resulted as efforts toward a more liberal government were defeated by the autocratic Ferdinand VII. Quarrels over succession to the throne led to the Carlist War in 1833, sparking an era of turmoil. Military, peasants, and socialist uprising, who alternated between monarchy and republic for several years, threaten to tear Spain apart. The First Spanish Republic was declared in 1873 and 1874, Alfonso XII, a Bourbon, became King. His reign was marked by the free trade. By 1890, however, with the declaration of universal suffrage for men, republicanism was again a growing force. By 1897, the peaceful period had ended. A popular but conservative political leader was assassinated, and in 1898, Spain lost the last of its empire in the Americas and the Pacific, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, in the Spanish Civil War.The Second Republic from 1931 to 1939, brought about increased political participation in Spain, but doing so it created problems. Spain became torn, on one side there was the military, the church and landowners, and on the left were workers, landless peasants, intellectuals, and most Catalans and Basques. Some positive reforms were instituted, but eventually violent disputes between the left and the right erupted in to the Spanish Civil War. General Francisco Franco led the right-wing nationalist movement, aided by Italian and German fascists, and quickly conquered the western half of Spain. The Republicans, despite some soviet aid, were weakened by internal divisions and eventually fell to Franco's army. The tragic war cost Spain hundreds of thousands of lives, and many Spaniards fled the country. Franco ruled the devastated nation as a military dictator for the next 36 years; he supported the Catholic Church and the Falange.After Franco, In 1947 Spain declared itself a monarchy, with a king to be named to succeed Franco. In 1955 it became a member of the United Nations. Finally in 1992 Seville hosted the W...
