La primera república

On February 11, 1873, the First Republic was proclaimed in Spain. Less than two years later, on December 29, 1874, a coup restored the Bourbon monarchy. What happened between the two dates? This book masterfully analyzes this period, usually identified with chaos and failure. It is defended here that it was a moment of opening that allowed the emergence of debates and projects, the effective practice of freedoms and rights long demanded, the experience in power -as well as in the public space- of previously excluded sectors, the realization (or programming) of a whole series of far-reaching political and socioeconomic reforms, and a very intense popular mobilization and politicization, both in urban and rural areas. All of this within the framework of a conflictive situation plagued by fronts of struggle; at a time when political parties did not enjoy developed structures of strategic and doctrinal organization, and the representative and parliamentary regime was not fully consolidated. It was a democratizing experience that shows a notable implantation of republicanism in Spain and whose end did not derive so much from the incapacity of the republican leaders and the vagueness of their programs and speeches as from the anti-pluralism that dominated the political cultures of the time and, above all, of the organization of a conspiracy plot capable of mobilizing extensive resources in order to put an end to it.