Cádiz Cortes

The Cortes of Cádiz (Spanish Las Cortes de Cádiz) were a parliament that was as Constituent Assembly from 1810 to 1813 worked in Cádiz in Spain. They created the Constitution of Cádiz a liberal constitution which served as a model for other constitutions in Spain and abroad.

Prehistory

Earlier Cortes in Spain

In the Spanish kingdoms Cortes were held since the Middle Ages assemblies of estates under the name. You should consult the kings in making important decisions and had the opportunity, in which the heir to the throne, was still mostly during the lifetime of its predecessor, confirmed, and where a new king promised to hold on to the current law. The last Cortes of Castile, united with the Cortes of the Crown of Aragon, took place in September 1789. The Cortes of 1789 were primarily convened for the succession of King Charles IV to clarify. On one hand, the then five- year-old Ferdinand (later Ferdinand VII ) presented as Prince of Asturias as heir to the Cortes, on the other hand, the inheritance law was regulated again, as was customary before Philip V of Castile and Aragon. The Cortes met temporarily not public. Some of the decisions was not announced.

National Assembly in Bayonne

With effect from 24 May 1808 Spanish National Assembly was convened to Bayonne in France in the name of Napoleon. It should be delegated 150 delegates separated by booths: 50 members of the clergy class, 51 members of the noble class and 49 representatives of the people, that is, traders and representatives of universities and cities who have never had a voice in the Cortes. The meeting was not even participated in the half of the planned number of delegates, even if the persons present at the site, which served as alternate delegate counts. The assembly of the final draft of a constitution for discussion was presented, which was also confirmed. The Preamble to the Constitution of Bayonne provides this as a contract between the king and his people represents the transitional provisions of the Constitution of Bayonne see a time- stepped before enactment. The entry into force occurred on the basis of military and political developments in Spain only partially.

Political Situation at time of enlistment

In the Treaty of Fontainebleau of October 27, 1807 Spain allowed the French troops to march through Spain to Portugal. However, Napoleon sent significantly more troops than were provided in the contract to Spain and thus brought great parts of Spain under his control. Following an insurgence in Aranjuez and an attempted coup of the Infante Ferdinand, renounced Charles IV of Spain in favor of his eldest son Ferdinand VII on the crown. After both Ferdinand VII and Charles IV during a visit to Bayonne (Spanish Bayona ) had waived in France on the crown, Napoleon 's brother Joseph, who was King of Naples at this time, as King of Spain a. Ferdinand lived in the following years until 1814 at Castle Valençay in France.

During the battle of the Spaniards against the French troops presence in Spain and in spite of the formal reign of King Joseph, was formed in September in Aranjuez the Junta Suprema Central, a counter-government that are not accepted the resignation of King Ferdinand VII and the incumbent government in Madrid. This Junta Suprema Central issued on 22 May 1809 the name of King Ferdinand issued a decree in which it announced the election of the new Cortes.

Convocation of the Cortes of Cádiz

The Cortes were convoked by Suprema Junta he gubernativa de España e Indias, dated January 1, 1810 to March 1, 1810 on the Isla de León in Cádiz. However, the true besieged heavily fortified naval fortress Cádiz was chosen as the venue because there was expected to conquest by French troops dislike most. Inside the fortress, a large number of Spanish, British and Portuguese occupation and the lake side and the communication was to all ports of Spain and foreign countries protected the superior British fleet.

The appointment of the members of the Cortes of Cádiz occurred in several, partly parallel processes:

• At the individual Juntas Superiores ( ie at the regional formed Juntas ) issued a letter of invitation by a delegate of the appended electoral rules to determine.
• At the cities that traditionally had a seat in the Cortes, was also a letter.
• At the administrations of Viceroyalties ( kingdoms ) and provinces were writing that prompted to make a selection committee and to elect one delegate for every 50 000 inhabitants. This should be done by a multi- tiered indirect election system.
• On January 21, 1810 were issued also include invitations to the chief nobility and the Church hierarchy.
• With the decree of February 14, 1810, the election of deputies from the overseas territories was controlled. You should participate as equal members in the meetings and decisions.
• Other special rules for the election process were issued in September 1810 for the areas that were occupied by the enemy. For the members who could not be elected in those areas, Suplentes, spare MPs should act. This was mostly to randomly present in Cádiz people who came from the areas that could not choose deputies.

Due to the military development in the country, a meeting of the Cortes on March 1, 1810 was not possible. In a decree dated 20 September 1810 the Consejo de Regencia, a successor institution to the junta Supreme Central assigns, that the Cortes should meet as a unicameral parliament and noted that a separate division for the nobility and the clergy was not necessary, since enough the delegates of the provincial deputies would belong to these stands. The missing at the beginning of 28 members of the overseas territories were determined by members present in Spain citizens of the territories. Apart from the number of 28 MPs do not correspond in the least number of inhabitants of the overseas territories. Had there want to create a same scale as in mainland Spain, so a deputy to 50 000 inhabitants, they would have a vast majority represented the deputies from overseas.

