The Restoration system had entered a phase of decline following the
national trauma from the
Spanish–American War (the "1898 disaster") and the absence of politically authoritative figureheads since the deaths of
Antonio Cánovas del Castillo (1897) and
Práxedes Mateo Sagasta (1903), weakening the internal unity of both dynastic parties and strengthening the position of faction leaders and local as power brokers. Concurrently, the
anti-monarchist opposition became increasingly competitive in urban and some rural districts, partly due to the introduction of
universal suffrage since 1890, partly due to the progressive weakening of the pro-government electoral apparatus. brought about the
Spanish protectorate in Morocco. The 1909–1910 government crisis had seen both the fall of the Conservative government of
Antonio Maura by political pressure from the Liberals under
Segismundo Moret, and the latter losing the support of the various factions within his party and being replaced by
José Canalejas. As
prime minister, Canalejas attempted to enforce his own vision of
regenerationism (a "democratic regeneration") to "nationalize" the monarchy and address the country's problems, which at the time included: growing tensions within the
armed forces,
Church–State relations, the
Moroccan and
social questions—with an increase in
strike action and the emergence of the
National Confederation of Labour (CNT), seeing episodes such as the
Cullera events—and rising
Catalan regionalism. This period saw the implementation of various reforms, such as the abolition of
consumption taxes, the introduction
compulsory military servicet, or a more appropriate regulation of
women's working conditions (the "Law of the Chair" or ). Canalejas's aim to curb the
Catholic Church's influence over public education resulted in a temporary rupture of relations with the
Holy See, as well as a media campaign accusing Canalejas of fostering
anti-clericalism. Discreet negotiations saw the approval of the Padlock Law () in December 1910, which restricted the establishment of new
religious orders during the next two years. His government also laid the legal foundations for the creation of commonwealths of
provinces with limited powers in an attempt to placate the ambitions of the
Regionalist League, paving the way for the
Commonwealth of Catalonia in 1914. Canalejas refrained from intervening in the
5 October 1910 revolution that overthrew the
Portuguese monarchy, but had to tackle its repercussions during the
pro-republican mutiny aboard the
ironclad Numancia in August 1911. The successful
Kert campaign helped bring about the
Spanish protectorate in Morocco, with the signing of the
Franco–Spanish Treaty of 1912. Canalejas also attempted to rebuild the system through a conciliatory stance towards the Conservatives. Their leader, Maura, had come to see the
Pact of El Pardo as liquidated following his fall from power in 1909, declaring an "implacable hostility" to the Liberals in power—equivalent to the official severance of solidarity ties between the two dynastic parties and a renounce to the power alternation—as long as they did not publicly retract their actions of the previous biennium. In the ensuing years, the Conservatives would divide among those adhering to Maura's
political doctrine against the (the
Maurist faction or ), and those advocating for continuity out of loyalty to the monarchy and a desire not to be excluded from power (who would become known as the or "suitable ones"). in 1912 left the
Liberal Party without a solid leadership. The assassination of Canalejas in November 1912 put an end to his agenda and plunged his party into chaos.
King Alfonso XIII's initial decision to appoint the
president of the Congress of Deputies, the
Count of Romanones, as prime minister, was met with outrage by Maura—deepening his disaffection with the "failed" —as well as by supporters of
minister of state under Canalejas, the
Marquis of Alhucemas, who also aspired to the Liberal leadership. The Alhucemas–Romanones feud and the leadership crisis within the Liberal Party, coupled with the debate on the Law of Commonwealths, brought about the former's split into the
Liberal Democratic Party in the summer of 1913 and the latter's downfall in a Senate
vote of confidence on 25 October. Maura's refusal to accept the King's mandate and maintain the caused a schism within the Conservative Party between "maurists" and "suitable ones", leading Alfonso XIII to hand over power to the "suitable"
Eduardo Dato. A
third Conservative faction led by
Juan de la Cierva—
governance minister under Maura—supported restoring unity of action between and , without affiliating itself to either. Within the republican opposition, the
Reformist Party was formed in 1912 by
Melquíades Álvarez,
Gumersindo de Azcárate and
Benito Pérez Galdós, representing a moderate,
accidentalist and
democratic republicanism. Concurrently, disagreements with
Alejandro Lerroux's
Radical Republican Party led to its departure from the
Republican–Socialist Conjunction. ==Overview==