Spanish Constitution of 1812

Spanish Constitution of 1812
Facsimile preserved in the Senate of Spain.
Created	12 March 1812
Date effective	19 March 1812
Location	Congress of Deputies
Author	Cortes Generales constituted on 24 September 1810 in Cádiz
Signatories	President of the Cortes 179 deputies present, called by name Four secretaries (54 signatories came from overseas)

The Spanish Constitution of 1812 or Constitution of Cádiz, popularly known as La Pepa, was promulgated by the Spanish Cortes Generales meeting in extraordinary session in Cádiz on March 19, 1812.

It has been accorded great historical importance because it was the first Constitution of global scope in history, promulgated in Spain, Hispanic America (including a large part of the United States), the territories administered by the Captaincy General of the Philippines in Asia and Oceania, the Spanish territories in Africa, and even in Portugal and Brazil, after King João VI himself swore to it in Salvador de Bahía on 10 February 1821 as Monarch of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, which also ruled over Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Cabinda, Angola, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Daman, Goa, Diu, Timor, Flores Island, Macau, as well as other possessions in coastal areas of Africa, along the Indian Ocean rim, on the Malay Peninsula, the Moluccas and the western coasts of New Guinea.

In July 1820 the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies followed the example of the Spanish revolution of March to the point of adopting the same Constitution of 1812. In March 1821 another revolution began in the Kingdom of Piedmont, which, like the Neapolitan one, also adopted the Constitution of Cádiz as its own. Both would end up being crushed by the Austrian army with the backing of the Holy Alliance.Gil Novales (2020), p. 27Rújula & Chust (2020), p. 157-158

In addition to Portugal, Brazil and parts of present-day Italy, its model influenced other European countries such as Russia (the first European power to recognize it, on 20 July 1812, through the Spanish-Russian Treaty of Velikiye Luki, something that made possible the first translations into French and Russian), or Norway, where it influenced the promulgation of the Eidsvoll, the Norwegian Constitution of 1814.

The Spanish Constitution of 1812 was one of the most liberal of its time, although its application in its country of origin became exceedingly complicated, since during its period of gestation a large part of Spain was in the hands of the invading afrancesado government of Joseph I Bonaparte, and another part in the hands of interim juntas that were more concerned with organizing their opposition to the invading army. Moreover, the rest of the territories of the Spanish Crown, the Viceroyalties, were in a state of confusion and power vacuum caused by the Napoleonic Invasion.

The Constitution was repealed in Valencia on 4 May 1814, after the return to Spain of Ferdinand VII, although it was applied again from March 8, 1820, when in Madrid Ferdinand VII was forced to swear to it, and it remained in force during the Liberal Triennium (1820-1823). It was also in force for a brief period in 1836-1837, under the progressive government that was preparing the Constitution of 1837. In a large part of Hispanic America, including a large part of the United States, it officially remained in force for more than a decade. It was the Constitution of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves from its swearing by the King of Portugal until 7 September 1822, the date of the independence of Brazil and the subsequent dissolution of the Kingdom. It was also adopted and put into force with some small modifications in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and in the Kingdom of Piedmont, until it was repealed by military force.

The Constitution established sovereignty in the Nation (no longer in the King), constitutional monarchy, the separation of powers, the limitation of the powers of the King, indirect universal male suffrage, freedom of the press, freedom of industry, the right to property and the fundamental abolition of seigneuries, among other matters, so that "it did not incorporate a table of rights and freedoms, but it did include some rights scattered throughout its articles." Furthermore, it confirmed Spanish citizenship for all those born in any territory of the Spanish Crown, practically founding a single country together with the American, African and Asian provinces.

On the other hand, the text enshrined the Spanish Nation as a confessional state whose religion was the "Catholic, apostolic and Roman, the only true one," expressly prohibiting in its twelfth article "the exercise of any other." In the same article it is reaffirmed that the King continued to be so "by the grace of God and the Constitution." Despite all this, the Spanish Constitution of 1812 is held in great esteem, above all taking into account the times in which it was drafted, its liberal character, its zeal in the defense of individual rights, its stance of seeking to modify outdated institutions typical of the Ancien Régime, and in general, for including regenerative measures aimed, in an idealistic spirit, at improving society.

History

Oath of the Cortes of Cádiz in the Main Parish Church of San Fernando on 24 September 1810, oil on canvas by José Casado del Alisal (1863), Congress of Deputies in Madrid.

