Diplomacy, Slavery, and Hispanic Liberalism during the Restoration Regime of Ferdinand VII

• In Event: Las nuevas naciones hispanoamericanas en el contexto de la Restauración europea, 1814-1830.

Abstract

How did debates over suppression of the slave trade affect the course of events in the Spanish Monarchy between 1814 and 1823? Why did Spain officially renounce the slave trade in a series of treaties between 1815 and 1822 with Britain, at the same time that their merchants were expanding the scope of their activities? Did great power diplomacy and abolitionist pressure hasten the breakup of the Spanish empire? Indicative of their loss of prestige across the board, the regime of Ferdinand VII was not invited to participate in the 1818 Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle by the great powers, although the ongoing warfare in Spanish America and the status of their colonies were to be discussed. In a successive international conference held in Verona, a meeting of the Quadruple Alliance—composed of Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia—sanctioned the restoration French government to send troops, referred to as the 100,000 sons of St. Louis, to quash the remnants of Spanish liberalism and the revived Constitution of 1812. With most of the former empire declaring independence and moving away from the institution of slavery, neither liberals nor Ferdinand's ministers would put an end to Spanish participation in the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s.

Author

• Scott Brian Eastman, Creighton University