Alfonso XIII’s Reign: Crisis, Dictatorship, and Societal Shifts in Spain (1902-1931)

Posted on Dec 8, 2024 in History

1. The Crisis of the Restoration

Regenerationism and Political Revisionism

A movement led by intellectuals and politicians aware of the Spanish situation, which influenced all levels of society. The Regenerationists thought the political system had failed but had not been exhausted: the system could continue but had to make reforms in order to include all social groups and infuse new blood into the system.

• Joaquin Costa: The main representative was Joaquin Costa, whose ideas included waterworks and forestry policy to replace the idea of the Restoration and defending the interests of an oligarchy, redistributing land, building roads and schools, reconciling capital and labor (reconciling employers and workers), Spain and Europeanization, and the need for an “iron surgeon” who would lead the nation towards progress. What Costa intended was a cultural and economic recovery.
• Dynastic Parties Crisis: The early years of the reign of Alfonso XIII were characterized by attempts at regeneration and social reform promoted by the state (creation of the Institute of Social Reforms). In the Conservative Party, leadership was taken by Antonio Maura. An advocate of revolution from above, he implemented social measures such as the creation of the National Insurance Institute and promoted the laws of Local Government and Election of 1907, which claimed the uprooting of the chieftaincy and the cessation of electoral fraud, but failed. Its failure was due to not having the backing of his party, failing the trust of the King, and not being accepted by the Regenerationists who defended reformism from below. In July 1909 came the Tragic Week in Barcelona, in which the city was taken by the working masses. The cause of the rebellion was sending troops to Morocco. Anarchist and Radical Republicans reacted with violence and the government responded harshly. After this, Maura was forced to resign and the Conservative Party fragmented. In the Liberal Party, leader José Canalejas took office in 1910. Their proposals involved a greater social commitment, a distance from clericalism, decentralization, and strengthening of the military to assert Spanish rights in Morocco. With the “Padlock Law”, he forbade the establishment in Spain of new religious orders. The Recruitment Act ended the “fifth” system and imposed compulsory military service, plus tax was abolished on consumption and the Commonwealth Act was passed. Like Maura, Canalejas found no collaboration within his party nor the support of the left-wing Republicans and Socialists. With his assassination in 1912, he closed the reformist agenda of the Liberals, who were divided.
• Opposition Groups and New Participants in the System:
  • Republicans, Socialists, and Anarchists: The Republicans assumed the main opposition to the regime. The Radical Republican Party emerged (with Alejandro Lerroux) and the Reform Party (supported by the Free Institution of Teaching). The Spanish Socialist Workers Party formalized electoral alliances with Republicans since 1910 when it got its first deputy. The Communist Party of Spain was founded in 1921 by a group of dissidents of the PSOE. The National Confederation of Labor, an anarchist union, was founded in 1911. It reached a high number of participants in Andalusia and Catalonia. Socialists and anarchists served as the village houses, meeting venues, and meeting of the workers’ societies, the libertarian athenaeums, and newspapers that helped to inform and disseminate their ideas.
  • Nationalism:
    • Catalan nationalism: In 1901, the Regionalist League was founded, which advocated political autonomy for Catalonia. Catalan nationalism was not well accepted by governments and by the Army, leading to incidents such as the Cu-Cut!, after which the Jurisdiction Act of 1906 was enacted, which transferred to military courts any offense to the Army. This led to the emergence of Catalan Solidarity that pooled the Lliga with Republicans. The Associations Law of 1914 allowed for administrative decentralization, but political autonomy was not achieved.
    • Basque nationalism: Conservative and supporter of local traditions. The PNV was devoted to local politics, making the mayor of Bilbao. The independence of Sabino Arana’s approaches gave way to more autonomous positions, obtaining the support of the Basque bourgeoisie and getting the most votes in Vizcaya.
    • Other nationalisms: Galician regionalism, which reached significance with ORGA; Valencian regionalism, which had the support of the novelist Vicente Blasco Ibanez, and Andalusian regionalism, which was based on the thinking of Blas Infante.
  • Militarism: During the reign of Alfonso XII and the regency of Maria Christina of Austria, the army had remained subordinate to civilian authority and regardless of political activity. This changed in the reign of Alfonso XIII due to three factors:
    • The defeat of Cuba that the military blamed on the ineptitude of the political class.
    • The attitude of the King, to be personally involved in military policy.
    • The war in Morocco, which led to the existence of a military caste, the Africanists, amounting to war merit.
    The Army regained political prominence and became an untouchable group.

