Press and radical liberalism in the Cádiz of the Cortes: the journalistic activity of José Moreno de Guerra

Abstract

This paper will reveal the important contributions of José Moreno de Guerra in the press in the time of the Cortes of Cadiz. This distinguished liberal, who was exalted in the Liberal Triennium precisely because of the proselytism of the most advanced ideas of his time, that were already evident in his articles about the Peninsular War, and also because of his very often controversial political position, lived an extremely eventful existence.

In the next pages, we will provide the reader with a brief biographical outlines of this radical-minded liberal, then we will focus on the analysis of his journalistic writings during the period mentioned above, through which he tried to influence the emerging Spanish public opinion to consolidate and expand the incipient liberalism. Thus the besieged Cadiz firstly became the last refuge of the Spanish institutions and important personalities who fled from the advance of Napoleon's armies, secondly it became the place where the first parliamentary of the Contemporary History of Spain was developed and, therefore, it became a city with an intense political, cultural and social life in which there was a significant and new freedom of expression.