Spain’s Tumultuous Path: From Monarchy to Republic

Posted on Apr 18, 2025 in History

Opposition and Unrest in Spain

Opposition to the regime included Carlists. Basque and Navarre forces never fully decided to renounce weapons. Republican parties, based in urban middle classes, defended democracy and various social reforms.

The worker’s movement, particularly anarchists, formed a majority group in Spain. Following the 1881 Law of Associations, the Federation of Workers in the Spanish Region was born (Anselmo Lorenzo). In 1910, the National Labor Confederation (CNT), Spain’s biggest union, advocated a collectivist, libertarian, apolitical, anticlerical, and revolutionary ideology.

Socialists were a minority. The PSOE was founded clandestinely in Madrid, and the UGT was founded at the 1st Congress. They maintained a collectivist, anti-clerical, and anti-bourgeois ideology, moderating the Spanish labor movement.

Intellectuals, thinkers, academics, and novelists opposed a system that prevented the modernization of the country and its approach to advanced Europe. Regionalism and nationalism grew in Catalonia and the Basque Country.

The Crisis of 1917

The social maldistribution of the benefits of the economic boom and rising inflation led to social unrest. The “Military Crisis” saw discontent among the “mainland” with the rapid advancement of the “Africanist,” establishing the Juntas, which were against military discipline and subordination of the military to civil authority.

In Barcelona, a parliamentary assembly called a National Assembly of Parliamentarians, demanding a change of government and the convening of the Constituent Cortes. The general strike of 1917, convened by CNT and UGT, had a wide following in the cities and resulted in hundreds dead and thousands arrested.

The Second Republic (1931-1936)

On April 14th, the Republic was proclaimed. King Alfonso XIII went into exile, and a provisional government was formed, presided over by Niceto Alcalá Zamora, with Republicans from the left and right, social and national factions. Elections were called for constituent courts, and left-center parties won, including the PSOE and the Radical Lerroux.

The Biennium of Reform (1931-1933)

Led by Manuel Azaña and Republicans and Socialists, with Niceto Alcalá Zamora as President of the Republic, reforms were enacted:

  • Labor Reforms: Favored the position of workers and unions.
  • Education Reforms: School construction and teacher recruitment with better wages and coeducation. Religion was not obligatory.
  • Military Reform: Demanded an oath of allegiance to the new republican regime; officers could opt for early retirement with full pay.
  • Agrarian Reform: The Law of Bases of Agrarian Reform aimed to resettle landless peasants on under-exploited estates but ultimately failed.

Constitutions

Constitution of 1812

  • National Sovereignty.
  • Division of Powers:
  • Legislature: Unicameral Cortes.
  • The Court: Courts, Executive (King, but with limitations: “Your orders must be validated by the relevant Minister.”). The King could not dissolve the Cortes temporarily or veto laws more than two years after Parliament’s decision. He appointed ministers, but they had to be countersigned by the Cortes (“double trust”).
  • New disenfranchised. The nation exercised its sovereignty through representatives in Cortes.
  • Election process by indirect universal male suffrage in fourth grade. Voting rights: all men over 25 years, who chose some commissioners who in turn elected the diputados.
  • Equality of citizens before the law, no privileges.
  • It omitted any reference to territories with privileges, so foral schemes in the Basque provinces and Navarre were not explicitly repealed.
  • Recognition of individual rights: to education, freedom of the press, inviolability of domicile, freedom, and property. Catholicism was the only permitted religious confession. The need for collaboration of the clergy in the fight against the French explains this intolerant feature that clashes with the advanced spirit of the constitution.

Constitution of 1931

  • Popular sovereignty: “Democratic Republic of workers of all kinds.”
  • Universal male and female suffrage.
  • Extensive bill of rights and freedoms (Divorce, education).
  • Power was cut off unicameral legislature.
  • The executive president of the republic with limited powers. Jefe of government, appointed by President with the approval of the Cortes.
  • Judiciary: Courts.
  • Right of regions to establish Autonomía.
  • A secular state was established.