The Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939): Reforms, Elections, and Civil War
The Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939)
Reformism: The Biennium (1931-1933)
After the adoption of the Constitution, a new period began with a government headed by Manuel Azaña and formed by Republicans and the Socialist Left. In December, Niceto Alcalá-Zamora was elected President of the Republic. The Republican-Socialist government embarked on a comprehensive reform program:
Labor Reforms
Started from the Ministry of Labor by the Socialist Largo Caballero, who favored the position of workers and trade unions. The reforms faced opposition from employers.
Education Reform
A comprehensive program of construction of schools and recruitment of teachers was implemented: 6,750 schools and 7,000 teachers with better salaries. Joint education was introduced, and the religion subject was removed, aggravating the confrontation with the Church.
Military Reform
Seeking to ensure the fidelity of the army to the Republican regime resulted in a reduction of the excessive number of officers. Officers were required to take a new oath of allegiance to the Republic, and those who refused could choose voluntary retirement with full pay.
Agrarian Reform
The Law of Agrarian Reform was approved in 1932. It aimed to resettle landless peasants in under-exploited large estates (latifundia). Its application was a flop, and very few farmers benefited from the law. This caused general disappointment among the peasantry in a context of stagnant economic growth.
The Elections of 1936 and the Popular Front
The coalition of right-wing groups, CEDA, formed by the Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups (CEDA) and Renovación Española, campaigned with a program based on the fear of social revolution. The Falange and the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) also participated in the elections. The victory went to the Popular Front, which based its win in cities and provinces of the south and the periphery. Meanwhile, the right won in the north and the interior of the country. After the election, Manuel Azaña was appointed President of the Republic. The aim was for Indalecio Prieto, the strong man of the more moderate wing of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party), to become head of government. However, the refusal of the Socialist Party, split into different factions, led to the formation of a government led by Casares Quiroga and exclusively by Left Republicans, without the PSOE. Thus, the new national government was weakened. The new cabinet initiated rapid reform actions:
- Amnesty for all those imprisoned after the events of October 1934.
- Restoration of the Catalan Statute.
- Removal from Madrid of generals suspected of planning a coup. Franco, Mola, and Goded were sent to the Canary Islands, Navarre, and the Balearic Islands, respectively.
- Resumption of land reform. This measure was quickly overwhelmed by the actions of workers who launched occupations of properties.
- Processing of new Statutes of Autonomy. The Statute of Galicia was adopted in a plebiscite in June 1936, and the Basque Statute was virtually complete in July 1936.
Meanwhile, the social environment was becoming more tense. The labor left had opted for a clearly revolutionary position and sought to end the democratic system. At the same time, the military conspiracy against the Popular Front government was advancing. On one hand, there was a plot formed by major political leaders of the right-wing parties: Gil Robles, Calvo Sotelo, and José Antonio Primo de Rivera. On the other hand, there was a group of generals involved: Franco, Goded, Fanjul, Varela, etc. On July 12, Lieutenant Castillo, a police officer, was murdered by right-wing extremists. The response came the following morning with the murder of José Calvo Sotelo by a group of members of the security forces. The confrontation was inevitable. The government of Casares Quiroga, which had decided not to take action despite the continuous warnings of labor organizations, witnessed the rebellion of the Army of Africa against the government of the Republic on July 17, 1936. The partial success of the coup triggered the Civil War.
The Military Uprising: The Beginning of the Civil War
On July 17, 1936, the military insurrection was launched in Melilla. From there, it spread quickly to the rest of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco. On July 18 and 19, the coup spread to the peninsula and the archipelago. The government of Casares Quiroga was slow to react to the events. The coup succeeded in Galicia, Castile and León, Navarre (with General Mola in Pamplona), Western Andalusia (with Queipo de Llano in Seville), the Balearic Islands (except Menorca, where General Goded traveled to Barcelona to take charge of the insurrection), and the Canary Islands (where Franco, after securing the triumph of the coup in the archipelago, traveled to Morocco on July 19 to head the Army of Africa). It also succeeded in isolated enclaves like Oviedo (with General Aranda), Granada (where the murder of García Lorca took place), and Zaragoza (with General Cabanellas).
The Division of the Country into Two Areas: The Beginning of the Civil War
The partial failure of the coup led to the division of the country into two areas and the beginning of the war. The Nationalist zone had reserves of cereals and livestock in Castile and Galicia, and coal mines in León and Rio Tinto in Huelva. Above all, it had a much better prepared army, relying on integrated divisions in Castile, Galicia, and Andalusia, and, above all, the Army of Africa, the Spanish Legion, and the Regulares (Moroccan colonial troops). The Republican zone encompassed the industrial regions, and had wheat in La Mancha and horticultural produce in the Levantine region. It could also dispose of the gold reserves of the Bank of Spain. However, the army units in the Republican zone were greatly weakened. Most of the officers had rebelled, and many units whose loyalty was questionable had dissolved. The navy, without many of its officers, and the air force remained in the hands of the Republican government.
The Conservative Biennium (1933-1936)
The elections of November 1933 brought a political shift to the right. The party with the most members was the CEDA, followed by the Radical Party, which had moved to a conservative position. At first, the Radical Alejandro Lerroux governed with parliamentary support from the CEDA, and began to reverse the reforms of the previous biennium. In October 1934, three CEDA ministers entered the government. The reaction of a part of the left, fearing that this was the end of the Republic, was to break the law with two movements:
The Catalan Revolt
The President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, proclaimed the Catalan State within a Federal Spanish Republic. Quickly suppressed by the army, the Statute of Autonomy was suspended.
The Asturian Revolution
The labor left (led by the PSOE) launched a revolutionary general strike throughout Spain. It only succeeded in taking power in Asturias, where it remained for two weeks.
Government repression was fierce, bringing in troops from the Army of Africa. There were thousands of detainees. Social policy and the political climate became much more tense. In 1935, the “straperlo” corruption scandal seriously affected the Radical Party. Gil Robles, leader of the CEDA, then asked the President of the Republic for power. But Alcalá-Zamora refused, and imposed transitional leaders without parliamentary support, who had to call early elections. The left – after the failure of 1934 – had begun a process of convergence: the Popular Front. Left Republicans, Socialists, and Communists agreed on a common program to be presented in the next elections.