Seeing the Spanish Revolution spread rapidly toward Madrid like a lit wildfire, Queen Isabella, whose private life was extremely chaotic, finally panicked.
Faced with the choice between resistance or flight, Queen Isabella showed no hesitation and hastily fled north to France with her family.
The Queen’s flight also accelerated the Spanish Revolution, as the revolutionary army entered Madrid with little effort and announced the demise of the Kingdom of Spain.
On October 8, 1868, Francisco Serrano appointed himself President of the Provisional Government, and Juan Primó, who enjoyed considerable prestige in the revolutionary army, served as Minister of War of the Provisional Government. Spain officially entered a state of extreme chaos.
Whether this grand revolution was the savior of the Spanish people remained unknown, but the chaotic situation in Spain created an opportunity for Cuba, far away in America, to strive for independence.
On October 10, the famous Cuban plantation owner and lawyer Carlos Manuel Céspedes y Borja del Castillo led a group of Cuban patriots in launching an uprising near Yara in the eastern Oriente Province, and issued the Grito de Yara to all regions of Cuba, calling on all Cubans to fight for freedom, equality, and independence.
This was a heavy blow to the hastily established Spanish Provisional Government, as Cuba was one of the few remaining colonies that brought positive profits to Spain.
The Cuban War of Independence not only forced the Spanish Provisional Government to dispatch troops for suppression but also confronted the newborn government with enormous military expenditures amid extremely difficult finances.
But this was not the only problem facing the Provisional Government. The revolution had succeeded, but the Provisional Government had not yet controlled all of Spain.
At the same time, stabilizing the rule of the Provisional Government and establishing an administrative system completely different from that of the former monarchical Kingdom Government was the biggest challenge at present.
Moreover, the Provisional Government was not monolithic; the relationships between major classes and forces were irreconcilable, and the chaotic situation of the Provisional Government was no better than that of the former Spanish Kingdom Government.
The initiators of this revolution were the upper bourgeoisie and liberals of Spain, whose original intention was to overthrow the former monarchical absolutism and establish a democratic monarchy with power concentrated in the national government.
But Spain’s petty bourgeoisie, workers, and farmers had had enough of the oppression by the monarchy and nobles; they wanted to establish a federal republican government with dispersed but unified management power, and favored replacing the King with a President to uniformly manage all of Spain.
Carlo was also closely following the situation in Spain. The good news was that Italy and Spain faced each other across the sea, separated on land only by France, so news traveled quickly.
What Carlo least wanted to hear at this time was that the Spanish Provisional Government decided to abolish the monarchy, which would mean he would completely lose contact with the Spanish throne.
On November 9, the Spanish Provisional Government finally promulgated a decree on establishing Parliament and announced that parliamentary elections would be held next year, in February
Although this decree made no mention throughout of the composition of the future Spanish Government, everyone following Spanish news understood that the results of the parliamentary election would determine Spain’s destiny.
If big capital and liberal reformists secured a majority in Parliament, the new Parliament would have the power to promulgate legislation on constitutional monarchy.
Similarly, if the workers or farmers secured a majority in Parliament, Spain’s monarchy might vanish entirely, and republicanism could very likely take the stage in Spain.
For the time being, it was still highly probable that the situation in Spain would develop as in history.
Primó, who supported constitutional monarchy, still controlled the great power in the Spanish Government and was very likely to gain an advantage in the parliamentary election a few months later.
The timing of the parliamentary election was also worth pondering. From the establishment of the Provisional Government to the parliamentary election was only four months, and from the promulgation of the decree to the election was less than three months.
These three months were hardly enough to change the attitude of the Italian public or the entrenched influence of those nobles and big capital in Spain.
However, to make his plan more secure, Carlo decided to give the Spanish people a little breeze.
What breeze? Of course, the breeze promoting monarchy.
As for the harm the Bourbon Dynasty had brought to the Spanish people, it could all be attributed to the rule of the licentious and tyrannical Queen Isabella.
Carlo had basis for promoting monarchy.
The world’s strongest navy was undoubtedly the United Kingdom, which was a constitutional monarchy. The world’s strongest army should be the lingering glory of France’s（ Napoleon）, and France was also a monarchy.
Europe’s old great powers Russia, Austrian Empire, and the emerging great power Kingdom of Prussia were all monarchies, and even Italy, which had just achieved unification and joined the great powers, was a monarchy.
Looking at the whole world, among the current great powers, the only non-monarchy country was the United States, which did not appear so powerful in the eyes of Europeans at this time.
The rise of the United States would have to wait until after World War I and World War II; America’s industrial and economic scale in this era was not yet so exaggerated.
Since the vast majority of Europe’s powerful countries were monarchies, why should the Spanish people voluntarily abandon such an advanced system?
As for the past failures of monarchy, they were entirely the fault of the Bourbon family and Queen Isabella; everyone should blame Queen Isabella.
Besides wanting to preserve a thread of trust in monarchy in the hearts of the Spanish people, Carlo also wanted to make the Spanish people dislike the Bourbon Dynasty and Queen Isabella as much as possible.
Only in this way would the Spanish people not be so resistant to foreign dynasties, and Carlo’s hope of taking charge in Spain would be much greater.
As for the Bourbon family, Queen Isabella, and the renowned Alfonso XII, they had anyway sucked the blood of Spain for several decades and it was time for them to make a little contribution to the Spanish people.
Moreover, this was not smearing the Bourbon family. Queen Isabella’s rule in Spain was well-known, characterized by licentiousness, tyranny, and chaos.
If the Spanish people could be made to lose trust in the Bourbon Dynasty, the long-troubling Carlist faction rebellion in Spain could also be properly dealt with.
After all, the Carlist faction was also part of the Bourbon family, and they bore some merit for Spain’s chaos.
On November 27, 1868, Italy’s 24 Hours Sun Newspaper, already hugely popular, published an article titled《 We Want Bread, Not Republic》, which quickly spread to northern and southern Italy.
The main content of this article was to expound on the advanced nature of the current monarchy and the successes of various European monarchical countries, stating that monarchy was the most reasonable choice for European countries, and republicanism was a malformed evolution for Europe.
Regardless of whether this article made sense, for the monarchical countries of Europe at this time, such an article was definitely better than none.
Publishing such an article in the newspaper was better than publishing those promoting republic and liberal democracy; at least such ing would not make the public dissatisfied with the monarch’s throne.
Under the circumstances where no countries opposed it, this article began to spread on a small scale in Mediterranean coastal countries, especially those centered around Italy.
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