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Talk:Regional lockout

"benefits"
i changed the heading of the "Benefits" section to "Advantages for Producers." it was absurd and laughable to have "Allows items to be launched at different times in different places, without allowing people to obtain the item 'ahead of time' by purchasing from abroad" and "Allows price differentiation between markets, thus increasing the potential revenue from worldwide sales" listed simply as "BENEFITS". they're obviously the advantages for the producers. if somebody wants to make a section for "Benefits for consumers", go right ahead, if you can possibly think of any. but don't forget this is an encyclopedia, not a jokebook. --which is why i changed the subheading. 128.119.236.133 01:51, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Also, I would suggest a benefit for producers is "reduced competition from foreign cinema." Paul Coddington (talk) 06:26, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

First things first: Why?
Why does Sony want Region Locking for UMD movies anyway? They're the only distributors of UMD media, they have no competition to be feared, games are already region free, why are movies locked.-- 13:55, 13 September 2005 (UTC)darthanakin

This is a classic case of giving only one side of the argument. While I am indeed against regional lockout, the article lacks any mention whatsoever of its motives or advantages.

Is there any legitimate reason for regional lockout? The other day GameCentral (part of British Teletext) claimed in answer to someone's letter, "so that they can direct their country-specific advertising at you at a time of their choosing". But why would they want to do that? And even when they do, I fail to see how putting barriers in the way of import sales can be good business practice. -- Smjg 11:51, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * I understand it to be about distribution rights. Reub2000 14:40, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * Would you care to elaborate? -- Smjg 15:46, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

The article says: "In addition, most handheld video game systems, including all Game Boy systems, are made region free because many people travel with their game systems."

I don't think this is exactly the reason. Handheld consoles use their own proprietary video display system, however video game consoles that use TVs are faced with the issue that some countries use 50Hz video systems (most PAL formats, and SECAM) and others use 60Hz systems (NTSC), so games have to be re-designed/re-programmed to be sold in certain countries. --Zilog Jones 23:11, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * Indeed, the sentence about handhelds doesn't make sense at all. Anyway, 50Hz and 60Hz don't relate to the television formats.  They are the frequencies of the European and American AC power supplies respectively.  Moreover, PC games manage to work regardless of the AC frequency or the screen refresh rate.  So why can't console games do the same?  (For that matter, where did the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 et al fit into this equation?) -- Smjg 09:34, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * The PAL and NTSC analog video signal formats use frequencies of 50hz and 60hz respectively, just like the AC power supplies (they're interlaced, so this translates to 25 fps and 30 fps respectively). The reason they decided to tie the frame rate to the AC power supply frequency is rather complicated, and I'm too tired to explain it, but I'm reasonably sure it's in the PAL and NTSC articles. The reason it works differently with PC games is that modern computer monitors (and graphics cards) are much more complicated, low-definition colour television is essentially 1950s technology, computer monitors have much higher resolution, and are capable of handling variable resolutions and refresh rates. Hopefully, the next generation of digital televisions will be able to handle both European and North American signal formats without problems.

 * True, but that doesn't by itself explain regional lockout, as at face value games would still work even if they would play more slowly and have black borders at the top and bottom (because of the differing number of lines, as the European SNES indeed did as far as the games I ever played go). -- Smjg 10:04, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * I suspect that regional lockout is used for DVDs primarily because of exclusive sales and distribution contracts.

 * You mean so exclusive that anybody who buys a DVD enters into a contract, forbidding it to be posted across the ocean? I doubt they could ever have enforced such a thing if regional lockout didn't already exist.  So, which came first, the chicken or the egg? -- Smjg 10:04, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * For the most part, DVD region lockouts are really just an industry tool to gain more profits through market segmentation and selective pricing. Whatever legitimate purposes do not outweigh this, BUT this does not change the fact that there are legitimate purposes.  It's not just a matter of black borders or slower gameplay (not the case at all, since we're talking about the output video signal and not the actual game!), we're talking about a game that will just flat out not work because of the PAL-NTSC differences.  From the company's perspective, it's a lot easier to forbid a user to do something than to let the user do something and then have the user flood the customer support department with complaints. --Code65536 7 July 2005 11:53 (UTC)

 * It's selective pricing. They can't possibly hope to sell a DVD for $40 in Angola but they sure as hell can get £20 for it in the United Kingdom. It allows them to sell globally without actually being subject to market forces. It's a great idea for studios, ultimately it just results in the consumer paying more. The PAL-NTSC argument is silly, as if that were the case clear warnings to the effect of "PAL game: WILL NOT WORK ON NTSC SYSTEM" on the product and similar markings on the device would do the job, at least, as well as the current regional encoding logos do! Nobody seems to have tremendous trouble understanding those.

This is one factor as to why regional lockout was created - it took time to convert games for 50Hz regions (as most games originate from 60Hz regions - Japan and the US), and publishers did not want people in 50Hz regions playing games (by importing) before they were officially released in their country. --Zilog Jones 23:11, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * Do you mean they want people to experience games at full speed from the moment they get their hands on them? Even if they're being cruel to be kind in this respect, this doesn't seem to be always the case.  Just before the Nintendo 64 was released in Europe, there were complaints that the games would run slower over here, as apparently a lot of developers hadn't bothered with the conversion process.  And anyway, having to convert games strikes me as trying to fix the wrong problem - the real problem being a lack of portability in their means of developing the games in the first place. -- Smjg 09:34, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * It has nothing to do with the speed of the game! Have you ever tried to watch a PAL video on an NTSC TV? Obviously, TVs that don't play both NTSC and PAL aren't very common these days, but when I was a kid (not long ago) I remember we had a dual-region (PAL/NTSC) VCR with a PAL-only TV. If you pressed the mode-change button on the video, it was unwatchable: the screen goes wack colours with a whole lot of noise and the sound changes pitch and everything. --Taejo 20:14, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Yes, there are other differences between NTSC and PAL besides the frame rate and even the number of lines. However, the picture processing unit is in the console, not in the game cartridges.  If it weren't for regional lockout, a PAL console would be perfectly capable of playing games from Europe, US and Japan alike, rendering the picture and sound in PAL format regardless. -- Smjg 14:53, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

 * I'm not so sure about that. PAL runs at 50Hz and NTSC runs at 60Hz (There are other differences as well).  Back in the bad old days, when videogame consoles were relatively low-power devices and the graphics system was intimately tied to the video refresh, the easiest way to approach the console design was to make the PAL system identical to the NTSC system (except for the colour system) and just slow the CPU's clock down by 1/6.  That way, all the fixed 2D sprite animations and tightly-coded processes in the games would still run smoothly, if not quickly. Nezuji 07:05, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

 * I'm puzzled - surely it's easier and cheaper to put the graphics rendering hardware in the console rather than on each game cartridge individually? -- Smjg 16:51, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Sorry! I meant that I wasn't sure about a game working flawlessly on another region's hardware if lockout were removed from the equation. Nezuji 13:10, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Nowdays there isn't -- stricly speaking -- any need to do things this way, but old habits die hard, and introducing micro-pauses coupled with a reduction in the vertical resolution is still the simplest way to convert an NTSC game to PAL. Otherwise, you have to start worrying about things like how many polygons you're drawing per frame, and how long it takes to draw those polygons in a higher vertical resolution.  Thankfully, with the release of Metroid Prime 2 on the GCN, it seems that developers are starting to realise that PAL 60 (a 60Hz signal with PAL colour encoding) is fine for PAL mass-market (I have a 30-year-old TV which handles PAL 60 just fine), not to mention the proliferation of NTSC-compatible PAL televisions (I don't know that it's even possible to buy a new PAL TV that isn't NTSC compatible) so this entire issue may soon become a thing of the past. Nezuji 07:05, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

 * I see. But like I said, there ought to be portability in the means of developing them in the first place.  Just as the C runtime library makes it possible to write code that compiles on many different OSs, it ought to be straightforward to code up videogames such that they will compile straight into smoothly-running, full speed and full screen NTSC and PAL versions alike.  Most simply, it would mean making use of symbolic constants that translate as "CPU speed", "video refresh rate", "horizontal resolution" and "vertical resolution". -- Smjg 16:51, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

 * I agree that there should be portability. This sort of thing would be a big step toward a platform-independant game format.  Unfortunately, there isn't any simple formula (that I've seen, anyway) for adjusting polygon counts and other rendering-related items based on refresh rate and resolution.  Besides which, generating polygon meshes for game models is a rather involved process, and console games ship with their models constructed from a fixed number of polygons, not as mathematical models.  So-called "Level of Detail" systems have been built into many 3D games which substitute lower poly-count models for high poly-count models when they appear small on the screen (i.e. at a great distance from the camera), but more or less all of these work with a discrete number of pre-built models, not by altering models on-the-fly.  Interestingly, relating back to the issue of movies, there is more than one digital motion picture codec which records motion in terms of differences over time as opposed to differences between frames, being therefore essentially "frameless", and replaying smoothly at any framerate. Nezuji 13:10, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

 * So rendering just the right number of polygons is their way of regulating the speed of a game? Seems strange.  I'd think a timer to be a much more reliable way of regulating speed. -- Smjg 14:11, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

 * I know I'm joining into this discussion late, but while PAL/NTSC differences affect the video output, they are not entirely the same as general regional lockout. Japanese games, which run on the same NTSC output as the United States and Canada, often contain lockout which prevents them from being easily played by those in North America.

