Back المصادرة الإسبانية Arabic Desamortitzacions espanyoles Catalan Desamortisation in Spanien German Desamortización Esperanto Desamortización española Spanish Desamortizazioa Espainian Basque Désamortissement en Espagne French Desamortización Galician 永代所有財産解放令 Japanese Desamortiment espanhòu Occitan

Spanish confiscation

The sepulchre of Ermengol X (1274–1314), Count of Urgell and Viscount of Àger, was sold in the 19th century during the Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal. It is now displayed in the Cloisters in New York City.
The Renaissance courtyard of the Castle of Vélez-Blanco (c. 16th century), which was sold to the United States during the liberal confiscation in 1903 and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.[1]

The Spanish confiscation was the Spanish government's seizure and sale of property, including from the Catholic Church, from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. It was a long historical, economic, and social process beginning with the so-called "Confiscation of Godoy" in 1798—although there was an earlier precedent during the reign of Charles III of Spain—and ending on 16 December 1924.

Confiscation consisted of the forced expropriation of land and property from the "mortmains" (i.e., the Catholic Church and religious orders, which had accumulated it from grants, wills, and intestates) and from municipalities. The government then sold the property on the market or through public auctions.[2] A similar phenomenon occurred in other countries, such as Mexico.[note 1]

The principal goal in Spain was to obtain money to pay off the public debt securities, known as vales reales, that the state issued to finance itself. The government also hoped to increase national wealth, to create a bourgeoisie and a middle class of farmers who owned the lands they cultivated, and to foster capitalist conditions (e.g., privatization and a strong financial system) so that the state could collect more taxes. Confiscation was one of the political weapons with which Spanish liberals modified the system of ownership of the Ancien Régime during the first half of the 19th century.

  1. ^ "Castle of Vélez-Blanco. History of a theft." historia-y-arte.com
  2. ^ Francisco Tomás y Valiente (1972). El Marco Politico de la Desamortizacion en España. p. 44.


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