The crisis of the Spanish Ancient Régime and the formation of the Antiliberals (1808-1814)

• Grant number: 18/23904-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): May 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): April 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Monica Duarte Dantas
• Grantee: Bruno Santos Sobrinho
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Between the years of 1808 and 1814, the Spanish Empire went through an extremely important period in its political history. Facing the power vacuum brought on by the capture of the legitimate monarch, Ferdinand VII, and the coronation of Joseph Bonapart, due to the French occupation, the Spanish people saw themselves immersed in a great crisis. Those who wouldn't abide by the orders of the new monarch organized a fierce resistance which enabled the emergence of new political actors to fill in that power vacuum. In this study, we intend to understand the perception of the crisis and the proposals of solution presented by the opponents of the Spanish modernization. Therefore, we will employ two documental groups: texts written between 1808 and 1814 by individuals who were identified as opponents of liberal politicians, and the Records of the Cádiz Cortes' meeting (Diario de Sesiones de las Cortes de Cádis), which are available from 1810 to 1814, in an attempt to determine possible influences of the discussions presented in these documental groups, since the beginning of the crisis, with the debate that took place in the Cortes. The Cádiz Cortes represented the emergence of a new decision-making room in the public sphere, originated after the period known as Juntero (1808-1810). This period was another moment of crisis, in which many political actors operated in the institutionalization of the political dispute. In order to enhance our understanding of antiliberal thinking, we seek to analize the agency of antiliberal deputies of the Cádiz Cortes (1810-1814), clarifying their proposals for the writing of the 1812 Constitution. It will be possible to understand the projects presented by that group and the different positions of those deputies throughout the Cortes' dynamics, which included an inner dispute for the concepts enshrined in the 1812 Constitution - and largely discussed in the public records that emerged in those years.