Third Carlist War

Third Carlist War
Part of the Carlist Wars
The Battle of Treviño, 7 July 1875, Francisco Oller
Date 21 April 1872 – 28 February 1876 Location Spain Result Liberal victory Spanish Constitution of 1876 Basque Economic Agreement
Belligerents
Liberals Republicans	Carlists
Commanders and leaders
See list Amadeo I Alfonso XII Martínez-Campos Manuel Pavía Francisco Serrano Ramón Blanco Eulogio Despujol Domingo Moriones Manuel de la Concha José Cabrinetty † Ramón Nouvilas Jenaro Quesada	See list Carlos VII Alfonso Carlos Ramón Cabrera Torcuato Mendiri Nicolas Ollo Antonio Dorregaray Pascual Cucala Alfonso de Borbón Francisco Savalls Rafael Tristany Joan Castells Joaquin Elio José Santes Tomas Segarra Manuel de Bello Ramón Altarriba

The Third Carlist War (Spanish: Tercera Guerra Carlista), which occurred from 1872 to 1876, was the last Carlist War in Spain. It is sometimes referred to as the "Second Carlist War", as the earlier "Second" War (1847–1849) was smaller in scale and relatively trivial in political consequence.

Leading up to the war, Queen Isabella II abdicated the throne in 1868, and the unpopular Amadeo I, son of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, was proclaimed King of Spain in 1870. In response, the Carlist pretender, Carlos VII, tried to earn the support of various Spanish regions by promising to reintroduce various area-specific customs and laws. The Carlists proclaimed the restoration of Catalan, Valencian and Aragonese fueros (charters) which had been abolished at the beginning of the 18th century by King Philip V in his unilateral Nueva Planta decrees.

The call for rebellion made by the Carlists was echoed in Catalonia and especially in the Basque region (Gipuzkoa, Álava, Biscay and Navarre), where the Carlists managed to erect a temporary state. During the war, Carlist forces occupied several inland Spanish towns, the most important ones being La Seu d'Urgell and Estella in Navarre. They also laid siege to the cities of Bilbao and San Sebastián, but failed to seize them.

The Third Carlist War saw a series of regime changes in Spain, beginning with the declaration of the First Spanish Republic after the abdication of Amadeo I in February 1873. Over one year later, in December 1874, a military coup installed a new Bourbon monarch, Alfonso XII, marking the beginning of the Bourbon Restoration in Spain.

After four years of war, on 28 February 1876, Carlos VII was defeated, and went into exile in France. On the same day, King Alfonso XII of Spain entered Pamplona. After the end of the war, the Basque charters (fueros/foruak) were abolished, shifting the border customs from the Ebro River to the Spanish coast. In the chartered territories, home rule provisions, left over from the resolution of the First Carlist War, were abolished, and conscription of youth in the Spanish army became compulsory.

The war resulted in between 7,000 and 50,000 casualties.^[1]