Memoria de la emigración en la España liberal: “La sangría suelta”

Memory of emigration in liberal Spain: “The loose bloodletting”

Abstract

This article examines the social, political, and cultural changes that facilitated the consolidation of liberal governments in Spain, which promoted an ambitious modernization project within the framework of the Restoration. This project included a series of reforms aimed at addressing the main social challenges of the time, such as the rise of the labor movement, peripheral nationalism, uneven industrial development, and the migration phenomenon. However, these modernizing attempts were severely limited by a series of persistent structural problems, among which caciquism, the fragility of the parliamentary system, and the loss of the last colonies in 1898 stand out. All this contributed to a progressive loss of legitimacy of the liberal regime. This climate of crisis also had a significant expression in the cultural sphere, where the press, art, and literature echoed the profound social changes.