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1833 territorial division of Spain
The 1833 territorial division of Spain divided the country into provinces, in turn classified into "historic regions" (Spanish: regiones históricas). This division was followed (helped by the enforcing of the 1834 Royal Statute) by the ensuing creation of provincial deputations, the government institutions for most of the provinces, remaining up to this date. Nearly all of the provinces retain roughly or precisely the 1833 borders. Conversely, many of the historic regions correspond to present-day autonomous communities.
Immediately after the death of King Ferdinand VII on 29 September 1833, the regent Maria Christina attempted to find a moderate third way between the absolutist Carlists—the followers of the Infante Carlos—and the liberals. This mission was given to First Secretary of State Francisco Cea Bermúdez, leader of a government that lasted only into the following January, having been unable to satisfy either side. Despite his vain efforts to gain the support of either the liberals or the Carlists, his government undertook a major reform of the territorial division of Spain whose effects are still felt after more than a century-and-a-half: the division of Spain into provinces.
A royal decree of 20 November 1833 ratified a plan put forth by Javier de Burgos, secretary of state for development (secretario de estado de Fomento), which created the basis for a centralized state divided into 49 provinces. All but four of the provinces received the name of their capital cities; those four—Navarre with its capital at Pamplona, Álava with Vitoria, Gipuzkoa with San Sebastián, and Biscay (Spanish: Vizcaya) with Bilbao—reflected long standing entities, and retained their historic names.
Javier de Burgos's division is practically the same as the short-lived 1822 territorial division of Spain, dating from the "Liberal Trienium" (Trienio Liberal), but without the provinces of Calatayud, Vierzo, and Játiva; also, in contrast to the 1822 division, several provinces were given names other than those of their capitals.
Rather than the merit of having initiated, directed and produced a new provincial division of Spain, Don Javier de Burgos deserves credit for the courage and political will have put in place the previous division of 1822 with the adjustments and modifications that he believed appropriate.
— Gonzalo Martínez Díez
Javier de Burgos' 1833 provincial division included 49 provinces. The same decree that created the provincial division grouped the provinces into "historic regions". However, these were merely honorary and classificatory: there was no level of administration between the central government and the provinces. These "historic regions" had no powers, no administrative organs, no common jurisdiction over the provinces grouped within them. Each province had a governor (jefe político, "political chief") appointed by the central government.
Besides looking to the 1822 arrangement, Javier de Burgos took as his model the departments of France. While many of the borders and inclusions in the provinces may at first appear arbitrary from a historical and geographical point of view, he was operating under a set of rational criteria: area (it was intended to be possible to travel between the capital and any point in the province in a single day), population (wherever feasible, the provinces had populations between 100,000 and 400,000), and geographic coherence.
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1833 territorial division of Spain
The 1833 territorial division of Spain divided the country into provinces, in turn classified into "historic regions" (Spanish: regiones históricas). This division was followed (helped by the enforcing of the 1834 Royal Statute) by the ensuing creation of provincial deputations, the government institutions for most of the provinces, remaining up to this date. Nearly all of the provinces retain roughly or precisely the 1833 borders. Conversely, many of the historic regions correspond to present-day autonomous communities.
Immediately after the death of King Ferdinand VII on 29 September 1833, the regent Maria Christina attempted to find a moderate third way between the absolutist Carlists—the followers of the Infante Carlos—and the liberals. This mission was given to First Secretary of State Francisco Cea Bermúdez, leader of a government that lasted only into the following January, having been unable to satisfy either side. Despite his vain efforts to gain the support of either the liberals or the Carlists, his government undertook a major reform of the territorial division of Spain whose effects are still felt after more than a century-and-a-half: the division of Spain into provinces.
A royal decree of 20 November 1833 ratified a plan put forth by Javier de Burgos, secretary of state for development (secretario de estado de Fomento), which created the basis for a centralized state divided into 49 provinces. All but four of the provinces received the name of their capital cities; those four—Navarre with its capital at Pamplona, Álava with Vitoria, Gipuzkoa with San Sebastián, and Biscay (Spanish: Vizcaya) with Bilbao—reflected long standing entities, and retained their historic names.
Javier de Burgos's division is practically the same as the short-lived 1822 territorial division of Spain, dating from the "Liberal Trienium" (Trienio Liberal), but without the provinces of Calatayud, Vierzo, and Játiva; also, in contrast to the 1822 division, several provinces were given names other than those of their capitals.
Rather than the merit of having initiated, directed and produced a new provincial division of Spain, Don Javier de Burgos deserves credit for the courage and political will have put in place the previous division of 1822 with the adjustments and modifications that he believed appropriate.
— Gonzalo Martínez Díez
Javier de Burgos' 1833 provincial division included 49 provinces. The same decree that created the provincial division grouped the provinces into "historic regions". However, these were merely honorary and classificatory: there was no level of administration between the central government and the provinces. These "historic regions" had no powers, no administrative organs, no common jurisdiction over the provinces grouped within them. Each province had a governor (jefe político, "political chief") appointed by the central government.
Besides looking to the 1822 arrangement, Javier de Burgos took as his model the departments of France. While many of the borders and inclusions in the provinces may at first appear arbitrary from a historical and geographical point of view, he was operating under a set of rational criteria: area (it was intended to be possible to travel between the capital and any point in the province in a single day), population (wherever feasible, the provinces had populations between 100,000 and 400,000), and geographic coherence.