Members of the Cortes of Cádiz

At the opening session on September 24, 95 MPs were present. Of these, more than half Suplentes, so substitute members. The number of substitute members decreased over time, as more and more regular members could be determined. In the final vote on the constitution on February 19, 1812 184 members were present. When a decision to dissolve the Cortes on September 14, 1813 at least 223 The theoretically proposed number of 240 members was never reached. So the deputies presented formally certainly no reflection of the population; This is especially true for the Members of the overseas territories. None of the deputies was not of Spanish origin.

Due to the fluctuating attendance records a statement about the social background of MPs is of limited use but a tendency can be observed. About a third were clergymen, the second largest group with about 18 % were the lawyers, the rest were military, civil servants, some nobles, and very few merchants, professors, etc. Craftsmen, laborers or farmers were not represented at all.

Parties in the modern sense did not exist at the beginning of the 19th century. In political terms, one can start from a threefold division: the radical change drivers sought a fundamental change of existing conditions at. The moderate reformers wanted to achieve various changes on the basis of existing conditions. The Conservatives wanted to not allow any changes or reforms. However, the simplest classification is in the absolutists who opposed any change, and liberals, who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment.

Work of the Cortes of Cádiz

In the convocation of the Cortes by the Junta Suprema Central the development of a document in writing the Constitution was not explicitly mentioned as a task. Thus, the Assembly employed in the first sessions once to lay out their own self-understanding. The focus was on the question of sovereignty and the legitimacy of the Corte decisions. Because a sense of urgency you then dealt with laws which concerned the current problems of the country. Of the 409 laws that were passed by the Cortes, only 100 deal with political, social, economic problems or problems of administrative reform. The most important of these laws were still proclaimed by the Cortes of Cadiz, however, they were even little attention in the country and in 1814 declared invalid. Many of these laws were but during the Trienio Liberal and the reign of Isabella II as a basis for similar provisions. This was, for example, the law on the manorial system, with which the Patrimonalgerichte were lifted on August 6, 1811. The abolition of Familienfideikommisse meant that divided inheritances and estates belonging to the family could be sold. Another law stipulated that monastery, where monks or nuns less than twelve lived, should be resolved. A in the Cortes very controversial law was adopted on February 5, 1813 Law on the resolution of the Inquisition in Spain. In the economic sphere was the law on freedom of great importance. On April 22, 1811, the torture was prohibited. The great part of the laws passed by the Cortes concerned organizational or normal administrative affairs of a country that was at war, so laws about troop equipment and financing matters.

The question of a written constitution was until March 1811 in the agenda. First, a committee was formed under the chairmanship of Mr Muñoz torrero. The committee comprised of ten members from Europe and three from Latin America. All major political currents of the Cortes were represented in this committee. The deputy Antonio Romanillos Ranz was entrusted with the drafting of a design. This deputy had been in 1808 Secretary of the National Assembly in Bayonne and had also announced constitution signed there. In August 1811 the plenary session of the Cortes the result of the committee's work was presented, which adopted the Constitution after a very intensive debate. On March 19, 1812, the Constitución Política de la española Monarquía announced.

End of the Cortes of Cádiz

Since the Cortes were not only Constituent Assembly, not completed the work with the promulgation of the Constitution. The ( Extraordinary ) Cortes generales y extraordinarias broke up only after further legislative work on 20 September 1813. Cortes ordinarias that had been convened by the Law of 23 May 1812, first appeared on September 25, 1813 in Cadiz, then from 14 October on the Isla de León in Cádiz together, and then, from after the withdrawal of the French, the January 15, 1814 in Madrid to meet. None of the members of the first Cortes of Cadiz was a deputy in the parliament of the newly elected because the electoral law precluded a renewed membership.

The Treaty of Valençay Joseph I renounced in favor of Ferdinand VII to the Spanish crown. On his return to Spain Ferdinand VII declared the Manifesto de Valencia on 4 May 1814, the entire legislation since May 1808 as invalid from the outset. This also gathered in Madrid Cortes were dissolved.

Importance of the Cortes of Cádiz

The importance of the Cortes of Cádiz is one hand that in Spain for the first time a parliament met without class differences, which had been selected without distinction of classes, in which the overseas territories, were at least formally, equal representation and was believed popular sovereignty to represent. Many of the deputies - both the liberal and the absolutist - played an important role in the further history of Spain.

The newly created written constitution was indeed little more than two years valid between 19 March 1812 and 4 May 1814 but it was during the Trienio Liberal March 1820 to October 1823 - that is, for more than three years - and set again from August 1836 to June 1837 during the reign of Isabella II in force. The content was z.T. literally taken over in later Spanish constitutions.