The Sierra Bética: Conspiratorial Región

Abstract

The geographical spread of the uprising was confined to towns within a day’s march from Loja where carbonari societies were strong and well organised. First-hand accounts record the presence in Loja in early July 1861 of rebels from 20 towns.¹ The Military Commissions in Loja and Málaga then scoured towns, villages, cortijos and caseríos throughout the Sierra Bética, the mountainous region running west from Alora to Santa Cruz de Alhama, and from Albuñol and Vélez-Málaga in the south to Priego, Rute and Montefrío in the north, bringing in men from 43 towns. We have seen how the trials in Loja were obstructed by the resistance of the Society and the protection received by Granada’s political elite. Chapter 8 explores Civil Governor Antonio Guerola’s efforts to break the hold of the ‘Garibaldino’ Society in Antequera, the intended hearth of the revolt, through the judicial process of espontaneamiento (confession to membership of a secret society in exchange for legal immunity). This chapter traces the conspiratorial geography of the broader region (see Map 2). Would the Military Commission in Málaga, combined with Guerola’s own police measures, be a match for the region’s most deeply embedded clandestine associations? What light do the trials and police investigations shed on the penetration of democratic ideas and associations in the smaller towns of the region by 1861?