Spanish Parliament in the context of Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid

The Philippine Revolution (Filipino: Himagsikang Pilipino or Rebolusyong Pilipino; Spanish: Revolución Filipina or Guerra Tagala) was a war of independence waged by the revolutionary organization Katipunan against the Spanish Empire from 1896 to 1898. It was the culmination of the 333-year colonial rule of Spain in the archipelago. The Philippines was one of the last major colonies of the Spanish Empire, which had already suffered a massive decline in the 1820s. Cuba rebelled in 1895, and in 1898, the United States intervened and the Spanish soon capitulated. In June, Philippine revolutionaries declared independence. However, it was not recognized by Spain, which sold the islands to the United States in the Treaty of Paris.

Led by Andrés Bonifacio, the Katipunan was formed in secrecy in 1892 in the wake of the nascent La Liga Filipina, an organization created by Filipino nationalist José Rizal and others in Spain with goals of Philippine representation to the Spanish Parliament. Katipunan soon gained influence across the islands, and sought an armed revolution. However, that revolution started prematurely in August 1896 upon its discovery by Spanish authorities in Manila. The organization soon declared war against Spain in Caloocan. Early battles and skirmishes were centered around sieging the capital city of Manila led by Bonifacio himself, which ultimately failed. However, revolutionaries in the neighboring provinces fared better, particularly in Cavite, where rebels led by Mariano Álvarez and cousins Baldomero and Emilio Aguinaldo won early major victories. This disparity in success, along with multiple factors, contributed to the eventual power struggle from within Katipunan's leadership. Two factions formed: Bonifacio's Magdiwang and Aguinaldo's Magdalo. This struggle culminated in the 1897 elections in Tejeros, which saw Emilio Aguinaldo elected as president in absentia. Bonifacio nullified the results after a Magdalo member questioned his election as the Secretary of the Interior. This resulted in a schism, with Bonifacio's supporters alleging that the elections were fraudulent, with Bonifacio himself refusing to recognize the results. In April 1897, Aguinaldo ordered the arrest of Bonifacio. A trial was set in Maragondon, where the Magdalo-led jury found Bonifacio and his brother Procopio guilty of treason, sentencing both of them to death. Despite calls for commuting the sentence for the sake of national unity, the brothers were executed in May 1897. Later that year, Aguinaldo's government and Spanish authorities signed the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, which temporarily reduced hostilities. Filipino revolutionary officers exiled themselves to Hong Kong. However, the hostilities never completely ceased.

The Katipunan (lit. 'Association'), officially known as the Kataastaasan Kagalanggalang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (lit. 'Supreme and Venerable Association of the Children of the Nation'; Spanish: Suprema y Venerable Asociación de los Hijos del Pueblo) and abbreviated as the KKK, was a revolutionary organization founded in 1892 by a group of Filipino nationalists Deodato Arellano, Andrés Bonifacio, Valentin Diaz, Ladislao Diwa, José Dizon, and Teodoro Plata. Its primary objective was achieving independence from the Spanish Empire through an armed revolution. It was formed as a secret society before its eventual discovery by Spanish authorities in August 1896. This discovery led to the start of the Philippine Revolution.

Historians generally place the date of its founding in July 1892 shortly after the arrest and deportation of Filipino author and nationalist José Rizal to Dapitan in Mindanao. Rizal was one of the founders of the nascent La Liga Filipina, which aimed for a Filipino representation to the Spanish Parliament. Many members of the Katipunan, including Bonifacio himself, were members of that organization. However, recent discovery of documents of the organization suggest that the Katipunan may have been around by January 1892 but became active by July.

The 2004 Madrid train bombings (also known in Spain as 11M for 11 de marzo) were a series of coordinated, nearly simultaneous bombings against the Cercanías commuter train system of Madrid, Spain, on the morning of 11 March 2004—three days before Spain's general elections. The explosions killed 193 people and injured around 2,500. The bombings constituted the deadliest terrorist attack carried out in the history of Spain and the deadliest in Europe since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 in Scotland. The attacks were carried out by radical Islamists who opposed Spanish indirect involvement in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

Controversy regarding the handling and representation of the bombings by the government arose, with Spain's two main political parties—the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and the Partido Popular (PP)—accusing each other of concealing or distorting evidence for electoral reasons. The bombings occurred three days before general elections in which incumbent Prime Minister José María Aznar's PP was defeated. Immediately after the bombing, leaders of the PP claimed evidence indicating the Basque separatist organization ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) was responsible for the bombings, while the opposition claimed that the PP was trying to prevent the public from knowing it had been an Islamist attack, which would be interpreted as the direct result of Spain's involvement in Iraq, an unpopular war which the government had entered without the approval of the Spanish Parliament. The scale and precise planning of the attacks reared memories of the September 11 attacks.