Spain’s Second Republic: A History (1931-1936)
The Second Republic
The proclamation of the Second Republic marked the end of the deteriorating monarchy of Alfonso XIII. After the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the king intended to return to the arrangements established by the Constitution of 1876. Given the increasing turmoil, the Prime Minister, Juan Bautista Aznar, called municipal elections for April 12, 1931, giving them the character of a plebiscite for or against the monarchy. Although the predominant rural councilors were monarchist candidates, the triumph of the Republican candidates in the cities was seen as support for the establishment of the Republic. On April 14, the Republic was proclaimed amidst popular enthusiasm. The Republican-Socialist coalition took power and suspended the king’s authority. The new regime was born in a problematic era, with the economic crisis of 1929 and the politically affected interwar period and the rise of totalitarianism.
On the 14th, the Provisional Government, which had signed the Pact of San Sebastián, came to power, and Alcalá Zamora was proclaimed President of the Government. The first steps were taken, such as a general amnesty, and civil liberties and trade union decrees were enacted into law, later to be ratified in Parliament. Soon came the first challenges: Catalan nationalism (Macià proclaimed a Catalan state within the Federal Republic, which broke the Pact of San Sebastián; Macià and several ministers agreed to a program of development of autonomy and recognition of the Generalitat, the organ of self-government), social conflicts encouraged by anarchist hostility, landowners and middle classes who felt their interests were attacked by government decrees, and opposition from the Catholic Church that erupted in violent conflict.
Republican support activities originated both support and rejection, which divided Spanish society and eventually caused a war. The workers and the middle classes wanted to reform and overcome the dominant groups, but the latter did not accept any changes that would limit their profits and adopted an attitude of boycott against the reforms. Various currents of opinion appeared in numerous political parties. Those that had continued during the dictatorship and the monarchy were broken or collapsed into the Second Republic. Centrism was not helped by the process of polarization, as evidenced by the disappearance of five Republican parties in the 1936 elections. Four political groups were differentiated:
- Authoritarian: Merger of the Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista and the Spanish Falange (FEJONS) with its leader Primo de Rivera in 1934, Traditionalist Communion in 1932, and Calvo Sotelo’s National Bloc in 1933.
- Right: CEDA (National Action or with Gil Robles in 1931, 1933), Lliga Catalana, Basque Nationalist Party in 1895.
- Republicans: Radical Republican Party (Lerroux Alejandro in 1908), Manuel Azaña’s Republican Action in 1925, Autonomous Galician Republican Organization (Casares Quiroga in 1929), Galeguista Party in 1931, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya in 1931, Republican Left (Manuel Azaña in 1934).
- Left: Socialist Workers’ Party (Indalecio Prieto in 1879), Communist Party of Spain in 1921, Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification in 1935, General Workers’ Union, National Confederation of Labour, and Iberian Anarchist Federation.
New Courts and the Constitution
New Courts, chaired by Julián Basteiro, referendums, and decrees of the Provisional Government began a process of drafting a new Constitution, qualified as democratic, reformist, and left-wing. Its principles included popular sovereignty, individual rights, secularism, autonomy of municipalities and regions, and a mixed economy. This Constitution was adopted on December 9, 1931, without being subject to a referendum to determine the degree of citizen identification. It established a Parliamentary Republic and unicameral Cortes.
The Republican Reform Biennium (1931-1933)
After the Constitution was approved, Alcalá Zamora was elected President of the Republic, and Manuel Azaña became head of government. This first period was the Biennium Republican Reform (April 1931 – November 1933). It was characterized by reformist activity through laws that sought to democratize politics, modernize its structures, and improve the living standards of the disadvantaged. There were five major reforms in different fields:
Religious Reform
The principles established in the Constitution were put into practice through laws, including the dissolution of the Society of Jesus and nationalization of its property, the decree of secularization, the law of divorce, the civil marriage law, and the law of religious congregations. This helped decouple part of the Constitution from the Republicans (atheistic republic) and would be a key reason for the outbreak of the Civil War.
Military Reform
This reform succeeded only in reducing costs but hindered the modernization of the material. It was received by Africanists as an assault on military tradition. Among the measures were Azaña’s law, the general reorganization, requiring an oath of allegiance to the Republic, the retirement law for officers, and the abolition of the law of jurisdictions.
Land Reform
A project was initiated taking into account the role of agriculture: half the population were day laborers, tenants, or homeowners with harsh living conditions and meager wages. As a result, trends in the Spanish countryside used to be republican. Its objectives were to increase farm productivity and transform the unequal distribution of land through the expropriation of large landowners. On September 9, 1932, the Parliament adopted the Law on Bases of Agrarian Reform, which provided for the expropriation without compensation of 50% of the land in monoculture of a small group. It created the National Agrarian Institute and established enhanced crops in the Act. The results were limited and caused great social tension, such as the creation of the National Association of Owners of Rural Properties, who formed an opposition bloc, and the peasants, who were greatly disappointed, caused great upheavals.
Education Reform
This reform tried to reduce illiteracy and improve the cultural level with compulsory, free, and secular education, through Educational Missions and La Barraca.
Reform of the Centralized State or Autonomy of Catalonia
The Republic had to deal with the territorial organization of the state, where it formed an integral state consisting of provinces and autonomous regions in solitary, which decided to develop their statutes of autonomy: Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia. The first of these came into force.
