The Second Republic (1931-1936)

THE 2nd SPANISH REPUBLIC (1931-1936)

The 2nd Republic arrived in a period of crisis of the
parliamentary regimes and democracy in Europe.
Its reformist policies highlighted tensions and
unsolved conflicts, which confronted different
groups and ideas: workers and employers,
Catholics and anti-clericalists, revolutionaries and
defenders of order…
The Republic lasted for eight years: five in peace
and three at war. The implementation of many of
its reforms was difficult due to instability and
constant challenges from above (military
conspiracies backed by the oligarchy) and below
(anarchist and socialist uprisings with revolutionary
hopes). The economic crisis and public spending
restrictions also hindered the consolidation of
democracy. But the main cause of the end of
democracy was the uprising of part of the Army
and the security forces against the legitimate
government in July 1936. The rebels undermined
the ability of the government to keep order, the
country became divided and a three- year bloody
war started.
Fight in the streets of Barcelona on the 19th July
1936
People’s joy celebrating the arrival of the Republic

CIVIL WAR
PROVISIONAL
GOVERNMENT
REFORMIST
BIENNIUM
RADICAL-CEDIST
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POPULAR FRONT
GOVERNMENT
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MAIN POLITICAL GROUPS DURING THE 2nd REPUBLIC

At the beginning of 1931 General Berenguer resigned and
Alphonse XIII appointed Admiral Juan Bautista Aznar,
another military man, with the purpose of coming back to
legality after seven years of dictatorship. Aznar wanted to
do it through general elections, but the opposition forces
demanded local elections first and posed their campaign as
a plebiscite against the monarchy. The elections took place
on the 12th April and although the monarchist forces went
together to the elections, united in a Monarchist Union
(Unión Monárquica), and got more councillors in total, the
republican forces won in 41 of the 50 biggest cities.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE REPUBLIC
Electoral propaganda for the 12th April
elections

On the 13th April, when the news of the results
arrived, the king and the government valued the
possibility of using force, but most of the ministers
realized that everything was lost. The captain
generals and General Sanjurjo, director of the
Guardia Civil, informed that they couldn’t
guarantee the obedience of their men. Admiral
Aznar resigned and the government started
preparing Alphonse XIII’s exit from Spain.
Juan de la Cierva y
Peñafiel, minister
of Public Works,
defended the use
of force
13th April newspaper

On the 14th April the Republic was proclaimed in the main cities and people took the streets to
celebrate it.
Proclamation of the 2nd Republic in the
Puerta del Sol, Madrid
14th April evening newspaper, announcing the
proclamation of the Republic

The revolutionary committee became the
Provisional Government, formed by
members of several republican parties
and the socialists:
- Derecha Liberal Republicana: Miguel
Maura and Niceto Alcalá Zamora
- Acción Republicana: Manuel Azaña
- Partido Radical-Socialista: Marcelino
Domingo and Álvaro de Albornoz
- Partido Radical: Alejandro Lerroux and
Diego Martínez Barrio
- PSOE: Francisco Largo Caballero,
Indalecio Prieto and Fernando de los
Ríos
- Acció Catalana Republicana: Lluís
Nicolau D’Olwer
- ORGA: Santiago Casares Quiroga
First meeting of the Provisional Government on the 15th
April. From left to right, Álvaro de Albornoz, Francisco Largo
Caballero, Miguel Maura, Alejandro Lerroux, Niceto Alcalá
Zamora, Fernando de los Ríos, Santiago Casares Quiroga
and Manuel Azaña. The rest of the ministers were still
exiled in France.

On the evening of the 14th April, King Alphonse XIII suspended his powers and took up exile. On
the 16th April the newspaper ABC published his manifesto to the country.
Alphonse XIII’s arrival in Paris
La Traca, 21st April 1931

- President: Niceto Alcalá Zamora
- War: Manuel Azaña
- Education: Marcelino Domingo
- Justice: Fernando de los Ríos
- Labour: Francisco Largo Caballero
- Interior: Miguel Maura
- Communications: Diego Martínez Barrio
- Economic Affairs: Lluís Nicolau d’Olwer
- Navy: Santiago Casares Quiroga
- Public Works: Álvaro de Albornoz
- State: Alejandro Lerroux
- Finance: Indalecio Prieto
As it had been agreed in the Pact of San Sebastián,
the first decisions made by the Provisional
Government were calling elections to Constituent
Cortes for the 28th June and some urgent reforms:
reform of the Army and decrees to improve the
situation of the workers
PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT (April-December 1931)

