Second Spanish Republic
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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 (republicanas) forces surrendered to National (nacionales) forces led by Francisco Franco at the end of the Spanish Civil War.
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1931 Constitution
The Second Spanish Republic came to power in April 1931 following the economic crisis of the 1929 Wall Street Crash. The resulting new economic situation led to the downfall of General Miguel Primo de Rivera's government on January 29, 1930. Popular sympathy for the monarchy was greatly affected because of his support for Primo de Rivera’s dictatorial regime.
His Majesty Alfonso XIII was sidelined by the Spanish people. For the working class he was the symbol of oppression and middle class would not forgive or forget dictorial Primo de Rivera, even the royalty and ruling class considered that his continuity was not an option. General Damaso Berenguer, handpicked by general Primo de Rivera led a new government and tried unsuccessfully to return to the democratic landscape prior to the dictatorship, but popular support was impossible. In the summer of 1930 there was a pact between various sectors of the "new" Republicanism.
The "Pact of San Sebastian" was the key to the transition from monarchy to republic. The Republicans of all tendencies are committed to the "Pact of San Sebastian" in overthrowing the monarchy and establishing a republic. The Restoration regime of the Bourbons was totally rejected and large sectors of the population were strongly against the King. The pact, signed by representatives of the main Republican forces allowed a joint anti-monarchy political campagne that ended with the suspension in the exercise of Royal power on April 17, 1931 self-proclaimed by the monarch who immediately exiled himself.[1]
The king's departure led to a provisional government under Niceto Alcalá-Zamora, and a constituent Cortes which drew up a new constitution, adopted on December 9, 1931.
The new constitution established freedom of speech and freedom of association, extended suffrage to women, allowed divorce, largely disestablished the Catholic Church, and stripped the Spanish nobility of any special legal status.
The legislative branch was changed to a single chamber called the Congreso de los Diputados.
The constitution established legal procedures for the nationalisation of public services such as land, banks and railways. The constitution provided generally accorded thorough civil liberties and representation, a major exception being the rights of Catholics.[2]
The 1931 Constitution was formally effective from 1931 until 1939. In the summer of 1936, after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, it became a dead letter, as the authority of the Republic was superseded in many places by revolutionary socialist and anarchist juntas.[3]
The Republican Constitution also changed the symbols of the country. The Himno de Riego was established as the National Anthem and the Tricolour, with three horizontal red-yellow-purple fields, became the flag of Spain. Under the new Constitution, all of Spain's regions had the right to autonomy. Catalonia (1932) and the Basque Country (1936) exercised this right, with Andalucía, Aragón and Galicia in talks before the breakout of the Civil War. Overall, in spite of a wide range of liberties, the Constitution failed to agree in key areas with the conservative right, which was very rooted in rural areas, and the Roman Catholic Church, which was stripped of schools and public subsidies under the new Constitution. (For the later constitution, see Spanish Constitution of 1978.)
1934-1935 period and miners' uprising
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The majority vote in the 1934 elections was won by CEDA, led by José María Gil Robles, a coalition of centre-right and far-right parties. CEDA set up a coalition with the Radical Republican Party led by Alejandro Lerroux, which had come second in the elections. The Socialists came third. With Lerroux as head of Government, the new coalition Executive suspended most of the reforms of the previous government.
The inclusion of three CEDA ministers in the government that took office on October 1, 1934 led to a general strike and a rebellion by socialists and anarchists in Asturias on October 6. Miners in Asturias occupied the capital, Oviedo, killing officials and clergymen and burning theatres and the University. This rebellion lasted for two weeks until it was crushed by the army, led by General Francisco Franco, who in the process destroyed large parts of the city. This operation earned Franco the nickname "Butcher of Asturias". Another rebellion by autonomists in Catalonia was also suppressed, and was followed by mass arrests and trials.
The suspension of the land reforms that had been attempted by the previous government, and the failure of the Asturias miners' uprising, led to a more radical turn by the parties of the left, especially in the PSOE (Socialist Party), where the moderate Indalecio Prieto lost ground to Francisco Largo Caballero, who advocated a socialist revolution. At the same time the involvement of the Centrist government party in the Straperlo scandal deeply weakened it, further polarising political differences between right and left. These differences became evident in the 1936 elections.
1936 elections
On January 7, 1936, new elections were called. Despite significant rivalries and disagreements the Socialists, Communists, and the Catalan and Madrid-based left-wing Republicans decided to work together under the name Popular Front. The Popular Front won the election on February 16 with 263 MPs against 156 right-wing MPs, grouped within a coalition of the National Front with CEDA, Carlists and Monarchists. The moderate centre parties virtually disappeared; between the elections, Lerroux's group fell from the 104 representatives it had in 1934 to just 9.
In the following months there was increasing violence between left and right. This helped development of the Fascist-inspired Falange Española, a National party led by José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the son of the former dictator, Miguel Primo de Rivera. Although it had only taken 0.7 per cent of the votes in the election, by July 1936 the Falange had 40,000 members.
Castillo and Calvo Sotelo assassinations
On July 12 1936, Lieutenant José Castillo, an important member of the anti-fascist military organisation Unión Militar Republicana Antifascista (UMRA), was murdered by Falangist gunmen. In retaliation the following day, July 13, UMRA members shot José Calvo Sotelo, leader of the right-wing opposition and the most prominent Spanish monarchist who, describing the government's actions as Bolshevist and Anarchist, had been exhorting the army to violence, declaring that Spanish soldiers "would be mad not to rise for Spain against anarchy".
