Spain, A Republic! Alfonso XIII, An Exile!!

April 14, 1931. The Second Spanish Republic

Introduction

The Second Spanish Republic was the system of government in Spain between April 14, 1931 (when King Alfonso XIII left the country following local and municipal elections in which republican candidates won the majority of votes) and April 1, 1939, when the last of the Republican forces surrendered to National forces led by Francisco Franco at the end of the Spanish Civil War. 

On April 4, 1931, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Spain was proclaimed to enthusiastic crowds.  To a nation long victimized by malnutrition, illiteracy, unemployment...these were days of freedom. Social democrats, intellectuals,  peasants,  workers,  artists,  labour  unionists,  communists,  socialists, anarchists...all with the idea of a new society, worked tirelessly towards a Spain free of poverty, privilege and repression.

Alfonso XIII of Spain assumed power in 1902. He became increasingly autocratic and also prevented liberal reforms. After the Spanish defeat in the Moroccan War (1921) Alfonso was in constant conflict with Spanish politicians.  His anti-democratic views encouraged Miguel Primo de Rivera to lead a military coup in 1923. He promised to eliminate corruption and to regenerate Spain. In order to do this he suspended the constitution, established martial law and imposed a strict system of censorship.

Miguel Primo de Rivera initially said he would only rule for 90 days, however, he broke this promise and remained in power. Little social reform took place but he tried to reduce unemployment by spending money on public works. To pay for this Primo de Rivera introduced higher taxes on the rich.  When they complained he changed his policies and attempted to raise money by public loans.

This caused rapid inflation and he lost support of the army and was forced to resign in January 1930. In 1931 Alfonso XIII agreed to democratic elections. It was the first time for nearly sixty years that free elections had been allowed in Spain. When people voted overwhelmingly for a republic, Alfonso was advised that the only way to avoid violence was to go into exile. Alfonso agreed and left the country on 14th April, 1931.

The Second Republic (1931-1936)

The birth of the Second Republic was the key moment in modern Spanish history. The democratic project that the Republic was based on a roused great hopes in the nation. Nevertheless, five years later the country plunged itself into a gory civil war. The debate over the reasons for the failure of the Republic continues to be one of the most important debates in Spanish historiography today.  

The Republic was declared on 14 April 1931. A Provisional Government was established. It was presided over by Niceto Alcalá Zamora and formed by Republicans of all political slants as well as socialists and nationalists. The government was supposed to rule over the country until the new “Cortes Constituyentes” (a parliament whose main goal was to pass a new constitution) gave shape to the new political regime.  

The new government had to face a tense social environment. While the anarchist CNT promoted a widespread campaign of strikes, the most conservative wing of the Church clashed with the new government. The old sentiment of anticlericalism was flourishing once again and, in May 1931, various churches and convents were burned. The public opinion of the Catholic Church, which involved a significant number of Spaniards, distanced itself from the new republican regime.  

In June of 1931, a republican-socialist coalition triumphed in the elections of the parliamentary Courts. The new Constitution, passed in December 1931, reflected the ideas of the majority of the parliament.  

The constitution of 1931

The constitution of 1931 was the most progressive constitution that Spain had ever passed. It had the following main characteristics: 

-Popular sovereignty: The sovereignty (power) resided in the people and the new state was declared as “democratic Republic of workers of all classes.” 

-Universal suffrage: After a long, complex debate in the Courts, Spanish women obtained the right to vote for the first time in Spanish history. This established Spain as one of the first major European nations to grant women the right to vote or franchise. 

-An extensive declaration on rights and liberties, including the following: 

-Freedom of meeting, association, and expression 

-Civil rights: divorce, the insurance of the equality of legitimate and illegitimate children 

 -Right to education 

-Division of powers within the State: Cortes (legislative power), Government (executive power) and Judicial (tribunals and courts). The President of the Republic had fairly limited powers playing a similar role to our current king.  

-For the first time in Spanish history, regions were allowed to establish their own Home Rule (“Estatutos de Autonomía).  

-Establishment of a secular state: separation of church and state, which meant that the state stopped subsidizing the Catholic Church, and that the Church was prohibited to rule educational institutions and the absolute freedom of worship.

The Republican-Socialist two years (1931-1933)

A Republican-Socialist government presided over by Manuel Azaña, created a number of widespread reforms that tried to solve a series of problems that lingered on from the 19th century.  

-Social laws: these laws improved the work conditions of laborer’s and strengthened the unions 

-Extensive educational reforms: construction of almost 7,000 schools, co-education of boys and girls, and the end of religion as a mandatory subject taught in schools.  

-Military reform: these reforms sought to guarantee the loyalty of the military to the new regime. The military had to choose, either to take an oath of loyalty to the Republican constitution or to retire with full pay.

