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Spain History - 2nd Republic - (1931 - 1939)
For the next five years the power swayed between the political views
of the right and left and more often as not blood was
shed. The first two years saw radical social changes under the
control of the left of centre parties, then two years influenced by
the right of centre parties, and finally a period of
approximately six months of the Popular Front. Due to the
pressures from the right and left parties, the middle class
Spaniards democratic centre who were never allowed to gain
sufficient control to introduce the stability the country needed.
The initial government was composed of left-Republicans,
right-Republicans, Socialists and the Regionalists. To lead this
mixture a lawyer by the name of Niceto Alcalá Zamora was elected as
the Prime Minister. Within a period of just three months the royal
flag was replaced, a new national anthem composed, and important
streets and squares renamed. Perhaps the Carlist Pretender, Don
Jaime, was the first to bring the honeymoon period to an end by
calling his supporters to arms. There followed an orgy of church
burning and general looting throughout the country with the
anarchists taking an active part.
The June elections in 1931 showed that the Socialists were
the most voted party out of a maze of a total of 27elected parties.
On July the 14th a collection of 123 lawyers, 41 doctors, 65
professors and 24 workmen opened their first democratically elected
Republican Parliament. The Socialist leader was Largo Caballera and
his nearest rivals being Lerroux of the Radicals and Manuel Azaña
of the Republican Action party. Their first important matter to
attend to was to prepare a new Constitution which immediately
created rifts between the different parties. The Article 26 of this
Constitution stated that Spain was no longer officially Catholic and
it would be forbidden to teach religion in any form. New additions
to this law were later introduced such as forbidding religious
processions and the ringing of church bells. The Prime Minister at
first resigned in disgust only to return in December when the
Constitution had been accepted by Parliament, taking up the post of
President and naming Azaña as the new Prime Minister.
The various articles of the new Constitution successfully split the
country in two with one side finding the new rules to be "too
new", and the other half finding them "not new
enough". There were pockets of support form various segments of
the public such as the poor peasants of Andalucía who were told
that property was to be "the object of expropriation for social
utility". In the 1930s about one per cent of the owners
controlled 42 per cent of the land in Andalucía. In a period of two
years 12,000 families received land but the negative effect was that
overall cultivated land dropped by 750,000 acres.
Catalonia enjoyed under the new government almost a state of
independence and was controlled by an elected council named Generalitat with its
own president, flag, parliament and tax system. The Basques were
ready and waiting for a similar form of independence. A right-wing
revolt was planned in the summer of 1932 but failed before taking
effect. During this period there were outburst of violence in most parts
of the country and general effects of the Great Depression were now
being felt in the industrial towns an by the end of 1933 unemployment
reached a level of 600.000. The capitalist and financiers also found
the new style of Spain was not to their liking as it was greatly affecting their income.
In 1933 a new election with women for the first time taking part
brought a swing in favour of the right wing parties. The leading
party was CEDA led by José Maria Gil Robles that consisted of
catholic fractions, monarchists and Carlists. The left wing
Republicans were furious and President Alcalá appointed Lerroux of
the Radicals as the new Prime Minister as a counter measure.
Instability was back in force and effective government was virtually
non-existent. New influences appeared on the scene with the Spanish
Communists growing for the first time in numbers form their original
1,000 members. Another and equally important party was the appearance of the Falange which was run on the popular Fascist
principles that were then sweeping across Europe. The leader José
Antonio was the son of the previous dictator Primo de Rivera.
By summer of 1934 there were the Communists and the Falangists were almost involved in a street war for power. Both the Cátalans and
the Asturias were strongly resentful of the CEDA (Spanish Confederation of the
Autonomous Right-Wing), participating in the government. The UGT called for a
general strike and then declared that Catalonia was an independent
state within a Spanish Federal Republic. Somehow this uprising
was crushed with the exception of the Asturias where communism was
at its strongest. One of the leaders was to become internationally know as
La Pasionaria (Dolores Ibarruri) for her heroism and passionate
speeches. Upon receiving reports of priests being murdered and similar atrocities the government sent the Spanish Foreign Legion to
the Asturias to deal brutally with the problem. Ironically, in the
Legion were Moroccan Moors who were now to crush the one region
never conquered in history by the Moors. They were led by General
Millan Astay and under his command was Francisco Franco. When the
Legion had finished establishing control they left behind over 2,000 dead and thousands
more either in jail or injured.
By this time there were over 30,000 opponents to the government in
jail including two opposition leaders, Azaña and Largo Caballero.
Adding potential danger to the situation was a secret society formed
by junior army officers and named the UME in 1933. In 1935 the
now General Franco was appointed as the Army Chief-of-Staff, and
Spain waited to see what the army would do, but Franco adopted his
soon to become familiar practice of waiting in the background before
making any move. An election in February of 1936 decided the strategy of both
sides, the left Popular Front of mainly
Communists representing generally the workers and the anarchists and
idealists, and the right as the National Front representing the
conservatives, nationalists, Fascists, Catholics and many of the
northern rural population. The centre parties were quickly losing
their appeal with the exception of the ever independent Basques
nationalists. There was some 70 per cent turnout and the coalition
of the Popular Front won the majority.
The right reacted with shock and General Franco offered the support
of the army to the interim Prime Minister should he decide not to
hand over his position to the incomers. However this offer was
apparently rejected and the last elected government for the next 40
years took their seats in the parliament. Azaña took over the reins
of power and Generals such as Franco were posted to remote garrisons
and political prisoners were released. The leader of the Falange
party was arrested in March and sent to a jail in Alicante. Daily
and violent uprisings became the headlines and by mid-June Gil
Robles publicly charged parliament that they were seriously
failing in their duty to Spain. He questionably stated that "there have been 269 political murders, 1,287 injured, 341
strikes, and 400 churches destroyed or damaged". On 11th of
July Calvo Sotelo also verbally attacked the failures of the new
government, and a few days later he was assassinated by off-duty
policemen for his troubles. On Friday July the 14th in 1936, the
army garrison in Melilla in North Africa revolted and this was
followed the next day by other garrisons in Spain - the army
had been waiting and planning for some time for the right moment!.
Thus began the horrific Spanish Civil War which was too cost so many
Spanish people their lives.
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