ABSTRACT
The chapter should be situated in the line of re-reading and renewing Spanish political and social history. Through the analysis of the Spanish Democratic Party in the Andalusian context of the mid-nineteenth century and the grassroots reaction, the author makes some reflections on the relationship between popular mobilization and democratization. Using the paradigmatic example of the uprising in the town of Loja (Granada province) in July 1861, the author shows how in the 1850s significant and permanent changes took place in popular political action, affecting not only the large cities and urban centres but also the villages and other rural areas of Andalusia. The increase in social tensions and conflict, together with the presence of local social and political leaders of popular and peasant origin, explains the insurrectional history – which took place in many places in southern Spain between 1850 and 1860 – and which ended up being linked to the history of democratization.
