Arsenio Martínez Campos (born December 14, 1831, Segovia, Spain—died September 23, 1900, Zarauz) was a general and politician whose pronunciamiento (military revolution) on December 29, 1874, restored Spain’s Bourbon dynasty.
Martínez Campos received a military education and after 1852 served on Spain’s general staff. A competent soldier, he took part in the international expedition of General Juan Prim to Mexico (1861) and fought Cuban rebels (until 1872). On his return to Spain, he briefly taught military science and then was sent to put down rebellions in Valencia (1872), Alicante, and Cartagena.
After Alfonso XII, the son of the deposed Isabella II, had declared Spain a constitutional monarchy (November 24, 1874), and other generals disillusioned with the republic had rallied to him, Alfonso took the throne following Martínez Campos’s pronunciamiento. Martínez Campos then took command of Alfonso’s forces against the Carlists, made the fighting less brutal by signing agreements protecting the lives of the wounded and prisoners, and brought about the end of the civil war (February 1876). His humane policy, which he then applied in Cuba, ended the 10-year rebellion there on February 10, 1878, with the Peace of Zanjón.
On his return from Cuba, Martínez Campos served briefly as prime minister in 1879 and two years later as minister of war. After war broke out in Morocco (September 1893), he was put in command and succeeded in negotiating the Treaty of Marrakech (January 29, 1894). The following year he was sent to Cuba again but failed to win over the rebels. He resigned and returned to Spain (1896).