The Constitution of 1812 was published as many as three times in Spain (in 1812, 1820 and 1836), becoming a democratic milestone in the first half of the 19th century, carrying over into several European constitutions, and having an impact on the constitutional and parliamentary origins of most of the American states during and after their independence. Among other innovative aspects, the Constitution of Cádiz brought about a limitation of the power of the monarchy, the abolition of feudalism, and equality between peninsular subjects and those of other territories.

However, most of the research devoted to its study omits or underestimates the influence that the Spanish liberal and bourgeois revolution had in transforming the Spanish Empire into provinces of a new State, and in turning the former subjects of absolutism into new citizens. Also often disregarded is the fact that it included in its definition of Spanish citizens not only Europeans, or their descendants in other territories around the world, but also the indigenous peoples of those territories, which greatly influenced many of the emerging legislations.

Oratory of San Felipe Neri: the plaques commemorate the centenary of the Cortes of Cádiz, which brought the deputies together here from February 20, 1811 and completed the Constitution of 1812 here.

The Cortes opened their doors on September 24, 1810 in the comedy theater of the town of the Isla de León, present-day San Fernando, later moving to the oratory of San Felipe Neri, in the city of Cádiz. There met the deputies elected under the decree of February 1810, which had called elections both in the peninsula and in the American and Asian territories. They were joined by the substitutes elected in Cádiz itself to cover the representation of those provinces of the monarchy occupied by French troops or by the American insurgent movements.

The Cortes, therefore, were composed of somewhat more than 300 deputies, of whom 82 were from the overseas territories. Their principles were national sovereignty, equality before the law and the defense of private property. Below is an excerpt:

"Don Ferdinand VII, by the grace of God and the Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy, King of the Spains, and in his absence and captivity the Regency of the Kingdom, appointed by the general and extraordinary Cortes, to all who shall see and understand these presents, know ye: That the same Cortes have decreed and sanctioned the following:

Art. 1. The Spanish Nation is the union of all Spaniards of both hemispheres.

Art. 3. Sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation, and for that very reason the right to establish its fundamental laws belongs exclusively to it.

Art. 8. Every Spaniard, without any distinction, is also obliged to contribute in proportion to his means to the expenses of the State.

Art. 12. The religion of the Spanish Nation is and shall perpetually be the Catholic, apostolic Roman, the only true one. The Nation protects it by wise and just laws and prohibits the exercise of any other.

Art. 14. The government of the Spanish Nation is a moderate hereditary monarchy.

Art. 15. The power to make the laws resides in the Cortes with the King.

Art. 16. The power to execute the laws resides in the King.

Art. 17. The power to apply the laws in civil and criminal cases resides in the courts established by law.

Art. 371. All Spaniards have the freedom to write, print and publish their political ideas, without need of licenses, review or any approval prior to publication, under the restrictions and responsibilities established by the laws

Cádiz, 19 March 1812″

The Promulgation of the Constitution of 1812, work by Salvador Viniegra (Museum of the Cortes of Cádiz).

A single state for both hemispheres in the 19th century

In the early days, there were American proposals aimed at abolishing the viceregal framework and laying the foundations of a national market of Hispanic dimensions that would also encompass the territories of America, with reduced tariffs on American products, the opening of more colonial ports to trade, and so on. A project a century ahead of the Commonwealth of Great Britain. The Cádiz decrees had wide repercussions and significance during the following decades, both in the peninsula and in America.

Of the 86 American deputies who were in the Cortes, 25 were clergymen and 22 were lawyers or magistrates. The Mexican provinces were represented by 14 clergymen out of a total of 28 deputies. Peru, by contrast, leaned more toward lawyers and magistrates (8 out of a total of 21 deputies). The clergymen were simple parish priests, although several of them later became bishops. All the provinces elected men settled in them, deserving of the trust of the inhabitants; those elected knew the province and its problems well because, in general, they had practiced their profession there.

The Constitution was sworn in America, and its legacy is evident in most of the republics that became independent between 1820 and 1830. And not only because it served them as a constitutional model but also because this Constitution was conceived, devised and drafted by American representatives as a global Hispanic and revolutionary project. Parliamentarians such as the Mexican Miguel Ramos Arizpe, the Chilean Fernández de Leiva, the Peruvian Vicente Morales Duárez, and the Ecuadorian José Mejía Lequerica, among others, became in the following years influential shapers of the national constitutions of their respective republics.

Undoubtedly, this was helped by the fluid communication between America and the peninsula, and vice versa: private letters, decrees, daily papers, newspapers, the Diario de Sesiones of the Cortes itself, pamphlets, broadsheets, commercial correspondence, literature, plays, patriotic songs, and so on, which aboard Spanish, English or neutral ships reported on the events occurring on one continent and the other. There were ideas, but there was also action, since municipal, provincial and Cortes electoral processes were called and the elections were held, which brought about an intense politicization in both spaces.

