The Second Spanish Republic: From Proclamation to Civil War
The Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939)
The Proclamation of the Republic and the Constitutional Period (1931-1933)
The Elections and the Interim Government
The April 12, 1931, municipal elections were held in Spain by universal male suffrage. Participation was very high, and the Republican-Socialist candidates triumphed in large cities, including 41 of the 50 provincial capitals. On the morning of April 14, the elected councilors of the town of Eibar, Guipúzcoa, proclaimed the Republic. Faced with the new situation, King Alfonso XIII decided to leave the country, starting his exile. In Madrid, representatives of the signatories of the Pact of San Sebastián formed a provisional government on the same day, April 14, at the Ministry of the Interior. The Second Spanish Republic was officially proclaimed.
The provisional government immediately called for Constituent Assembly elections on June 28. At the same time, the government enacted a series of emergency measures.
The general elections of June 28 had a high participation rate of 70%. The victory went to the Republican-Socialist coalition, which won 250 of the 464 MPs that composed the lower house.
The Constitution of 1931
Niceto Alcalá-Zamora, head of the provisional government, and the ministers were well advanced in drafting the Constitution of 1931. It grouped the following principles:
- A democratic republic with popular sovereignty.
- Separation of powers between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
- Recognition of regional autonomies.
- A secular state.
The Constitution also included a declaration of rights and freedoms.
Reforms of the Left Biennium (1931-1933)
The Religious Question
One of the first objectives of the Republic was to limit the influence of the Church in Spanish society. The secularization process was completed with the Congregations Law in May 1933, which limited the possession of property by religious orders and allowed for their dissolution in case of danger to the state. The law revived old popular anti-clerical movements that, between May 11 and 12, 1931, burned convents and religious buildings in several cities.
The Modernization of the Army
The Republican government was convinced that the army needed a profound transformation. Manuel Azaña, who assumed the Ministry of Defense, drove a reform aimed at creating a professional and democratic army. For this purpose, the Law of Military Retirement was promulgated in 1931, which established that all serving officers were to pledge their devotion to the Republic.
Agrarian Reform
A series of decrees sought to protect landless peasants and tenants by prohibiting the termination of lease contracts. The Land Reform Law was adopted by the Cortes in September 1932. The law allowed the expropriation without compensation of land belonging to the nobility.
Centralist State Reform
In Catalonia, on April 14, 1931, Francesc Macià, president of Esquerra Republicana, had proclaimed the Catalan Republic. After a change of government, an Interim Self-Government was formed, whose first task would be to draft a Statute of Autonomy. A commission was responsible for drafting the Statute, known as the Statute of Núria.
Culture, Education, and Labor
The main objective was to promote a liberal and secular education and make the state the guarantor of the right to education, extending it for the first time in history to the entire population. The Republican leaders were convinced of the need to improve the cultural level of the population and make culture a right for all. Pedagogical Missions, mobile groups consisting of students, teachers, and intellectuals, traveled to rural areas with libraries, choirs, lectures, movies, and theater groups, such as La Barraca, organized by Federico García Lorca.
Labor Reforms: The Socialist Francisco Largo Caballero, from the Ministry of Labor, launched a series of reforms to improve working conditions. The Employment Contracts Act was approved, regulating collective bargaining, and the Law of Mixed Juries, with the power of binding arbitration in case of disagreement.
The Problems of the Republican-Socialist Coalition
An Economic Downturn
The regime change coincided with the most severe global economic depression, which began with the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929. The global crisis paralyzed emigration to America, which had been an escape valve for chronic unemployment in regions such as Galicia and Andalusia.
Social Conflict
The revolutionary will of leftist parties and unions like the CNT sharpened confrontations. The CNT saw an opportunity to promote its revolutionary project and intensified labor conflicts and peasant insurrections to destroy the existing bourgeois order. In 1933, when the revolutionary attempts of the CNT and UGT were most intense, the Federation of Land Workers organized strikes. Insurrections and land seizures progressively increased. In 1932, anarchist miners led a revolt in Catalonia, and in 1933, peasants revolted in Andalusia. These events discredited the government, which took harsh police measures to establish law and order.
The Reorganization of the Right
The center-right restructured around Lerroux’s Radical Party, which attracted groups of business owners and agricultural merchants who were not sympathetic to the Republic’s left-wing character. The CEDA quickly emerged in 1933 with a large number of members and an undisputed leader, José María Gil-Robles. Other right-wing groups included Renovación Española, led by José Calvo Sotelo, the Carlist Traditionalist Communion, and especially the fascist groups Falange Española and JONS. Reflecting this discontent, General Sanjurjo led a coup in August 1931, aiming to overthrow the Republic, but it failed. In 1933, the Spanish Military Union (UME) was created as an illegal right-wing military organization opposed to reforms.
The Conservative Biennium (1933-1935)
The 1933 Elections: The Right-Wing Government
The left presented itself to the elections divided and disorganized. The electoral law favored the united right. The result was the victory of center-right parties, which opened two years of conservative rule, also known as the “black biennium.” Two political forces obtained the best results: the Radical Party of Alejandro Lerroux and the CEDA of Gil-Robles.
The Stoppage of Reforms
The new government, headed by Alejandro Lerroux, paralyzed much of the previous reformist project. Agrarian reform stalled. The central government and the Generalitat of Catalonia, in the hands of the left-wing Republicans, clashed over the promulgation in 1934 of the Law of Cultivation Contracts. Catalan landowners, organized around the conservative Catalan Lliga, sought the support of the most conservative members of the Cortes. The central government also made enemies of the Basque nationalists in the Cortes by halting the discussion of the draft Statute led by the PNV.
The Revolution of October 1934
There were strikes in some large cities to defend social reforms threatened by the new government. Miners in Asturias staged a social revolution as a result of a prior agreement between Socialists, Communists, and Anarchists. In Catalonia, the revolt was more political than in Asturias. It had the backing of the President of the Generalitat, Lluís Companys, successor to Francesc Macià, who died in 1933. On October 6, he proclaimed the Catalan Republic within a Spanish Federal Republic, while left-wing parties and trade unions organized a general strike. A state of war was declared, and the military, under General Batet, occupied the Palace of the Generalitat.
The Crisis in the Second Biennium
Properties were returned to the Jesuits, and Gil-Robles was appointed Minister of War. Francisco Franco became Chief of the General Staff. A strong government crisis erupted in the autumn of 1935, affecting the Radical Party due to a series of scandals, such as the Straperlo Affair.
The Triumph of the Popular Front
The Elections of February 1936
To stand for election, the left-wing parties grouped together in an electoral coalition called the Popular Front, based on a common program that defended the granting of amnesty for those imprisoned for the October 1934 Revolution. The right-wing parties formed various coalitions, including the Monarchists and the Traditionalists. Manuel Azaña was appointed President of the Republic, with great opposition from the right and much of the army, and Casares Quiroga became head of government.