Alicante 15th - 19th century

Costa Blanca Details

 

The construction of the dam of Tibi in the late 16th century ensured the production of the orchard near the city, whose main product was the grapes and, therefore, wine, along with Barilla, esparto, and nuts.

The port also became the starting point of the products of La Mancha and was an effective redistribution of some colonial salt that arrived from northern Europe. Economic development allowed Alicante to snatch Orihuela in 1647, the southern capital of the Bailiwick of Valencia, and later, in 1785, the creation of an independent Consulado del Mar, Valencia.

Alicante was a military target in almost all the wars. It was almost destroyed by the 1692 squad that led the French admiral D’Estrees, and during the War of Succession, it was occupied alternately by AUSTRAC and Bourbon.

Part of the Castle of Santa Barbara was blasted by d’Asfelt, who found out the allies of the city and the victor of the Bourbon Kingdom of Valencia. The Independence War also left its aftermath as a result of livelihood crisis and military spending. New walls were built and the Castle of San Fernando, although the French troops were unable to occupy the city.

The openness and liberality of Alicante was expressed throughout the 19th century. Samples of this are the joy of the popular Spanish Constitution of 1812, the demise of the Inquisition, the great difficulty in forming a battalion of volunteers in 1824 to suppress the liberal revolt of Pantaleon Bone in 1844, support for Vicalvaro (1854), and the September 1868 ruling that led to the Revolutionary administration.

The first Republican club in Alicante opened around November 1868, and this political victory led to the municipal elections of 1870.

There were frequent epidemics due to its status as the port city. One of the most memorable was cholera in 1854. This epidemic stressed, above all, the civil governor, Trino Gonzalez Quijano, who heroically gave his life defending and helping during the 24 days of its mandate.

He died of the epidemic on September 15, 1854. In his memory a mausoleum was erected, where his remains rest in the center of the Plaza de Santa Teresa.

The province of Alicante as born in the Spanish liberals in 1822 and corresponded with former South Bailiwick Valencia, although it was extended in 1833 with some of the missing Jativa province and the municipalities of Villena and Sax.

In 1847 the expansion of the port began, and in 1858 construction of the railway between Madrid and Alicante was completed. Between 1854 and 1878 the city walls were demolished.

Alicante, in 1510, was the fifth city of the Kingdom of Valencia. Since Alicante was given the title of “city,” institutional development, both economic and demographic, became palpable.

The port for the Modern Age became the most important of the Kingdom of Valencia and led to the settlement of colonies of foreign merchants who gave a great impetus to commercial traffic.