during the Napoleonic Wars Napoleon
invaded Spain and installed his brother
Joseph as a puppet King, however during
the occupation many of the Liberals who
once supported the French at the assembly or
Cortes of Cadiz adopted a new liberal
Constitution and join in the fight
against the French. But this constitution
granted a lot of freedoms and undermined
a lot of the Kings power so when the
deposed Ferdinand VII regained the
throne in 1813 he rejected it. but he was
still hugely popular amongst the
majority of the population so he
initially ruled relatively peacefully,
but the ongoing independent wars in South
America cripple the economy and in 1820
and army sent to fight in the Americas
mutinied, forced him to adopt a new
constitution and essentially held him
prisoner but this new government only
ruled for 3 years known as "Trienio Liberal"
before the now monarchist French
sent an army into Spain meeting very
little resistance and restored Ferdinand
to personal rule. Ferdinand was again
welcome by the majority of the
population who has ended the Liberals
attacks on the church and monarchy but
many traditional royalist especially in
the Basque country, València and Catalonia
opposed Ferdinand attempts at
centralization plus they wanted, Charles
his brother, to succeed him however in
1830 Ferdinand had a daughter and changed the
law to allow her to succeed him. Ferdinand then
exiled his brother to Portugal where he
was welcomed by his conservative
brother-in-law Miguel the first. While in
Spain Ferdinand got the support of
liberals, his old enemies, by giving them
key post in the government. So when
ferdinand died in 1833 the child
Isabella was made queen with her mother
Maria Cristina as regent. But the Carlists
who support of conservatism, absolutism
and the church rejected this and
proclaimed Charles as king Charles the fifth
starting the first Carlist war.
However a civil war in Portugal
prevented Charles from leading his forces
and the Liberals in Portugal and Spain
also received help from Britain and France
in 1834 Britain and France invaded
Portugal and helped oust Miguel before
moving into Spain to attack the Carlists.
But thanks to their general
Zumalakarregi the Carlists had achieved a
few victories
however both sides had committed a great
deal of war crimes during this period.
Meanwhile Charles managed to return to
Spain via France and took of the Army's
after Zumalakarregi was killed as he
besieged Bilbao. Charles came close to
taking Madrid in 1837 but failed to
secure a decisive victory so a stalemate
insuite. During the cellmate the
Liberals have the upper hand because
they received money from France and Britain.
and their general Espartero took
over the armies and started to gain
ground on the near bankrupt
Carlists, he relieved the city of Bilbao
then forced the commander of the Carlists
forces in the north Maroto to sign a
separate peace in 1839. With this
loss Charles fled to france and the
operation was crushed and 1840. Esportero
replace the unpopular Maria Cristina as
regent after the war but he too proved
unpopular and was outed by a coup and
Isabella despite being 13 ruled without
a regent she initially ruled alongside
the moderate party in parliament and
introduce new reforms for centralization.
For instance the kingdom of Navarro was
dissolved in 1841. Plus she refused to
make the new Carlist claim to the throne
infant Charles, so Catalonians rose
up in 1846 starting the Second Collars
War but this was much smaller in comparison
to the first war and was quickly put
down in 1849. By the 1860s the spanish
parliament fell into the control of a
union of liberals but Isabella began to
meddle in Parliament and favorite
reactionary politicians so in 1868 she
was ousted by a military coup the new
government offered the vacant throne
first of all to a German Prince which
helped trigger the franco-prussian war
but then offered it to Amedeo the
son of the king of the New Kingdom of
Italy in 1870. Amedeo however took
over a country which was nearly bankrupt
and had to deal with rebellions in Cuba
and Puerto Rico, plus just two years into
his reign the new Carlist claimant took
advantage of this and proclaimed himself
Charles the seventh the third column or
begun poorly for the rebels but Amedeo
sensing he could not unite the
nation abdicated in early 1873
and the first spanish republic was
established. This encouraged many more
people to join the Carlists who
reorganize and captured Estella in the
Basque country in august while in the East
they held onto València but the
following year they fail to capture
Bilbao and the Carlists in Catalonia were
weakened when Charles brother and leader
of their forces, infant Alfonso, was
removed from his post and at the end of year
the Republic restored the Monarchy
by putting Isabel son Alfonso the12th
on the throne. This encouraged many
Carlist to give up the fight and with
a much larger army Alfonso captured
Estella in 1876 ending the war.
Alfonso stabilize the country a great
deal and improve the economy however he
did and Bascome rule and his son
Alfonso the 13th lost Spanish
colonies and was overthrown by the
second Spanish Republic. Spain Therefore
remain divided for a long time and
Carlism Survived. For instance Carlos
militias fought alongside Franco's
nationalists in the Spanish Civil War