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Therefore, I believe Spain’s attempt Of Industrial Revolution was a failure, for we took more than one hundred years just to be considered an emerging industrial power. Yet, it was a successful development; a slow and progressive transformation, a transition from an illiterate and closed-minded society to a country whose citizens had a voice and wanted to be heard. There are several reasons that made Spain unable to adapt properly to this new movement, starting by a perennial political instability caused by wars and different ideologies.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon marched into Spain with the excuse of temporary positioning his troops there in order to attack Portugal. Instead, he forced Carols IV (the king) to abdicate and put his brother Joseph in the throne. The Spaniards didn’t agree with this decision and started the Peninsular with help of the British to regain control, which went on from 1808 to 1814. During this conflict, enlighten ideas were implanted such us fair trade or the abolishment of the Inquisition, and in 181 2, the First Spanish Constitution was created in C;ditz.
After the victory of the Iberian troops, monarchy was restored again with Fernando VII as a king. Unluckily, he ignored the Constitution and reigned as absolutist monarch. He didn’t take into consideration all the efforts his people had done to make him rule again and made a lot of poor choices, causing a division between the population. Moreover, he changed the laws so his daughter Isabel II could be queen after his death; a decision that started the Carlisle wars. As a country slowly recovering from the expensive and terrible French invasion, Spain had to endure another period of devastation that ended the slightest chance of industrialism.
Fernando brother, Carols, claimed that he was the legitimate heir to the throne and, along with his conservative supporters, started the Carlisle Wars. These were three civil wars that faced Carlisle against the Liberals, which followed Isabel. They lasted from 1833 to 1 876, with some periods of peace in between. Isabel tried to reign with modernized ideas in order to please the unruly society but failed due to outdated policies and unprincipled ideas. She was exiled in 1 868 thanks to the Glorious Revolution and then Madame of Savoy – an Italian prince- reigned for two years, after which the First Spanish Republic was established.
Two years later, due to the bad organization of the republican authorities, the bourbon monarchy was restored again with the coronation of Alfonse XII, Isabella son. In midst of the chaos that ruled Spain, their last American colonies, Cuba and Puerco Rich, saw an opportunity to become independent. With the help of the SACS, they finally broke free in 1898. This greatly affected Spain’s already-poor economy, for the lost meant losing one of the country’s main market and the war’s cost also added up to the debt Spain had after all those battles.
The debt left Spain in shambles and slowed down even more the progress towards an industrialized country. As the financial institutions were few and most of them private, the authorities had to get money in other ways that included: exportation of common or church land, sold to the highest bid in auctions; loads Of taxes for the peasantry and gaining foreign investors. This last concept was possible thanks to a blooming demand for Spanish raw trials like iron or copper. European investors exploited mining areas, and even though the profit went back to their homestretches, this was a turning point in Spain’s history.
Workers started to be needed and some families abandoned the rural areas where they could only subside thanks to agriculture, which offered poor incomes. Also, the first railway was inaugurated in 1848, and expanded quickly throughout Spain. Though the network wasn’t very well planned, it linked the provinces with Madrid instead of linking the industrial centers, it fomented the creation of an inner market. This inner market wasn’t very powerful because the majority of the population was still poor and couldn’t afford to spend money.
Agriculture was also outdated, with backward technology and it didn’t produce enough capital to be used to start national industries. Plagues and food shortage made the increase in population really slow during the 19th century, which hindered the industrialization progress, along with people’s fear losing their jobs because of machines, resulting into labor strikes and more violent actions like destroying factories. Despite all these problems, Spain was gradually improving its economy; as a fact, real per capita income rose by nearly 80 per cent in just 80 years.
In the early 20th century, factories were becoming the workplace for thousands of people in Catalonia and the Basque Country. This meant that thousands of families were starting to be part of the national market and with their demands, more factories had to be built to satisfy their needs, providing even more jobs. Spain was finally recovering and catching up with Europe. Our society was beginning to change as well, to develop into a more educated country, more concerned with political oppression and who started tanning up against abusive authorities.
But, how did Spain get to nowadays’ state? In the 20th century we have suffered a civil war, two world wars and a terrible dictatorship; and still, we are a strong country, a MED. Our Industrial Revolution may have been a failure but the change is real. Slow but effective, prone to dips but achieving the final goal, our pace has been different than the one for the rest of Europe. Still, I strongly believe this progress have enormously affected our economy and our government but, above all, it has created Spanish society as we know it today.