Azaña’s objective was creating a professional, modern
and democratic army, reducing the troops, especially the
number of officers (there was one officer for every three
soldiers and an army of 16 divisions, which would need 80
generals, had 800), ending with the special military
jurisdiction and assuring the obedience of the Army to
the civil power. With this purpose, several decrees were
issued:
- Law of Retirement of the Officers: all the officers had
to swear allegiance to the Republic and those who
wanted could retire receiving full pay
- Some traditional ranks, like captain general or
lieutenant general, were suppressed
- The number of units was reduced (from 16 to 8)
- Half of the military academies were closed
- The military regions were suppressed and replaced by
Organic Divisions and their number was also reduced.
- Honour courts, the Supreme Council of Military
Justice, the military press and the 1907 Law of
Jurisdictions were also eliminated.
- The promotion system was definitely set by length of
service, instead of by war merits.
REFORM OF THE ARMY

All these decisions reduced the size of
the Army, but not as much as the
government would have wanted (only
1/3 of the officers retired). Expenses
were also reduced, but the reduction
of the defense budget made the
modernization of the units difficult.
Some sectors, like the Africanists,
received the reforms as a direct attack,
but the reform was well planned and
Azaña’s intention wasn’t attacking the
Army, but modernizing it, putting it at
the service of the State.
In fact, the Army didn’t lose power,
because the government continued to
depend on it to control public order.
Azaña with General Franco inspecting the troops
in 1932. Franco lost his post of director of the
Military Academy of Zaragoza when Azaña
ordered its closure.

DECREES TO IMPROVE THE WORKERS’ SITUATION
Largo Caballero, member of the PSOE and UGT
and minister of Labour, launched a series of
decrees to improve the situation of workers and
peasants:
- Law of Municipal Boundaries (Ley de Términos
Municipales), obliged the owners to hire the
labourers of the places where they had their
lands preferentially
- Law of Compulsory Cultivation (Ley de
Laboreo Forzoso) obliged the owners to
cultivate their land
- Authorization for collective settlements:
syndicated workers could occupy abandoned
lands
- Prohibition of evicting the tenants (peasants
who rented lands to cultivate them)
- Law of Joint Arbitration Committees (Ley de
Jurados Mixtos), to approve labour contracts
and monitor their observance
These social decisions confronted the
government with landowners and businessmen,
but didn’t stop the outbreak of strikes in different
parts of the country.
Demonstration of unemployed anarchists in the
Upper Aragón, 1931
Largo Caballero

The enthusiasm with which the Republic was
received in wide sectors of the population
was related to the expectations they had of a
better distribution of wealth. But other
sectors, like the big landowners and
businessmen showed their mistrust.
From the beginning, the Church also showed
its public hostility towards the government.
On the 1st May 1931 Cardinal Segura, the
Primate of the Spanish Church, wrote a
pastoral letter in support of Alphonse XIII.
Also on the 11th-12th May after an incident
that involved some monarchists in Madrid,
there was an anti-clerical outbreak of
violence in several cities: around 100
religious buildings were burnt in Madrid,
Córdoba, Murcia, Seville, Valencia... The
government decreed the state of war and
kept it until calm came back. In June Cardinal
Segura was expelled from Spain.
Cardinal Segura the day he was obliged to leave Spain, June
1931

ELECTIONS TO CONSTITUENT CORTES (28th June 1931)
They took place with the 1907 electoral law, with some
changes. The Cortes were formed by a single chamber
and were elected by universal male suffrage (all men
aged 23 could vote), although women could be
candidates.
Voters gave the majority to the republican-socialist
coalition, which got 90% of the seats. The PSOE was the
most voted party, with 115 deputies, followed by the
Radical Party, with 94.
Three women were elected deputies:
Victoria Kent,
radical socialist
Clara Campoamor,
radical
Margarita Nelken,
socialist

Opening session of the Constituent Cortes, 14th July 1931
CONSTITUENT CORTES (July-December 1931)
Their main achievements were:
- the 1931 Constitution, passed on the 9th
December 1931 after intense debates
- the Law of Defense of the Republic, which
allowed the government to suspend the
constitutional guarantees and gave them
wide powers in this case
Law of Defense of the Republic