DVD Regional Lockouts
One of the key reasons for DVD regional lockouts is the fact that studios often release films in theatres outside the U.S. at later dates then in the U.S. In some cases, a movie is allready appearing on DVD at the same time it's appearing in theatres overseas. Thus to protect foreign ticket sales then lockout region 1 DVD's overseas. I would also think that regional distibution contracts would also play a part as a regional DVD distributer would not want allot of people buying from outside distributer and cutting it out of it's share. --Cab88 16:34, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * If for no good reason some company is against releasing stuff at the same time everywhere, that's their problem. They shouldn't turn it into ours.
 * OTOH there may be work to be done, such as translating the product into different languages, which may delay releases in some places. But still, can't exclusive distribution contracts be on a per-language basis?  If something is released first in English, then in the time that it takes to prepare a Japanese translation, anybody in Japan who buys the English language version from overseas isn't cutting the local distributor out of its share of sales of the forthcoming Japanese language version.  (Can this argument be adapted to a system where versions can be multilingual?) -- Smjg 14:44, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

 * My memory is that back at the time when DVD region coding was developed it was still quite common for movie releases to be staggered internationally across several months even in the same language markets, partially because the cost of film prints meant that a film would play in cinemas in one country and then the prints returned to the distributor who would then send them to a new country, partially because different markets have different optimum times for releasing films, not least holidays. For instance some films targeted at children that had releases in the US summer holiday often didn't get released in the UK until the Christmas holiday. At the same time the 1990s saw the period between a movie leaving the cinemas and coming out on VHS in that country getting smaller and smaller. So it was quite probable, and may already have been happening, that movies were available on VHS in one country whilst still being in the cinema in another.
 * (There used to be the problem of the incompatibility between the NTSC and PAL systems, but technology was developed that allowed VCRs and TVs on one system to playback the other. By the mid to late 1990s this was a standard feature in new equipment in many PAL countries, allowing the import of NTSC tapes. The feature has been carried forward to DVD with the result that some releases in PAL countries, even those encoded only for PAL countries, have been in the NTSC format, though this is rare, perhaps because of the inevitable complaints and bad publicity stemming from those with older TV sets who find they can't play the release. NTSC equipment that can play back PAL is, however, much rarer and not a standard feature because the demand for it is far smaller.)
 * However this reasoning has become increasingly anachronistic with many films now having simultaneous worldwide releases, plus region coding has often also been applied to archival releases of older films and television series where there were never timelag issues in the first place. Timrollpickering (talk) 11:24, 26 September 2009 (UTC)

 * Are DVD Regional Lockouts legal anywhere? I think all WTO governments except New Zealand allow CCS compliant DVD players to be sold within their borders, but they are illegal in both the USA and EU under their respective fair trade statutes. In fact, CCS cartel has been sued in civil court in California by a number of manufacturers for their violations of the Organized Crime and other federal statutes. I believe the fact that regional lockouts are criminal in all capitalist countries should be noted in the article. Zenyu 21:36, July 18, 2005 (UTC)

 * That's a huge sweeping generalisation that would need major sourcing, preferably with actual case citations. Few countries have long standing laws requiring manufacturers to make their output compatible with particular technology (for instance in the recent Blu-ray-HD format war there were no notable legal cases against any entertainment company for choosing only one format at a time when both were still viable) and what restrictions are in place are generally concerned with protecting consumers both personally (e.g. safety standards such as requiring plugs to be prefitted rather than requiring the consumer to wire them up) and financially (such as the requirement to display quantities in a recognised system of measurements). And the main complaints about region coding stem from cross border issues and people importing/transporting DVDs from outside the region - why is US law expected to provide protection for non US based consumers of products released in the US market? Timrollpickering (talk) 11:40, 26 September 2009 (UTC)

Comments
Are we going to expand this article then -- it seems quite short for such a topic, but I don't know if it arrived that way after long arguments?

Does anyone know details of how the EU free-trade laws affected region coding? I heard that region-coded DVDs would be breaking EU law in this regard, but perhaps it was dropped when 'region-free' players became widely-available enough for it not to be an issue

Should this article cover websites which restrict access from certain places, or give different content to different places?

And do we only discuss things which 'lock out' certain locations rather than offering them an alternative? (e.g. if there's a UK version of something and a US version, is it lockout to not offer the UK version in the US?) Is Apple Computer regional lockout-ing me from buying a keyboard with a dollar sign in the right place? Are weather websites regional lockout-ing me from seeing Mexican weather when they detect I live in the UK and show a Glasgow weather forecast?

Ojw 2 July 2005 14:54 (UTC)

I think the term "lockout" only applies if some technical method is used to prevent goods bought in one location from being usable in another, so if for instance Apple computers sold in the UK couldn't be connected to US-style Apple keyboards, and this was an intentional choice to prevent you from doing this, then it would be lockout. Lack of availability, or incidental reasons why it wouldn't work, shouldn't be lockout.

The EU free trade laws only require you to be able to freely buy goods in one EU country from another: as all EU countries are in the same region, I don't believe DVD region coding is considered a restraint on trade. I'm not an expert on EU law, though.

A couple of things that do strike me as odd about this article:

 * Ability to restrict content which may be illegal in some countries (e.g. Nazi material in Europe, or pornography in the Middle East)

I live in the UK, which is part of Europe, and Nazi material isn't illegal here. I know it is in France, and suspect it might be in Germany, but don't believe the rest of Europe has such laws?

 * Nazi material is illegal in most of the countries directly affected by the holocaust, which includes lare swathes of central Europe. The UK and Ireland are pretty unique in fearing infringement of basic rights more than the threat of bogeymen. At least, until recently.

 * When distribution contracts for each area are awarded to different companies, it allows a company to avoid "stepping on someone else's toes" (e.g. not displaying maps of england for fear of upsetting the Ordnance Survey)

Why would showing a map of England upset the OS? And what has that got to do with distribution contracts in different areas? I suspect the author of that comment misunderstood something, or I don't understand his intentions.

Effect on society and economic
I have added articles about effect on society and economic.

For the other part of the article, I truly believe that the clear advantages for consumers can only be pointed out by consumers, and the clear advantages of region locker's can only be pointed out by region lockers or manufacturers (which do usually not speak the truth on places like this, because they are biased with their NDA's and economic interests).

--Thedogg 04:31, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

 * I have toned down the section on social impact. This is an article in an encyclopedia, not a manifesto against regional encoding, no matter how tempting it may be to make it such.

I would suggest that there are negative consequences that are more than consumer inconvenience: region coding is anti-multicultural. It prevents someone, say, originating in China or India, who is living in, say, Australia, from watching Bollywood and Hong Kong cinema unless it has been deemed popular enough to have a local release (and potentially "sanitised" for the local market). By "sanitised", I could point to anime as an example of how foreign cinema is frequently bastardized with bad translations (sometimes made up on the spot rather than translated and overdubbed with stereotypical US-accents in a stereotypical US-cartoon style without regard to the style and content of the original work), reduced production quality (video/sound) in the name of "localisation". Of course, this is probably more ignorant than malicious, but it is still something that has no place in the modern world. I would also note that Australian authorities are primarily concerned about region encoding as a mechanism for creating and enforcing "price-fixing cartels". Paul Coddington (talk) 06:36, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Splitting the DVD region lockout from this article
IMHO, the DVD region lockout is unique enough that it deserves its own article. It's very difficult, I think, to have a coherent discussion about DVD region lockout when it is mixed in with other things like games. There are a lot of DVD-specific issues like the RPC Phase I and Phase II requirements of the CSS license and the entire relationship between the CSS license and region lockout for DVDs. I think that, ultimately, this will probably give this entire article a lot more coherency if its separated from gaming issues.

--Code65536 03:19, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

Import gamers having "buyer's remorse"? News to me.
Er...could someone get a source for this claim about import gamers having buyer's remorse? I'm an importer. I'm /glad/ that my games do not contain the localization edits that are rampantly found in translated games. There are also plenty of other reasons for importing besides getting a game before its local release, it seems to me that whoever wrote that paragraph knew very little of import gaming. A large percentage of games that are perfectly enjoyable aren't even released outside of Japan. Occasionally, a die-hard fan of a series that is given local releases will buy both versions to complete their collection. It's also a popular practice among those who study Japanese or speak it fluently (me again). As I hinted at earlier, many importers also do not want games that have been given purposely inaccurate translations or re-dubbed voice acting. -November 14, 2005 (Not a registered user)

Nov22nd -- I agree. I came to this talk page looking to see if anyone else had mentioned it. It doesn't belong in an encyclopedic article.

The idea sometimes contradicts itself
I understand that the idea of regional lockout comes from wanting to vary prices in different countries (presumably due to different currencies), and so make more income. However, especially with video games, you have the issue of games that are not released in some countries, which are given regional lockouts to prevent people from those sountries from playing them, even though the game isn't available there. This, aside from being horreundously unfair, contradicts the whole purpose of regional lockouts.

It can be argued (quite strongly in fact) that this encourages piracy, especially emulation (which, ironically, the companies that cause this are firmly opposed to). This isn't mentioned in the article so far, and I really think it ought to. --12:58, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

While I agree, I'm not sure how it could be written into an encyclopedic article without coming off biased. Another thing about regional lockout: Determined people will always find ways to circumvent regional lockout (modchips, boot disks, software hacks). Often, these methods of circumvention also allow a user to run unauthorized copies, which could add to negative effects. People aren't going to stop wanting imported games, which are the main reason for these methods to exist. (The "homebrewn" software community also has a legitimate need for these methods, however). Alcy 02:48, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

"this encourages piracy, especially emulation (which, ironically, the companies that cause this are firmly opposed to)" This is nonsensical - high prices encourage theft, but is that something vendors want? PianoSpleen 07:09, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

EU
I have removed the reference to the European Union being one region, as since the acession of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia (which as former USSR states use region 5) there have been two separate regions in the European Union.

