SPAIN 



605 



conducted successfully a campaign in Morocco in 

 1859-60. On the whole, liberalism advanced ; re- 

 publicanism ap*peared after 1848. In disgust at 

 corrupt administration the country accepted a,pro- 

 nunciamiento by Prim and Topete at Cadiz in 1868. 

 Isabella fled to France, and there resigned in 

 favour of her son, Alfonso XII. The programme 

 of the military leaders was simply destructive. A 

 provisional government of two years (the chief event 

 of which was to furnish the pretext for the Franco- 

 German war of 1870) ended in the choice of Ama- 

 deus(q.v.)of Savoy as king. In 1873 he resigned 

 the crown. The republic which followed showed 

 the wide differences between the Federalists and 

 the conservative Republicans. This occasioned the 

 second Carlist war, 1872-76 (see CARLISTS). On 

 the waning of their cause, Isabella's son, Alfonso 

 XII., was proclaimed king, 29th December 1874. 

 February 27, 1876, Don Carlos withdrew to France. 

 Mainly through the talents of his minister, 

 Canovas del Castillo, Alfonso's reign of eleven 

 years (1874-85) was a time of relative prosperity 

 nd improvement, and enabled his queen Christina 

 quietly to succeed as regent for his posthumous 

 son, Alfonso XIII., born 17th May 1886. Since 

 then the liberals have returned to power, and 

 changes of ministry are no longer marked by blood- 

 shed or exile. The queen-regent is personally 

 respected ; but both Carlists and Republicans still 

 agitate. The constitution embraces all modern 

 liberties. Since the last Carlist war Spain for the 

 first time is under one legal rule ; but whether 

 liberal or conservative, the ministries are chosen 

 largely by corruption and intrigue. In Cuba (q.v.) 

 there nail been trouble since 1895, intensified by the 

 threatened interference of the United States and 

 by the mysterious blowing-up of the U.S. war-ship 

 Maine in Havana harbour on 15th Feb. 1898. In 

 April the United States submitted an ultimatum 

 to Spain, and the two countries drifted into war. 

 Havana was immediately blockaded ; but the first 

 serious blow was struck at Manila, where the Span- 

 ish fleet was destroyed by the American squadron 

 Tinder Admiral Dewey. In June, Cuba was in- 

 vaded by the American troops, with the result 

 that Santiago ami the whole of the eastern part of 

 the island surrendered, and the squadron of ships 

 under Admiral Cervera was destroyed. Overtures 

 for peace were then made on behalf of Spain, and 

 after negotiations by a joint commission, which met 

 in September at Paris, Spain surrendered Cuba, 

 PortoRico,and the Philippines, receiving$20,000,000 

 for improvements on the latter. The Caroline, 

 Pelew, and Ladrone Islands were sold to Germany 

 in 1899. In January 1899 Spain abolished her 

 Colonial Office as being ' no longer necessary.' 



From the ffistoria General de Espana ( 30 vols. 1850-66 ; 

 new ed. 1877 ft teq. ) to Major Hume's Spain, its Great- 

 nes* awl Decnii, works on the history of Spain are very 

 numerous. In addition to those named under more 

 special headings ( FERDINAND AND ISABELLA, CHAKLES 

 V., PHILIP II., and the several kingdoms and provinces), 

 we may mention M. M. Siret, Les Premiers Ages du 

 Metal dam If Sud-Est de VEspagne (Antwerp, 1887); 

 Buhner's La Arqueoloyia de Espana (Barcelona, 1888). 

 In mediaeval Spain Schirrmacher's Geschichte Castiliem, 

 13 unrl 13 Jahrh. (Gotha, 1881), and Geschichte Spaniens 

 in 14 Jahrh. (Gotha, 1890), with a volume to follow, 

 will lead up to Prescott's works. The reign of Philip II. 

 has attracted numerous recent writers. Ferrer del Rio's 

 Hittoria del Beinailo de Carlos III. en Espana (4 vols.) 

 is good. The Espaila Sngrada (51 vols.) is a useful col- 

 lection, chiefly for ecclesiastical events. The Academy 

 of History in its Boletin and Memorial has valuable 

 materials. See also Colmeiro's Introduction to the Cortes 

 of Leon and Castile ( 1883 ), Cardenas' work on Property 

 { 1873 ), and the cronicat and contemporary writers ; also 

 Meyrick, The Church in Spain (1892) ; H.E. Watts, Spain 

 {'Nations' series, 1893); Ulick R. Burke, A History of 

 Spain (1895) ; and the articles ABAQON, NAVAHKE, &c. 



SPANISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. Three 

 Romance Languages (q.v.) are still spoken in 

 Spain : the Castilian, generally known as Spanish ; 

 the Catalan, a dialect of Provencal ; and the Gali- 

 I'iiin, closely allied to Portuguese. Castilian, which 

 has been deservedly called ' the noblest daughter 

 of Latin," is spoken, with slight local variations, 

 by more than two-thirds of the population. The 

 reason for its having to a great degree supplanted 

 Catalan and Galician is to be found quite as much 

 in political causes as in its own richness of vocabu- 

 lary and stately measured cadence. Its chief char- 

 acteristics are the purity of its vowel-sounds and 

 the strong guttural, the origin of which is doubtful, 

 though its introduction is undoubtedly modern. 

 The Castilian vocabulary contains a large number 

 of Arabic words, chiefly connected with agriculture 

 or science; Greek words, mostly of learned and 

 modern introduction ; the traces of Basque and 

 Gothic are slight. The influence of French is very 

 noticeable, particularly during the 18th and 19th 

 centuries. Castilian is the form of Spanish spoken 

 in Mexico, Central America, South America (except- 

 ing Brazil), Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the other 

 Spanish colonies. 



See on the subject generally, Grober, Grundrisi der 

 Bomaniichen Philologie ; Diez, Grammaire des Langues 

 Komainet (Fr. trans.); the admirable article by Alfred 

 Morel Fatio in the Encyclopaedia Britannica ; the Dic- 

 tionary of the Spanish Academy (1st ed. 1720) ; the 

 Spanish-English dictionaries by Neumann and Baretti, 

 Velasquez, Gamier. Grammars AViggers, Grammatik 

 der Spaniichen Sprache (Leip. 1884) ; Knapp, Spanish 

 Grammar (Boston, 1887) ; Simplified Grammar, by the 

 present writer (1892). For Catalan, Mila y Fontanals, 

 Estudios de la Lengua Catalana. For Galician, Arce, 

 Granuitica GaUega (Lugo, 1808). 



Castilian Literature. The earliest existing docu- 

 ments in Spanish belong to the first half of the 12th 

 century. The first monuments of Spanish litera- 

 ture are poetical. The Poema del Cid (see ClD), 

 ascribed to the latter half of the 12th century, is a 

 typical chanson de, geste ; picturesque and spirited 

 at times, it breathes the spirit of the turbulent age 

 which produced it. Written in unformed and un- 

 couth language, it displays a barbarous and irregular 

 versification. The lines vary in length from twelve to 

 sixteen syllables, and the same rhyme is carried on 

 through long passages. To the 1 3th century belongs 

 a body of religious poetry of tame character and 

 slight merit. Gonzalo de Berceo is the first Spanish 

 author whose name has come down to us. He wrote 

 lives of saints and praises of the Virgin, 



rhyming l 

 which clo 



which closely resemble in style, subject, and versi- 

 fication those of other monkish authors of his own 

 and the succeeding century. The 13th century 

 saw the formation of literary Castilian. To this 

 period belongs Alfonso the Wise, king of Castile 

 (see ALFONSO X.), who left behind him a large 

 and valuable body of works written either by him- 

 self or at his direction. The most important of 

 these is the code of laws, with digressions on moral 

 and political philosophy, known as Las Siete Par- 

 tidas. This treatise, embodying anterior Gothic 

 codes, has been the groundwork of all subseq uent 

 Spanish legislation ; it forms also a most important 

 monument of the language, which now for the first 

 time appears as an instrument fitted for literary 

 production. A collection of verse, mostly of a 

 religious character, and undoubtedly belonging to 

 this period, has been long a puzzle to scholars from 

 the circumstance that, appearing as the work of 

 Alfonso the Wise, it is written in the Galician 

 dialect. Alfonso's literary tastes were shared by 

 his nephew, Don Juan Manuel, author of several 

 works of great interest which have come down to 

 us, and of many others now unfortunately lost. 

 He is best known by the Conde Lucanor or Libra 

 de Patrcmio, a series of stories mostly of eastern 



