Spain is torn by revolution and counter-revolution throughout much of the nineteenth century, beginning with the French occpation of Spain in 1808 and continuing with the First and Second Carlist Wars (1833­39 and 1872­76).

Between the Carlist Wars are conflicts between the moderados and the progresistas.

The former, who are upper-middle-class oligarchic liberals fearful of democratic violence and upholders of the prerogatives of the crown, represent the conservative stream in liberalism.

Their progresista rivals, the heirs of extreme radicals the exaltados of 1820­23), represent a lower stratum of the middle class.
The chronology that follows is drawn primarily from Karl Marx on Revolution, Saul K. Padover, Editor (McGraw Hill, New York, 1971), and supplemented by information from Encyclopaedia Brittanica's History of Spain.