The Second Spanish Republic: A Time of Change and Unrest
The Second Spanish Republic: Reforms and Conflicts (1931-1936)
Alfonso XIII went into exile after the victory of Republicans in the provincial capitals in the municipal elections of April 12, 1931. On April 14, the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed with general enthusiasm, without violence. A provisional government headed by Alcalá Zamora, comprised of all parties that signed the Pact of San Sebastian, was formed.
On June 28, 1931, general elections to the Constituent Cortes were held. Many parties attended. The left won 279 seats against the center (119) and right (41). The most voted left parties were the PSOE and Republican Action – later Republican Left – led by Manuel Azaña, a progressive party of intellectuals and urban professionals, a supporter of modernizing and democratizing Spain with reforms carried out without violence.
A New Constitution
The Constituent Cortes drafted a new constitution. After intensive discussions, it was constitutionally approved in December 1931. It defined Spain as “a democratic republic of workers of all classes that are organized in a system of freedom and justice” and as a single state, but with regional autonomy. Unicameral Courts were elected by universal suffrage (the first time with the right to vote for women). The state was declared secular, separating church and state.
The Reformist Biennium (1931-1933)
A government Republican-Socialist coalition, chaired by Azaña, undertook an extensive reform program – the reformist biennium, 1931-1933 – to solve the serious problems inherited. The international economic downturn after the 1929 crash and the desire not to increase government debt caused the failure of these reforms through lack of means:
- Military reform: aimed to modernize the army. Early retirement for many officers with full pay. The Republic created the Assault Guard.
- Religious reform: the subsidy to the clergy was removed, as was religion in schools. Religious orders were forbidden from teaching, civil marriage and divorce were recognized, and the Society of Jesus was dissolved. Many Catholics identified the Republic as an attack on God.
- Education reform: primary school was made compulsory, free, secular, and mixed. Funding for education increased by 50%, over 10,000 schools were built, and 7,000 positions were created for teachers, who were better paid. Educational Missions brought culture to backward rural regions.
- Regional reform: Catalonia was granted the Statute of Autonomy in 1932, establishing an autonomous government, the Generalitat, with jurisdiction in culture, public works, and public order. Francesc Macià was elected president. In the Basque Country, the draft statute prepared by the Basque Nationalist Party and the Carlists was rejected for being traditionalist and undemocratic. There would be no statute of autonomy until 1936, after the civil war started.
- Land reform: in September 1932, the Law of Bases for Agrarian Reform was approved, with opposition from the right. The aim was to end landlordism, absenteeism, and the misery of 2 million laborers. The Agrarian Reform Institute (ARI) was created to carry it out. The pace of reform was very slow, with poor results. Farmers, disillusioned with the Republic, leaned toward revolutionary anarchism (Aragon and Andalusia, with events like those in Casas Viejas). Furthermore, landlords were clearly hostile.
The Radical-CEDA Biennium (1933-1936)
The Azaña government resigned. The November 1933 elections gave the victory to the Right. The CEDA was the largest party (115 seats) and ruled in coalition with the centrist Radical Party of Lerroux (102 seats). The Radical-CEDA biennium (1933-1936) was a very unstable political period marked by reactionary counter-reforms (“two black years”). Main measures:
- Amnesty Law for all the rebels in the failed coup of Sanjurjo.
- The Congregation Act was repealed, and a budget for the Clergy was adopted.
- Review of agrarian reform, canceling expropriations, increasing compensation, and cutting the budget for its implementation.
- There were problems with autonomy: the Catalan Statute was suspended after the events of 1934, and the Basque Statute was not approved.
Escalating Social Unrest
The halt to the reforms led to increased social unrest. In October 1934, three ministers of the CEDA entered the government. The left thought that Gil Robles wanted to eliminate the Republic through legal means. The Socialists called for a general strike on October 5 that failed except in Asturias, where the Workers’ Alliance of socialists, communists, and anarchists took over and sparked a revolution, and in Catalonia, where Companys, the new president of the Generalitat, proclaimed the Catalan State within the Spanish Federal Republic. Both were suppressed by the Moroccan army, carrying out a bloody repression.
The Popular Front and the Road to Civil War
The Popular Front, an electoral alliance of all left parties from the Republicans to communists, won the elections. The anarchists were supportive. The right, grouped in the National Bloc (CEDA, monarchists, and traditionalists), had 139 representatives against the 257 of the left.
The new government, headed by Azaña and composed exclusively of Republicans – Socialists refused to participate – decreed an amnesty for political prisoners, restored the Generalitat of Catalonia, and resumed progressive reforms, including agrarian reform. This caused discontent with the oligarchy, who felt their power threatened. The unions staged strikes and conflicts in the countryside, seizing farms. In May 1936, Alcalá Zamora was replaced by Azaña as president of the Republic; Casares Quiroga was appointed Prime Minister. Political life became radicalized. Spanish Falange militants engaged in acts of violence and murder to destabilize the situation, and there were frequent street battles between them and militant workers. Calvo Sotelo was murdered in a settling of accounts, and in Melilla, on July 17, 1936, a military uprising took place that led to the Civil War.