[5] However, during the interim, in 1815, a fresh wave of military conflict unfolded as Ferdinand VII dispatched Royalist troops to reclaim control of the Americas.

Napoleon forced Ferdinand's abdication as well as the renunciation of his father Charles IV's rights, and then placed his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne of Spain.

There was to be a Council of State with a section for The Indies, the name Spain persisted in using to designate Spanish American and the Philippines, which would be under the control of American-born and Philippine-born Spaniards.

[7] Despite these formal attempts to legitimize the rule of Joseph Bonaparte by gaining consent of the Cortes, it was rejected by Spaniards on the peninsula and Spanish America and the Philippines.

The Napoleonic regime in Madrid forced two issues: the relative freedom of the colonies to pursue their own affairs, and the rights to representation in imperial assemblies.

Spaniards rejecting Napoleon's rule meant they needed to offer political inducements for Spanish America and the Philippines to stay loyal to the empire.

Retreating before the advancing French and an outbreak of yellow fever, the Supreme Central Junta moved to Isla de León, where it could be supplied and defended with the help of the Spanish and British navies, and abolished itself, leaving a regency to rule until the Cortes could convene.

The first, represented especially by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, was the restoration of the absolutist Antiguo Régimen ("Old Regime"); the second was to adopt some sort of written constitution.

The opening ceremonies included a civic procession, a mass, and a call by the president of the Regency, Pedro Quevedo y Quintana, the bishop of Ourense, for those present to fulfill their task loyally and efficiently.

In the Cortes of 1810–1812, liberal deputies, who had the implicit support of the British who were protecting the city, were in the majority and representatives of the Church and nobility constituted a minority.

Three basic principles were soon ratified by the Cortes: that sovereignty resides in the nation, the legitimacy of Ferdinand VII as king of Spain, and the inviolability of the deputies.

Although the Cortes was not unanimous in its liberalism, the new Constitution significantly reduced the power of the crown, and the Catholic Church (although Catholicism remained the state religion).

As the principal aim of the new constitution was the prevention of arbitrary and corrupt royal rule, it provided for a limited monarchy, which governed through ministers subject to parliamentary control.

[citation needed] Male suffrage, which was not determined by property qualifications, favoured the position of the commercial class in the new parliament since there was no special provision for the Church or the nobility.

[11] The constitution set up a centralized administrative system for the whole empire, in both Iberia and overseas components, based on newly-reformed and uniform provincial governments and municipalities, rather than maintaining some form of the varied historical local governmental structures.

[citation needed] Among the most debated questions during the drafting of the constitution was the status of the native and mixed-race populations in Spain's possessions around the world.

[12] The total number of representatives was 303, of which 37 were born in overseas territories although several of them were temporary substitute deputies [suplentes] elected by American refugees in the city of Cádiz: seven from New Spain, two from Central America, five from Peru, two from Chile, three from the Río de la Plata, three from New Granada, and three from Venezuela, one from Santo Domingo, two from Cuba, one from Puerto Rico and two from the Philippines.

Miguel Ramos Arizpe of Mexico, Joaquín Fernández de Leiva of Chile, Vicente Morales Duárez of Peru and José Mejía Lequerica of Ecuador, among other significant figures in founding Spanish American republics, were active participants at Cádiz.

[24] The Constitution also brought in a certain measure of federalism through the back door, both on the peninsula and overseas: elected bodies at the local and provincial level might not always be in lockstep with the central government.

Venegas had to deal immediately upon taking up his post as viceroy the massive uprising of Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla that had broken out days earlier.

The inexperienced Venegas scrambled to handle two major simultaneous crises of power: a rebellion and the promulgation of a new system of government under the Constitution.

[25] When Ferdinand VII was restored in March 1814 by the Allied Powers, it is not clear whether he immediately made up his mind as to whether to accept or reject this new charter of Spanish government.

Sixty-nine deputies of the Cortes signed the so-called Manifiesto de los Persas ("Manifesto of the Persians") encouraging him to restore absolutism.

[26] Ferdinand's absolutist rule rewarded the traditional holders of power—prelates, nobles and those who held office before 1808—but not liberals, who wished to see a constitutional monarchy in Spain, or many who led the war effort against the French but had not been part of the pre-war government.

Over the next two years, the other European monarchies became alarmed at the liberals' success and at the Congress of Verona in 1822 approved the intervention of royalist French forces in Spain to support Ferdinand VII.