-The agrarian reform: this reform attempted to redistribute the ownership of land by permitting day laborers to become landowners. This greatly alarmed many landowners even though in practice very few plots of land were actually redistributed among day laborers. 

-Devolution to Catalonia: the central government granted certain powers to the Catalan region by passing a Home Rule Law (Estatuto de Autonomía). 

These reforms outraged the conservative opinion and again the military tried to take over power by a failed coup led by General Sanjurjo in 1932. At the same time, however, the reforms did not manage to live up to the hopes of the working classes.  

In November 1933, in a context of the economic crisis that prevailed over the country (depression of 1930s), the government called for elections in which the conservative forces—such as the Lerroux ́s Radical Party and Gil Robles ́Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas: CEDA)—came out on top.  

The Conservative two years (1933-1936)

After the elections, Lerroux, leader or the Republican Radical Party formed a government that needed the parliamentary support of the CEDA, the main party on the right. The new executive initiated a new rectification policy to reverse the reforms from the previous two years: 

-It stopped the agrarian reforms, with the consequent expulsion of the few day laborers who had occupied lands through these reforms. 

-It halted the military reforms and promoted clearly anti-Republican figures into important military positions. These figures included Franco, Goded, and Mola. 

 

-Political concessions to the Catholic Church 

-The government confronted Catalan and Basque nationalism. It rejected a project of Basque Country home rule in 1934 and clashed with the Catalonian Generalitat, (Catalan regional government).  

The Revolution of October of 1934

In a context of growing international tension -Hitler had just risen to power in Germany in 1933- the political confrontation reached levels that were difficult to sustain without the outbreak of some sort of conflict.  

The entrance of some CEDA ministers into the government in 1934 brought the left to the point of rebellion. Most left-wingers considered the CEDA’s presence in the government as the preface to a victory of fascism, since the CEDA’s youth organization displayed an almost fascist propaganda in the country. 

The ever-more radical left (PSOE, UGT, CNT the anarchist union, and the minority Communist Party or PCE) called for a general strike against the government.  

The movement was a failure in most parts of the country. In Barcelona, Companys, from his post of president of the Generalitat, led an uprising with clear secession undertones. 

The rebellion was quickly repressed by the military.  The worst conflict occurred in Asturias, where the general strike succeeded and resulted in a real revolution organized by the UGT and the CNT. The uprising ́s persistence led the national government to opt for a more brutal repression. The Legion, directed by Franco, was in charge of putting an end to the revolt. 

The outcome of the October Revolution  of 1934 was terrifying: there were 1.500-2.000 deaths, double the number of wounded, and 30,000 arrests made (among them were Companys and Azaña, who had not even supported the uprising, as well as the main leaders of the PSOE such as Prieto and Largo Caballero). 

Shortly afterwards, various corruption scandals in 1935 led Lerroux ́s government to call for another elections in February of 1936. Polls brought a win of the Popular Front (“Frente Popular”), a leftist coalition of parties, led by the Republican Manuel Azaña.

The Popular Front (February-July 1936)

The Popular Front, a coalition that brought together the forces of the left, won the elections of February 1936. The militant anarchist came out to vote in large numbers, which they had not done in 1933.  

Manuel Azaña was named President of the Republic and formed a government which was presided over by Casares Quiroga and which consisted exclusively of leftist republicans. The most moderate sector of the new government was the Popular Front. Socialists and Communists remained excluded from the government.

The new government, after passing an amnesty of the thousands of prisoners detained in the aftermath of the 1934 uprising, resumed the political reforms of the first two years of the Republic. The new government brought back the agrarian reform, reestablished the Catalonian Home Rule, and they began the debate over new autonomy statutes of Galicia and the Basque Country.  

Meanwhile, the social environment was becoming more and more tense. The workers on the left had taken on a more revolutionary slant and the right was seeking a way to carry out a military coup that would put an end to the democratic system. The moderates and the democrats were trying to maintain a constitutional and democratic regime but found that they were quite helpless in fighting the current that was carrying the country towards civil war.  

From the month of April onwards, a number of violent clashes took place on the streets.

Meanwhile, a great section of the military plotted against the Republic. The democracy lived its last few days in Spain.  

Bibliography: 

The 2nd Republic and the Civil War (1931-1936) by Ocaña Aybar, J.C.

Spain, facts, culture, history & points of interest. Primo de Rivera (1923-1930) and the Second Republic (1931-1936) Britannica.com

Women in Spain's Second. Republic and Civil War. Madorrán Ayerra, C. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. 

Women and Politics in Spain. Pardell, A. Lleida University. 

 

Spanish Civil War: History and Education. The Second Republic. Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archive.

The Second Republic 1931–1936. Beth Radcliff, P.

Anarchism, the Republic and Civil War in Spain: 1931–1939. Casanova, J. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data