 * Since entering the EU, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania now use two regions. Because these countries have very large Russian-speaking populations, plus the close location of Russia, there are many Russian language DVDs imported into the Baltics.  Russia is nominally region 5, though most Russian DVDs have been released region-free.  (This is now just beginning to change, but still not on a widespread basis.)  The vast majority of the EU, however, is region 2.  So, DVDs in Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian, plus DVDs imported from other EU countries, are released in region 2.  Therefore, the best thing to do in these countries is to buy a region-free player to ensure that Baltic, EU, and Russian DVDs can all play with little problem.  In fact, I've noticed recently that even some HOLLYWOOD films (at least as sold in St. Petersburg, Russia, very near the borders with the Baltic countries) are now being released in region 5 in Russian, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian, which makes me begin to doubt that these same films are being released by the Hollywood studios in region 2 - yet further incentive to buy a region-free player in the Baltics. Ericdn (talk) 18:41, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

 * So is regional lockout now a barrier to free trade in the EU?

technically yes, but it would require a test case before a court, or a directive from the commission. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.27.191.227 (talk) 03:11, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Nintendo DS
Should there be a mention on this page that while the DS will play games from any of the three main computer game regions (EU, US & JP), games from different regions are not compatable with each other for multi player link up? JP Godfrey (Talk to me) 13:37, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I say no. I don't think that's quite the same thing. It's not so much locking you out due to region, but because you're using a different version of the software. It's just coincidental that in this case the different versions are from different regions. I mean, even if you have three people with NA, UK, and JAP DS systems trying to connect and they all are using the UK version DS game, it'll work, despite all three having systems from different regions. To me, that doesn't equal a lockout.

Error: PAL game not working in NTSC system
Hi! I'm kind of new here, and I just came across this article. Near the bottom it said that you can cut off the pins that block a PAL or NTSC-J N64 cartridge from being inserted into an American system, you can play it. Well, I did just that. However, when I put my game into the N64 and turn the power on, nothing happens. I cleaned it many times and nothing happened still. I tried other (American) games, and they all worked. Why is this happening? Is it because I have an older TV that doesn't support PAL hookup? Should I move to a different TV? What's happening?

Marikthechao 23:13, 7 November 2006 (UTC) Marikthechao Marikthechao 23:13, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Japanese games will run fine on a US system using that method, but PAL ones, nope. I'm not sure about a new TV. If you were getting a scrambled picture, I'd say it might work (assuming you can even find a TV that takes PAL in the US, which I'd guess wouldn't be easy) but if it's completely blank, my assumption is the US N64 just can't output PAL at all. Sorry if it's mostly guesses here, but at least I can confirm that it's not that you did the method wrong, it's just that PAL/NTSC is a lot trickier to fix than a physical cart blocker.

Well, is there any additional equipment that can let me play it?

Marikthechao 20:51, 8 February 2007 (UTC) Marik the Chao Marikthechao 20:51, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Criticism
I seriously think criticism like that on this page needs to be cited, because right now it seems like someone just came on and wrote down why he/she is against region coding. Anyone else in favor of adding the template? -Unknownwarrior33 19:23, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
 * That sounds reasonable.  Majin Izlude  talk  13:47, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
 * ....well the criticisms are all true, aren't they? It's not a matter of citing sources, it's a matter of common sense and taking ten seconds to think about things. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.195.119.74 (talk) 08:53, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

At what point does a common experience cease to be mere original research, and attain the lofty title of "common knowledge?" How does one cite Five hundred thousand angry posts on Gamefaqs, for example? Shall we cite specific examples of works which exemplify the dissatisfaction? Sirmadness (talk) 18:57, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

 * On Wikipedia, it doesn't happen, period. Anything that is supposedly "common knowledge" will be mentioned in some work somewhere. It's common knowledge that the sky is blue, but here, you have to have a source referring to it as such. Similarly, Gamefaqs is a forum, and cannot be used as a source, as there is no peer review. I hate recommending policy, but you might want to ready No Original Research and Verifiability. — trlkly 09:52, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Contradiction
I added the contradict-section template because the article states that the sixth-gen consoles are region-locked, while the tagged section says:

 * PlayStation 3 will be region free for gaming, according to Michael Ephraim of Sony of Australia. Sony Computer Entertainment has abandoned the practice of regional lockout. However they are hunting importers and import sites like Lik-Sang. Publishers will have the choice to release region free PlayStation 3 games.

-- VGF11 03:30, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

 * The PlayStation 3 is a "seventh-generation" console, rather than sixth, so that is not a contradiction. However, I'm leaving the contradiction notice because I don't understand how the PlayStation 3 will simultaneously be region free and also allow publishers to have the choice of region free releases.  Phlake 11:49, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

When Sony says that PlayStation 3 is "region free" it is referring to the regions of PlayStation 3 games only. I learned that the hard way having a Region 2 PS3. -Matt

Perhaps this little piece of dialogue - remembering it's from Sony Australia - is aimed at trying to ensure that the regulatory bodies don't drop from a great height onto him or his company. Remember that here it is illegal to sell region-specific machinery. As such, it might not have to make sense anywhere else. . :) Johno 14:00, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

decided to take out the contradiction template (look above what Phlake said ) and because PS3 (as says) plays any regionPS3 games. Also to the reader what is contradictory is not clear.Dream caster 01:31, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, the Australia section is a bit weak because it claims that video games are more expensive in Aus than in USA or UK. In fact the UK already suffers from prices up to double those in the USA. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.68.15.100 (talk) 12:03, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Advantages for producers
There are statements in this section without explantion. The reason why these statements are useful to producers would be great.--82.69.113.120 00:08, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

 * Not that difficult. One reason is less legal hassle (e.g. censoring software/films for particular regions), the rest of them boil down to making more money and "streamlining" the "process" (e.g. the "stepping on other people's toes" bit boils down to making it easier to get different resellers for different regions -- because they don't have to be afraid of imports affecting their sales any more (yeah right)).
 * Of course you COULD try to find an explanation that makes it sound charitable or benevolent, but the only reason the economy would ever do something "good" is for better publicity. Big companies are not your friend (but they do not have to be your enemy either). In the end it nearly always boils down to making more money or losing less money. — Ashmodai (talk · contribs) 06:37, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

GPS requirement?
I have read rumors of a requirement for NAVSTAR Global Positioning System receivers in players for some format in order to ensure that players exported from their intended region do not function. Can anybody find a source to back this up? --Damian Yerrick (☎) 20:50, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

 * i doubt it is true, but i dont think that it would be alloed to be sold in countries that prohibit region lockout from being enabled (though it didnt stop harvey norman from selling us one a while back), or the company would be required to set it so that if it detected that it was in a place that prohibits region lockout, it would allow all regions to be played. The problem with that is that such devices might not be alllowed in some countries due to different laws regarding products and the transmission/reception of certain signal types. --Alphamone 06:18, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

SPAM
Someboby has inserted "See DVDExploder.com" and point to that site, within the article

PS3/PSP really region free?
Well before I goto Bic Camera and buy that Japanese PSP or PS3 game, I want to know if its really region free. I read it in all the articles (although the articles reflect back as far as 2004) but if thats the case, then why do all the Japanese PSP and PS3 games have the region 2 symbol and a sign above the barcode which says "FOR JAPAN ONLY"? Keep in mind, as far as the PS3 games are concerned, the regions are still numbers and not letters like Blu-Rays are.

from: ryanyomomma

 * PSP and PS3 games are essentially region-free, meaning you can play Japanese games on an American system and vice versa. There haven't been any region-locked games for the PSP/PS3 systems and the only things that are still locked are essentially the movie-playing aspects of the systems.  Also, the staff at Kotaku and Joystiq have been able to download games from PSN sites from other regions and play them without any issue, especially the PS1 games from Japan.  Thing is, PS1 and PS2 DISC games are still region-locked on the PS3.  I have a Hong Kong region PSP at the moment and I've bought a range of Japanese, Hong Kong, and American region PSP games and they all work fine on my PSP.  I'm also picking up a number of Japanese PS3 games to play when I get back to the US. (Psychoneko (talk) 17:38, 11 April 2009 (UTC))

 * I forgot to mention this. The reason why they now include those "region number" tags on the cases is to make it easier to tell people which PSN server/region they should visit to collect their DLC or which region server they need to connect to in order to play online multiplayer games.  So if you have Killzone 2 (region 1 - America) and you're in Hong Kong, you need to connect to American servers in order to play the game online.  (Psychoneko (talk) 17:42, 11 April 2009 (UTC))

 * Just encountered what may be further proof that a PSP is indeed region locked. I just bought a South-East Asian PSP Go (PSP-N1006). I am unable to get the comic reader to appear on it. I have upgraded the firmware to 6.20, downloaded the comic reader from the official site, and followed the instructions. Further search online shows that the problem is that the reader is region-locked to US PSPs. In fact, it fails to even display an Extra menu item in the XMB. I'm not happy about this. I paid a thousand and ninety-nine Malaysian Ringgits for this thing. And oh: http://kotaku.com/284371/stranglehold-on-ps3-+-region-locked . Now will people believe me when I say that there are region-locked PS3 games in the world? RAM (talk) 16:11, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Australia
This section has got its facts completely wrong.

