29 Facts About Emilio Castelar

Emilio Castelar y Ripoll was a Spanish republican politician, and a president of the First Spanish Republic.

Emilio Castelar left office after a coup led by General Pavia the following year.

Emilio Castelar wrote a history of the Republican Movement in Europe among other works of political interest.

Emilio Castelar was an obscure republican student during the Spanish revolutionary movement of 1854, and the young liberals and democrats of that era decided to hold a meeting in the largest theatre of the capital.

On that occasion Castelar delivered his maiden speech, which at once placed him in the political vanguard of the reign of Queen Isabella II.

Emilio Castelar was involved in the First Uprising of June 1866, which was organized by Marshal Prim, and crushed, after much bloodshed, in the streets by Marshals O'Donnell and Serrano.

Emilio Castelar soon became famous for his speeches in the Constituent Cortes of 1869, where he led the republican minority in advocating a federal republic as the logical outcome of the recent revolution.

Emilio Castelar thus gave much trouble to men like Serrano, Topete and Prim, who had never cherished the idea of establishing an advanced democracy, and who each had his own scheme for re-establishing the monarchy with certain constitutional restrictions.

Emilio Castelar attacked with relentless vigour the short-lived monarchy of Amadeus, and contributed to its downfall.

Emilio Castelar abhorred bloodshed, disliked mob rule, and did not approve of military.

Emilio Castelar would have placed at the head of his commonwealth a president and Cortes freely elected by the people, ruling the country in a liberal spirit and with due respect for conservative principles, religious traditions, and national unity.

At first Emilio Castelar did his best to work with the other republican members of the first government of the federal republic.

Emilio Castelar accepted the post of minister for foreign affairs.

Emilio Castelar even went so far as to side with his colleagues, when serious difficulties arose between the new government and the president of the Cortes, Senor Martos, who was backed by a very imposing commission composed of the most influential conservative members of the last parliament of the Savoyard king, which had suspended its sittings shortly after proclaiming the federal republic.

Emilio Castelar selected his generals without respect of politics, sending Moriones to the Basque provinces and Navarre at the head of 20,000 men, Martinez Campos to Catalonia with several thousand, and Lopez Dominguez, the nephew of Marshal Serrano, to begin the land blockade of the last stronghold of the cantonal insurgents, the Canton of Cartagena, where the crews of Spain's only fleet had joined the revolt.

Emilio Castelar renewed direct relations with the Vatican, and at last induced Pope Pius IX to approve his selection of two dignitaries to occupy vacant sees as well as his nominee for the vacant archbishopric of Valencia, a prelate who afterwards became archbishop of Toledo, and remained to the end a close friend of Castelar.

Emilio Castelar put a stop to all persecutions of the Church and religious orders, and enforced respect of Church property.

Emilio Castelar attempted to restore some order in the treasury and administration of finance, with a view to obtain ways and means to cover the expense of the three civil wars, Carlist, cantonal and Cuban.

Emilio Castelar sent out to Cuba all the reinforcements he could spare, and a new governor-general, Jovellar, whom he peremptorily instructed to crush the mutinous spirit of the Cuban militia, and not allow them to drag Spain into a conflict with the US Acting upon the instructions of Emilio Castelar, Jovellar gave up the filibuster vessels, and those of the crew and passengers who had not been summarily shot by General Burriel.

Emilio Castelar always prided himself on having terminated this incident without too much damage to the prestige of Spain.

Emilio Castelar knew too well what such offers meant in the classic land of, and he refused so flatly that Pavia did not renew his advice.

The intransigent majority refused to listen to a last eloquent appeal that Emilio Castelar made to their patriotism and common sense, and they passed a vote of censure.

Emilio Castelar kept apart from active politics during the twelve months that Serrano acted as president of the republic.

Emilio Castelar then went into voluntary exile for fifteen months, at the end of which he was elected deputy for Barcelona.

Emilio Castelar sat in all subsequent parliaments, and just a month before his death he was elected as representative of Murcia.

Emilio Castelar established a daily newspaper, El Globo, in Madrid in 1875.

Emilio Castelar left unfinished a history of Europe in the 19th century.

Emilio Castelar died near Murcia on 25 May 1899, at the age of sixty-six.

Emilio Castelar's funeral at Madrid was an imposing demonstration of the sympathy and respect of all classes and parties.