Carlism

Carlism (Basque: Karlismo; Catalan: Carlisme; Galician: Carlismo; Spanish: Carlismo) is a traditionalist and legitimist political movement in Spain aimed at establishing an alternative branch of the Bourbon dynasty, one descended from Don Carlos, Count of Molina (1788–1855), on the Spanish throne.

The movement was founded as a consequence of an early 19th-century dispute over the succession of the Spanish monarchy and dissatisfaction with the Alfonsine line of the House of Bourbon, and subsequently found itself becoming a notable element of Spanish conservatism in its 19th-century struggle against liberalism, which repeatedly broke out into military conflicts known as the Carlist Wars.

Carlism was at its strongest in the 1830s, but experienced a revival following Spain's defeat in the Spanish–American War in 1898, when the Spanish Empire lost its last remaining significant overseas territories of the Philippines, Cuba, Guam, and Puerto Rico to the United States. It continued to play a notable role in the 20th century as part of the Nationalist faction in the Spanish Civil War and the subsequently triumphant Francoist regime, but lost power throughout this period, declining rapidly following the death of Francisco Franco in 1975, the subsequent assumption of the throne by Juan Carlos I, the Spanish transition to democracy and the Montejurra incidents of 1976