As a gamer living in the UK I can tell you that every home console retail game is released between £40 and £50, NOT £25 as in the US which this article claims, and this has NEVER been the case EVER in the 20 years I've been playing and purchasing games here even from the day of the Atari 2600 and NES all the way to the current generation of home consoles. I've edited accordingly. A simple trip to Amazon, or GAME's websites to check new games' prices will confirm this for you, even with their online discounts. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.111.154.117 (talk) 17:28, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Wrong information on the article
The article makes it seem that the PS3 is region locked, while the Xbox 360 has some region free games. This is untrue; it is the ps3 that is region-free (I own a ps3, and imported games from a variety of regions without altering anything on my ps3), and I also own an Xbox 360, which wouldn't play my friend's European game. I will proceed to correct the article.

Darkanius (talk) 11:05, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * According to my research on google, that isn't really the case. As far as I can find out, the PS3 does have region locking, but it is up to the developer of the games if they wanted to implement it or not. Also, it will honor region codings of PS2 and PS1 games, as well as the region locks of DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. Refs: ,
 * Bootnote, it appears that EA is the only company in the world supporting region lockout on the PS3 and PSP consoles. For some reason I'm not surprised at this.

RAM (talk) 10:12, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
 * The article should be changed. I only found information that the online multiplayer of EA's Army of Two ist separated into regions. But this is nothing special, many games do that. This is not a classical regional lockout that prevents the game from running on a foreign machine.--87.174.92.21 (talk) 18:42, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

In the absence of better references I support Darkanius and the IP's comments - the information should be removed. The EA lockout appears to be server/software-based rather than hardware based, from the link provided. The second reference provided, a forum post, does not comply with Wikipedia's policies on reliable sources, although that thread acknowledges, in any case, that for all intents and purposes the PS3 is region free. Debate  木  21:15, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, the game would have to probe something to figure out what region the console is from, right? Also, the article further describes that the Asian region version is censored. For them to censor the game where bypassing censorship is just as trivial as importing a game from another region strikes me as daft- there must be something blocking the NTSC/UC or PAL/E versions of the game from running on an asian (NTSC/J) machine, unless they're actually looking for lost sales. Remember, there are gamers out there who dislike censorship, and they know that bypassing it is as trivial as using eBay, PlayAsia, NCSX or even Amazon with a virtual postbox service. Lastly, the machine will still honor Blu-Ray, DVD, PS2 and PSOne regions, and to me that's not enough to classify the console as truly region free. I feel that if it was really region free, it would play Blu-Ray and DVDs of all regions as well as all PS2 and PS1 games irregardless of region. RAM (talk) 08:38, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Hong Kong
It is stated in the article that PS1 and PS2 are being sold with preinstalled modchips in Hong Kong. What about PS3 and Xbox 360, since there are no means to circumvent regional lockout in these consoles at the moment? 85.249.167.223 (talk) 11:34, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Unnecessary
I deleted this from the Blu-Ray section: "Like their DVD counterparts, BD players can be imported from another region."

You can import any of the things on this page, so this seems unnecessary.
 * I agree with the deletion. There's no reason that I can see why BD players should be singled out for their ability to be imported from another region, while everything else can be, too. --Ericdn (talk) 18:51, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Questions
Older generation consoles. Are they region locked? Because I want to buy Resident Evil 4 on my Norwegian Nintendo GameCube. Like for example, if I buy any Nintendo GameCube game from the British Amazon site, will it work on my Norwegian GC? And I have a Japanese PS3 which Norwegian games work just fine on it, but does anybody know if my Japanese PS3 will play British PS3 games? Thanks TK(film) (talk) 18:16, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes Nintendo GameCube games are region locked. People use Freeloader and modchips to play foreign Nintendo GameCube games: http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=gamecube+freeloader&btnG=Google+Search&fp=cstJsZcXi7Y   Akadewboy (talk) 01:01, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

Any proof that BattleZone is really region locked?
I've been searching the internet looking for proof that it's true that BattleZone is really region locked, but I can't find any. Does anyone have proof or know by first-hand experience? It seems really strange that only 1 PSP game on the planet is region locked. --- Akadewboy (talk) 00:42, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
 * To be truthful, I picked that up on a Singaporean forum years ago. However, I do have first hand account that PSPs are indeed region-locked. My Asian PSP Go refuses to recognize the comic book viewer app. I called Sony up on it and they claim that it has been disabled on Asian PSPs because the feature hasn't been launched in the region yet. Yes, the PSP has the latest firmware, obtained from the North American PSP site. And yes, I'm very angry with them for doing that, as I could just use a North American PSN account to grab material for the reader. RAM (talk) 06:04, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Wrong about PS3's DLC region locks
The sentence where it says that DLCs are region locked is wrong. I have a Japanese PS3 and I downloaded a DLC for my copy of Army of Two and it worked fine. TK(film) (talk) 19:32, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, just the region of the game and region of the DLC must match, more exactly it's the game code (BCES...). Console can be from any region.--87.174.101.138 (talk) 19:59, 16 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, I know this comes a bit late, but now we have one confirmed title- Persona 4 Arena for the PS3 is confirmed to be region-locked. RAM (talk) 17:40, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

Clarify...
I find the following (the first sentence in this article) difficult to understand:

Regional lockout is the programming practice, code, chip, or physical barrier used to prevent the playing of media designed for a device from the country where it is marketed on the version of the same device marketed in another country.

It doesn't make any sense at all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.45.192.100 (talk) 20:19, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

I HATE regional lockout
I would take steps to ensure region-free playability if I published games. For instance, I would go out of my way to ensure that all of my games are on 3-in-1 media (NTSC/PAL/SECAM). Did anyone mention SECAM here before? The Russian laments, "Было бы здорово, если бы мы могли играть без SECAM игры у нас в России!" T3h  1337   b0y  02:28, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Broken Section Link Notice
I'm removing the broken section link notice from the talk page, as the link in question seems to have been removed some time ago. Evil oatmeal (talk) 20:22, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

Which PS3 game is region locked?
The article says: "All PlayStation 3 games except for one are region free.[4][5]", but I see nothing at either of these linked pages that says there is a non-region-free PS3 game, or what it might be. If so, what is it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.185.161.246 (talk) 15:42, 11 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Persona 4 Arena. Look it up. RAM (talk) 18:08, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

The problem...
Imagine if everything was region encoded... See the problem? 108.66.234.28 (talk) 18:56, 24 October 2016 (UTC)
 * This CD was released in another country. You cannot play it here.
 * This book was written in another country. You cannot read it here, even if you speak the country's language.
 * This cat was born in another country. You cannot pet it here.
 * This toilet paper is encoded for anuses in another country, and cannot be used for wiping in this country.
 * This shirt was made in another country. It cannot be worn here.
 * This water was bottled in another country. You cannot drink it here.
 * This oxygen is encoded for another country, and you cannot breathe it in this country. *dies*
 * This death is encoded for another country. You cannot die here. *goes to jail*
 * This jail was built in another country. You cannot go to jail here.

Time Zone Region Locking
I remember for some web-based Japanese games (Kantai Collection springs to mind), a form of region locking was imposed in checking that the player's computer's time zome was set to GMT+9, the time zone most/all of Japan falls under. While there are many regions which can't/don't employ it, are there more examples, and does this belong on the page? 2601:603:4E00:4170:CAD:540B:D723:4DBD (talk) 00:13, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for speedy deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for speedy deletion: You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 00:51, 15 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Sega-Mega-Drive-regional-lockout-error.png

Way of the Samurai 3 (PS3)
I don't believe Way of the Samurai 3 on the PlayStation 3 is a region locked title. I have been able to run the PAL release on an NTSC-J PS3 system. But maybe I am missing some information and perhaps there is some configuration for which this game does not run? 106.68.158.126 (talk) 04:47, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:Regional lockout


text:
KHM

KHM could refer to:
 * Khamti Airport, IATA airport code
 * Khmer language, ISO 639 code
 * Cambodia, ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code
 * KHM (band), later the Clayborne Family

KHM is an abbreviation of:
 * King's Harbour Master
 * Kinder-und Hausmärchen, code for stories in Grimms' Fairy Tales
 * Kulturhistorisk Museum, University of Oslo, Norway
 * Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
 * Academy of Media Arts Cologne (Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln), art and film school of the state of North Rhine Westphalia, Germany

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: KHM


text:
History of Spain (1808–1874)

Spain in the 19th century was a country in turmoil. Occupied by Napoleon from 1808 to 1814, a massively destructive "liberation war" ensued. Following the Spanish Constitution of 1812, Spain was divided between the 1812 constitution's liberal principles and the absolutism personified by the rule of Ferdinand VII, who repealed the 1812 Constitution for the first time in 1814, only to be forced to swear over the constitution again in 1820 after a liberal pronunciamiento, giving way to the brief Trienio Liberal (1820–1823).

Economic transformations throughout the century included the privatisation of communal municipal lands—not interrupted but actually intensified and legitimised during the Fernandine absolutist restorations —as well as the confiscation of Church properties. The early century saw the loss of the bulk of the Spanish colonies in the New World in the 1810s and 1820s, except for Cuba and Puerto Rico.

The regency of Maria Christina and the reign of Isabella II brought reforms repelling the extremes of the absolutist Ominous Decade (1823–1833). Civil wars broke out in the country—the so-called Carlist Wars—pitting the government forces against the reactionary Carlists, a legitimist movement in favour of the ancien régime. Disaffection with Isabella's government from many quarters led to repeated military intervention in political affairs and to several revolutionary attempts against the government, including the 1854 revolution. The 1868 Glorious revolution deposed Isabella and installed a provisional government, leading up to the election of a constituent assembly under universal manhood suffrage that elaborated the 1869 constitution. The brief spell of Amadeo of Savoy as constitutional monarch was followed after his abdication by the proclamation of the First Spanish Republic, which was replaced after a 1874 coup by the reign of Alfonso XII, bringing the Bourbon dynasty back to power.

