Spain (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

Spain (Spanish: España), officially the Spanish State (Spanish: Estado Español), is a country located in Southwestern Europe, on the Iberian Peninsula. Spain is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British overseas territory of Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal. Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and town of Llívia, a Spanish exclave inside French territory. With an area of 505,992 square kilometres (195,365 sq mi), it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the fifth largest country in Europe.

Glorious Revolution (1868)
The unpopularity of Queen Isabella II among the liberals, the progressives, and the members of the Unión Liberal for her continual vacillation between liberal and conservative quarters triggered a broad opposition to her government. Leopoldo O'Donnell's death in 1867 caused the Unión Liberal to unravel. Many of its supporters crossed party lines and joined the growing opposition to overthrow Isabella in favor of a more effective regime.

In September 1868 naval forces under admiral Juan Bautista Topete mutinied in Cadiz. Generals Juan Prim and Francisco Serrano denounced the government and much of the army defected to the revolutionary generals on their arrival in Spain. In 1868, Queen Isabella crossed into France and retired from Spanish politics to Paris. She lived there in exile until her death in 1904.

Spain under the Hohenzollerns (1870-1918)
However, the coalition of liberals, moderates, and republicans were now faced with the incredible task of finding a new monarch that would suit them better than Isabella. As the Cortes rejected the notion of a republic, General Serrano was elected as regent while Prim became Prime Minister and was made a marshal. A truly liberal constitution was written and successfully promulgated by the Cortes in 1869.

After a difficult search for a suitable king that acceptable for all political spheres in Spain, Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a Prussian prince from the Swabian branch of the House of Hohenzollern, was selected by the Cortes in 1870. Leopold’s ascension to the Spanish throne was met a strong opposition from France that feared the installation of a relative of the Prussian king would result in the expansion of Prussian influence and the encirclement of France (which later proved to be true). However, Minister-President of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck, who wanted to drag the French into war with Prussia was able to convince Leopold to approve his candidacy. Unable to tolerate this matter, France then declared war to Prussia in July 1870, resulted to the Franco-Prussian War that will led to the creation of German Empire.

Early years of Leopold's reign on Spain were marked by the period of instability and uprisings both within Spain and its colonies. Just five days before his landing on the Spanish soil, Juan Prim, his main political backer, was shot by unknown assassins on December 28, 1870 and died two days later on December 30. After his coronation on January 2, 1871 as Leopoldo I of Spain, the new king now faced immediately with the incredible task of bringing the disparate political ideologies of Spain to one table. The country was plagued by internecine strife, not merely between Spaniards but within Spanish parties.

Albeit a popular support from the citizens, the French-backed Carlists were the most immediate threat for the new government as they launched a violent insurrection after their poor showing in the 1872 elections. After his main political backer got assassinated in 1870, Leopoldo I now was the main target for the assassination itself. He was barely survived from three assassination attempts by the Carlists and the republicans during his lifetime. A bullet from Leopoldo's 1895 assassination attempt even still remained near his abdomen for the rest of his life as the surgeons afraid its removal will even caused a greater consequence for the king.

However, the reign of Leopoldo I always viewed as the most liberal era in Spain. Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla, who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 1871 to 1872 and later from 1874 to 1893, carried the economic and social reform in Spain. Universal male suffrage was first introduced in metropolitan Spain on 1876. After being in war with Cuban revolutionaries for about 5 years, the Spanish government finally agreed to hold a talk with the rebels on the 1874 Madrid Conference. Slavery was abolished in 1875 and Cuba granted a right to send its representatives to the Cortes.

The relations between Zorrilla's government with the Catholic Church during this period drew a similarity with the Kulturkampf that implemented by his German counterpart, Otto von Bismarck, in Prussia. Being a Freemason, Zorrilla let the government to intervene over the Catholic Church activities in Spain. However, unlike Bismarck, Zorrilla's policy regarding the Catholic Church was carried throughout his term and continued by his predecessors. It was later proven to be Zorrilla's biggest mistake as the persecution to the Catholic led the monarchy to lose its traditional support from the Catholics and helped the secular Socialists to grow significantly in Spain's political arena. Both of them later would played an important role on the overthrow of Spanish monarchy in 1918

Under Zorrilla, Spain took a different foreign policy with the German Empire by pursuing a neutral, peaceful relation with the French, much to Bismarck's dismay, as Zorrilla hoped it would stopped the French to support the Carlist rebels  As the one who played a role for installed Leopoldo I in the Spanish throne, Bismarck viewed Zorrilla as pro-French and his diplomatic acts as a "betrayal" for the German Empire. Bismarck also always refused to hold diplomatic talks with Spain unless Zorilla not participated on it.

Zorrilla was replaced by his deputy, Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, on the 1893 general election and formally retired from politics on 1894, much to his failing health and the loss of his wife. Indifferent with Zorrilla, Sagasta was a staunch liberal and continued most of his predeccessor's policies during this term. However, following the rise of Georges Boulanger in France, the hostilities between France and Spain re-started again. An assassination attempt to King Leopoldo I in 1895 by the Carlist insurgents that suspected by the Spanish government for being backed by France, immediately led Sagasta to break Spain's diplomatic relations with those neighboring country.