Trienio Liberal - History Lab

National Militia and Royalist Volunteers in Lleida (1820-1841)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:25 +0000

An analysis of the formation of the absolutist and liberal groups in Lleida at the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century reveals a series of clashes between the two groups. If we also compare the socio-professional groups of their members, we can see that the absolutist ranks were made up of families of greater social influence and the peasantry, while the liberals were made up of liberal professionals, artisans and intellectuals.
On the other hand, and despite these social characteristics, 54% of the municipal posts went to the liberals, following the trend of other Catalan town councils of this chronology. This situation led to the founding of the National Militia as a neighbourhood tool (already provided for in the 1812 Constitution) to defend liberalism and its governing institutions in each locality.
The National Militia allowed a large part of the population – most of them as volunteers – to participate in political life as protagonists, especially in the key years of the liberal revolution, between 1833 and 1843. The main problem they faced was the social groups that supported them, with more than 50% of the population of Lleida, dedicated to farming, remaining outside of them.
In this socio-political panorama, Ferdinand VII at the end of 1823 decided to copy the liberal model and created a group for the defence of absolutism, the Royalist Volunteers, thus attracting other sectors of the population that for convenience or ideology were not attracted by the liberal currents.

The post National Militia and Royalist Volunteers in Lleida (1820-1841) first appeared on History Lab.

Andalusian heritage privatised between 1750 and 1852

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:25 +0000

When analysing the process of appropriation and privatisation of Andalusian lands – centred in this case on Antequera, Archidona and Malaga – attention must be paid to the different ways in which public lands were alienated, such as the Carolinian distributions, usurpations, the fragmentation of boundaries and finally the liberal disentailments.
The documentation records the highest proportion of usurpations during the first half of the 19th century, especially during the War of Independence and the Liberal Triennium. The method followed by the usurpers was to extend private plots with some municipal lands -under an average of 3.7 hectares per plot-. Among the causes of this land-grabbing fever may have been the demographic increase and the deficit in cereal production, which made it impossible for the most disadvantaged social groups to have access to foodstuffs.
In addition to encroachment, the neighbours adjacent to each area caused the deforestation of many areas due to the felling of trees and the introduction of livestock in these hitherto forbidden places, leading to a drastic reduction in the communal area to the benefit of privatised agricultural uses. The resource shows the process of alienation of territorial patrimony through five distinct phases, with the one corresponding to 1835-1852 as the maximum exponent of the trends that had been observed almost a century earlier.

The post Andalusian heritage privatised between 1750 and 1852 first appeared on History Lab.

Crisis of the Ancient Regime

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:27:54 +0000

Kairos is an educational project of the National Institute of Educational Technologies and Teacher Training of the Ministry of Education, directed by Dr. Antonio Rodríguez de las Heras. Along with methodological contributions aimed at reinforcing the teaching of history, it contains proposals for the development of History content taught in Secondary Education and Baccalaureate. This content refers to the unit “The crisis of the Ancien Régime” for the subject of Spanish History Baccalaureate (2006).

The post Crisis of the Ancient Regime first appeared on History Lab.

Ferdinand VII, a bad reign of a lousy king

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:27:35 +0000

Radio documentary on Ferdinand VII and his reign. Described in his time as “The Desired One” by a people who saw him as a victim of Godoy, first, and Napoleon, later, he is considered one of the worst kings in the history of Spain. Born in 1784, he was the son of Charles IV and Maria Luisa of Parma. A conspirator against his father, Napoleon took advantage of the weakness and division of the royal family to force the abdication of the crown and hand it over to his brother Joseph. Exiled in France during the War of Independence, he returned to Spain in 1814. As absolute monarch he annulled the Constitution of Cadiz and persecuted the liberals. After Riego’s uprising, he had no choice but to swear the Constitution in 1820 during the so-called Liberal Triennium. Three years later the absolute monarchy was imposed once again, ushering in the Ominous Decade until his death in 1833. In the absence of a son, he repealed the Salic Law so that his daughter, the Infanta Isabella, could accede to the throne. With the Pragmatic Sanction, the Carlists, supporters of the Infante Carlos María Isidro, saw their hopes of succession collapse, provoking a civil war that would continue throughout the 19th century. Modesta Cruz’s documentary features contributions by Emilio La Parra and Juan Francisco Fuentes, as well as Miguel Artola Gallego, a former Prince of Asturias Award winner.

The post Ferdinand VII, a bad reign of a lousy king first appeared on History Lab.