Abdications of Charles IV and Ferdinand VII (1808)
The reign of Charles IV was characterized by his lack of interest in governing. His wife Maria Luisa dominated him, and both husband and wife backed Manuel de Godoy as first minister. Many of Godoy's decisions were criticised and increasingly Charles's son and heir, Ferdinand gathered support against his detested father. A mob supporting Ferdinand attacked Godoy at the palace of Aranjuez, arresting him. Charles IV under pressure abdicated in favor of his son, now Ferdinand VII. Napoleon had already invaded Portugal 1807, and had troops on the ground in Spain already. Napoleon called on Ferdinand to come to Bayonne, where he was currently situated. Ferdinand went, expecting Napoleon to affirm his status as king of Spain. Unbeknownst to Ferdinand, Napoleon also summoned Charles IV. Napoleon called on Ferdinand to abdicate in favor of his father, who had abdicated under pressure. Charles did not want to leave a path open for his detested son to be his heir, and abdicated in favor of Napoleon himself. Napoleon at this point designated his older brother, Joseph Bonaparte as king of Spain. An assembly of Spaniards ratified the Bayonne Constitution, Spain's first, which Joseph I signed. Although the constitution never came into full force, the fact that it provided for representation from regions of Spain and elsewhere in the Spanish Empire, namely Spanish America and the Philippines, set an important precedent.

Napoleon's 1808 invasion and Spanish resistance, (1808–1814)
Although there were a few Spaniards who supported Napoleon's seizure of power in Spain, many regional centers rose up and formed juntas to rule in the name of the ousted Bourbon king, Ferdinand VII. Spanish America also created juntas to rule in the name of the king, since Joseph I was considered an illegitimate sovereign. Bloody warfare raged in Spain and Portugal in the Peninsular War, much of which was fought using guerrilla tactics.

Spain's first national assembly (1810–1814)
The Cortes of Cádiz was the first national assembly to claim sovereignty in Spain and the Spanish Empire. It represented the abolition of the old kingdoms and the recognition of overseas components of the Spanish Empire for representation. The opening session was held on 24 September 1810.

In November 1809, the army of the Central Junta was routed at the Battle of Ocaña. French forces took control of southern Spain and the Junta retreated to Cádiz. Cádiz was besieged by the French from 5 February 1810 to 24 August 1812 but never captured. The Central Junta dissolved itself on 29 January 1810, and set up a five-person Regency. The five regents then convened the meeting of the "Cortes of Cádiz", operating as a government in exile.

The delegates to the Cortes were to be representatives of the provinces and colonies, but the Regency was unable to hold elections in much of Spain or the Americas. The Regency therefore tried to establish interim territorial representation in the assembly, which approved a decree that it represented the Spanish nation, with sovereignty over Spain and Americas.

The Cortes opened its session in September 1810 on the Isle of Leon. The Cortes consisted of 97 deputies, of whom 47 were Cadiz residents serving as alternates.

The Spanish Constitution of 1812 was established on 19 March 1812 by the Cortes of Cádiz. It abolished the Inquisition and absolute monarchy, and established the principles of universal male suffrage, national sovereignty, constitutional monarchy, and freedom of the press, and supported land reform and free enterprise.

Reaction (1814–1820)

On 24 March 1814, six weeks after returning to Spain, Ferdinand VII abolished the constitution. King Ferdinand VII's refusal to agree to the liberal Spanish Constitution of 1812 on his accession to the throne in 1814 came as little surprise to most Spaniards; the king had signed on to agreements with the clergy, the church, and with the nobility in his country to return to the earlier state of affairs even before the fall of Napoleon. The decision to abrogate the Constitution was not welcomed by all, however. Liberals in Spain felt betrayed by the king whom they had decided to support, and many of the local juntas that had pronounced against the rule of Joseph I Bonaparte lost confidence in the king's rule. The army, which had backed the pronouncements, had liberal leanings that made the king's position tenuous. Even so, agreements made at the Congress of Vienna (where Spain was represented by Pedro Gómez Labrador, Marquis of Labrador) starting a year later would cement international support for the old, absolutist regime in Spain.

The Spanish Empire in the New World had largely supported the cause of Ferdinand VII over the Bonapartist pretender to the throne in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars. Joseph I had promised radical reform, particularly the centralization of the state, which would cost the local authorities in the American empire their autonomy from Madrid. The Spanish Americans, however, did not support absolutism and wanted self-governance. The juntas in the Americas did not accept the governments of the Europeans, neither the French or Spaniards.

Trienio Liberal (1820–1823)

A conspiracy of liberal mid-ranking officers in the expedition being outfitted at Cádiz mutinied before they were shipped to the Americas. Led by Rafael del Riego, the conspirators seized their commander and led their army around Andalusia hoping to gather support; garrisons across Spain declared their support for the would-be revolutionaries. Riego and his co-conspirators demanded that the liberal Constitution of 1812 be restored. Before the coup became an outright revolution, King Ferdinand agreed to the demands of the revolutionaries and swore by the constitution. A "Progresista" (liberal) government was appointed, though the king expressed his disaffection with the new administration and constitution.

Three years of liberal rule (the Trienio Liberal) followed. The Progresista government reorganized Spain into 52 provinces, and intended to reduce the regional autonomy that had been a hallmark of Spanish bureaucracy since Habsburg rule in the 16th and 17th centuries. The opposition of the affected regions – in particular, Aragon, Navarre, and Catalonia – shared the king's antipathy for the liberal government. The anticlerical policies of the Progresista government led to friction with the Roman Catholic Church, and its attempts to bring about industrialization alienated ancient trade guilds. The Inquisition—which had been abolished by both Joseph Bonaparte and the Cortes of Cádiz during the French occupation—was ended again by the Progresista government, summoning up accusations of being nothing more than afrancesados (Francophiles), who only six years before had been forced out of the country. More radical liberals attempted to revolt against the entire idea of a monarchy, constitutional or otherwise, in 1821; these republicans were suppressed, though the incident served to illustrate the frail coalition that bound the Progresista government together.

The election of a radical liberal government in 1823 further destabilized Spain. The army – whose liberal leanings had brought the government to power – began to waver when the Spanish economy failed to improve, and in 1823, a mutiny in Madrid had to be suppressed. The Jesuits (who had been banned by Charles III in the 18th century, only to be rehabilitated by Ferdinand VII after his restoration) were banned again by the radical government. For the duration of liberal rule, King Ferdinand (though technically head of state) lived under virtual house arrest in Madrid.

The Congress of Vienna ending the Napoleonic Wars had inaugurated the "Congress system" as an instrument of international stability in Europe. While Ferdinand had been rebuffed by the "Holy Alliance" of Russia, Austria, and Prussia in his request for help against the liberal revolutionaries in 1820, by 1822 the "Concert of Europe" was sufficiently uneasy with Spain's liberal government and its surprising hardiness that they were prepared to intervene on Ferdinand's behalf. In 1822, the Congress of Verona authorized France to intervene. Louis XVIII of France – himself an arch-reactionary – was only too happy to put an end to Spain's liberal experiment, and a massive army – the "100,000 Sons of Saint Louis" – was dispatched across the Pyrenees in April 1823. The Spanish army, fraught by internal divisions, offered little resistance to the well organised French force, who seized Madrid and reinstalled Ferdinand as absolute monarch. The liberals' hopes for a new Spanish War of Independence were not fulfilled.

The "Ominous Decade" (1823–1833)
Immediately following the restoration of absolutist rule in Spain, King Ferdinand VII embarked on a policy intended to restore old conservative values to government; the Jesuit Order and the Spanish Inquisition were reinstated once more, and some autonomy was again devolved to the provinces of Aragon, Navarre, and Catalonia. Although he refused to accept the loss of the American colonies, Ferdinand was prevented from taking any further action against the rebels in the Americas by the opposition of the United Kingdom and the United States, who voiced their support of the new Latin American republics in the form of the Monroe Doctrine. The recent betrayal of the army demonstrated to the king that his own government and soldiers were untrustworthy, and the need for domestic stability proved to be more important than the reconquest of the Empire abroad. As a result, the destinies of Spain and her empire on the American mainland were to permanently take separate paths.

Although in the interests of stability Ferdinand VII issued a general amnesty to all those involved in the 1820 coup and the liberal government that followed it, the original architect of the coup, Rafael del Riego, was executed. The liberal Partido Progresista, however, continued to exist as a political force, even if it was excluded from actual policy-making by Ferdinand's restored government. Riego himself was hanged, and he would become a martyr for the liberal cause in Spain and would be memorialized in the anthem of the Second Spanish Republic, El Himno de Riego, more than a century later.

The remainder of Ferdinand's reign was spent restoring domestic stability and the integrity of Spain's finances, which had been in ruins since the occupation of the Napoleonic Wars. The end of the wars in the Americas improved the government's financial situation, and by the end of Ferdinand VII's rule the economic and fiscal situation in Spain was improving. A revolt in Catalonia was crushed in 1827, but at large the period saw an uneasy peace in Spain.

Ferdinand's chief concern after 1823 was how to solve the problem of his own succession. He was married four times in his life, and bore two daughters in all his marriages; the succession law of Philip V of Spain, which still stood in Ferdinand's time, excluded women from the succession. By that law, Ferdinand's successor would be his brother, Carlos. Carlos, however, was a reactionary and an authoritarian who desired the restoration of the traditional moralism of the Spanish state, the elimination of any traces of constitutionalism, and a close relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. Though surely not a liberal, Ferdinand VII was fearful of Carlos's extremism. War had broken out in neighboring Portugal in 1828 as a result of just such a conflict between reactionary and moderate forces in the royal family – the War of the Two Brothers.