1931 CONSTITUTION
It was passed on the 9th December 1931:
- Ideology: liberal democratic
- Spain is defined as a “Republic of
workers of all types”, which remarked
the popular origin of the regime.
- Integrated State, although it included
the possibility of creating autonomous
governments in the regions that
requested it.
- Executive power: President of the
Republic and council of ministers. The
President would be elected by the
Cortes and some delegates and his
powers were restricted and under the
Cortes control.
- Legislative power: only for the Cortes,
formed by a single chamber and whose
powers were over the rest of the
institutions. The government could
propose laws, but the Cortes were the
only body with legislative power.

- Wide declaration of rights and liberties,
including also social and economic rights,
like the right to work and education.
- Full universal suffrage, including women.
All the citizens aged 23 could vote. The
radical deputy Clara Campoamor defended
the right to vote for women in the debates,
confronting the other women deputies,
who argued that women would give the
votes to the right conservative parties.
- Civil marriage and divorce were recognized
- Separation between the Church and the
State. The State was non-confessional, the
cult and the clergy budget had to be
eliminated in a two-year term and freedom
of religion was guaranteed. The religious
orders that included a fourth vote to
another authority (the Society of Jesus)
were dissolved.
- Possibility of forced confiscation of
properties for social use with economic
compensation and also the possibility of
nationalizing the public interest services.
Clara Campoamor campaigning for the vote
for women

There was a series of heated constitutional debates ,
especially those referred to the religious question
(Article 26) and the autonomy of the regions. These
two topics prevented the consensus of all the
republican forces and broke up the republican
coalition:
- The centralist and right forces opposed to the
autonomy of the regions
- The religious question was especially
controversial. Finally, the Society of Jesus was
dissolved, the religious orders were considered
as associations and were forbidden to develop
economic or educational activities. The Church
opposed this article, because it meant the loss of
control over education and reduced its social
influence drastically. Most of the Church
hierarchy opposed the Republic openly and the
Catholics started organizing to review the
Constitution. The approval of this article
provoked the resignation of the Catholic
members of the government (Alcalá Zamora and
Maura) and the formation of a new government.
La Traca, 1st December 1931

After the approval of the Constitution, Alcalá
Zamora became the President of the
Republic and Azaña became the prime
minister of a government formed only by
leftist republicans and socialists, with the
support of Catalanists and Galician
regionalists. The Radical Party rejected to
continue in the government with the
socialists, but Azaña preferred the socialists
because he considered that having them in
the government was the only way to stabilize
the Republic and democracy. It was also
agreed that the Cortes wouldn’t be dissolved
until some fundamental laws drafted in the
Constitution had been passed.
THE REFORMIST BIENNIUM (December 1931- October 1933)
Alcalá Zamora,
president of the
Republic
Manuel Azaña, prime
minister
Azaña’s government, without the radical and the right-
wing republicans
Azaña´s government had to face attacks both
from the left and the right:
-workers ‘ protests, mainly organized by the
socialist FNTT and the anarchist CNT-FAI
- Sanjurjo’s military uprising, supported by
the oligarchy

The economic crisis and the delay in the approval of the agrarian reform provoked many protests,
organized mainly by the CNT-FAI, which opted for revolutionary strikes and the use of violence to
overthrow a bourgeois regime. Some of these protests had a tragic end, like the ones in
Castilblanco (Badajoz) and Arnedo (Logroño) in December 1931 and Alt Llobregat (Barcelona) in
January 1932.
WORKERS’ PROTESTS
In Castilblanco during a
strike called by the FNTT,
one peasant was killed and
the strikers lynched 4 civil
guards
In Arnedo the civil guard shot
the workers who were
demonstrating pacifically. Eleven
workers were killed and there
were more than 30 wounded
A miners strike derived in a failed general
strike. There were no dead or wounded, but
many CNT leaders were arrested and deported.
This failure increased division in the CNT among
the revolutionaries (faístas) and those who
preferred fighting to improve the working
conditions (treintistas).

