1833 territorial division of Spain

The 1833 territorial division of Spain divided Spain into provinces, classified into "historic regions" (Spanish: regiones históricas). Many of these regions correspond to present-day autonomous communities of Spain and nearly all of the provinces retain roughly or precisely these borders, although five provinces have changed their names to reflect local languages other than Castilian Spanish and three to match the name of a coterminous autonomous community.

Immediately after the death of King Ferdinand VII on September 29 1833, the regent Maria Christina attempted to find a moderate third way between the absolutist Carlists—the followers of the Infante Carlos—and the liberals. This mission was given to First Secretary of State Francisco Cea Bermúdez, leader of a government that lasted only into the following January, having been unable to satisfy either side, let alone both. Despite his vain efforts to gain the support of either the liberals or the Carlists, his government undertook a major reform of the territorial division of Spain whose effects are still felt after more than a century-and-a-half: the division of Spain into provinces.

A royal decree of 20 November 1833 ratified a plan put forth by Javier de Burgos, secretary of state for development (secretario de estado de Fomento), which created the basis for a centralized state divided into 49 provinces. All but four of the provinces received the name of their capital cities; those four—Navarre with its capital at Pamplona, Álava with Vitoria, Gipuzkoa with San Sebastián, and Biscay (Spanish: Vizcaya) with Bilbao—reflected long standing entities, and retained their historic names.

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