Spain’s Second Republic: A Time of Change and Division

Posted on Jan 13, 2025 in History

The Second Spanish Republic (1931-1936)

In 1931, the Second Republic was proclaimed, putting an end to the monarchy of Alfonso XIII. The arrival of the Republic was an attempt to modernize Spain and to establish, for the first time, a truly democratic system.

Reformist Biennium (1931-1933)

The triumph of the left allowed the formation of a coalition government led by the Republican Socialist Manuel Azaña. This government undertook a broad program of progressive reforms:

  1. Political Reform: The 1931 Constitution established Spain as a democratic, secular, and decentralized state with a unicameral parliament and a President of the Republic with a term of 6 years.
  2. Religious Reform: Secularism of the state and of teaching, dissolution of some religious orders and confiscation of their property, and the establishment of civil marriage and divorce. The Church adopted a position identified with anti-republican and right-wing positions.
  3. Military Reform: Attempts at modernization of the army included early retirement with full pay, abolition of courts of honor, and reducing the number of army officers. The army soon took a position against the Republic.
  4. Educational Reform: Creation of public school teacher positions and the adoption of a model of secular, compulsory, and free education.
  5. Agrarian Reform: The agrarian question was the most serious problem that the Republic had to address. It affected the southern half of the peninsula, where a minority of landowners owned all the land, exploiting a mass of peasants. The Land Reform Law provided for the expropriation of large estates directly uncultivated by their owners and their distribution to the peasantry. The Institute of Agrarian Reform was created for this purpose. The bottom line: the lack of budgets, the slow pace of expropriation, and the opposition of the owners wrecked the reform.
  6. Centralist State Reform: In 1932, the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia was adopted, which recognized a government and a parliament with wide powers of its own. In the Basque Country, the PNV’s draft statute did not become approved.
  7. Labor Reforms: 8-hour workday for all workers, extension of land leases, etc.

Causes of Failure of the Reformist Biennium

  1. The growing power of political opposition forces: the various right-wing political parties were merged into a coalition, the Catholic-inspired CEDA, under the leadership of Gil Robles. On the extreme left were the PCE and the CNT. On the extreme right, the JONS and the Spanish Falange, fascist-inspired groups, were founded.
  2. The internal division of the left in power.
  3. Growing social unrest: strikes, peasant uprisings, coup attempts, etc.

Conservative Biennium (1933-1936)

The November 1933 elections gave the victory to Gil Robles’ right-wing. This new stage of the Republic was characterized by:

  1. Political conservatism and revision and/or cancellation of reforms from the previous period: cessation of agrarian reform, suspension of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, rapprochement with the Church, etc.
  2. Great popular discontent and social tension caused by the brake on reforms and the consequences of the economic crisis. In October 1934, most labor organizations convened a general strike that failed throughout Spain, except in Asturias, where it became a genuine social revolution.

Causes of Failure of the Conservative Biennium

  1. Popular discontent with the harsh repression of the October Revolution.
  2. The progressive weakening of the coalition government.
  3. The union of left-wing parties into one party, the Popular Front, which included the PSOE, PCE, UGT, and others.
  4. Disunity on the right.

The Popular Front Government

The 1936 elections were won by the Popular Front. The new government, headed by Manuel Azaña, continued his reformist policies interrupted during the previous biennium. During the following months, the existence in Spain of two antagonistic blocs was revealed: the progressive left and the conservative right. Amid a wave of violence, Franco and Mola were preparing a coup on July 17 that would provoke the onset of the Civil War.