Likewise, the sending of specie to the peninsular Government by merchant consulates, mine owners, landowners, patriotic collections, and so on, was constant, and essential to pay for the intervention of the English, as well as for arming the guerrilla bands after the defeat of the Spanish army at the Battle of Ocaña on 19 November 1809.

It is important to stress that these measures had the backing of most of the American Creole bourgeoisie, which favored autonomist changes and not necessarily an independence that would entail a complete break with the Monarchy.

Hispanic code

Title page of the original edition of the Constitution: Cádiz, Imprenta Real, 1812. Title page engraving signed by Pedro Nolasco Gascó after a drawing by F. de Pilar.

The product of this attempted revolution was a constitution with distinctly Hispanic characteristics. The constitutional debates began on August 25, 1811 and ended at the end of January 1812. The discussion took place in the midst of the siege of Cádiz by French troops, in a bombarded city, overcrowded with refugees from all over Spain and with an epidemic of yellow fever. The heroism of its inhabitants remains for history.

The wording of Article 1 is a clear example of the importance that America had for Spanish progress. It was the first, and for that reason, the most important. This is its famous text:

The Spanish nation is the union of the Spaniards of both hemispheres.

The construction is defined from Hispanic parameters. The revolution begun in 1808 acquired, in 1812, special characteristics other than purely peninsular ones. It alluded to geographical dimensions that would make up Spain: the American, the Asian and the peninsular. The Spanish Nation was constitutionally defined.

Rights and colonies

The American question was therefore posed from the first article. The liberal State had transoceanic parameters. The difficulty of bringing it about became evident in the discussion of the wording of Articles 10 and 11. By the former, a first agreement was established between Americans and peninsulars to organize the new State into provinces. It is well known that this first wording was rejected by the Americans, who disagreed with the manifest numerical difference in favor of the peninsular provinces as against the American ones (which roughly corresponded to each Viceroyalty or Captaincy General, while the peninsular provinces were identified with the historical kingdoms of Spain).

This would become a political issue, since the Americans demanded a greater number of provinces and an organization of the State approaching federalism. Article 11 resolved the problem for the time being: after an intense debate, it was decided to postpone the definitive structure of the State to a later law, when the "circumstances of the nation"—the urgency in the metropolis of fighting the French invasion, the American urgency of fighting the insurgency—would guarantee a calm discussion. The Chamber recognized in practice its inability to define the territories of its State. And this problem arose, let us insist, from the incorporation of America as a set of provinces with equal rights and representation in the Hispanic national State.

Other articles were especially significant, such as 18 and 29. The first stated that "Citizens are those Spaniards who on both lines trace their origin to the Spanish dominions of both hemispheres, and are residents of any town of the same dominions," and the second, in making Art. 28 explicit ("The basis for national representation is the same in both hemispheres"), says that "This basis is the population composed of the natives who on both lines are originally from the Spanish dominions, and of those who have obtained from the Cortes a letter of citizenship, as well as of those included in Art. 21."

These were the terms in which the Spanish possessions in America were held, as recorded by the Junta in the decree of 22 January 1809:

"Considering that the vast and precious dominions that Spain possesses in the Indies are not properly colonies or trading posts like those of other nations, but an essential and integral part of the Spanish monarchy... His Majesty has been pleased to declare... that the kingdoms, provinces and islands that make up the aforementioned dominions must have national representation immediate to his royal person and form part of the Central Junta... by means of their corresponding deputies. For this royal resolution to take effect, the Viceroyalties of New Spain, Peru, the New Kingdom of Granada and Buenos Aires and the independent Captaincies General of the island of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Chile, the Province of Venezuela and the Philippines shall each appoint one individual to represent his respective district"

The Spanish Nation in both hemispheres according to the Constitution of 1812.

Of special significance were the constitutional articles referring to town councils and provincial deputations, in the drafting of which the committee adopted the Report presented by Miguel Ramos de Arizpe, deputy for Coahuila, for the organization and political government of the Eastern Interior Provinces of New Spain. It was of vital importance in unraveling an important aspect of the revolutionary process of the peninsula and America, namely, from the constitutional sanction onward, the creation of town councils in all towns that had at least 1,000 inhabitants. The proposal came from Miguel Ramos de Arizpe himself. This brought about an explosion of town councils in the peninsula and, especially, in America, as municipal elections by indirect and male universal suffrage were called after the approval of the Constitution. This would be a key aspect in the consolidation of a local Creole power and a direct attack on the jurisdictional, privileged rights of the aristocracy, a fundamental aspect in ending the seigneurial regime in the peninsula and the colonial one in America.

