Reign of Alfonso XII
The reign of Alfonso XII of Spain began after the Pronunciamiento de Sagunto on December 29, 1874, which ended the First Spanish Republic. It lasted until his death on November 25, 1885, after which his wife, María Cristina of Habsburg, assumed the Regency. During his reign, the political regime of the Restoration was established, based on the Spanish Constitution of 1876, which remained in effect until 1923. The regime was a constitutional monarchy, though neither democratic nor parliamentary, described by supporters as liberal and by critics, particularly regenerationists, as oligarchic. Its foundations were based on doctrinaire liberalism, as noted by Ramón Villares.
Carlos Dardé described the reign as brief but significant, with Spain's situation improving in various areas by its end. Despite uncertainty following the king’s death, the improvements continued under María Cristina's regency during the minority of her son, Alfonso XIII. The foundations of the liberal regime were solidified during this period.
The reign saw economic growth, driven by the expansion of the railway network, foreign investments, the mining boom, and increased agricultural exports, especially wine, due to the phylloxera plague devastating French vineyards. The nobility and high bourgeoisie benefited most from this growth, forming a "power bloc" intertwined with the political elite. Meanwhile, Spain remained largely agrarian, with two-thirds of the population working in the primary sector and a small middle class, while millions of poor laborers, especially in the south, lived in poverty.
Background
Exile and abdication of Isabella II to her son Alfonso (1868-1873)
The Glorious Revolution of September 1868 ended the reign of Isabella II and began the Sexenio Democrático. The queen, who was in San Sebastian, fled Spain and went into exile in France under the protection of Emperor Napoleon III, accompanied by her daughters and her son, Alfonso, the Prince of Asturias. They settled in the Basilewsky Palace in Paris, which Isabella renamed the Palace of Castile. Prince Alfonso was enrolled in the prestigious Stanislas School, where his political education was guided by his tutor, Guillermo Morphy.In February 1870, the prince traveled to Rome to receive his first communion from Pius IX. However, the pope did not publicly recognize the Bourbon dynasty as the legitimate heirs to the Spanish throne or condemn the "revolutionary regime" in Spain, as Isabella had hoped. Instead, of the 43 Spanish bishops attending the First Vatican Council, 39 visited the prince, and Cardinal Juan Ignacio Moreno y Maisonave, prepared him for the Eucharist.
Meanwhile, in Madrid, a Provisional Government led by General Serrano called elections to the Constituent Courts, which approved a new "democratic" Constitution in June 1869. General Serrano assumed the Regency while General Prim, who was tasked with finding a candidate for the Spanish throne, served as president of the government.
To advocate for her restoration, Isabella appointed Juan de la Pezuela, Count of Cheste, a moderate traditionalist, but he soon resigned after members of the Moderate Party criticized her for surrounding herself with the same people who had contributed to her loss of the throne. Among Bourbon supporters, there was growing support for the idea that the restoration could only occur if Isabella abdicated in favor of her son, Alfonso. Isabella sought consultations on the matter, and while a small group of her close friends and neo-Catholic supporters opposed abdication, most moderates and unionists favored it. Some, like the Marquis of Molins, hoped a new prince would inspire "more hopes than memories". Among those in favor of abdication was a small group of deputies from the Constituent Courts, led by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, who would later form the Conservative Party of the Restoration. Cánovas suggested to Isabella that it would be advantageous for her dynasty to be represented by a new, well-educated prince, detached from the current political turmoil.
Isabella II took a year to decide on her abdication, resisting pressure during this time. On June 20, 1870, she abdicated the throne in favor of her twelve-year-old son Alfonso in a ceremony held at the Palace of Castile. The abdication was prompted by the willingness of Prussian Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen to accept the Spanish throne, following a proposal from General Prim. However, the immediate catalyst was the threat from Napoleon III, who opposed both the Prussian candidacy and the Duke of Montpensier's candidacy, which could have led to war with Prussia and the fall of the French Empire after its defeat in 1870. After the proclamation of the French Republic, Isabella, Alfonso, and the Infantas left Paris for Geneva, where they stayed until August 1871 before returning to France. Prince Alfonso’s education was initially overseen by Tomás O'Ryan, who was replaced by Guillermo Morphy in December 1871.
With the Prussian option discarded, on November 16, 1870, the Spanish Cortes elected Prince Amadeo of Savoy, second son of the King of Italy, as King Amadeo I. While the Moderate Party advocated for the return to pre-1868 conditions, the small group led by Cánovas remained cautious but eventually supported Alfonso’s cause after the Republic was declared in February 1873. From that point, Cánovas became the chief spokesperson for "Alfonsism".
Isabella II abdicated without appointing a guardian for Prince Alfonso, so she continued in that role until January 1872, when her brother-in-law, the Duke of Montpensier, took over after negotiating terms with Queen María Cristina, whom Isabella had delegated family affairs to. Montpensier’s efforts to secure military support, particularly from General Serrano, were unsuccessful, and he resigned in January 1873. Isabella then regained guardianship over Alfonso. In February 1872, as part of the "Cannes agreement," Alfonso was sent to study at the prestigious Theresianum Academy in Vienna. During a visit to the Montpensier family castle in Randan at Christmas 1872, Alfonso met their daughter, María de las Mercedes, whom he married for love in 1878.