The bloodiest event took place in Casas Viejas (Cádiz) in
January 1933, after a call for a general strike by the
CNT-FAI. The strike failed, but in Casas Viejas anarchist
peasants took the control of the town and killed two
civil guards. The government sent reinforcements, who
recovered the control of the town and repressed the
revolt severely: they set fire to the house of an anarchist
peasant, who died with all his family, and executed 12
more peasants. The final count were 22 peasants and 3
civil guards dead. Casas Viejas events smeared the
government reputation before workers and peasants,
many of whom had lost their hopes of a substantial
improvement of their lives from a bourgeois
government.
The public order forces surrounding the house of
Francisco Cruz Gutiérrez, Seisdedos, an anarchist
peasant who hadn’t participated in the uprising
Medical examiners and journalists making the body count
Seisdedos’ house after being burnt

Some sectors of the Army conspired to
overthrow the government. On the 10th August
1932 there was a failed attempt of coup d’ État
to rectify the Republic, led by General Sanjurjo,
financed by the magnate Juan March and with
Lerroux’s involvement. Those involved were
arrested and imprisoned. The failed coup
accelerated the approval of two important
laws: the Law of Agrarian Reform and the
Statute of Autonomy for Catalonia
THE SANJURJADA (August 1932)
On the right, General Sanjurjo in El Dueso Prison
General Sanjurjo in Seville during the coup d’État
Juan March, smuggler and
later banker who financed
the 1932 coup and also the
1936 one

LAW OF AGRARIAN REFORM
Around half of the working population of Spain were peasants (4 million). Half of them (2 million) were
labourers, 750,000 were tenants and the rest small and middle landowners. In Andalusia, Extremadura
and La Mancha more than half of the land belonged to big landowners.
The law’s objective was giving the poorest peasants access to land and included the confiscation of
properties and economic help to start cultivating the land.
Percentage of more than 250 hectares
estates in every province
Situation in the countryside

DECISIONS:
- The lands confiscated paying the
corresponding compensation were
those not cultivated or badly cultivated,
those that had been systematically
leased, those that were located in
irrigated zones and hadn’t been
planted, and those which belonged to a
single owner and represented more
than 1/6 of the land of one municipality.
- The lands belonging to the grandees of
Spain (around 500,000 hectares) were
confiscated without compensation as a
punishment for their support to
Sanjurjo’s coup.
- The IRA (Institute of Agrarian Reform)
would be in charge of paying the
compensations to the owners,
distributing them to the peasants who
settled down in them and giving them
loans to start cultivating.

The results were very limited and social
tension increased. The government didn’t
show much interest in the implementation
of the law: the IRA received little amount of
money for the compensations and loans
(only 50 million pesetas, 1% of the State
budget), a small amount of land was
confiscated and few peasants could settle
down (only 45,000 hectares and 12,000
families between 1932 and 1934). In
addition, the big landowners tried to stop it
by all means. The law didn’t satisfy anyone:
the big landowners increased their
opposition to the Republic and financed the
right parties like the CEDA and the peasants,
disappointed, oriented to more
revolutionary positions, increasing social
unrest.
Land seizure in Badajoz in 1934

STATUTE OF AUTONOMY FOR CATALONIA
When the Republic was proclaimed, Francesc Macià,
president of ERC, had proclaimed the Catalan Republic
inside the Iberian Federation, but it was suspended after
the negotiations with the Provisional Government. In
exchange for this, an autonomous government, the
Generalitat, was recognized, and a project of Statute of
Autonomy was written (Statute of Núria).
- In August 1931 this project was approved by the
Catalans in a referendum with 99% of affirmative
votes and later presented to the Cortes to be
discussed. The project was rejected by the right
conservative forces, which considered it a danger of
disintegration of Spain.
- The Statute was approved in August 1932, but with
cuts with respect to the initial project: autonomous
government and a specific Parliament, with economic,
social services, public order and cultural powers and
Catalan and Castilian would be joint official languages.
- The first elections to the Catalan Parliament
(November 1932) were won by ERC and Macià was
elected president of the Generalitat (he died in
December 1933 and was replaced by Lluís Companys).
Macià proclaiming the Catalan
Republic on the 14th April 1931
Electoral campaign for the referendum

EDUCATIONAL REFORM
Its main goal was ending with the
hegemony of the Church in education
and promoting compulsory, free, lay,
liberal and mixed-sex education,
inspired on the principles of the
Institución Libre de Enseñanza. The
budget destined to education was
doubled, 10,000 new schools were
built, 10,000 new teachers were
employed and the Pedagogical
Missions were launched (campaigns to
spread culture in rural areas. They
brought libraries, theater plays, movies,
conferences, phonograph records,
reproductions of masterpieces of El
Prado Museum. Around 700 young
intellectuals, writers, artists, teachers
and university students participated in
the Missions between 1931 and 1936).
Pedagogical Missions

