Spain’s Early 20th Century Turmoil: From Crisis to Dictatorship
The Crisis of 1909 and 1917
Liberals faced the Catalan issue. After the victory in the municipal elections, a confrontation arose between Catalan and Spanish factions within the Lliga environment. This led Montero Ríos to enact the Law of Jurisdictions (1906), whereby crimes against the army and its honor would be tried by the military. This involved the violation of rights and freedoms, facilitating the union of all Catalan forces into Catalan Solidarity. Among conservatives, a power struggle emerged between Maura and Villaverde, with Maura winning. Maura’s government (1907-1909) aimed to eliminate despotism, establishing compulsory voting, creating the INP (National Institute of Provision), and implementing a protectionist policy. His term ended after the “Tragic Week” of 1909. The war in Morocco forced the call-up of Catalan reservists. State workers went on strike, and the movement expanded, fueled by anti-clericalism, anti-militarism, and anti-war sentiments. The lack of clear direction led to the burning of convents and the formation of barricades in Barcelona. This was followed by the execution of Ferrer i Guardia, founder of the Modern School, accused of armed rebellion and instigating the revolt under the Law of Jurisdictions. This anti-Maura reaction, led by liberal and leftist factions, resulted in Maura’s downfall and the breakdown of the peaceful rotation system. Maura left the Conservative Party and refused to participate further in the political shift. The government aimed to divert workers’ agitation against the Church, avoiding harm to bourgeois interests, stopping rebels from acting against the Church without protecting it. The Canalejas government (1910-1912) faced several problems:
The Religious Issue
The “Padlock Law” forbade the establishment of new religious orders in Spain for two years. The left sought greater separation of church and state, which was not achieved due to Vatican opposition.
The Catalan Question
The Associations Act, enacted by Dato in 1913, allowed Catalonia some autonomy to organize its administration and common services, calming the Catalan political scene.
The Social Question
The government reached out to socialism in some cases and acted vigorously in others.
The Military Question
Canalejas abolished the practice of substituting military service with monetary payment during wartime, implementing compulsory military service and seeking to avoid merit-based promotions in war. He also attempted to replace consumption tax with a progressive tax on urban incomes, tried to rebuild the Covenant of El Pardo, and initiated an agreement on the Moroccan Protectorate. After Canalejas’s death, dynastic reformism lost strength, and the lack of leadership led to internal fragmentation of parties. The Conservative government of Eduardo Dato rose in 1913, creating the Ministry of Labor and pushing through the Mancomunitat Catalan. In 1914, World War I broke out. Dato maintained Spanish neutrality, favoring economic growth. Many merchants, industrialists, and speculators got rich while workers endured high prices and low wages. Public opinion was divided between aliadófilos and Germanophiles. General discontent led to a social, political, and military crisis. The crisis began with the Juntas, a manifesto in June 1917 blaming the government for the country’s ills and calling for political renewal. This opposition believed the army could join a reform movement, but differing interests prevailed. Dato’s government pact with the military, suspended constitutional guarantees, and closed the Parliament before the alliance of Socialists and Republicans in June could impose a government of Melquíades Álvarez, who intended to convene a Constituent Assembly. In response, Cambó, a leader of the Catalan League, organized the Parliamentary Assembly in Barcelona, bringing together regionalist reformers, socialists, and radicals who wanted to convene a Constituent Cortes. The government banned the meeting, which was dissolved. Following the August labor strike, the bourgeoisie feared a social explosion. The last episode of the crisis was the general strike of workers in August 1917, triggered by wage reductions due to inflation. The UGT and CNT threatened the government to intervene and control prices. The tension erupted in August 1917 following a railway dispute in Valencia, aiming to overthrow the regime and convene a Constituent Assembly. The strike failed. The end of the war aggravated the crisis, and between 1918 and 1923, there was great political instability. Constant recourse to emergency measures and concentration cabinets succeeded one another every few months, causing discontent among members of the ruling parties. Strikes and violence followed: a resurgence of anarchist terrorism, lock-outs, the formation of Free Trade Unions, the repression of Martínez Anido in Barcelona, and the “Bolshevik Triennium” in Andalusia. The CNT and UGT grew, spreading strikes. The war in Morocco continued. The army took a greater role in political life as a repressor of revolutionary episodes. The Kabyle Berbers were tribes of the Atlas region, partly in the territory of present-day Morocco and partly in the current territory of Algeria.