In 1830, at the advice of his wife, Maria Christina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Ferdinand VII decreed a Pragmatic Sanction that had the effect of fundamental law in Spain. As a result of the sanction, women were allowed to accede to the Spanish throne, and the succession would fall on Ferdinand's infant daughter, Isabella, rather than to his brother Carlos. Carlos – who disputed the legality of Ferdinand's ability to change the fundamental law of succession in Spain – left the country for Portugal, where he became a guest of Dom Miguel, the absolutist pretender in that country's civil war.

Ferdinand VII died in 1833, at the age of 49. He was succeeded by his daughter Isabella under the terms of the Pragmatic Sanction, and his spouse, Maria Christina, became regent for her daughter, who at that time was only three years of age. Carlos disputed the legitimacy of Maria Christina's regency and the accession of her daughter, and declared himself to be the rightful heir to the Spanish throne. A half-century of civil war and unrest would follow.

Spanish American independence (1810–1833)

Already in 1810, Caracas and Buenos Aires juntas declared their independence from the Bonapartist government in Spain and sent ambassadors to the United Kingdom. The British alliance with Spain had also moved most of the Latin American colonies out of the Spanish economic sphere and into the British sphere, with whom extensive trade relations were developed.

Spanish liberals opposed to the abrogation of the Constitution of 1812 when Ferdinand VII's rule was restored, the new American states were cautious of abandoning their independence, and an alliance between local elites, merchant interests, nationalists rose up against the Spanish in the New World. Although Ferdinand was committed to the reconquest of the colonies, along with many of the Continental European powers, the British government was opposed to the move which would hinder her new commercial interests. Latin American resistance to Spanish reconquest of the colonies was compounded by uncertainty in Spain itself, over whether or not the colonies should be reconquered; Spanish liberals – including the majority of military officers – already disdainful of the monarchy's rejection of the constitution, were opposed to the restoration of an empire that they saw as an obsolete antique, as against the liberal revolutions in the New World with which they sympathized.

The arrival of Spanish forces in the American colonies began in 1814, and was briefly successful in restoring central control over large parts of the Empire. Simón Bolívar, the leader of revolutionary forces in New Granada, was briefly forced into exile in the British colony of Jamaica, then to the Republic of Haiti. In 1816, however, Bolívar found enough popular support that he was able to return to South America, and in a daring march from Venezuela to New Granada (Colombia), he defeated Spanish forces at the Battle of Boyacá in 1819, ending Spanish rule in Colombia. Venezuela was liberated on 24 June 1821 when Bolívar destroyed the Spanish army on the fields of Carabobo on the Battle of Carabobo. Argentina declared its independence in 1816. Chile was retaken by Spain in 1814, but lost permanently in 1817 when an army under José de San Martín, crossed the Andes Mountains from Argentina to Chile, and went on to defeat Spanish royalist forces at the Battle of Chacabuco in 1817.

Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and Central America still remained under Spanish control in 1820. King Ferdinand VII, however, was dissatisfied with the loss of so much of the Empire and resolved to retake it; a large expedition was assembled in Cádiz with the aim of reconquest. However the army was to create political problems of its own.

José de San Martín, who had already helped to liberate Chile and Argentina, entered Peru in 1820. In 1821, the inhabitants of Lima invited him and his soldiers to the city. The viceroy fled into the interior of the country. From there he resisted successfully, and it was only with the arrival of Simón Bolívar and Antonio José de Sucre in 1823 that the Spanish royalist forces were defeated at the battles of Junin and Ayacucho, where the entire Spanish Army of Peru and the Viceroy were captured. The Battle of Ayacucho signified the end of the Spanish Empire on the American mainland.

Although Mexico had been in revolt in 1811 under Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, resistance to Spanish rule had largely been confined to small guerrilla bands in the countryside. The coup in Spain did not change the centralized policies of the government of Trieno Liberal in Madrid and many Mexicans were disappointed. In 1821, Mexico led by Agustin de Iturbide and Vincente Guerrero presented the Plan de Iguala, calling for an independent Mexican monarchy, in response to the centralism and fears of the liberalism and anticlericalism in Spain. The liberal government of Spain showed less interest in the military reconquest of the colonies than Ferdinand, although it rejected the independence of Mexico in the failed Treaty of Córdoba. The last bastion of San Juan de Ulúa resisted to 1825, and Isidro Barradas tried to recapture Mexico from Cuba in 1829. With the king Ferdinand VII's death in 1833 Spain finally abandoned all plans of military re-conquest.

The Carlist War and the Regencies (1833–1843)

After their fall from grace in 1823 at the hands of a French invasion, Spanish liberals had pinned their hopes on Ferdinand VII's spouse Maria Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, who bore some marks as a liberal and a reformer. However, when she became regent for her daughter Isabella in 1833, she made it clear to the court that she intended no such reforms. Even still, an alliance of convenience was formed with the progresista faction at court against the conservatives, who backed the rebel Infante Carlos of Spain.

Carlos, who declared his support for the ancient, pre-Bourbon privileges of the fueros, received considerable support from the Basque country, Aragon, and Catalonia, which valued their ancient privileges from Madrid. The insurrection seemed, at first, a catastrophic failure for the Carlists, who were quickly driven out of most of Aragon and Catalonia, and forced to cling to the uplands of Navarre by the end of 1833. At this crucial moment, however, Carlos named the Basque Tomás de Zumalacárregui, a veteran guerrilla of the Peninsular War, to be his commander-in-chief. Within a matter of months, Zumalacárregui reversed the fortunes of the Carlist cause and drove government forces out of most of Navarre, and launched a campaign into Aragon. By 1835, what was once a band of defeated guerrillas in Navarre had turned into an army of 30,000 in control of all of Spain north of the Ebro River, with the exception of the fortified ports on the northern coast.

The position of the government was growing increasingly desperate. Rumors of a liberal coup to oust Maria Cristina abounded in Madrid, compounding the danger of the Carlist army which was now within striking distance of the capital. Appeals for aid did not fall on deaf ears; France, which had replaced the reactionary monarchy of Charles X with the liberal monarchy of Louis-Philippe in 1830, was sympathetic to the Cristino cause. The Whig governments of Viscount Melbourne were similarly friendly, and organized volunteers and material aid for Spain. Still confident of his successes, however, Don Carlos joined his troops on the battlefield. While Zumalacárregui agitated for a campaign to take Madrid, Carlos ordered his commander to take a port on the coast. In the subsequent campaign, Zumalacárregui died after being shot in the calf. There was suspicion that Carlos, jealous of his general's successes and politics, conspired to have him killed.

Having failed to take Madrid, and having lost their popular general, the Carlist armies began to weaken. Reinforced with British equipment and manpower, Isabella found in the progressista general Baldomero Espartero a man capable of suppressing the rebellion; in 1836, he won a key victory at the Battle of Luchana that turned the tide of the war. After years of vacillation on the issue of reform, events compelled Maria Cristina to accept a new constitution in 1837 that substantively increased the powers of the Spanish parliament, the cortes. The constitution also established state responsibility for the upkeep of the church, and a resurgence of anti-clerical sentiment, led to the disbandment of some religious orders which considerably reduced the strength of the Church in Spain. The Jesuits – expelled during the Trienio Liberal and readmitted by Ferdinand VII – were again expelled by the wartime regency in 1835.

The Spanish government was growing deeper in debt as the Carlist war dragged on, nearly to the point that it became insolvent. In 1836, the president of the government, Juan Álvarez Mendizábal, offered a program of desamortización, the Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal, that involved the confiscation and sale of church, mainly monastic, property. Many liberals, who bore anti-clerical sentiments, saw the clergy as having allied with the Carlists, and thus the desamortización was only justice. Mendizábal recognized, also, that immense amounts of Spanish land (much of it given as far back as the reigns of Philip II and Philip IV) were in the hands of the church lying unused – the church was Spain's single largest landholder in Mendizábal's time. The Mendizábal government also passed a law guaranteeing freedom of the press.

After Luchana, Espartero's government forces successfully drove the Carlists back northward. Knowing that much of the support for the Carlist cause came from supporters of regional autonomy, Espartero convinced the Queen-Regent to compromise with the fueros on the issue of regional autonomy and retain their loyalty. The subsequent Convention of Vergara in 1839 was a success, protecting the privileges of the fueros and recognizing the defeat of the Carlists. Don Carlos again went into exile.

Freed from the Carlist threat, Maria Cristina immediately embarked on a campaign to undo the Constitution of 1837, provoking even greater ire from the liberal quarters of her government. Failing in the attempt to overthrow her own constitution, she attempted to undermine the rule of the municipalities in 1840; this proved to be her undoing. She was forced to name the progressista hero of the Carlist War, General Espartero, president of the government. Maria Cristina resigned the regency after Espartero attempted a program of reform.

In the absence of a regent, the cortes named Baldomero Espartero to that post in May 1841. Although a noted commander, Espartero was inexperienced with politics and his regency was markedly authoritarian; it was arguably Spain's first experience with military rule. The government wrangled with Espartero over the choice of Agustín Argüelles, a radical liberal politician, as the young queen's tutor. From Paris, Maria Cristina railed against the decision and attracted the support of the moderados in the cortes. The war heroes Manuel de la Concha and Diego de León attempted a coup in September 1841, attempting to seize the queen, only months after Espartero was named regent. The severity with which Espartero crushed the rebellion led to considerable unpopularity; the cortes, increasingly rebellious against him, selected an old rival, José Ramón Rodil y Campillo, as their chief minister. Another uprising in Barcelona in 1842 against his free trade policies prompted him to bombard the city, serving only to loosen his tenuous grip on power. On 20 May 1843, Salustiano Olózaga delivered his famous "Dios salve al país, Dios salve a la reina!" (God save the country, God save the queen!) speech that led to a strong moderate-liberal coalition that opposed Espartero. This coalition sponsored a third and final uprising led by generals Ramón Narváez and Francisco Serrano, who finally overthrew Espartero in 1843, after which the deposed regent fled to England.

