Spanish Revolution of 1820

Spanish Revolution of 1820
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Name	Spanish Revolution of 1820
Native name	Revolución liberal de 1820
Date	1 January 1820 – 1823
Place	Madrid, Seville, Cadiz, Cádiz Bay, Kingdom of Spain
Result	Temporary establishment of a constitutional regime; restoration of Ferdinand VII's absolutism after 1823 intervention
Combatant1	Spanish liberal forces; supporters of the Constitution of 1812
Combatant2	Forces loyal to Ferdinand VII; Ultramontanism supporters; Royalist units
Commander1	Rafael del Riego; Francisco Espoz y Mina; Juan Antonio Martínez (Catalonia)
Commander2	Ferdinand VII; Francisco de Eguía; Francisco de Paula de Ceballos

Spanish Revolution of 1820.

The Spanish Revolution of 1820 was a liberal uprising that compelled Ferdinand VII to restore the Constitution of 1812 and convene the Cortes of Cádiz, producing a three-year liberal regime (the Trienio Liberal). The episode linked Spanish officers, provincial juntas, and metropolitan political actors to wider Atlantic and European currents including the Napoleonic Wars, the Peninsular War, and the post-1815 conservative order shaped by the Congress of Vienna. The revolt precipitated international intervention by the Holy Alliance and the French expedition known as the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis, which in 1823 ended the liberal interlude.

Background and Causes

By 1820 Spain remained politically fractured after the Peninsular War and the return of Ferdinand VII in 1814, when he repudiated the Constitution of 1812 promulgated at Cádiz and reimposed absolutist rule aligned with Manuel Godoy's legacy and the Spanish Inquisition. Economic distress from wartime disruption affected ports such as Cádiz, Seville, and Barcelona, while military garrisons stationed in the colonies and on the peninsula were influenced by veterans of the Battle of Bailén and veterans of the Siege of Zaragoza. Liberal intellectual currents circulating in salons and periodicals—linked to figures like Mariano Luis de Urquijo and Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos—met resistance from clerical networks allied to Ferdinand VII and conservative nobles connected to the Royalist patronage system. The independence movements in the Spanish American wars of independence and the loss of revenue from Viceroyalty of New Spain and Viceroyalty of Peru exacerbated fiscal crises, while the example of revolts in Portugal and the revolutionary tradition of the Cádiz Cortes fed conspiratorial activity among officers such as Rafael del Riego and civilian liberals like Agustín Argüelles.

1820 Uprising and Military Revolt

A military mutiny began in January 1820 when liberal officers in the garrison at Cádiz and battalions returning from the Americas rebelled, led by Rafael del Riego and supported by units from La Coruña, Seville, and Granada. The proclamation at Las Cabezas de San Juan catalyzed uprisings in provincial capitals including Madrid, Valencia, and Zaragoza, while naval elements anchored at Cádiz Bay pressured royal authority. The insurrection combined actions by military juntas, civic clubs influenced by the Sociedad Patriótica, and deputies associated with the legacy of the Cortes of Cádiz (1810–1814). Confrontations with officers loyal to Ferdinand VII and commanders like Francisco de Eguía produced negotiated settlements in several provinces even as revolutionary banners invoking the Constitution of 1812 spread across Andalusia and Catalonia.

Establishment of the Liberal Regime and the Cortes

Faced with widespread revolt, Ferdinand VII acceded in March 1820 to accept the restoration of the Constitución de 1812 and summoned the Cortes Generales that convened in Cádiz, inaugurating the Trienio Liberal (1820–1823). The reconstituted Cortes included prominent liberals such as Agustín Argüelles, Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, Joaquín María López, and Antonio Alcalá Galiano, and it attempted institutional reforms affecting the Council of State, the judiciary, and provincial administrations including the revival of municipal juntas in Seville and Barcelona. The regime sought to balance military influence from leaders like Francisco Espoz y Mina with civilian governance promoted by liberal societies inspired by the reform programs of Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos and the constitutionalism of Manuel de Godoy's earlier contesters.

Government Policies and Social Impact (1820–1823)

The liberal government pursued measures to secularize institutions aligned with the old order, curtail the privileges of clerical corporations such as the Spanish Inquisition and certain archbishoprics, and reform fiscal structures undermined by the losses in the Americas. Legislated measures debated in the Cortes included proposals on land tenure affecting holdings tied to Monastic orders and the Mesta, as well as military reorganization impacting garrisons from Cadiz to Pamplona. The regime’s policies stimulated political mobilization among emerging liberal elites—journalists, lawyers, and provincial notables like Mariano José de Larra and Joaquín Costa’s precursors—while provoking reaction from conservative factions aligned with Ferdinand VII and clerical networks in Toledo and Santiago de Compostela. Social tensions intensified in rural districts where agrarian customary relations collided with liberal reforms, and in urban centers where press debates and street demonstrations polarized supporters of the Constitution of 1812 and defenders of absolutism.

International Response and the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis

European reaction to the Spanish liberal experiment was framed by the Concert of Europe and the Holy Alliance, in which monarchs such as Alexander I of Russia, Klemens von Metternich, and Francis I of Austria opposed revolutionary constitutions. The French Bourbon Restoration under Louis XVIII perceived the Spanish developments as a direct threat to monarchical legitimacy and, by invitation from Ferdinand VII's court, authorized an intervention. In April 1823 the French army under the command of the Duke of Angoulême—the expedition nicknamed the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis—invaded across the Pyrenees and confronted liberal forces at positions outside Pamplona and near Madrid, while diplomatic pressure from Holy See-aligned actors and conservative courts in Vienna and Saint Petersburg isolated the Spanish liberals.

Suppression, Restoration of Absolutism, and Aftermath

French military successes, concurrent with defections among royalist commanders and limited foreign recognition for the Cortes regime, culminated in the fall of the liberal government and the reestablishment of Ferdinand VII's absolutist rule in 1823. The repression that followed targeted leading liberals—including exile to Toulouse and deportations to the Americas—and restored institutions such as the Spanish Inquisition and prerogatives of clerical hierarchies in Madrid and provincial seats. Long-term consequences included the persistence of clandestine liberal networks that later resurfaced in the Moderate Decade and the Glorious Revolution (1868), a radicalization of sections of the military, and the acceleration of independence in Spanish America with final losses such as Mexico and Peru consolidating new states. The 1820–1823 interlude thus remained a formative episode linking Spanish constitutional tradition to broader nineteenth-century European and Atlantic politics.

Category:History of Spain Category:1820 in Spain Category:Liberalism in Spain