The War in Morocco

In 1904, through an agreement with France, the division of Moroccan territory into two protectorates was agreed upon. Spain began a timid colonial penetration in Morocco to recover the prestige lost in ’98 and exploit mineral resources of the Rif. In 1909, there were several attacks by armed groups of the Rif on Melilla, for which the Marine general called for reinforcements and Maura tried to send reservists (which led to the events of the Tragic Week). Also in 1909 came the disaster of the Barranco del Lobo, which highlighted an unpopular war. In 1911, in response to the French occupation of Fez, Spanish forces seized several towns. The division of Morocco into French and Spanish protectorates was finalized and General Jordana got a partial pacification of the territory, but in 1921 the Rif leader Abd-el-Krim led a general insurrection of the territory. The Spanish army under General Silvestre was defeated in the Battle of Annual. The Annual disaster provoked a storm of indignation and a broad public debate, he blamed the military Africanists and opened an investigation: the General Picasso Report.

The Crisis of 1917

• Background: In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Spain adopted a posture of neutrality, which had repercussions on the Spanish economy:
  • The mining industry was favored by the growing demand from belligerent countries.
  • Prices of agricultural products grew immeasurably due to the difficulty of traditional imports.
  • The trade balance turned favorable.
  • The great industrialists and traders reaped significant benefits.
  However, Spanish capitalism was unable to consolidate industrial development and increase the purchasing power of the market by failing to check soaring prices.
• The crisis erupted in 1917, the biggest crisis of the reign, due to various circumstances:
  • The imminent end of World War I exacerbated economic and social difficulties with the decline of big business from neutrality.
  • Problems in the Army, arising from disagreements between the Africanists and the officers of the Peninsula. While the former enjoyed the royal favor and managed to climb with great ease, the latter lived poorly in the barracks with lower pay and without social recognition. In this situation, the peninsular officers created Defense Juntas, military groups that initially demanded that promotions be made by seniority under their control.
  • The protest by a group of MPs dissatisfied with the politics of conservative Eduardo Dato, who maintained the closing of the Congress of Deputies by continuing reports of the state of emergency caused by social instability. Cambó, a Catalan, called an Assembly of Parliamentarians in Barcelona, which requested the convening of the Constituent Cortes, but government action ended the assembly. That same year the two major trade union confederations, UGT and CNT, convened the first general strike in Spain. The fear of labor protest that would result in revolutionary actions led to the political class to abandon its reform purposes and that the Juntas actively cooperate in the suppression of the movement. The strike failed and labor leaders were jailed.
• Consequences: Between 1917 and 1923 the Restoration regime gradually weakened into a crisis that lasted until the coup of 1923. Governmental instability, the gunman and social conflicts, exacerbated by rising unemployment, escalating prices, the example of the Bolshevik revolution, in addition to the consequences of the disaster of Annual, made cohabitation difficult in Spain in the twenties.

