[8] In many villages of Andalusia, the Republic was something so identified with the distribution of land that the peasants demanded the municipalities immediately parcel out the most significant farms in the town ... some of which previously formed part of communal property before confiscation.

Pi achieved the dissolution of the juntas and the replacement of the municipalities that were forcibly suspended, in "a clear proof of his commitment to respect legality even against the wishes of his own supporters",[9] although he maintained the armed republican and old monarchical militias.

[16] The attempted coup d'état came the next day when a mass of federal Republicans, instigated by the "intransigents", surrounded the building of the Congress of Deputies in Madrid while General Contreras, commanding the militia of the Volunteers of the Republic, took the Ministry of War.

[17] The government program presented by Pi y Margall to the Cortes was based on the need to end the Third Carlist War, separate Church and State, abolish slavery and pass reforms in favor of working women and children.

Immediately, the government of Pi y Margall met with the opposition of the "intransigents", because they did not include some of the historical policies of the federalists in their program, such as "the abolition of tobacco, the lottery, court costs and the consumption tax, which was replaced in 1870 due to lack of resources".

Once the proposal was approved by the Cortes, the government published a manifesto in which, after justifying the extraordinary powers it had received, it announced conscription to the Army of the quintos and the reserves, because "the country demands the sacrifice of all its children, and he who does not do so to the best of his strength, will not be liberal or Spanish.

"[21] The "intransigent" response to the "order and progress" policy of the Pi y Margall government was to leave the Cortes on 1 July, motivated by Madrid's civil governor limiting the guarantees of individual rights.

It was not worthy of the reformist center to sanction with its presence proposals that, even if they were honest, are for sure, blind, upsetting and liberticidal.Only the deputy Navarrete remained in the Cortes who, on that same day, explained the reasons for their withdrawal, accusing the Pi y Margall government of lacking energy and of having compromised and even faltered against the enemies of the Federal Republic.

[24] Although there was no organizational center of the rebellion and each canton made its own proclamations, the rebels "beyond the logical local particularities" pursued the same purposes: "the substitution of all types of governmental or jurisdictional authorities, the abolition of taxes (especially the unpopular taxes on consumption, tobacco and salt), the secularization of church property, social reforms favorable to the great mass of the dispossessed that had no other good than their labor force, a pardon for all political crimes, the dissolution of the regular army and its replacement by militia troops, and the creation of Committees of Public Safety and committees as governing bodies of a popular nature.

[29] The insurrection began in Cartagena at five in the morning on 12 July, following the instructions of a "Revolutionary Public Salvation Junta" that had been set up an hour earlier on the initiative of a liaison with the committee from Madrid, Manuel Cárceles Sabater.

[34] Then commanded by Antonete Gálvez and General Juan Contreras, president of the War Committee that had moved from Madrid, the cantonal army seized the naval base's warships without causing casualties.

[39][40] Still, Pi y Margall refused to declare the state of emergency proposed by the "moderate" sector of his party, which included the suspension of the Cortes, because he trusted that the rapid approval of the federal Constitution and the way of dialogue would bring the rebels into reason.

[41] However, he did not hesitate to suppress the rebels, as evidenced by the telegram sent by the Minister of the Interior to all civil governors on 13 July, as soon as he became aware of the proclamation of the "Murcian Canton" the day before in Cartagena:[42] [...] Work vigorously in that province.

You can work without hesitation and with perfect conscienceBut at the same time in the early morning of 14 July, Pi y Margall sent a long telegram to the civil governor of Murcia to try to convince the insurgents of the Canton of Cartagena that what they were doing was not defending the federal Republic but putting it in danger: Universal suffrage constitutes the legality of all powers.

Please amplify these observations.Pi y Margall's policy of combining persuasion and repression to end the cantonal rebellion can also be seen in the instructions given to Republican General Ripoll, leading an army consisting of 1677 infantry, 357 horses and 16 pieces of artillery, from a base of operations in Córdoba:[43] I trust both your prudence and the temperament of your soul.

The Assembly is today the sovereign power.On 14 July a debate took place in the Cortes at the proposal of the deputy for Cartagena, a federal Republican of the "moderate" sector, who after stating that "I have always been on the side of the policy represented by Mr. Pi y Margall" accused him of having crossed his arms – "A great way to make order!"

