The Background of the Spanish Revolution of 1868

Abstract

HE revolution which drove Isabel II from her throne in i868 has a significance beyond its effect upon the course of Spanish history in the nineteenth century. For a brief moment it dispelled the cloud of obscurity which had covered Spain for over two centuries, after her period of brilliance and power during the Siglo de Oro. Its most patent consequence for Europe was the eventual candidacy of Leopold of Hohenzollern for the vacant throne, producing the awaited explosion in Franco-Prussian relations. The Leopold affair has long drawn the attention of the scholarly world toward the contemporary Spanish question and was the inspiration for a plethora of monographic and tendentious writing well known to students of nineteenth century Europe. With few exceptions, however, attention has been concentrated almost exclusively on the Hohenzollern candidacy with the focus on France and Prussia. Most other aspects of the situation have been neglected, with only sporadic glances at the country which occasioned the war of I870. Equally little attention has been given to the other candidacies to the throne which were at the time of international interest.