ABSTRACT
A period of great expansion and activity opened for the International in Spain. But the federal movement is of such importance for the history of anarchism, and indeed for the history of modern Spain in general, that it will be necessary to say something about it. The French Revolution, by the destruction of so many local interests and privileges, completed the work of Louis XIV and gave France a powerful and highly centralized administration. The Liberal Revolution in Spain imitated it. Spain had been governed for two generations by force in its most brutal form—the general with his disorderly soldiers or militia, the guerrilla leader who was little better than a bandit and the firing squad. The reasons for its popularity in Spain at this time are not far to seek. Federalism was first of all an expression of the Spanish devotion to the patria chica and a protest against the strongly centralizing policy of the "liberal" regime.