Moderado rule (1843–1849)
The cortes, now exasperated by serial revolutions, coups, and counter-coups, decided not to name another regent, and instead declared that the 13-year-old Isabella II was of age. Isabella, now inundated with the competing interests of courtiers espousing an array of ideologies and interests, vacillated as her mother did between them, and served to aggravate those genuinely interested in progress and reform. Salustiano Olózaga was named the first president of the Council of Ministers after Espartero's fall. His commission to form a government was, however, highly unpopular with the cortes; he allegedly received the authority to dissolve the cortes from the queen, but the queen within days withdrew her support for the plan, and cast her lot behind Olózaga's opponent in the cortes, the Minister of State Luis González Bravo. Olózaga was accused of obtaining the order of dissolution by forcing Queen Isabella to sign against her will. Olózaga had to resign, having only been president of the Council of Ministers for an ephemeral fifteen days. Olózaga, a liberal, was succeeded by Luis González Bravo, a moderate, inaugurating a decade of moderado rule. President Luis González Bravo was Isabella's first stable president during her effective kingdom, ruling for 6 straight months (from that moment on he would remain loyal to the queen until the end of her kingdom, acting as her very last president decades later at the outbreak of the 1868 Revolution). Isabella's kingdom was to include unstable administration, policies, and governments, due to the various opposition parties that continuously wanted to take over her government – in 1847, for instance, she went through five presidents of the Government.

Luis González Bravo, leading the moderate faction, dissolved the cortes himself and ruled by royal decree. He declared Spain to be in a state of siege and dismantled a number of institutions that had been set up by the progressista movement such as elected city councils. Fearing another Carlist insurrection in northern Spain, he established the Guardia Civil, a force merging police and military functions to retain order in the mountainous regions that had been the Carlists' base of support and strength, so as to defend Isabella's rightful kingdom from her enemies.

A new constitution, authored by the moderados was written in 1845. It was backed by the new Narváez government begun in May 1844, led by General Ramón Narváez, one of the original architects of the revolution against Espartero. A series of reforms promulgated by Narváez's government attempted to stabilize the situation. The cortes, which had been uneasy with the settlement with the fueros at the end of the First Carlist War, were anxious to centralize the administration. The law of 8 January 1845 did just that, stifling local autonomy in favor of Madrid; the act contributed to the revolt of 1847 and the revival of Carlism in the provinces. The Electoral Law of 1846 limited the suffrage to the wealthy and established a property bar for voting. In spite of Bravo and Narváez's efforts to suppress the unrest in Spain, which included lingering Carlist sentiments and progressista supporters of the old Espartero government, Spain's situation remained uneasy. A revolt led by Martín Zurbano in 1845 included the support of key generals, including Juan Prim, who was imprisoned by Narváez.

Narváez ended the sale of church lands promoted by the progresistas. This put him into a difficult situation, as the progresistas had had some progress in improving Spain's financial situation through those programs. The Carlist War, the excesses of Maria Cristina's regency, and the difficulties of the Espartero government left the finances in a terrible situation. Narváez entrusted the finances to the minister Alejandro Mon, who embarked on an aggressive program to restore solvency to Spain's finances; in this he was remarkably successful, reforming the tax system which had been badly neglected since the reign of Charles IV. With its finances more in order, the government was able to rebuild the military and, in the 1850s and 1860s, embark on successful infrastructure improvements and campaigns in Africa that are often cited as the most productive aspects of Isabella's reign.

Isabella was convinced by the cortes to marry her cousin, a Bourbon prince, Francis, Duke of Cádiz. Her younger sister Maria Louisa Fernanda was married to the French king Louis-Philippe's son Antoine, Duke of Montpensier. The Affair of the Spanish Marriages threatened to break the alliance between Britain and France, which had come to a different agreement over the marriage. France and Britain nearly went to war over the issue before it was resolved; the affair contributed to the fall of Louis-Philippe in 1848. Fury raged in Spain over the queen's nonchalance with the national interest and worsened her public image. Partly as a result of this, a major rebellion broke out in northern Catalonia in 1846, the Second Carlist War. Rebels led by Rafael Tristany launched a guerilla campaign against government forces in the region and pronounced themselves in favor of Carlos, Conde de Montemolin, carrier of the Carlist cause and son of Infante Carlos of Spain. The rebellion grew, and by 1848 it was relevant enough that Carlos sponsored it himself and named Ramón Cabrera as commander of the Carlist armies in Spain. A force of 10,000 men was raised by the Carlists; in response to fears of further escalation Narváez was again named President of the Council of Ministers in Madrid in October 1847. The biggest battle of the war, the Battle of Pasteral (January 1849) was inconclusive; Ramón Cabrera, however, was wounded and lost confidence. His departure from Spain caused the rebellion dissolve by May 1849. The Second Carlist War, though contemporaneous with the revolutions of 1848, is rarely included as part of the same phenomenon, since the rebels in Spain were not fighting for liberal or socialist ideas, but rather conservative and even absolutist ones.

Rule by Pronunciamento (1849–1856)
Ramón Narváez was succeeded by Juan Bravo Murillo, a practical man and a seasoned politician. Murillo carried the same authoritarian tendencies as Narváez but made serious efforts to advance Spanish industry and commerce. He surrounded himself with technocrats who attempted to take an active role in the advancement of the Spanish economy. An aggressive policy of financial reform was coupled with an equally aggressive policy of infrastructure improvement enabled by Alejandro Mon's financial reforms in the preceding decade. A serious effort to build a rail network in Spain was begun by the Murillo government.

Murillo, facing the issue of anti-clericalism, signed a concordat with the Vatican on the issue of religion in Spain; it was conclusively decided that Roman Catholicism remained the state religion of Spain, but that the contribution of the church in education would be regulated by the state. In addition, the state renounced desamortización, the process of selling church lands. Murillo's negotiations with the Papacy were aided by Narváez's role in the Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states, where he had led Spanish soldiers in the pope's defense against revolutionaries.

Murillo, flush with economic and international successes, announced a series of policies on 2 December 1852 to the cortes. Prominent among the reforms he suggested were the reduction of the powers of the cortes as a whole in favor of Murillo's office as President of the Council of Ministers, and the ability for the executive to legislate by decree in times of crisis. Twelve days later, the cortes successfully convinced the queen to sack Juan Bravo Murillo and find a new minister.

The next President of the Council of Ministers, Federico Roncali, governed briefly, and did well to maintain a civil atmosphere with the cortes after Murillo's flamboyance. The army, dissatisfied with Roncali a few months later, convinced the queen to oust him, replacing him with General Francisco Lersundi. The cortes, which by then were unsatisfied with the army's intervening in government affairs, arranged for Luis José Sartorius, the Count of San Luis, to be named President of the Council of Ministers. Sartorius – who had gained power only by betraying Luis González Bravo and following the fortunes of General Narváez – was notorious for falsifying election results in favor of his co-conspirators and himself. His appointment as President of the Council of Ministers drew violent agitation from the liberal wing of the Spanish government. In July 1854, a major rebellion broke out bringing together a wide coalition of outrages against the state. The Crimean War, which had broken out in March of that year, had led to an increase in grain prices across Europe and a famine in Galicia. Riots against the power loom erupted in the cities, and progresistas outraged at a decade of moderado dictatorship and the corruption of the Sartorius government broke out in revolution. General Leopoldo O'Donnell took the lead in the revolution; after the indecisive Battle of Vicálvaro, he issued the Manifesto of Manzanares that pronounced himself in favor of Spain's former progresista dictator, Baldomero Espartero, the man that O'Donnell had actively rebelled against in 1841. The moderado government collapsed before them and Espartero returned to politics at the head of an army.

Espartero was appointed as President of the Council of Ministers, this time by the very queen for whom he had been regent ten years before. Espartero, indebted to O'Donnell for restoring him to power but concerned about having to share power with another man, tried to get him installed to a post as far away from Madrid as possible – in this case, in Cuba. The attempt failed and only alienated Baldomero Espartero's colleague; instead, O'Donnell was given a seat in Espartero's cabinet as war minister, though his influence was greater than his portfolio.

The two caudillos, who came into power with immense popularity, attempted to reconcile their differences and form a coalition party that crossed the progresista-moderado lines that had dominated and restricted Spanish politics since the Peninsular War. The "Unión Liberal", as it was called, attempted to forge a policy based on progress in industry, infrastructure, public works, and a national compromise on constitutional and social issues.

Baldomero Espartero attempted to rebuild the progresista government after ten years of moderado reform. Most of Espartero's tenure was absorbed into promulgating the new constitution he intended to replace the moderado constitution of 1845. The resistance of the cortes, however, meant that most of his term was spent deadlocked; the coalition that Espartero relied on was built on both liberals and moderates, who disagreed fundamentally on the ideology of the new constitution and policies. Espartero's constitution included provisions for the freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and, most importantly, a more liberal suffrage than the Constitution of 1845 allowed for. Even before the constitution had been passed, Espartero endorsed Pascual Madoz's desamortización against communal lands in Spain; the plan was strongly opposed not only by the moderados in the cortes, but also by the queen and General O'Donnell. Espartero's coalition with O'Donnell collapsed, and the queen named Leopoldo O'Donnell President of the Council of Ministers. He too proved unable to work with the government in any meaningful way; he attempted to compromise Espartero's constitution with the 1845 document by, in a bald assertion of power, declaring the 1845 constitution restored with certain specified exceptions, with or without the approval of the cortes. The act led to O'Donnell's ousting; the "Constitution of 1855" was never successfully put into place.

