| Spanish Civil War, 1820-1823 |
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The Spanish Civil War of 1820 - 1823 was fought in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars . It was a conflict between Royalist s and Liberal s with France intervening on the side of the royalists. The inept rule of Spain 's King Ferdinand VII ( 1784 - 1833 ), who refused to accept the Liberal Constitution Of 1812 , provoked widespread unrest, particularly in the army. The king sought to reconquer the Spanish Colonies in The Americas that had recently successfully revolted and consequently deprived Spain of a major source of revenue. At Cádiz , Spain, in January 1820 , troops who had assembled for an expedition to America were angry over infrequent pay, bad food, and poor quarters and mutinied under the leadership of Colonel Rafael Del Riego Y Nunez ( 1785 - 1823 ). Pledging fealty to the 1812 constitution, they seized their commander, moved into nearby San Fernando , and then prepared to march on Madrid , the capital. Despite the rebels' relative weakness, Ferdinand accepted the constitution on March 9 , 1820, ushering in A Period Of Popular Rule . But in this liberal atmosphere, political conspiracies of both right and left proliferated. Liberal revolutionaries stormed the king's palace and virtually made Ferdinand a prisoner for the next three years. A mutiny occurred in the Madrid garrison, and civil war erupted in the regions of Castile , Toledo , and Andalusia . The Holy Alliance ( Russia , Austria and Prussia ) refused Ferdinand's request for help, but the Quadruple Alliance ( Britain , France , Holland and Austria ) at the Congress of Verona in October 1822 gave France a mandate to intervene and restore the Spanish monarchy. French troops, the " 100,000 Sons Of Saint Louis ", invaded Spain, captured Madrid, and drove the revolutionaries south to Cádiz and Seville . On August 31 , 1823, rebel forces were routed in a battle near Cádiz, and soon after, the French freed Ferdinand, who had been taken from Madrid as a captive, and placed him on the throne. Unexpectedly, he took ruthless revenge on his opponents, revoked the 1812 constitution and restored Absolute Monarchy to Spain. See also
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