In May 1933 the Law of Religious
Confessions and Congregations was
approved. It limited the properties of the
religious orders, included the possibility of
dissolving them if they were considered a
danger for the State and ordered the closure
of the primary and secondary schools run by
the Church in December 1933. This law
provoked a clash of the government with
the President of the Republic, an ardent
Catholic, and deepened the differences of
the Church with the Republic. The
government underestimated the importance
of religion for a big part of the Spaniards,
especially in the North of the country.
REDUCTION OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH IN SOCIETY
20th April 1932
Manuel Azaña’s speech in the Cortes on the 14th October
1931. His statement meant that the Church had lost its
influence and control over Spain’s population.

The religious conflict became the origin of a
Catholic mass political movement directed by
the CEDA (Confederación Española de
Derechas Autónomas), a new political party
born in February 1933, led by José Mª Gil
Robles. It grouped several right wing parties,
got the support of the clergy, the agrarian and
financial oligarchy, many small landowners and
women, defended a complete revision of the
Constitution and the legislation of the Republic
and were accidentalist with respect to the
form of government (many of them were
monarchists, but participated in the elections
of the Republic to get the necessary power to
change the laws).
Emblem of the CEDA
José Mª Gil Robles

The multiple problems the government had to face
and the increasing opposition to reforms in different
sectors became evident in the April 1933 partial
municipal elections. The anti-republican and right-
wing parties got more councillors than the ones in
the government.
After the approval of the Law of Religious
Confessions and Congregations, criticism to the
government intensified and there were new workers
and peasants’ uprisings during the summer.
In September, after the government coalition defeat
in the elections to the Constitutional Safeguards
Court, the President of the Republic withdrew his
confidence to Azaña’s government and there were
several short republican concentration
governments, with no socialists, presided over by
the radicals Alejandro Lerroux and Diego Martínez
Barrio. They couldn’t do much due to the PSOE
opposition in the Cortes. In October Alcalá Zamora
decided to dissolve the Cortes and new general
elections were called.
Lerroux cabinet
Martínez Barrio cabinet

The November 1933 elections were won by the center-right parties (the CEDA got 115
deputies and the Radical Party got 102). The PSOE was the third political group, with 58
deputies only. Many workers refrained, following the anarchists’ advice, while the Catholics
mobilized massively against the laws that cut the power of the Church. The CEDA, the most
voted party, didn’t define itself as a republican party, only accepted the Republic
circumstantially and their program included a deep revision of all the work done by the
previous government.
First time all the women could vote
Results of the 1933 elections

As no party got the majority to rule alone, Alcalá
Zamora asked Lerroux, the leader of the Radical
Party, to form the new government.
Lerroux’s first government was formed only by
members of the Radical Party, although
supported by the CEDA and the monarchists in
the Cortes. Lerroux thought that he could
incorporate the right into the Republic, but the
CEDA strategy was trying to seize power to revise
the Constitution and this included also the use of
violence. In December 1933 the last attempt of
anarchist uprising took place (75 workers and 14
members of the public forces dead).
RADICAL-CEDIST BIENNIUM (December 1933- September 1935)

Francisco Ascaso, Buenaventura
Durruti and Gregorio Jover
Juan García
Oliver
In December 1933 the last
attempt of anarchist uprising took
place (75 workers and 14
members of the public forces
dead).
They defended the hard line in the CNT-FAI
Joan Peiró and Ángel Pestaña opposed insurrectionalism

The new government paralyzed most of the former
period reforms:
 The agrarian reform was stopped and the
landowners hardened the contract conditions,
fact that increased strikes and protests in the
countryside.
 In Catalonia, the Generalitat approved the Law
of Crop Contracts (Ley de Contratos de Cultivo)
in 1934, which allowed the tenants access to
the property of the land they cultivated, paying
an economic compensation. The landowners
protested in the Cortes, supported by the Lliga
Regionalista and the central government sent
the Catalan law to the Constitutional Safeguards
Court, which declared it unconstitutional. The
Generalitat didn’t accept this decision and soon
after they approved a very similar law, defying
the central government.
Peasants’ protest in fron of the Catalan Parliament
after the annulment of the Crop Contracts Law, 1934
The number of strikes reached its peak in 1933

