Although the French were expelled in 1814, there was little sign of a return to stability as battle lines were drawn between progressives and conservatives. Although the disputes were initially confined to the intellectuals and politicians, they spread throughout society, creating the divisions which scar the country to the present day.

Madrid, meanwhile, continued to expand northwards and at the start of the twentieth century the monumental avenue of Gran Vía and the opulent suburb of Salamanca were added to the city.

The quirky and highly enjoyable Museo Nacional de Romanticismo and the Museo Cerralbo both provide a window on the lifestyle of the city elites of this period.

20th-Century

Although Spain remained neutral in the First World War and experienced a brief post-war boom, problems were always close to the surface. Political in-fighting gave way to dictatorship under Miguel Primo de Rivera who sidelined King Alfonso XIII and further polarised Spanish society. Madrid became a hotbed of radicalism in the early 1930s and there were wild celebrations when a republic was proclaimed in 1931, but it was a false dawn and the increasingly restless Right finally staged a military uprising in 1936 that triggered the bloody events of the Civil War.