Resistencia e internacionalismo liberal en Cádiz en la Segunda Restauración Fernandina

Abstract

This paper analyzes the role played by the Cadiz-Gibraltar axis in the liberal resistance to absolutism during the last years of Ferdinand VII reign. The strength of this axis was based on the fluidity of the relations between two exceptional spaces. On the one hand, Gibraltar, where the confluence of economical and political interests favored the collaboration between Spanish, European and American conspirators. On the other hand, Cadiz, which became a kind of promised land for those determined to maintain the struggle against absolutism, mainly due to the presence of the French division established after the campaign of the so-called Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis, since their commanders did not allow Spanish authorities to carry out indiscriminate persecution of liberals. The result was the configuration of an advantageous space to conspiracy, which not only made possible an understanding between liberal refugees in both cities, but also, as Spanish authorities criticized, the participation in conspiracies of a transnational extent.