Towards the Dictatorship

The period between 1917 and 1923 was the most contentious and unstable of Alfonso XIII’s reign, for international and domestic reasons:

• In the European context, these were years of great social and political upheaval: World War I, revolutions in Russia, Germany, and Hungary, the dissolution of empires, and the emergence of new states.
• In Spain, the aftermath of the war coincided with the escalation of the war in Morocco. The evolution of political life was characterized by three main features:
  • The instability of governments: At this stage, there were thirteen government crises. With the two-party system broken, governments suffered from a strong weakness. Since 1917, the King formed concentration and national governments (under Maura), composed of all the political bigwigs of the Restoration. These governments ended up prisoners of personal feuds among its members. Since 1919, fraction governments were alternating with coalition governments dominated by conservatives. Governments included those of Romanones, Maura, Dato, and García Prieto. The king and the army were becoming involved in government affairs.
  • The attempt to restore the two-party system: The formation of concentration governments pointed to a recovery of a new two-party system, supported by sets of factions or splinter groups of the trunk of the two great dynastic parties. This seemed possible by weak forces partially against the dynasty and system integration of the Catalan nationalists and reformists.
  • The Catalan question: The presence of the military in political life was accentuated by the resurgence of the Catalan question, which brought together two problems:
    • The demand for political autonomy, which led to a wave of anti-Catalanism in much of Spain.
    • The social unrest in Barcelona, with strike action, fighting between the CNT union and free trade unions, employers’ closures, and pistolerismo. The repression carried out by the army on the anarchists through measures such as the Fugitives Law, shook its alliance with the Catalan bourgeoisie.

2. The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and the Path to the Second Republic

On September 12, 1923, after a military uprising started in Barcelona, accepted by the government, the King, and by public opinion, Miguel Primo de Rivera came to power. The causes that favored the coup were: the decomposition of the political system of the Restoration, the instability and weakness of the government of the time, the question of Morocco, the enormous unpopularity of the costly war, and the lack of order, due to terrorism and pistolerismo. The coup was supported by the Catalan bourgeoisie, landowners, the clergy, and the PSOE. They were opposed by the Communist Party (PCE), the CNT, and groups of intellectuals.

The Military Directory

Primo de Rivera took over, assisted by a Military Directory. The regenerationist will of Primo de Rivera was manifested in two aspects:

• Anti-caciquismo policy and public order:
  • The provincial governors were replaced by military personnel in order to maintain public order and control people linked to the old regime.
  • The councils were dissolved and city councils were created Municipal Boards, in order to end the despotism.
  • Calvo Sotelo drafted the Municipal Statute and Provincial Statute, which provided more autonomy to the local entities. To solve the problems of public order, the Board held for several months the declaration of martial law, adopted repressive measures against workers’ organizations (CNT,…), and promoted the extension to all of Spain of the Catalan tocsin.
• State nationalism: A unitary state nationalism was promoted, which came into conflict with the peripheral nationalisms. The regime adopted a restrictive policy on the employment of their own languages and the use of identity symbols. With these measures, the initial support of some nationalist sectors soon became frontal opposition: many nationalists joined the republicanism.
• End of war in Morocco: the Alhucemas landing: After the military defeat at Annual, the Moroccan question generated a wide debate: the majority of Spanish society, including Primo de Rivera, was in favor of the thesis of quitting: leaving a territory constantly draining Spanish resources, human and economic. On the other hand, Africans defended Spain’s presence in Africa. In 1924 the dictator assumed the role of High Commissioner in Morocco. That’s when Abd-el-Krim, Rif leader, sought to extend its influence in the rest of Morocco, occupying territories of the French protectorate. This prompted the military alliance of Spain and France, which enabled the military operation Alhucemas landing (8-IX-1925), with which they succeeded in dividing the Rif area into two parts and defeating Abd-el-Krim. In 1927 the war had ended, which gave popularity to the regime of Primo de Rivera who, thereafter, believed that the dictatorship could truly solve the problems of the country, preparing to change the tentativeness with which it had operated until then by an institutionalization of the regime.

The Civil Directory

In 1925, Primo de Rivera created a Civil Directorate to institutionalize the system and develop a corporate character.