Opposition and Resistance
The reforms polarized political life, and the republican regime was met with resistance and opposition. The right-wing and monarchical authoritarian organizations were reorganizing. The Republic had to acquire legal instruments for protection against acts of aggression, such as the Defense Act of the Republic. The right considered it a dictatorship because it allowed them to act quickly against enemies outside the judicial system. The parliamentary opposition was led by Lerroux’s PRR, agricultural representatives, monarchists, and Catholics. The National Economic Union was born, and the CNT faced the more moderate *treintistas*. The Republic supported the most radical and favored continuous pressure. The direction of the CNT encouraged labor unrest, as did the National Federation of Workers of the Earth and the PCE, although the latter contributed to the Republic.
Some sections of the army collected discontent among conservatives. Echoing the discomfort, General Sanjurjo staged a coup with the aim of forcing a shift to the right, but it failed. In 1933, he created the Spanish Military Union. Social conflict increased, and among these events arose from old houses that sought to take the town council house, burning property registration, property, and state collectivization of libertarian communism. It ended with the arrival of the Assault Guard, with strong repression later.
With the new groups appeared fascist groups that rejected the Republic’s political bases and used violence. They founded the Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista, the Spanish Falange, and CEDA.
The Biennium of the Right (1933-1936)
The Government of Azaña was weakening due to deteriorating relations between the parties, opposition pressure, and the loss of popular support. Azaña resigned, and Alcalá Zamora called the Cortes for September 19, 1933. The right-wing won. This second period would be called the Biennium of the Right (November 1933 – February 1936). Alcalá Zamora appointed Lerroux as head of government. The measures taken in this period were counter-reformist: land reform was dismantled, the autonomous system was paralyzed, appropriations for education decreased, and the Azaña Act was amended. The left was radicalized and formed the Workers’ Alliance.
The confrontation with the nationalists led the CEDA to demand participation in the government. They threatened to withdraw their parliamentary support, and Lerroux gave them access to three ministries. The left interpreted the entrance of the CEDA as the fall of the Republic into the hands of fascism. On the 5th, a revolutionary movement led by the Socialists began, calling for a general strike and armed insurrection, but they were aware that they were revolting against a democratically elected government. Many problems arose, including in Catalonia, where the statute was suspended, and in Asturias, where there was a workers’ insurrection that sought to control the means of production and gain political power.
The October Revolution was marked by severe repression of rights, although the president of the Republic defended the amnesty, and these events would join the left. While CEDA increased its power, Franco appointed Gil Robles as Chief of Staff. During 1935, the CEDA intensified its program of correction, but in that same autumn, there was a crisis of government. The PRR was involved in the corruption case of the black market. Lerroux had to resign. Gil Robles took the opportunity to access the leadership, but Alcalá Zamora, fearing that this would mean the emergence of a dictatorship, appointed a Republican. Later, he dissolved the Parliament and called elections for February 16, 1936. The political forces on both the right and the left were radicalized. While some wanted the establishment of an authoritarian, corporate system governed by a traditional monarchy, others focused on an amnesty program as the first step toward reform.
The 1936 Elections and the Popular Front
In the 1936 elections, the Popular Front won more votes than the right and center forces. This difference was small, but the majority favored electoral law. The distribution of seats was very uneven. The two Spains were defined and unrecognizable.
The Popular Front Government resumed the reforms through parliament and the beginning of the Statute. The Basque Country’s statute was discussed and approved in Parliament in June 1936. Galicia’s was not discussed because of the war.
The Popular Front had cracks because there were advocates of democratic reform and supporters of launching a revolutionary process. Their confluence was made conjectural in the election to contain fascism. After the elections, Largo Caballero won the revolutionary strategy in the PSOE, the UGT, and the Socialist Youth, away from the reforms advocated by Indalecio Prieto. The Communist Party defended the republican government’s support to consolidate democratic transformations and demonstrate against civil unrest.
At the Congress of Zaragoza, the revolutionary and anti-Republican CNT, with a radical program of action, proposed the abolition of public religion and the disappearance of the state.
Conservatives were alarmed by the resumption of reforms. CEDA and the National Bloc, representing their interests, supported them. Their strategy was deliberate provocation and conspiracy against the elected government.
The Road to Civil War
During the spring of 1936, there was a deterioration of public order, creating a repression that manifested as conflict and violence. The right-wing began to think that the only solution was a military coup. The first attempt was that of General Sanjurjo in 1932. In 1936, after the elections, Franco attempted a declaration of war and pressured right-wing Valladares, the head of state, to resign and hand over power to the army. In March, the right-wing planned various attempts that were unsuccessful. But in April, Mola took command of the conspiracy, where the military joined Franco.
This uprising brought together different interests: ending the economic and social reforms of the Popular Front, putting an end to public order, defending Catholic values, a unitary conception of the state, and avoiding a proletarian revolution. Its goals were to end the government, suspend the constitution, and dissolve the Cortes.
Mola sought to establish a temporary military dictatorship, and the CEDA wanted the restoration of the monarchy. But the failure of the coup resulted in a long civil war that lasted until 1939. The conspirators were indicating the role of each: the Army of Africa would be the first to rise, and once it secured the Protectorate, it would be moved to Madrid to take control and establish a military board headed by General Sanjurjo. The military would control different areas, proclaiming the state of war. If successful, organized columns would be formed. The rebellion should be swift and violent.
The military coup was precipitated by the murder on July 12 of José Castillo, the Socialist Deputy Police Assault, by Falangists. Assault Guard stepped in, and in a kidnapping case, murdered Calvo Sotelo on the 13th. Franco decided to start the uprising, which began in Morocco on July 17.