Práxedes Mateo Sagasta

In this Spanish name, the family name is Mateo Sagasta.

Práxedes Mariano Mateo Sagasta y Escolar (21 July 1825 – 5 January 1903) was a Spanish civil engineer and politician who served as Prime Minister on eight occasions between 1870 and 1902—always in charge of the Liberal Party—as part of the turno pacifico, alternating with the Conservative leader Antonio Cánovas. He was known as an excellent orator.

Biography

Mateo Sagasta was born on 21 July 1825 at Torrecilla en Cameros, province of Logroño, Spain. As a member of the Progressive Party while a student at the Civil Engineering School of Madrid in 1848, Sagasta was the only one in the school who refused to sign a letter supporting Queen Isabel II.

After his studies, he took an active role in government. Sagasta served in the Spanish Cortes between 1854–1857 and 1858–1863. In 1866 he went into exile in France after a failed coup. After the Spanish Revolution of 1868, he returned to Spain to take part in the newly created provisional government.

He served as Prime Minister of Spain during the Spanish–American War of 1898 when Spain lost its remaining colonies. Mateo Sagasta agreed to an autonomous constitution for both Cuba and Puerto Rico. Mateo Sagasta's political opponents saw his action as a betrayal of Spain and blamed him for the country's defeat in the war and the loss of its island territories in the Treaty of Paris of 1898. He continued to be active in politics for another four years.

Mateo Sagasta's ministry lost a vote in the Cortes on 2 December 1902, he handed in his resignation to the King on the following day, and formally resigned on 10 December 1902.

Mateo Sagasta died just a month after his last resignation, on 5 January 1903 in Madrid at the age of 77.

External links

• U.S. Library of Congress Profile

Political offices
Preceded by Luis González Bravo	Minister of Government 1868-1870	Succeeded by Nicolás María Rivero
Preceded by Juan de Zavala y de la Puente	Prime Minister of Spain 1874	Succeeded by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo
Preceded by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo	Prime Minister of Spain 1881-1883	Succeeded by José Posada Herrera
Preceded by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo	Prime Minister of Spain 1885-1890	Succeeded by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo
Preceded by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo	Prime Minister of Spain 1892-1895	Succeeded by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo
Preceded by Marcelo Azcárraga	Prime Minister of Spain 1897-1899	Succeeded by Francisco Silvela
Preceded by Marcelo Azcárraga	Prime Minister of Spain 1901-1902	Succeeded by Francisco Silvela
Party political offices
Preceded by Party created	Leader of the Liberal Party 1876–1902	Succeeded by Eugenio Montero Ríos