• The Political Foundations of the regime: The dictatorship attempted to found the new regime on a political basis:
  • The formation of a single party, the Patriotic Union, whose aim was to hand over government to civilians and provide a link between society and the dictatorship. However, its operation from the beginning was marred by its total dependence on the government, which ran through the civil governors.
  • The National Consultative Assembly, a chamber of political representation, also dependent on the government, formed by representatives of local institutions, central government, or professional activities, whose main work was the draft Constitution, which failed to be enacted.
  • The renewal of the political elite. They acquired the military role, members of the administrative bureaucracy of the state, young Catholics, Maurists, and social sectors. Mesocratic sectors were added (agricultural or industrial).
• The economic policy was particularly interventionist and protectionist, in order to encourage domestic companies, reserving the Spanish market. This created the National Economic Council and approved the decree of the National Industry Protection. Especially favored were carriers, both rail and shipping companies. Also highlighted the granting of monopolies, especially the creation of CAMPSA and the Telephone Company. In addition, it conducted an ambitious public works policy aimed to achieve a recovery in the Spanish economy. These included: the railway network (grants to railroads), renovation of the road network (through the National Circuit of Special Signatures), waterworks (creation of the Hydrographic Confederations), and the constitution of power lines.
• Corporate social policy: The state served as arbitrator of a system in which workers and employers were meeting in joint committees to resolve conflicts. The success of government social policy, the repression of revolutionary movements, and government arbitration in these committees contributed to a marked decline in the number of strikes and the integration of sectors of the labor movement at the head of which was the UGT.

The Fall of the Dictatorship

From 1928, the strength of the regime cracked due to the lack of support made by the Consultative Assembly and its inability to make a constitutional regime. The relationship between the dictator and the king was cooled and the social sectors that supported the dictatorship began to distance themselves.

• The opposition to the dictatorship: There was opposition from 1928.
  • The intellectuals, with Unamuno at the head, who were harshly repressed.
  • The Republicans, led by Vicente Blasco Ibanez, a driver of a campaign that sought to tie the dictatorship with Alfonso XIII, in order to get rid of both.
  • The military, faced between Africans and Spaniards in promotion criteria.
  • The monarchist politicians who reacted when it became clear that the dictatorship would not be a temporary solution but aspired to be perpetuated over time.
  • The students, who, starting in March 1929, staged a series of protests against the government’s attempt to recognize diplomas from the universities of Deusto and El Escorial.
• The fall of Primo de Rivera: When the draft constitution was presented to the National Consultative Assembly, criticism was unanimous. To save the project, he first tried to attract some of the opposition by inviting monarchist politicians, intellectuals, and socialists to the Assembly, but the offer was rejected by almost all. The international economic crisis worsened the situation, which became critical when the university retook the protests. Primo de Rivera, abandoned even by the army, decided to submit his resignation to the king in January 1930.
• The fall of the monarchy: Following the resignation of Primo de Rivera, the king, lacking support due to his identification with the dictatorship, tried to return to the Restoration system, with the governments of Berenguer, restoring the constitution of 1876, and Aznar, who convened municipal elections in April 1931. New political parties were formed by militant republicans (Republican Right, Esquerra Republicana, ORGA) and events were held for anti-monarchist party unity, such as the Pact of San Sebastian. In the April election, republican-socialist candidates triumphed. Then, King Alfonso XIII waived the Crown, left Spain, and on April 14, 1931, the Second Republic was proclaimed, received with great demonstrations of popular rejoicing.

3. Economic Evolution and Society (1902-1931)

Economy

During this time the Spanish economy experienced a major transformation:

• The agricultural population declined, surpassed by the industrial and service population, as well as illiteracy, although it remained significant.
• Catalonia and the Basque Country were confirmed as industrial centers.
• The most important economic power enabled a revival and a broad diversification of industries.
• Spain entered the major international circuits of capital invested in new industries.