The end of the old order (1856–1868)

Again, Ramón María Narváez, the symbol of reaction, returned to politics and was named President of the Council of Ministers by Isabella II in 1856, who switched her favor to the moderados; Espartero, frustrated and bitter with political life, retired permanently to Logroño. Narváez's new government undid what little Baldomero Espartero had been able to accomplish while in office; the Constitution of 1845 was restored in its entirety and the legislation that Espartero had put forward was entirely reversed in a matter of months. Isabella grew weary of this, too, and a moderate conservative with a less offensive authoritarian character was found in Francisco Armero Peñaranda, who took power in October 1857. Without Narváez's authoritarian touch, however, Peñaranda found that it was now as difficult for conservative policies to be successfully enacted by the cortes as it was for Espartero's progresista policies; the moderado faction was now divided, with some favoring Leopoldo O'Donnell's Unión Liberal ideal. Isabella then sacked Peñaranda – to the ire of the moderados – and replaced him with Francisco Javier Istúriz. Istúriz, though Isabella admired him, lacked any support from the conservative wing of the government, and was adamantly opposed by Juan Bravo Murillo. Isabella was then disgusted with the moderados in any form; O'Donnell's faction was able to give the Unión Liberal another chance in 1858.

This government – the longest-lasting of all of Isabella's governments – lasted nearly five years before it was deposed in 1863. O'Donnell, reacting against the extremism that came from Espartero's government and the moderado governments that followed it, managed to pull some results from a functional Unión Liberal coalition of centrist, conciliatory moderados and progresistas, all of whom were exhausted from partisan bickering. Leopoldo O'Donnell's ministry was successful enough in restoring stability at home that they were able to project power abroad, which also helped to pull popular and political attention away from the cortes; Spain supported the French expedition to Cochinchina, the allied expedition sent in support of the French intervention in Mexico and Emperor Maximilian, an expedition to Santo Domingo, and most importantly, a successful campaign into Morocco that earned Spain a favorable peace and new territories across the Strait of Gibraltar. O'Donnell, even while President of the Council of Ministers, personally took command of the army in this campaign, for which he was named Duque de Tetuán. A new agreement was made with the Vatican in 1859 that reopened the possibility of legal desamortizaciones of church property. The previous year, Juan Prim, while a general, had either allowed Jews back onto Spanish territory for the first time since the Alhambra Decree in 1492, or he would do so in 1868.

The coalition broke apart in 1863 when old factional lines broke O'Donnell's cabinet: the issue of desamortización, brought up again, antagonized the two wings of the Unión Liberal. The moderados, sensing an opportunity, attacked O'Donnell for being too liberal, and succeeded in turning the queen and cortes against him; his government collapsed on 27 February 1863.

The moderados immediately took to undoing Leopoldo O'Donnell's legislation but Spain's economic situation took a turn for the worse; when Alejandro Mon, who had already saved Spain's finances, proved ineffectual, Isabella turned to her old warhorse, Ramón Narváez, in 1864 to make certain that things did not get out of hand; this only infuriated the progresistas, who were promptly rewarded for their agitation by another O'Donnell government. General Juan Prim launched a major uprising against the government during O'Donnell's administration that prefigured future events; the rebellion was crushed brutally by O'Donnell, prompting the same sort of criticism that had toppled Espartero's government years earlier. The queen, listening to the opinion of the cortes, again sacked O'Donnell, and replaced him with Narváez, who had just been sacked two years earlier.

Narváez's support for the queen by this time was lukewarm; he had been sacked and seen enough governments thrown out by the queen in his lifetime that he, and much of the cortes had great doubts about her ability. The consensus spread; since 1854, a Republican party had been growing in strength, roughly in step with the fortunes of the Unión Liberal, and indeed, the Unión had been in coalition with the Republicans at times in the cortes.

Glorious Revolution

The 1866 rebellion led by Juan Prim and the revolt of the sergeants at San Gil barracks, in Madrid, sent a signal to Spanish liberals and republicans that there was serious unrest with the state of affairs in Spain that could be harnessed if it were properly led. Liberals and republican exiles abroad made agreements at Ostend in 1866 and Brussels in 1867. These agreements laid the framework for a major uprising, this time not merely to replace the President of the Council of Ministers with a liberal, but to overthrow Isabella herself, whom Spanish liberals and republicans began to see as the source of Spain's ineffectuality.

Her continual vacillation between liberal and conservative quarters had, by 1868, outraged moderados, progresistas, and members of the Unión Liberal and enabled, ironically, a front that crossed party lines. Leopoldo O'Donnell's death in 1867 caused the Unión Liberal to unravel; many of its supporters, who had crossed party lines to create the party initially, joined the growing movement to overthrow Isabella in favor of a more effective regime.

The die was cast in September 1868, when naval forces under admiral Juan Bautista Topete mutinied in Cádiz – the same place that Rafael del Riego had launched his coup against Isabella's father a half-century before. Generals Juan Prim and Francisco Serrano denounced the government and much of the army defected to the revolutionary generals on their arrival in Spain. The queen made a brief show of force at the Battle of Alcolea, where her loyal moderado generals under Manuel Pavía were defeated by General Serrano. Isabella then crossed into France and retired from Spanish politics to Paris, where she would remain until her death in 1904.

Provisional Government
The revolutionary spirit that had just overthrown the Spanish government lacked direction; the coalition of liberals, moderates, and republicans were now faced with the incredible task of finding a government that would suit them better than Isabella. Control of the government passed to Francisco Serrano, an architect of the revolution against Baldomero Espartero's dictatorship. The cortes initially rejected the notion of a republic; Serrano was named regent while a search was launched for a suitable monarch to lead the country. A truly liberal constitution was written and successfully promulgated by the cortes in 1869 – the first such constitution in Spain since 1812.

The search for a suitable king proved to be quite problematic for the cortes. The republicans were, on the whole, willing to accept a monarch if he was capable and abided by a constitution. Juan Prim, a perennial rebel against the Isabelline governments, was named chief of the government in 1869 and remarked that "to find a democratic king in Europe is as hard as to find an atheist in Heaven!" The aged Espartero was brought up as an option, still having considerable sway among the progresistas; even after he rejected the notion of being named king, he still gained eight votes for his coronation in the final tally. Many proposed Isabella's young son Alfonso (the future Alfonso XII of Spain), but many thought that he would invariably be dominated by his mother and would inherit her flaws. Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, the former regent of neighboring Portugal, was sometimes raised as a possibility. A nomination offered to Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen would trigger the Franco-Prussian War.

In August 1870, an Italian prince, Amadeo of the House of Savoy, Duke of Aosta, was selected. The younger son of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, Amadeo had less of the troublesome political baggage that a German or French claimant would bring, and his liberal credentials were strong.

Reign of Amadeo
Amadeo was duly elected King as Amadeo I of Spain on 3 November 1870. He landed in Cartagena on 27 November, the same day that Juan Prim was assassinated while leaving the cortes. Amadeo swore on the general's corpse that he would uphold Spain's constitution.

However, Amadeo had no experience as king, and what experience his father as King of Italy could offer was nothing compared to the extraordinary instability of Spanish politics. Amadeo was instantly confronted with a cortes that regarded him as an outsider, even after it had elected him King; politicians conspired with and against him; and a 1872–1876 Third Carlist War erupted, chiefly in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. In February 1873, Amadeo declared the people of Spain "ungovernable" and abdicated.

First Spanish Republic (1873–1874)
Following Amadeo's abdication, the cortes proclaimed the First Spanish Republic.

Economic and social impact
The Napoleonic Wars had severe negative effects on Spain's economic development. The Peninsular war ravaged towns and countryside alike. There was a sharp decline in population in many areas, caused by casualties, outmigration, and disruption of family life. The demographic impact was the worst of any Spanish war. The marauding armies seized farmers' crops; more important, farmers lost much of their livestock, their main capital asset. Severe poverty was widespread, reducing market demand.

The disruption of local and international trade, and the shortages of critical inputs, seriously hurt industry and services. The loss of a vast colonial empire reduced overall wealth. Spain by 1820 had become one of Europe's poorest and least-developed societies. Illiteracy characterized three-fourths of the people. Natural resources such as coal and iron existed but the transportation system was rudimentary, with few canals and navigable rivers. Road travel was slow and expensive. British railroad builders were pessimistic about the potential for freight and passenger traffic and did not invest. Eventually a small railway system was built radiating from Madrid, and bypassing the natural resources.

The government relied on high tariffs, especially on grain, which further slowed economic development. For example, eastern Spain was unable to import inexpensive Italian wheat, and had to rely on expensive homegrown products carted in over poor roads. The export market collapsed apart from some agricultural products.

Historiography

 * Hamnett, Brian. "Spain and Portugal and the Loss of their Continental American Territories in the 1820s: An Examination of the Issues." European History Quarterly 41.3 (2011): 397–412.
 * Luengo, Jorge, and Pol Dalmau. "Writing Spanish history in the global age: connections and entanglements in the nineteenth century." Journal of global history 13.3 (2018): 425–445. online
 * Simal, Juan Luis. "«Strange Means of Governing»: The Spanish Restoration in European Perspective (1813–1820)." Journal of Modern European History 15.2 (2017): 197–220.

title: History of Spain (1808–1874)