Spanish Draft Constitution of 1873

Proposed Federal States of the Spanish Peninsula in 1873. neither Cuba nor Puerto Rico is shown.

The Draft Constitution of 1873 was intended to regulate the First Spanish Republic. It was written mainly by Emilio Castelar, who intended to transform Spain from a unitary state into a federation but the project failed to gain the approval by Parliament.

Beyond the legal irrelevance of a document which never entered into force, this document is of political importance, being the first constitutional proposal in Spanish political history which would try to find a solution to an issue that has become more acute with the passage time: the territorial governance of the Spanish state.

The draft planned to divide the federation into seventeen states: Andalucía Alta ("High Andalusia"), Andalucía Baja ("Low Andalusia"), Aragón, Asturias, Baleares, Canarias (Canary Islands), Castilla la Nueva ("New Castile"), Castilla la Vieja ("Old Castile"), Cataluña ("Catalonia"), Cuba, Extremadura, Galicia, Murcia, Navarra, Puerto Rico, Valencia and Regiones Vascongadas ("Basque Provinces").