Second Spanish Republic: Proclamation, Constitution, and Reforms
The Second Republic (1931-1936)
1) The Proclamation
After the abdication and exile of Alfonso XIII, a provisional government took power with the task of convening Constituent Cortes. In this government were represented almost all political tendencies from the Republican right to left:
- Socialists: the majority party of the left with three ministries. Fernando de los Ríos, Indalecio Prieto, and Largo Caballero.
- Radical Republicans: populist right center with two ministries. Lerroux and Martinez Barrios.
- Radical Socialists: center-left Republicans with a ministry. Marcelino Domingo.
- Republican Action: of the same trend with a ministry: Manuel Azaña.
- Catalan Nationalists: Nicolau d’Olmert and Galician: Casares Quiroga.
Outside the government were basically the right monarchy, the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), newly created and with little influence, and apolitical anarchist organizations that defined the republic as a bourgeois republic. The republic was proclaimed in a difficult international economic situation (crisis and depression of 1929-1930). In Spain, the effects of the crisis amounted to a fall in industrial production, plants with slow activity, and agriculture (45.5% of the population), four hundred thousand unemployed, high unemployment rates in industry, and two hundred thousand with very low wages. The political repercussions of this situation: demanding republican government by the UGT and CNT, while the propertied classes, reactionary, monarchist, and anti-Republican, blocked in practice many government reforms. The international situation was radicalized by the rise of fascist movements; the Italian fascists (Mussolini) ruled from 1922, and the Nazis (Hitler) would reach power in 1933. Elections held in June 1931 gave the majority to the left (Socialist Republican coalition), the Communists won one seat, and the right was in the minority. Thus began the first stage of the republic: The Left in power.
2) Republican-Socialist Coalition (1931-1933)
This alliance produced the Constitution while the reforms initiated were considered more urgent in order to provide the regime with a broad social base among the middle classes and working classes.
A) Constitution of 1931
Inspired by Weimar Germany’s constitution, set at the time as the most progressive in Europe. It defined Spain as a “republic of employees of all kinds.” The legislature (Cortes) was composed of a single chamber: the Congress of Deputies. The government was responsible to the Congress. It created the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, gave women the right to vote (art. 34), defined Spain as a secular state, thus separating church and state, established freedom of worship without restrictions, and approved divorce and civil marriage. The head of state was represented by the President of the Republic, elected by Congress with a veto and dissolution of the chamber. The Constitution was adopted by a large majority, and only the extreme right voted against it.
B) Reforms of the Coalition Government
B1) Education
For Spanish republicanism and the left, the modernization of Spain went through education, access to training bodies, and culture. In 1930, there were a million school children, 44% of illiterates in the whole population, few teachers, and underpaid. The government’s reforms were to multiply by eight the education budget in order to create a public education system. Seven thousand schools were constructed, and the salaries of teachers were increased. In secondary education, the institutes were multiplied by two to snatch the Church’s monopoly on the education of young people. This policy caused the first serious confrontation with the Spanish Church and the Vatican.
B2) Intensified Conflicts
The fighting had intensified when the government began implementing the secularism of the state. The new laws took a turn in the relationship between church and state in Spain. The Spanish Church, since the Concordat of 1851, had cast its lot with the conservative class, had rebuilt their heritage, and did not accept the republican constitution. The approval of divorce, civil marriage, the suspension of the compulsory teaching of the catechism in schools, the disappearance of religious symbols, and the prohibition of religious orders to teach broke any possibility of agreement. The burning of churches and convents in eleven Spanish cities (the event is not clear) broke the relationship between the government and the Vatican, while Catholics in public office in the Republican state resigned (Antonio Maura, Minister). The church reached an alliance with the Spanish right and initiated a policy of anti-Republican conspiracy.