Stages of economic development:

1. At the beginning of the century: Stage of crisis due to the loss of the remnants of the colonial empire. Exports of industrial products, textiles, and food fell sharply. The Spanish economy was reduced to its own underdeveloped market.
2. Stage of the First World War: World War I allowed four years of great economic development. Two new markets were opened: the belligerent countries, who had dedicated their industries to weaponry, and the underdeveloped countries that industrialized countries at war had temporarily left. During years of large profits, the export/import ratio was favorable for Spain.
3. After the end of the war: There was a second stage of crisis. The Spanish industry was unable to maintain competition with industrialized countries, which recovered abandoned markets.
4. The roaring twenties: Between 1923 and 1929 saw a period of great economic development. A policy of protectionism, monopolies, and large important public works was conducted.
5. The terrible thirties: The Crisis of the New York Stock Exchange triggered a severe recession in the U.S. that dragged Europe. In Spain, there was a reduction of exports and the interruption of foreign capital investments.

Changes in agriculture: Maintained the production of traditional crops (grapes, olives, wheat) and introduced technical improvements (increased the import of agricultural machinery and the use of fertilizers, and irrigation schemes were initiated) and new crops (beet, orange).

The industrial momentum: In the late nineteenth century, two new energy sources developed: electricity and oil. Electricity began to replace coal and was used for lighting and transportation systems (tram, metro). The construction of large power lines allowed for the transport of electricity.

The most important industrial centers:

• Catalonia, where new industries outperformed the traditional textile industries. Highlights included: the chemical industry (fertilizers, medicines, explosives), the iron and steel industry in electric furnaces that allowed the new smelting and use of special steels (Altos Hornos), allowing companies to develop engines and cars (Hispano Suiza); and construction, sponsored by the great public works and the growth of Barcelona.
• The Basque Country and the Bilbao estuary became the largest iron and steel center, around which sprang many metallurgical industries, particularly in the shipbuilding sector.
• Madrid and Bilbao, banking centers: The bank became the linchpin of economic development: factories, mines, transportation, etc. depended on the banks. The fusion of industrial capital and banking capital was the financial capital, which headed the economic development of the country.

Society

Spanish society moved towards a class society. It featured:

• The decline of the rural world.
• The decline of the landed aristocracy.
• Consolidation of the urban world:
  • The dominance of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and its hard confrontation.
  • The growth of the middle classes, who increasingly dominated a professional society.
  • The survival of a large percentage of domestic service.

The situation in the countryside: The inequitable distribution of land ownership was a cause of backwardness of the country. Almost half of the peasants were laborers, landless, on the limit of poverty, condemned to low wages and long periods of unemployment. The situation of small property owners was also difficult, doomed to subsistence farming due to the small size of their land (smallholders). 1% of the large landowners garnered 50% of rural incomes. They lived away from their lands, unconcerned with the crop (absenteeism).

The urban bourgeoisie and the proletariat:

• The bourgeoisie: Formed by the upper middle class: families with big industrialists, bankers, and traders, who had grown up in the nineteenth century or had been enriched during the First World War, and small and middle bourgeoisie, formed by small manufacturers and artisans, merchants, or persons dealing with liberal professions (doctors, lawyers,…).
• The Proletariat: As a cause of economic development at the beginning of the century, major masses of workers appeared to be concentrated in the peripheral industrial areas. Their living conditions were harsh: an abusive workday (up to 12 hours) with very low wages and a complete lack of schooling. At this time, the two largest unions developed: UGT, Marxist-socialist, and the CNT anarchist Bakunin, who, at the Congress of Sants, was restructured into single unions, giving it greater strength. The CNT was centered in Catalonia and Levante and lasted until Andalusia. The dramatic worsening of the labor situation, caused by the economic consequences of World War I and its subsequent crisis, triggered very hard clashes (the Canadian strike, 1919; Bolshevik triennium, 1918-1920). In response, the Institute of Social Reforms and the National Welfare Institute were created, which established the first old-age pensions. In 1909 the strike was legalized and in 1919 the 8-hour workday was established.