Second Bourbon Restoration

The Second Bourbon Restoration (Spanish: Segunda Restauración Borbónica) was an event in Spanish history where on 14 April 1961, the Second Spanish Republic, which had existed for approximately thirty years long, formally ceased to exist as the Bourbon monarchy was restored for the second time, with Infante Juan, the son of the deposed King Alfonso XIII, assuming the throne, thereby restoring the Spanish monarchy following its abolition just thirty years prior.

In 1931, Alfonso XIII, the reigning King of Spain, voluntarily left the country amidst widespread unpopularity of the Spanish monarchy among the general public. Following this, in 1936, the Spanish Civil War between the left-wing Republicans and the right-wing Nationalists broke out with the Republicans, who were aided by the Soviet Union, emerging ultimately victorious over the Nazi Germany-backed Nationalists. Despite this, as the subsequent Second World War broke out, during which Spain's northern neighbour France was swiftly conquered by the Germans, the country remained strictly neutral throughout most of the war but later declared war on Nazi Germany following the assassination of Adolf Hitler in November 1943, an event that precipitated the subsequent Nazi downfall.

During the ensuing Cold War period, despite its strong left-wing sympathies, Spain's position on the far end of Western Europe, coupled with it being surrounded by NATO members France, Portugal, and the United Kingdom in Gibraltar meant that the country had difficulty in receiving direct support from the Soviet Union. Likewise, despite being slightly closer by comparison while otherwise still separated from Spain by Italy and France, Yugoslavia, who later adopted a foreign policy independent of the Soviet Union, proved to be an unsuitable ideological ally for the country's ruling leftist party. In the meantime, sensing its isolation and vulnerability, NATO, while stopping short of attempting to overthrow the Second Spanish Republic outright, began pressuring the country's leftist leaders to gradually reform and potentially restore the Bourbon monarchy, which was then led by Infante Juan, son of the deposed King Alfonso XIII.

Ultimately, despite considerable protests from the strongly republican socialists, then-President of Spain Diego Martínez Barrio, who assumed office in 1945, reluctantly agreed to restore the Spanish monarchy, provided that the returning Spanish monarch agreed to become a strictly ceremonial head of state and respect the autonomy given to Spain's regions, conditions that were later agreed upon by both parties in the Madrid Agreement. Meanwhile, on his part, Infante Juan, who later assumed the throne as Juan III, publicly promised not to persecute or seek vengeance against left-wing leaders who had orchestrated his late father's abdication, stating that he personally intends to "help the nation rather than destroy it". Eventually, on 14 April 1961, the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the Second Spanish Republic, Infante Juan was formally proclaimed King of Spain, thereby restoring the Spanish monarchy once more. Following this, Spain, who previously hesitated on joining the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact, subsequently joined NATO and, in turn, received substantial material aid that considerably propelled its recovery from the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. In this, Barrio, who simultaneously stepped down from the presidency, died the following year from natural causes while Juan III was succeeded by his son Juan Carlos I as monarch in 1993 following his own death that year.

Despite the rather peaceful restoration of the monarchy, thereby bringing to an end the thirty-year-old republic, most aspects of its constitution remained in place to this day, including female suffrage, civil marriage and divorce, free and secular education, freedom of religion, and the creation of autonomous communities which granted some levels of political devolution towards Spain's seventeen sub-national divisions.