This American support for the Constitution was articulated through its promulgation by local authorities and residents in open town councils, in commemoration of which squares and monuments dedicated to the Constitution proliferated throughout the American continent, some of which still exist.

Consequences of its abolition

Monument built in 1912 in Cádiz to commemorate the first centenary of the Constitution.

Repeal of the Constitution of 1812 by Ferdinand VII in the Palace of Cervelló.

On May 4, 1814 the newly restored King Ferdinand VII decreed the dissolution of the Cortes, the repeal of the Constitution and the arrest of the liberal deputies, among whom was the deputy Ramón Olaguer Feliú. The return of absolutism was beginning. On the 10th General Eguía took Madrid militarily, proclaiming Ferdinand absolute King. Beforehand, a whole climate of popular welcome had been fostered.

Ferdinand VII opposed the decrees and the constitution of the Cortes of Cádiz because they meant the transition from an absolutist State to a constitutional one. This is obvious, but it must also be emphatically underlined, because after the decrees of equal rights and representation, after a constitution for "both hemispheres," and after decreeing the constitution of a national State in which the American territories were integrated as provinces, the Crown lost not only its absolute privilege over all other individuals, but also the revenues of the entire American continent, which passed directly into the power of the State administrative apparatus and not of the Monarch, since the new national State established a substantial difference between the "Treasury of the nation" and the Royal Treasury, something that neither Ferdinand VII nor the powers that supported him were willing to allow.

On the other hand, the political representation and equal rights of the Americans translated into a claim of sovereignty that collided with the national one, since the latter was conceived by the peninsular liberals as single, central and sovereign. The conflict arose not only between an absolute King and national sovereignty and its institutions and representatives, but also between a centralist conception of the State (based on the government in Madrid) and a decentralized one. Nothing new in the universe of bourgeois revolutions, one might conclude, but the point is that it was not, strictly speaking, only a Spanish revolution, if one specifies not only the nationality but also the territories of the State in question.

Until the 1820s, most of Creole opinion was autonomist, not pro-independence. It could accept a Spanish national status, but in exchange for autonomy in America for all matters of internal policy, which implied political decentralization and economic freedoms. To achieve their aims, the Americans proposed a division of sovereignty at three levels: the national, represented in the Cortes; the provincial, vested in the deputations; and the municipal, which resided in the town councils. This threefold division of sovereignty, opposed by the peninsular liberals, was legitimized in the electoral processes. With these proposals, American autonomism was proposing a national State not only with Hispanic characteristics, but also on federal conceptions.

The Americans placed the entire organization of the State in the representative and administrative capacity of the provincial deputations as institutions capable of channeling, administering and collecting the aspirations and needs of the Creoles of each province. This provoked a double reaction: on the one hand, the King opposed federalism, since the States that were federal or confederal had the republic as their form of State: the United States of America and Switzerland. But in addition, federalism was synonymous, at that time, with democracy, associated with elements of dissolution of the absolutist State, and therefore branded as "anarchic." Secondly, the federal proposal of the Americans provoked an increasingly centralist reaction among the peninsular liberals, who insisted that national sovereignty (being indivisible) could not in any way be delegated to provincial deputations and that the administrative machinery should be run only from the peninsula.

After the absolutist decade, with the Cádiz autonomist option frustrated, overseas nationalism opted for armed insurrection, which conditioned the final Spanish revolutionary situation until the triumph of the continental American independences in 1825.

The Constitution of Cádiz in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

The Constitution of Cádiz, translated into Italian and with some small modifications, was put into force as the first Constitution of the Kingdom of Sicily on 12 July 1812 by decision of the Sicilian parliament and, later, as the Constitution of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by decision of that country's parliament on 9 December 1820, and sanctioned by King Ferdinand I, with the following preamble:

"In consequence of the acts of 7 and 22 July 1820, by which the Political Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy was adopted with the modifications... that the constitutionally convened national representation deemed fit to propose in order to adapt it to the particular circumstances of the kingdom of the two Sicilies, the national parliament, having dealt with it with the most mature and scrupulous examination; and having inquired into all that is necessary to satisfy the great object of promoting the glory, the prosperity and the good of the whole nation; decrees, modified as follows, the political Constitution for the good government and the proper administration of the state."

