Spanish statesman and prime minister whose anticlerical “Padlock Law” forbade the establishment of new religious orders and introduced obligatory military service.

Canalejas's political career began with his election to the Cortes (parliament) in 1881 for the district of Soria. In the following years, Canalejas represented the districts of Agreda, Algeciras, and Alcoy and Madrid. He was undersecretary to the presidency (1883), minister of public works and of justice (1888), minister of finance (1894–95), and co-minister of agriculture, industry, and commerce (1902). He became prime minister after the fall of the government of Segismundo Moret (February 1910). Although he presided over liberal governments under the monarchy, Canalejas always showed democratic tendencies, leaning toward radicalism on some issues. In 1906 he began an anticlerical campaign when he discovered that secret negotiations had been conducted with the Vatican. The campaign culminated with his anticlerical legislation when he became chief of the government.

After the French entry into Fès, Morocco, in 1910, Canalejas ordered (1911) the occupation of Larache, Alcázar, and Arcila by Spanish troops, but in 1912 he was forced to make an agreement that further reduced the Spanish Zone of Morocco. He presented a proposal for a law calling for a joint legislature for the four Catalan provinces with a small degree of autonomy, but he died before the law was passed.

Canalejas tried to add a social-reform emphasis to Spanish liberalism, similar to that of Giovanni Giolitti (Giolitti, Giovanni) in Italy and David Lloyd George (Lloyd George, David) in Britain. He was assassinated by an anarchist in 1912.