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At the beginning of the 19th century, the Napoleonic invasion and consequent reaction of resistance left a deep mark in the economy and people of the province.

The events lived by the country from the return of Fernando VII had great after-effects in Malaga, such as the execution of Torrijos and his followers on the beaches of San Andres, the revolts against the Royal Statue, the participation in the Gloriosa and the events of the Republic and the cantonal insurrection. But parallel to this, Malaga knew a notable economic boom in the 19th century in which the commercial activity of the port intervened, the wine production, citrics, raisins, dried fruits and sugar, and the creation of large industries and businesses: refineries, textile factories, wine cellars, dockyards, and even ironworks.

Also in the 19th century, social phenomenons occurred in the province which reflect their turbulence. It is enough to remind of the banditry which especially extended over the Ronda highland, the anarchism which had violent manifestations in Malaga during the cantonal insurrection. The Malaga bourgeoisie was no obstacle for the Catalan or Basque style nationalism, but there was a certain kind of andalusianism protected by the medium and small bourgeoisie, which although it wasn’t established, must be emphasized in the history of Malaga, as the most important propagator was Blas Infante, a native of Casares.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the province continued to live a situation which didn’t favour its development, such as the Phyloxera plague at the end of the 19th century, which destroyed most of the vines, or the earthquake, also at the end of the 19th century, which caused great losses in the Axarquia region. Also the incipient iron and steel industry began to weaken due to the lack of coal and the technological backwardness which finally closed it down. And as if all this was not enough, the consequences of the civil war in 1936 was the last straw which submerged the province into a long period of economic suspension. It was in the 60’s and the first part of the 70’s that through tourism, the economic activity was reactivated in an important way, provoking important migration movements in the interior of the province, with the agricultural population moving to the construction and hostelry sector and a notable transformation of the coastal territory.