ABSTRACT
The liberal governing elites never accomplished the successful transition of Spain from a sluggish, largely rural economy, whose social and political life was still marked by localism and elitism, into a modern, democratic and centralised state. The liberal project failed in the sense that it did not manage to create a modern nation-state based on solid foundations. The failure of an inmobilista and centralist state to carry through a modernising programme which recognised the Catalan question and could meet the urgent demands of the proletariat increased their determination to seek a new political realignment of forces in the country. In 1916 a Bill of Military Reform was passed in an attempt to deal with the sensitive question of reducing the vastly overmanned officers corps by introducing tests of physical and intellectual ability. The conflict on the continent revealed the incapacity of the Spanish military to engage in a Modern war.