— Constitution of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies of 1820

Monuments to the Constitution of 1812

Among the squares and monuments dedicated to the Constitution of Cádiz of 1812 that currently exist around the world are:

• Plaza de la Constitución in Mexico City
• Plaza de la Constitución in St. Augustine (present-day U.S., then Spanish Florida)
• Plaza Matriz in Montevideo, Uruguay
• Monument to the Constitution of 1812 in Comayagua, Honduras
• Plaza de la Constitución in Huancayo, Peru
• Plaza de la Constitución in Guatemala City.
• Plaza de la Constitución in Málaga, Spain
• Plaza Constitución, in Metapán, El Salvador
• Plaza Constitución in Pachuca de Soto, Hidalgo, Mexico.
• Monument to the Constitution of 1812 in Salvador de Bahía, Brazil, inaugurated in 2023, in commemoration of the oath of King João VI

• 
  Monument to the Constitution of 1812 in Cádiz, Spain
• 
  Monument to the Constitution of 1812 in Comayagua, Honduras
• 
  Plaza Matriz or Plaza de la Constitución in Montevideo, Uruguay
• 
  Monument to the constitution in the Plaza de la Constitución in St. Augustine, Florida (United States).

See also

• Monument to the Constitution of 1812
• Cortes of Cádiz
• Viva la Pepa
• History of Spanish constitutionalism
• Diego Muñoz Torrero
• Ramón Olaguer Feliú
• Cádiz
• San Fernando, Cádiz

Bibliography

• Artola, Miguel: «Orígenes de la España contemporánea», Madrid, Centro de Estudios Constitucionales, 2000; Las Cortes de Cádiz, Ayer, 1, 1991.
• Chust, Manuel: «La cuestión de la nación americana en las Cortes de Cádiz», Valencia, UNED-UNAM, 1998.
• Rodríguez, J. E.: «La independencia de la América española», Mexico, FCE, 1996.
• Ruiz Jiménez, Marta: «Ediciones de la Constitución de 1812 impresas entre 1812 y 1836» in Revista de las Cortes Generales, ISSN 0213-0130, No. 81, 2010, pp. 347-383
• Gandarias Alonso de Celis, Sofía and Prieto Hernández, Esperanza. Crónicas parlamentarias para la Constitución de 1812 (24 de septiembre de 1810 - 19 de marzo de 1812). Colección Bicentenario de las Cortes de Cádiz. Cortes Generales, 2012. ISBN 978-84-7943-3
• Various authors: «Manual de Historia de España. 5. Siglo XIX», Madrid, Historia 16, 1994.
• Ferrer Muñoz, Manuel (1993). La Constitución de Cádiz y su aplicación en la Nueva España (in español). México: Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. ISBN 968-36-3119-3. {{cite book}}: External link in |title= (help)
• Rodríguez Espinosa, M. (2011) «Cádiz, la ciudad cosmopolita y la traducción durante la Guerra de la Independencia», in J.J. Zaro (ed.) La traducción como actividad editorial en la Andalucía del siglo XIX. Seville: Alfar. Collection: Alfar Universidad, 174, pp. 27-56. ISBN: 978-84-7898-379-7

External links

• Constitución española de 1812 on Spanish Wikisource.
• Constitución española de 1812 on Spanish Wikiquote.
• Diario de las Cortes de Cádiz on the website of the Congress of Deputies.
• Constitución de 1812 on the website of the Congress of Deputies.
• Bicentenario de la Constitución de Cádiz 1812 at Acción Cultural Española (State Society for Cultural Commemorations).
• Bicentenario de la Constitución de 1812 at the Center for Political and Constitutional Studies.
• Bicentenario de la Constitución de 1812. Anexo II: Diputados de Ultramar
• La Constitución española de 1812 at the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library.
• José Álvarez Junco, Cultura y libertad. La Constitución gaditana fue el primer esfuerzo democrático de la España contemporánea, que no cuajó hasta la Transición. La celebración del bicentenario es un momento propicio para revisar el relato canónico. Nuevos libros, exposiciones y música revisan el texto de 1812., in El País, 1 February 2012.
• Jorge Vilches, Fundadores de la libertad, in Libertad Digital, 11 January 2012.
• Patrimonio y Constitución de 1812. (On the occasion of the Commemoration of the Bicentenary of the Constitution of 1812, the IAPH presents a selection of buildings linked to the declaration of that Constitution).
• Manuel Chust, «América y la Constitución de 1812», El País, 21 April 2012.
• Lo que no sabías sobre las Cortes de Cádiz y la Constitución de 1812
• La Guerra de la Independencia y la Constitución de Cádiz (1812). Peculiaridades e influencias
• Cuando la Constitución de Cádiz reinó en Brasil
• La Constitución de 1812 en ruso