled from the Traditionalist Communion).[citation needed] While alleged fatalities and the number of those injured have long been disputed, the incident led to a shakeup of the Franco cabinet and the judicial conviction of six Falangists (one, Juan José Domínguez, was executed for the crime).In 1971, Don Carlos Hugo, prince de Borbón-Parma founded the new Carlist Party based on the confederalist vision for Las Españas ("the Spains") and socialist autogestion (then promoted in Yugoslavia).The Carlist Party accused Hugo's younger brother, Don Sixto Enrique de Borbón-Parma, of aiding the militants, which collaboration the Traditionalist Communion denies.[citation needed] To do so, it was necessary to trace the patriline of Philip V to his seniormost descendant who was not excluded from the throne by law (for treason, morganatic marriage, birth out-of-wedlock and other reasons legally established in the Novísima Recopilación of 1805, in force at the time of the First Carlist War).Carlos Hugo turned organized Carlism into a socialist movement, while his brother Sixto Enrique (supported by his mother Madeleine de Bourbon-Busset) followed a far rightist course.Don Sixto Enrique is supported by the minority Comunión Tradicionalista, and some others who believe that his elder brother Carlos Hugo was the rightful heir, but ineligible for the succession on account of his socialism.Since this claim comes through a female line, it is rejected by most Carlists:[citation needed] In 2012, Senator Iñaki Anasagasti of the Basque Country proposed the idea of creating a united Basque-Navarrese-Catalan monarchy with Archduke Dominic of Austria as its king.Carlism's intellectual landscape was a reaction against the Liberal, Radical, and anti-religious currents of the Enlightenment in Spain; in particular the Bourbon Reforms, the confiscation and sale of Church property by the State, the expulsion of the religious orders, and Government bans on Catholic schools and Classical Christian education based on the Trivium.It is difficult to give an accurate description of Carlist thinking for several reasons: While Carlism and Falangism had certain similarities—social conservatism, Catholic social teaching, anti-Marxism, and beginning the reversal of the Secularization of Spanish culture by overturning anti-Catholic laws and policies that began with the Suppression of the Jesuits and the Bourbon Reforms in the 18th-century—there were also stark differences between the two movements.[citation needed] Francisco Navarro-Villoslada was a Carlist writer that published a historic novel, Amaya o los vascos en el siglo VIII, in the fashion of Walter Scott, presenting the legendary origins of Spanish monarchy as the start of Reconquista.[citation needed] Pío Baroja wrote a novel, Zalacaín el aventurero (Zalacain the Adventurer), set during the Third Carlist War, and referred to Carlism in an unfavourable light in several other works.