[56] Two days later the provisional Board of Directors was extended to nine components, incorporating the deputies José Mª Pérez Rubio, Alberto Araus and Alfredo Sauvalle, the quarterback Félix Ferrer and the member of the Committee of Public Safety of Madrid Nicolás Calvo Guayti.

[52] On 17 July, during a massive act of homage to the "Volunteers of the Republic" who had returned by train to combat the Internationalists in Alcoy, the crowd harangued by Rep. Feliu shouted "Long live the Valencian Canton!"

When Cádiz was bombed from La Carraca, the Committee of Public Safety accused the seafarers of wanting to "bully the people, conclude with the national freedoms and obtain promotions and decorations at the cost of our blood".

[67] The first maritime expedition took place on 20 July, in a simultaneous action by the paddle steamer Fernando el Católico under General Contreras towards Mazarrón and Águilas on the Murcian coast, and the ironclad warship Vitoria under the command of "Antonete" Gálvez towards Alicante.

The battle of Chinchilla was a disaster for the Murcian canton because they lost about 500 men, including 28 chiefs and officers, in addition to 51 wagons, four guns and 250 rifles, and especially because it left Martinez Campos free to occupy Murcia.

He authorized the Provinces to impose war contributions and organize provincial armed bodies, and decreed that the ships held by the Canton of Cartagena be considered pirates – which meant that any vessel could take them down whether they were in Spanish waters or not.

Salamanca trembled at the closure of its glorious university and the eclipse of its scientific predominance [...] The uprising came against the most federal of all possible Ministries, and at the time same in which the Assembly was drawing up a draft Constitution, whose greatest defects came from the lack of time in the Commission and the excess of impatience in the Government.Only two days after being sworn in as President of the Executive Branch, Castelar obtained from the Cortes, thanks to the absence of the "intransigents", the granting of extraordinary powers, equal to those requested by Pi y Margall to fight the Carlists in the Basque Country and Catalonia, but now extended to all of Spain to end both the Carlist war and the cantonal rebellion.

[77] The extraordinary powers that Castelar obtained and the suspension of the sessions of the Cortes allowed him to govern by decree, a faculty that he immediately used to reorganize the artillery corps, to call the reservists and summon an army of 200,000 men, and ask for a loan of 100 million pesetas to meet the war expenses.

On the opposite side, battalions of ‘‘Volunteers of the Republic’’ were prepared to act if Castelar won – in fact, according to Jorge Vilches, "the Cartagena cantonalists had received a call to resist until January 3, the day that an intransigent government would form that would "legalize" their situation and "cantonalize" Spain.

[89] Due to the establishment of the Serrano dictatorship – the Cortes continued to be dissolved and the Constitution of 1869 was reinstated, but was subsequently suspended "until the normality of political life was assured" – it met with popular resistance in Barcelona where on 7 and 8 January barricades were erected and a general strike was declared.

[92] When the coup of Pavia became known in Cartagena, the besieged lost all hope that their cause could triumph due to what they considered capitulation, although "stimulated by the terror that announces the next defeat, the cantons make a desperate and heroic defense, as recognized by the general José López Domínguez himself", commanded by the government army that was laying siege to the plaza.

Pi's firmness in his convictions, his inflexible character and perhaps even his status as a Catalan irritated García Ruiz, who upon being appointed Minister of the Interior believed he found the opportunity to re-express his hatred against federalism in a reliable way.

At this time he would establish a strange and intimate friendship with Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, the person in charge of the Restoration, who considered Galvez a sincere, honest and brave man, although with exaggerated political ideas.

Participation has been spontaneous and without prior agreement ...In a later letter, dated 15 September, Tomás differentiated the Alcoy insurrection, "a purely working-class, revolutionary socialist movement", from the cantonal rebellion, a "purely political and bourgeois" movement, and affirmed that "Seville and Valencia are the only two cities in which the internationalists have triumphed", although he acknowledged that they had taken "a very active part in the events" in other towns, such as Cádiz, Granada, Jerez de la Frontera, San Fernando, Carmona, Lebrija, Paradas, Chipiona and San Lúcar de Barrameda, but that later had been "abandoned by the phonies".