La Ley abolitoria de Fueros de 21 de julio de 1876 (antecedentes y paso por el Congreso)

Abstract

The Fueros of Alava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa persisted between 1844 and 1876. The Spanish Liberalism used a hypothetical link between the Basque foral institutions and the Carlist insurrection to extend constitutional unity, undertaking drastic reform of military service, taxation, and reducing the powers of the General Councils and Councils. In the reform, the Prime Minister Cánovas sought to follow the procedure laid down in the 1839 Foral law by summoning the commissioners of the Basque Provinces, without any result. The new law’s draft provoked a strong division in the Spanish liberalism between constitutionalist minority which was for Jurisdictions’ total abolition and the Canovas’ party’s liberal-conservative mayority who pursued to maintain, after a negotiation, some singularities in fiscal and administrative order. The Government’s project was altered in the Senate. There was an intense debate in Congress between the Basque deputies, the Constitutionalists, and the ruling party. The Law of July 21, 1876 ended with a centuried Basque self-government.