Cánovas at the head of the Alfonsina cause (1873-1874)
A decisive step toward the Alfonsine restoration occurred on August 22, 1873, amid the cantonal rebellion and shortly after the return of Carlist pretender Carlos VII to Spain, which intensified the third Carlist war. On that date, Isabella II, despite her personal dislike for him, entrusted Antonio Cánovas del Castillo with leadership of the Bourbon dynastic cause. As Carlos Dardé notes, the letter confirming Cánovas’s appointment—signed by both Isabella and Prince Alfonso, per Cánovas’s condition—constituted explicit approval of his conduct during the revolutionary period. Cánovas rejected any politics of revenge and advocated inclusivity. He wrote: “I will not ask the one who comes what he has been; it will be enough for me to know what he intends to be.” He believed in using what was valuable from the revolution that had deposed Isabella II and warned that attempting to restore the past would damage the monarchy. As José Varela Ortega observed, for Cánovas, reconciliation was a victory; revenge, a defeat.Isabella also granted Cánovas full authority over Alfonso’s education. He decided the prince should begin military training to become a "King-soldier" and gain the confidence of the armed forces. Although his preceptor, Guillermo Morphy, resisted the change—arguing the prince should complete his training at the Theresianum in Vienna—Cánovas prevailed, in October 1874, with the agreement of both Alfonso and his mother, Cánovas sent the prince to the British Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst in Britain. Alfonso had preferred university education to better prepare for constitutional rule, but Cánovas believed it was more urgent to immerse him in a constitutional environment. Isabella appeared to embrace Cánovas’s vision that the restoration should rely on uniting all liberal factions, in contrast to the exclusionary politics of her reign. In a letter, she wrote: "Your idea is my idea... without this union of all the parties in the shadow of my son's flag... the ruin of Spain is inevitable." As Isabel Burdiel noted, her support was crucial in convincing the moderates to accept Cánovas's leadership.
The Canovist camp expanded to include former Unionists and even some former revolutionaries of 1868, such as Francisco Romero Robledo. This alliance gained key backing from the social and economic elites, especially business sectors in Catalonia and Madrid with colonial interests. Their support was vital to consolidating the Alfonsine movement. Historian Manuel Suárez Cortina emphasizes that fears sparked by the Parisian Commune and the association of revolution with democracy led conservative forces—including the Army, the Church, and the middle and upper classes—to view Alfonso XII and the Restoration as a path to stability and order, aligned with international trends and elite interests.
Although Cánovas rejected a traditional military pronunciamiento, insisting that the monarchy should return through broad political consensus, he maintained contact with military leaders. As Suárez Cortina explains, Cánovas believed the restoration must be politically prepared, with military intervention playing only a secondary, supportive role once that groundwork was in place.
File:El capitán general Francisco Serrano, duque de la Torre.jpg|left|thumb|General Serrano, President of the Executive Power of the Republic after the triumph of Pavía's coup on January 2, 1874.
Cánovas del Castillo articulated his strategy for the Bourbon restoration in letters to former Queen Isabella II and Prince Alfonso in January 1874, following the Pavía coup d'état. Some generals associated with the Moderate Party had attempted to use the coup as a pretext to proclaim Alfonso king, but Cánovas dissuaded them. In these letters, he emphasized the need to build strong public support for Alfonso through “calm, serenity, patience, perseverance, and energy". In April, he reiterated to Isabella that they must “prepare opinion broadly” and wait for a spontaneous surge of support—“a surprise, an outburst of opinion”—to seize the opportunity without wasting it.
To shape public opinion, Cánovas promoted the establishment of Alfonsino circles across the country and supported the acquisition of newspapers aligned with the cause, such as La Época in Madrid. According to historian Manuel Suárez Cortina, Alfonsism quickly became fashionable among the clergy, upper-class women, the bourgeoisie, and large sectors of the Army. Social gatherings and salons played a vital role in spreading the movement, a dynamic dubbed by the British ambassador as the “Ladies’ Revolution". Among the key supporters of the Canovist project was the influential Spanish-Cuban lobby, including the so-called slaveholding interest led by the Marquis of Manzanedo. This group, which also included Queen Mother María Cristina—owner of a Cuban sugar plantation—was deeply concerned about the potential abolition of slavery. It maintained a vast network of Spanish-Ultramarine circles and clubs, both in Spain and in Cuba, and had strong ties to the military. This faction, led by figures such as the Count of Valmaseda, played a pivotal role in the conspiracy that culminated in the pronunciamiento of Sagunto, which enabled the restoration.
File:Muerte del Marqués del Duero 1884 Joaquín Agrasot y Juan.jpg|thumb|Death of the Marquis of Duero by the painter Joaquín Agrassot. The death of General De la Concha, Marquis of Duero, in the siege of Estella in June 1874 thwarted Cánovas' plans to proclaim Prince Alfonso as King of Spain after the victory over the Carlists.
After the establishment of the unitary Republic under General Serrano, following the Pavía coup in January 1874, conspiratorial activity in favor of the Bourbon restoration intensified. As historian Feliciano Montero notes, Cánovas's challenge was not to prevent military intervention, but to control and subordinate it to his broader, conciliatory, and non-revanchist vision. He relied particularly on General Manuel Gutiérrez de la Concha, a respected officer not affiliated with the Moderate Party, who commanded the Army of the North in the Carlist strongholds of the Basque Country and Navarre. Their plan was to declare Alfonso king after capturing Estella, the Carlist capital, following the successful capture of Bilbao in May 1874. However, the plan failed when General Concha was killed during the siege of Estella, which ultimately did not fall. Cánovas distrusted General Martínez Campos, who would eventually carry out the pronunciamiento of Sagunto, because of his ties to the Moderate Party and its differing vision for the monarchy. Nevertheless, the military action proceeded. When Cánovas met with Isabella II in Paris on August 8 and 14, he reaffirmed that Alfonso’s restoration should arise from a broad-based movement of public opinion, not from a military coup.