Antonio Cánovas del Castillo Conservative Antonio Cánovas del Castillo Conservative The 1876 Spanish general election was held from Thursday, 20 January to Sunday, 23 January 1876 (for the Congress of Deputies) and from Tuesday, 1 February to Friday, 4 February 1876 (for the Senate), to elect the Constituent Restoration Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain.

The newly-founded Liberal Conservative Party of incumbent prime minister Antonio Cánovas del Castillo won an overall majority of seats, paving the way for the adoption of the Spanish Constitution of 1876, which would mark the starting point of the Bourbon Restoration that would last until 1931.

[4][5] Voting for the Cortes was on the basis of universal manhood suffrage, which comprised all national males over 21 years of age and in full enjoyment of their civil rights.

[4][8] The pronunciamiento—a military coup—of Arsenio Martínez Campos on 29 December 1874 put an end to the First Spanish Republic and hastened the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in the figure of Alfonso XII, son of former Queen Isabel II.

An interim government led by Cánovas del Castillo was confirmed by King Alfonso XII upon disembarking in Barcelona on 9 January 1875.