On this day, the 11th of February 1873. Spain becomes a republic for the first time after the abdication of King Amadeo I.

9 comments

1. The first Hispanic democracy.

2. nip slip

3. The rainbow really sells it. Like a world wihout lawyers

4. I wonder if this was the most attractive shape of woman when the painting was drawn or it’s supposed to be a motherly figure.

5. Spoiler alert: it didn’t end well. The Republic was born dead, facing three wars at the same time: rebellion in Cuba; Third Carlist War in Navarre, Basque Country and rural Catalonia; and cantonalist (radical localist) rebellions in Valencia and Murcia, specially.

   During the year the Republic lasted no Constitution was approved, there were four different interim Presidents (interestingly, the last Heads of Government coming from Catalonia were from this period), division between Federal and Unitary republicans…

   It was a disaster, so much that when the Bourbons came back in 1874 (having been kicked out in 1868) there wasn’t much backlash, and the system managed to survive without any real crisis until the Spanish-American War of 1898. 24 years without revolts or coups d’Etat of any kind was a novelty in 19th century Spain, where every 5-10 years there was a major political crisis.

6. Lol, she is not amused

7. She looks like she is bored out of her mind.

   Also, has the painter never seen a real rainbow?

8. Is it on purpose that this is pretty much an exact copy of the French republican iconography ?

9. A por la tercera.