Cortes of Cádiz

Abstract

The Constitution of Cádiz, also known as the 1812 Constitution, may be considered the most Atlantic among the great variety of constitutions that saw the light in the Western hemisphere during the Age of Revolutions. Mainly because the congress or parliament that drafted and sanctioned it (the Cortes of Cádiz) gathered representatives from Peninsular Spain, of course, but also from Spanish America. Equally important was the fact that the constitution itself, in its first article, defined the Spanish nation as an Atlantic nation: “The Spanish nation is the reunion of all Spaniards of both hemispheres.” As such, the 1812 text was applied in a very small fraction of the Spanish Peninsular territory (the one not controlled by the French army). In the Spanish American territories, it came into effect, with limitations due to the state of war that prevailed in many of them, from Florida to Peru, and also in the Philippines. It should be noted that the work, importance, and influence of the Cádiz Cortes go far beyond the 384 articles of the Constitution, for they were also responsible for 326 decrees that dealt with all kinds of issues (political, social, economic, etc.). Along with other Hispanic constitutional documents (as Cundinamarca 1811 or Santiago de Chile 1812), the Cádiz Constitution envisaged an Atlantic constitutional monarchy, but it was the only one, of the dozens drafted in the Hispanic world between 1810 and 1824, that projected a common sovereign nation extended all over the former empire (that is, in its European, American, and Asian territories). At the time, there was a juridical, historical, and religious culture that was shared by the educated elites of the whole Spanish monarchy, so it can be said that in the Cortes of Cádiz there were different legal accents (including especially those from the United States and France), but a common national legal culture, which came to the fore in various ways when Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808 and sparked the biggest political crisis in the history of the Spanish monarchy. This common background becomes evident by taking a cursory look at the dozens of constitutional texts that saw the light in Spanish America during those years, especially between 1811 and 1816. This period of the political history of the Hispanic world (mundo hispánico) could be defined as a “constitutional explosion.” Around thirty-five constitutional documents were drafted in Spanish America during that period and several others saw the light in the oncoming years. In the Cortes of Cádiz, which were gathered in that port between 1810 and 1814, there was a Peninsular majority of around 200 deputies (the number varies depending on the date considered and on the question under discussion) and there were also about sixty representatives from Spanish America (again, the number may vary). This partido americano demanded equality and autonomy for the American part of the Spanish nation. The debates on these issues showed the limits of the Atlantic experiment of the Cádiz Constitution, for the Peninsular majority never accepted losing political and economic control of the American territories. If the American deputies gained important rights and liberties that were unthinkable before the Cortes gathered, they always lost in those issues where the aforementioned control was at stake. It may be added that a couple of representatives from the Philippines were also present in the deliberations of the Cortes. This first constitutional and liberal experience in the Hispanic world did not last for long. In 1814, Fernando VII returned to Spain from his French “captivity” and slashed all the ideas, the efforts, and the laws that emanated from the group of liberales, Peninsular and Spanish Americans that decided the main contents of the Cádiz Constitution. This was the abrupt end to the first constitutional and liberal experiment in the history of Spain and of the Spanish empire.