THE RESTORED MONARCHY Alphonso XII.—The first act of Alphonso was a royal decree confirming the appointment of Co,novas del Castillo (the most prominent leader of the Alfonsins) as prime minister. A strong administration was formed, which gave its attention for 15 months to the pacification of the peninsula, adopting a Conservative and Catholic policy which contributed quite as much as the great display of military resources to lose the Carlists adherents and prestige. The Church, the nobility and the middle classes soon pronounced for the new state of things. The Alphonsist armies, led by Marshals Campos and Jovellar, swept the Carlist bands from the right bank of the Ebro to the Pyrenees, and took their last strongholds in the east of Spain, Cantavieja and Seo de Urgel. Some of the Carlist leaders accepted bribes to go abroad, and others put their swords at the disposal of the Government for employment against the Cuban rebels. Then all the forces of King Alphonso under Marshal Quesada closed round the re mainder of the Carlist army in Navarre and in the Basque Prov inces at the beginning of 1876. That was the end of the Carlist Wars.
Directly this internal strife was over, the government used part of the large army at its disposal to reinforce the troops which had been fighting the Cuban insur gents since 1869. Marshal Jovellar was sent out to Havana as governor-general, with Marshal Martinez Campos as commander in-chief of the forces. In about 18 months they managed to drive the rebels into the eastern districts Of the island, Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba, and induced all but a few irreconcilable chiefs to accept a convention that became famous under the name of the Peace Treaty of Zanjon. Marshal Campos, who succeeded Jovellar as governor-general, held out to the loyalists of the island the prospect of reforms, fairer treatment at the hands of the mother country, a more liberal tariff to promote their trade, and self-government as the crowning stage of the new policy.
Though much of his time and energies had been devoted to the re-establishment of peace at home and in the colonies from 1875 to 188o, Canovas had displayed consider able activity and resolution in the reorganization of the monarchy. Until he felt sure of the early termination of the struggle, he ruled in a dictatorial manner without the assistance of parliament. Royal decrees set aside most of the legislation and reforms of the Spanish revolution. Universal suffrage alone was respected for a while and used to call into existence the first cortes of the Restoration in 1876. The principal result of this parliament was the consti tution of 1876, which was a compromise between the constitution of 1845 in the reign of Isabella and the principles of the demo cratic constitution of the revolution in 1869. Canovas, who was
endowed with great political qualities, sought at the same time to win over to the new regime some of the old Liberals of the Revolution, and the least recalcitrant of the old Carlists. The latter (including Don Alejandro Pidal and his followers) even tually joined the ranks of the Conservative Party adding to it a leaven which, however, was not always in harmony with the views of the prime minister. The Liberals succeeded in forming a dynas tic Liberal Party whose name of Fusionista was indicative of the great heterogeneity of its component elements.
After a short-lived marriage with his cousin Mercedes, third daughter of the duke of Montpensier, Alphonso listened to the advice of his council and married the Austrian archduchess Maria Cristina of Habsburg.
In 1881 the Fusionista Party, swelled by the addition of a number of Liberal and Conservative generals who disapproved of Canovas' policy, showed unmistak able signs of agitation. Canovas himself thought that the time had come to slacken somewhat the reins of conservative hegemony and to allow effective expression to the support given to the dynasty by the so called Liberal Party whose leader was Sagasta, the for mer minister of King Amadeo. In this way the latter party came into power. The policy of Sagasta in domestic affairs resembled that of Canovas. Several treaties of commerce were concluded with European and Spanish American Governments. They re formed the tariff in harmony with the treaties, and with a view to the reduction of the import duties by quinquennial stages to a fiscal maximum of 5% ad valorem. A general conversion of the consolidated external and internal debts was promoted by a con siderable reduction of capital and interest, to which the bond holders assented. The floating debt proper was consolidated in the shape of a 4% stock redeemable in 4o years, of which L70, 000,000 was issued in 1882 by Senor Camacho, the greatest Span ish financier of the period. Sagasta was not so fortunate in his dealings with the anti-dynastic parties, and the Republicans gave him much trouble in Aug. 1883. This had the effect of gaining him the support of many Democrats and Radicals who broke away from Ruiz Zorrilla the leader of the revolutionary republi cans. But Sagasta himself had to abandon the premiership. A new cabinet formed by members of the "Fusionist" left wing did not last long. In 1884 Canovas returned to power.