Liberalism and nation state

Liberalism and nation state
Main articles: Mid-19th-century Spain, Spanish American wars of independence, Spanish–American War, Anarchism in Spain, and Spanish Second Republic

Rafael del Riego led the anti-absolutist uprising that started the Trienio Liberal, part of the Revolutions of 1820 in Europe. When absolutists took power again, he was executed.
In 1793, Spain went to wa

r against the revolutionary new French Republic as a member of the first Coalition. The subsequent War of the Pyrenees polarised the country in a reaction against the gallicised elites and following defeat in the field, peace was made with France in 1795 at the Peace of Basel in which Spain lost control over two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola. The Prime Minister, Manuel Go

doy, then ensured that Spain allied herself with France in the brief War of the Third Coalition which ended with the British naval victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. In 1807, a secret treaty between Napoleon and the unpopular prime minister led to a new declaration of war against Britain and Portugal. Napoleon’s troops entered the country to invade Portugal but instead occupied Spain’s major fortresses. The Spanish king abdicated in favour of Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte.