Francisco Pi i Margall

Francisco Pi i Margall

Francisco Pi i Margall (born April 20, 1824 in Barcelona , † November 29, 1901 in Madrid ) was a liberal Spanish politician and writer of the Catalan Romanticism . He was President of the short-lived First Spanish Republic in 1873 .

youth

Pi was born on April 29, 1824, the son of a textile worker in Barcelona. Pi's father enrolled him in a church school in 1831, where he learned Latin and theology . He was a member of the Sociedad Filomática , which enabled him to meet some of the important writers and thinkers of the Catalan Romantic Movement. In 1837 he began to study law after philosophy and graduated in 1847. He moved to Madrid and began writing for the journals El Renacimiento (The Rebirth) and, as a theater critic, for El Correo (The Post), which also featured Pi's first political article. For lack of money, Pi took a job at the Catalan bank Martí.

Binding of the Recuerdos y Bellezas de España from 1839

In 1848 he contributed to the chapters Catalonia, Seville and Granada , thus completing the Recuerdos y Bellezas de España (Memories and Beauties of Spain) by the poet Pau Piferrer . At this time he came into contact with the republican current of Spanish politics.

In 1851 he wrote a very successful history of painting. However, this was condemned for dissent by church and state.

Political life in the monarchy

Pi was involved in the Madrid uprising of 1854, which brought the liberal caudillo Baldomero Espartero back to power. In the same year he published La reacción y la revolución (The reaction and the revolution) which was influenced by Hegel's philosophy of history and the ideas of the French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon . In 1856 he founded the journal La Razón (Reason), the publication of which came to a standstill when the moderate government of Leopoldo O'Donnell was overthrown by the reactionary Ramón María Narváez . He fled to the Basque town of Gipuzkoa until, in 1857, Nicolás María Rivero asked him to return to Madrid to work on the Republican newspaper La Discusión . During his time at La Discusión , Pi made the acquaintance of a number of leaders of the Spanish Republican Movement, including the later first President of the Spanish First Republic, Estanislao Figueras . In 1864 he became editor of the newspaper.

After the uprising in the barracks of San Gil, Pi fled to Paris , where he gave lectures, translated various works by Proudhon and came into contact with French positivism . He developed theories of revolution and the philosophy of history, including a belief in an inevitable, progressive, and constant movement of history toward greater constitutional freedom. Pi was to remain an advocate of Republican ideas and social goals throughout his life.

Pi returned from exile in Paris in 1868 after the success of the “Glorious Revolution” of 1868. He was elected MP for Barcelona and was a member of the Cortes who established the Spanish Constitution in 1869.

During this time, Pi became a respected leader of the Republican Party. He was officially appointed chairman of the parliamentary group in March 1870. Shortly thereafter, he lost this post through internal party struggles over party policy towards the Paris Commune , the conciliatory policy towards opposition groups and election setbacks. He was an opponent of the brief liberal reign of Amadeus I.

Presidency and Later Political Life

When the First Spanish Republic was proclaimed in 1873 after Amadeus I abdicated, its first President, Estanislao Figueras, appointed him Minister of the Interior . During his tenure, Pi was responsible for the fight against cantonalism . After Figueras' resignation on June 11, 1873, Pi was elected President. He put forward an ambitious reform draft, the strict separation between church and state, a reorganization of the army, the reduction of the daily working time to eight hours, the restriction of child labor, a land reform, the abolition of slavery, the extension of the right to form associations , new laws concerning the autonomy of the Spanish regions and free schooling. During his presidency the constitution of 1873 was proposed, but it was never passed.

His acquaintance with Proudhon enabled Pi to improve relations between Republicans and Socialists . However, it was impossible for Pi to rule in the instability of the republic. On July 1, 1873, the federalists and the radical sections of the Republicans split off and declared the government illegitimate. Just a week later, riots broke out in Alcoyi and Cartagena . Under pressure from the Cortes, who accused him of weakness and ties to cantonalism, Carlism and the uprising in Cuba , Pi resigned on July 18, 1873, a good month after taking office.

After the end of the republic in 1874, Pi left politics behind for a decade. During this time he devoted himself to writing. Only a few months after the end of the republic he wrote a treatise on its history ( La República de 1873 ). In 1876 it was followed by Las Nacionalidades (The Nationalities) and Joyas Literarias (Literary Treasures). The first volume of his Historia General de América (General History of America) was published in 1878, La Federación (The Federation) 1880, Las luchas de nuestros días (The struggles of our days) and Observaciones sobre el carácter de don Juan Tenorio (Notes on the character of Don Juan Tenorios ) published in 1884. In 1886 he returned to politics and was elected MP for Figueres . In 1891 and 1893 he was re-elected. During this time he was involved in the fragmentation of the Spanish republican movement , together with Estanislao Figueras, Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla , Emilio Castelar y Ripoll , and Valentí Almirall . Pi took part in the Zaragoza Congress in 1878 , which proposed a federal, republican constitution. In 1894 he took part in the reform of the Republican Movement with a manifesto for the Federal Party. In 1890 he founded the newspaper El Nuevo Régimen (The New Rule), which spoke out in favor of Cuba's independence. Pis promote federalism and regional autonomy made him popular with the Catalan anarchists.

Pi died in Madrid on November 29, 1901 at the age of 77.

Works

• La España Pintoresca , 1841.
• Historia de la Pintura , 1851.
• Estudios de la Edad Media , 1851. First published in 1873.
• The eco de la revolución , 1854.
• La reacción y la revolución , 1855.
• Declaración de los treinta , 1864.
• La República de 1873 , 1874.
• Joyas literarias , 1876.
• Las nacionalidades , 1877.
• Historia General de América , 1878.
• La Federación , 1880.
• Observaciones sobre el carácter de Don Juan Tenorio , 1884.
• Las luchas de nuestros días , 1884.
• Primeros diálogos , sin datar.
• Amadeo de Saboya , sin datar.
• Programa del Partido Federal , 1894.

literature

• Conangla, J. Cuba y Pi y Margall . Havana, 1947.
• Ferrando Badía, Juan. Historia político-parlamentaria de la República de 1873 . Madrid: Cuadernos para el Diálogo, 1973.
• Hennessy, CAM La República Federal en España. Pi y Margall y el movimiento republicano federal, 1868-1874 . Madrid: Aguilar, 1966.
• Jutglar, Antoni. La República de 1873, de Pi y Margall. Barcelona, ​​1970.
• Jutglar, Antoni. Pi y Margall y el Federalismo español . 2 vols. Madrid: Taurus, 1974.
• Martí, C. La orientació de Pi y Margall cap el socialisme i la democracia en Recerques . Barcelona, ​​1974.
• Molas, I. Ideari de Francesc Pi y Margall . Barcelona, ​​1965.
• Pi y Arsuaga, F. Pi y Margall. Lecciones de federalismo . Barcelona, ​​1931.
• Rovira, A. Prólg a La qüestió de Catalunya davant el Federalisme. (Escrits i discurs) de F. Pi y Margall . Barcelona, ​​1913.

Web links

• Biography (Spanish) ( Memento from November 21, 2002 in the Internet Archive )
• Another biography (Spanish) ( Memento from October 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

predecessor	Office	successor
Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla	Interior Minister of Spain 12 February – 18 May July 1873	Eleuterio Maisonnave y Cutayar
Estanislao Figueras y Moragas	President of Spain June 11-18 July 1873	Nicolás Salmerón y Alonso