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| Exaltados | |
|---|---|
| Name | Exaltados |
| Foundation | c. 1810s–1820s |
| Dissolution | c. 1830s–1840s |
| Ideology | Radical liberalism |
| Position | Left-wing |
| Country | Spain |
Exaltados were a radical liberal current active in early 19th-century Spain associated with revolutionary reforms, anticlericalism, and constitutionalist agitation. They influenced debates involving monarchs, ministers, generals, and courts across Iberia and resonated with contemporaries in Paris, London, Brussels, and various Latin American capitals. Their activism intersected with uprisings, constitutions, and international diplomacy involving figures from Madrid to Cádiz.
The movement emerged amid tensions tied to the Napoleonic Wars, the Cortes of Cádiz, the Trienio Liberal, and the restored reigns of Ferdinand VII of Spain, the Peninsular War, and the Spanish Constitution of 1812. Influences flowed from the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the events of the French Revolution, the ideas circulating after the Congress of Vienna, and the intellectual networks that connected Madrid salons with Paris, London, and Lisbon. Early organizers and militants allied with military liberals such as Rafael del Riego and constitutionalists who opposed absolutist restoration by monarchs and conservative elites including supporters of Infante Carlos, Count of Molina and the Ultra-royalists.
Their platform emphasized a radical reading of the 1812 charter, civic equality articulated in pamphlets influenced by Thomas Paine, separation of institutions modeled in part after debates in the National Convention (France), and anticlerical measures reminiscent of Confiscation of Church property in France. Exaltados advocated laws promoting individual rights debated alongside texts from Benjamin Constant, Jeremy Bentham, and reformers in the Cortes Generales. They often aligned tactically with progressive officers in the Spanish Army and intellectuals tied to publishing centers like Madrid and Seville.
Key episodes included the promulgation and defense of the Spanish Constitution of 1812, the military uprising led by Rafael del Riego during the 1820 revolt, the liberal period known as the Trienio Liberal (1820–1823), and confrontations with interventionist forces such as the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis. Repression after the return of Ferdinand VII of Spain saw exile and emigration to cities including Paris, London, Brussels, and Philadelphia, intersecting with exile networks of figures like Mariano José de Larra and Antonio Alcalá Galiano. Later episodes connected with the rise of figures such as Francisco Espoz y Mina and debates during the Regency of Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies.
Prominent militants included politicians, writers, and military officers like Rafael del Riego, Juan Martín Díez, Agustín Argüelles, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, Mariano José de Larra, Leopoldo O'Donnell, Antonio Alcalá Galiano, Pedro Sarsfield, Mariano Tellechea, José María Calatrava, Evaristo San Miguel, Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, Salvador de Madariaga, Isidoro de Silva, José de Palafox y Melci, Juan Álvarez Mendizábal, Joaquín María López, Francisco Javier de Istúriz, Ramón de Santillán, Carlos María Isidro de Borbón (as opponent), and Rafael Garcia. Networks connected them to European contemporaries including Giuseppe Mazzini, Louis Blanc, Alexis de Tocqueville, Adolphe Thiers, Benjamin Constant, Lord Palmerston, Charles X of France, Klemens von Metternich, Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, Andrés Bonifacio, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Augustin-Jean Fresnel, Alexander von Humboldt, Friedrich von Schlegel, Hector Berlioz, Victor Hugo, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx, James Mill, John Stuart Mill, Hannah More, Edmund Burke, William Pitt the Younger, Napoleon Bonaparte, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, Manuel de Godoy, Francisco de Goya, Diego Portales, José Zorrilla, Leandro Fernández de Moratín, Ramón María Narváez, Baldomero Espartero, Isabella II of Spain, Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain, Agustín de Iturbide, Juan Bravo Murillo, Alejandro Mon, Pedro de Alcántara Álvarez de Toledo, Mariano Luis de Urquijo, and Francisco Silvela.
They championed measures such as sweeping anticlerical confiscations of ecclesiastical estates akin to later desamortización policies associated with Juan Álvarez Mendizábal and Alejandro Mon. Legislative aims included codification efforts comparable to reforms in Naples, municipal liberalization in cities like Seville and Barcelona, fiscal reforms related to debates in the Cortes Generales, and modernization of administrative law resonant with codification movements in France and Prussia. Policy influence extended to colonial questions addressed in assemblies connected to Venezuela, Mexico, Peru, and Argentina, and to trade debates touching Liverpool and Marseille.
They faced organized resistance from conservative monarchists, absolutist military figures, and clerical coalitions including supporters of Infante Carlos, Count of Molina, agents of the Holy Alliance, and reactionary ministers aligned with Ferdinand VII of Spain. Critics included European conservatives like Klemens von Metternich, reactionary Spanish elites connected to Manuel de Godoy, and clerical leaders in the Roman Curia. Internal disputes split them from moderate liberals associated with Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, leading to factionalism that intersected with military pronunciamientos involving figures such as Ramón María Narváez and Baldomero Espartero.
Their legacy shaped later 19th-century Spanish reforms including the Desamortización of Mendizábal, constitutional debates culminating in various charters under Isabella II of Spain, and political traditions in Catalonia and Basque Country. Intellectual currents influenced republican and progressive movements linked to Federal Republics in Latin America, republican circles in Paris and London, and later political actors like Alejandro Lerroux and Francisco Largo Caballero. Their anticlerical and civil reform agenda reverberated through later disputes involving Second Spanish Republic, Miguel Primo de Rivera, Eduardo Dato, Antonio Maura, and 20th-century constitutionalists.
Category:Political movements in Spain