Alfonso XII of Spain - Return From Exile

Return From Exile

Within a few days after Canovas del Castillo took power as Premier, the new king, proclaimed on 29 December 1874, arrived at Madrid, passing through Barcelona and Valencia and was acclaimed everywhere (1875). In 1876, a vigorous campaign against the Carlists, in which the young king took part, resulted in the defeat of Don Carlos and the Duke's abandonment of the struggle.

Initially led by Canovas del Castillo as moderate prime minister, what was thought at one time as a coup aimed at placing the military in the political-administrative positions of power, in reality ushered in a permanent civilian regime tat lasted until the 1931 Second Republic. Cánovas was the real architect of the new regime of the Restoration.

In order to eliminate one of the problems of the reign of Elizabeth, the single party and its destabilizing consequences, the Liberal Party was allowed to incorporate and participate in National Politics, and the 'turnism' or alternanation was to become the new system. Turnismo would be endorsed in the Constitution of 1876 and the Pact of Pardo Palace (1885). It meant that a liberal and a conservative prime minister would succeed each other ending the strifes.

This led to the end of the Carlist revolts and the victory over the New York backed Cuban revolutionaries, and led to a huge backing both by insular and peninsular Spaniards of Alfonso as a wise and able king.

Alfonso's short reign established the foundations for the final socioeconomic recuperation of Spain after the 1808–1874 crisis. Both European (the coastal regions, such as the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Asturias)and Overseas – Antilles and pacific were able to grow uninterruptedly. Cuba and Puerto Rico, reached tremendous levels of development and wealth, to the point that Spain's First Train was between Havana and Camaguey, and the world's first telegraph was in Puerto Rico, as Samuel Morse lived there with his daughter, married to a Puerto Rican businessman. Upon the American INvasion of Puerto Rico, 10 US dollars were needed to buy 1 Puerto Rican peso.

On 23 January 1878 at the Basilica of Atocha in Madrid, Alfonso married his cousin, Princess Maria de las Mercedes, daughter of Antoine, Duke of Montpensier, but she died within six months of the marriage.

Towards the end of 1878 a young workman of Tarragona, Juan Oliva Moncasi, fired at the king in Madrid.