The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera
Facing social unrest, the problem of Morocco, and Catalan nationalist aspirations, the Canovist system had two choices: democratize the Restoration system or turn to dictatorship. Sectors of the bourgeoisie and the King favored the second option. The King and intellectuals viewed the military coup of Primo de Rivera in September 1923 favorably. The dictatorship was conceived as a transitional regime to clean up politics and national finances but became permanent due to the dictator’s lust for power, justified by the need to address political corruption, social unrest, and threats to national unity. The army and the King sought to avoid accountability for the Disaster of Annual. They aimed to prevent the possible democratization of the Canovist regime. The coup was possible because it had the support of the bourgeoisie, while workers did not mobilize. The dictatorship can be divided into two phases:
1) The Military Directorate (September 1923-December 1925)
Constitutional rule was suspended, and political and trade union activities were banned. The government ruled by decree, and the administration was militarized. Internal peace was achieved thanks to the collaboration of the PSOE and UGT. Efforts were made to settle political chieftaincy, developing the Municipal Statute and Provincial Statute. Councils were dissolved, and members were appointed by provincial governors. The Patriotic Union was created, a political organization to serve as a social support system, an amalgam of Catholics, monarchists, conservatives, and Maurists. The pacification of Morocco was fully achieved in 1927, thanks to French collaboration.
2) The Civil Directory
. In seeking to perpetuate civilians were appointed as ministers attempt to institutionalize the regime in 1927 by a National Consultative Assembly failed because of opposition intellectuals, academics and politicians. It also created the National Corporate Organization, creating joint committees with equal numbers of workers and employers.This period coincides with a general economic expansion. Important public works were carried out with the construction of roads and railways, dams for hydroelectric energy production, affordable homes and the holding of international exhibitions as CAMPSA emergence of monopolies. In the last moments of the dictatorship is over the period of economic boom, the crisis of 1929, and increased labor unrest opposition to the regime was growing and coming from various sectors: 1In the beginning army disunity following the artillery gun reform. 2In the political arena there was a failure. The opposition came from the old turnismo sectors of the Republican and the majority of intellectuals. Students are also opposed to the government’s university reform, causing riots, support for the WAS and the closure of the university. 3The Catalan opposition was becoming stronger. Settlement of the Town Community in 1925, banning public use of Catalan, the Sardana .. King calls on Primo de Rivera he left office. After the fall of the dictatorship, there were two military-led interim government, the “soft dictatorship” of Berenguer and Aznar. Berenguer government should make the promised return to constitutional normality, but its slowness led the opposition to organize and Republicans, socialists and Catalan left signed the Pact of San Sebastian in August 1930 in February 1931 as the Aznar government , who attempted a return to parliamentary government. Convene a municipal election on April 12 to return to the municipalities. 16.4. Consequences of the war three years 1 – The division of Spain in two, the winners and vencidos.No attempted a reconciliation. 2 – The loss of democracy and freedoms and the imposition of a dictatorship for almost forty years. 3 – Serious economic damage and the entire apparatus productivo.No a reconstruction program was not being allies of the victors. 4 – A post-war isolation and starvation, due to the outbreak of World War II, the destruction of the country since the defeat in World War were Franco’s allies. Until the 50 Spain will not emerge from international isolation and thanks to the Cold War. 5 – Accumulate more social and economic backwardness compared to Western Europe, with the nationalist and autarkic economic policies, thereby preventing the entrance to the dictatorship into the Common Market 6 – Loss of the best of the intellectuals who sympathized with the Second Republic. Some were repressed during the war, others had to exile 7 – Losses population, both the casualties caused by the conflict, as the fierce repression, for exile. The Republicans were essentially exiled to France, where they met and where war many returned to fight. A party were arrested by the Nazis and ended up shot or imprisoned in concentration camps. Another group sailed to America and others, went into exile in the USSR.