The Right blamed the government for Calvo Sotelo's assassination. Although it is sometimes considered the catalyst for the further political polarisation that ensued, the Falange and other right-wing conspirators, including Juan de la Cierva, had already been conspiring to launch a military coup d'état against the government, to be led by senior army officers.[4] When the antifascist Castillo and the pro-Fascist Calvo Sotelo were buried on the same day July 14 in the same Madrid cemetery, fighting between the Police Assault Guard and fascist militias broke out in the surrounding streets, resulting in four more deaths.
Three days later (July 17), the planned coup d'état began more or less as it had been planned, with an army uprising in Spanish Morocco which then spread to several regions of the country. But the army uprising met with serious resistance, which led it into to a full-blown civil war with the legitimately elected government in Madrid.
Civil War
On July 17, 1936, Gen. Franco led the colonial army from Morocco to attack the mainland, while another force from the north under General Emilio Mola moved south from Navarre. Military units were also mobilised elsewhere to take over government institutions. Franco's move was intended to seize power immediately, but successful resistance by Republicans in places such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, the Basque country, and elsewhere meant that Spain faced a prolonged civil war. Before long, much of the south and west was under the control of the Nationals, whose regular Army of Africa was the most professional force available to either side. Both sides received foreign military aid, the Nationals from the major European Axis powers, namely Italy and Germany, as well as neighbouring Portugal, the Republicans from the USSR, Mexico, and communist-organised volunteers in the International Brigades.
The Siege of the Alcázar at Toledo early in the war was a turning point, with the Nationals winning after a long siege. The Republicans managed to hold out in Madrid, despite a National assault in November 1936, and frustrated subsequent offensives against the capital at Jarama and Guadalajara in 1937. Soon, though, the Nationals began to erode their territory, starving Madrid and making inroads into the east. The north, including the Basque country, fell in late 1937, and the Aragon front collapsed shortly afterwards. The bombing of Guernica was probably the most infamous event of the war and inspired Picasso's painting. It was used as a testing ground for the German Luftwaffe's Condor Legion. The Battle of the Ebro in July-November 1938 was the final desperate attempt by the Republicans to turn the tide. When this failed and Barcelona fell to the Nationals in early 1939, it was clear the war was over. The remaining Republican fronts collapsed and Madrid fell in March 1939.
In exile
A Spanish Republican government in Exile was immediately formed in Mexico City. The legislature was last reunited on November 9, 1945, in Mexico City, to elect the President Diego Martinez Barrio, and gave a vote of confidence to the government of José Giral. In 1946, after the end of World War II, the offices were transferred to Paris. Many states withdrew recognition when the Spanish State was admitted to United Nations, in 1953, after the repeal of the ban on diplomatic missions imposed on the Franco regime.
On July 15, 1977, the day of the first free elections in Spain since 1936, José Maldonado Gonzalez, last President of the Republic, recognized the elections and declared the dissolution of the Spanish Republic.
Conclusion
The Second Republic existed during a period of worldwide economic depression, and the resulting high unemployment and poverty led to dissatisfaction with the republican government as well as traditional centers of power, such as the Church, landowners, and the nobility. In the ensuing civil unrest, violence in the form of assassination, revolutionary general strikes, and mob actions increased dangerously.
In the context of the rise of totalitarian government, especially Nazism in Germany, Fascism in Italy and Communism in the Soviet Union, political discourse became increasingly polarized. Rather than working towards consensus between political forces, politicians leaned towards radicalization and resorted to violence: by 1936, politicians such as Largo Caballero called openly for a "bloody workers' Revolution".
The murders of the leftist military leader Castillo and the rightist politician Calvo Sotelo opened the way to a rapidly increasing flood of violence between the political left and right. There remains to the present day controversy and debate over whether responsibility for the initial violence and its escalation rests with the political left or the political right.
Arguments have been made that rightist elements initiated the coup d'état against the increasingly ungovernable Republic in response to the threats of communism, anarchism, anti-clericalism, and the violence that accompanied these trends. Conversely, it is also asserted by others, such as the historian Helen Graham, that the nationalist revolt was in essence a betrayal of the Republic and an attempt by the formerly powerful to violently reassert their authority. Regardless of the attribution of blame or responsibility, history bears evidence to the fact that from 1936 Spain entered a chaotic period of incredible violence and brutality in which not only partisans of the right and left but also ordinary citizens bore the burden of war, poverty, and murder.
Further reading
- Gerald Brenan, The Spanish Labyrinth: An Account of the Social and Political Background of the Spanish Civil War (1943)
- Raymond Carr, ed. The Republic and the Civil War in Spain (1971)
- Raymond Carr, Spain 1808-1975 (1982)
References
- ↑ Mariano Ospina Peña, La II República Española, caballerosandantes.net/videoteca.php?action=verdet&vid=89
- ↑ Payne, Stanley G. (1973). "A History of Spain and Portugal (Print Edition)". University of Wisconsin Press (Library of Iberian resources online): 632. http://libro.uca.edu/payne2/payne25.htm. Retrieved 30 May 2007.
- ↑ Payne, Stanley G. (1973). "A History of Spain and Portugal (Print Edition)". University of Wisconsin Press (Library of Iberian resources online): 646–47. http://libro.uca.edu/payne2/payne26.htm. Retrieved 15 May 2007.
- ↑ Antony Beevor. The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. p. 51
External links
- Constitución de la República Española (1931)
- Pro-Republic, 75th Anniversary Manifiesto (Spanish)
- Original article from the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in "The Guardian" archives.
- History of the republic and the victory of the Popular Front in elections
- [1] Video La II República Española (Spanish)