 The discussion of the Basque Statute of
Autonomy, promoted by the PNV, was also
paralyzed.
 The Law of Religious Confessions and
Congregations was suspended and religious
schools continued to work, a cult and clergy
budget was established, the government tried to
sign a new Concordat with the Holy See and
religious displays (processions, rosaries)
reappeared in many places. The budget destined
to public education was reduced.
 In April an amnesty for the promoters of the
August 1932 coup d’État and also for those who
participated in the December 1933 anarchist
uprising was decreed. This provoked a
confrontment with the President of the
Republic, who considered that setting the
enemies of the Republic free weakened the
Republic. Lerroux was replaced by Ricardo
Samper as prime minister.
Ricardo Samper
Sanjurjo on the day he was released.
He took up exile in Portugal

The dismantling of the reforms of the former
government provoked the radicalization of
the UGT and the PSOE. The leftist sector, led
by Francisco Largo Caballero, didn’t want to
continue the collaboration with the bourgeois
parties and opted for trying social revolution,
while the most moderate sector, headed by
Indalecio Prieto and Fernando de los Ríos,
defended the need for cooperating with the
left republicans in order to deepen the
reforms.
On the other side, the left republican parties
(Acción Republicana, Partido Radical Socialista
and ORGA) merged in April 1934 and formed
Izquierda Republicana (Republican Left) and
the Radical Party split, because many of its
deputies didn’t share the government policies.
Martínez Barrio left the Radical Party and
founded the Radical- Democratic Party, which
supported the return to the cooperation with
the leftist republicans and the end of the
Alliance with the CEDA.
Diego Martínez
Berrio, leader of the
Radical-Democratic
Party after the split of
the Radical Party
Besteiro, Prieto, de los Ríos surrounding Largo Caballero.

OCTOBER 1934 REVOLUTION
First meeting of the government presided over by
Lerroux, including three ministers of the CEDA
Workers protests increased. In the summer of 1934 there were numerous strikes in the
countryside, strongly repressed by the government. The CEDA asked for more forceful measures
and demanded entering the government, threatening with the withdrawal of parliamentary
support if this didn’t happen. Finally, on the 4th October Lerroux came back to government and
appointed three ministers of the CEDA. The leaders of all the republican parties protested before
the President of the Republic, accusing him of having handed over the Republic to its enemies.
The following day the socialist revolutionary committee called a general strike with the objective
of starting the revolution and making the government fall. The events that followed are known as
the October 1934 Revolution.
Article on El Socialista against the entrance of the
CEDA in the government at the beginning of October
1934

The strike was only successful in the
biggest cities. The government
declared the state of war and
controlled the situation in some days.
The most relevant events took place in
Catalonia and Asturias.
Madrid Bilbao

La Vanguardia, 9th October 1934
In Catalonia, on the 6th October Lluís Companys, president of the Generalitat, proclaimed the
Catalan State inside the Spanish Federal Republic. The socialists and communists called the
workers to a general strike, but the CNT didn’t participate and the protest failed. The government
sent the army, which bombed Barcelona’s city hall and the Generalitat and in some days public
order was restablished. There were more than 3,500 arrested, among them the members of the
Generalitat and Azaña (who was in Barcelona after attending a funeral), and Catalonia’s autonomy
was suspended.
Proclamation of the Catalan State at Sant Jaume Square
Barcelona City Hall facade,
where the effects of the
bombs and artillery are visible.
The Catalan government in
the jail of the steamboat Uruguay

In Asturias the strike got more success due
to the union of the CNT, the UGT and the
Communists (Alianza Obrera). Columns of
miners occupied the towns of the mining
area, took the control of the civil guard
barracks, replaced the town halls for
revolutionary committees and sieged the city
of Oviedo.
There was another outbreak of anti-clerical
violence, 34 priests and monks were killed
and more than 60 religious buildings were
burnt.
Demonstration in Mieres, Asturias, in October 1934
Barricade in Gijón The Holy Chamber of Oviedo’s Cathedral was
destroyed with a bomb
The Turón Martyrs,
eight members of La
Salle order, shot on the
9th October

The government appointed General
Franco to coordinate the repression
and he decided to send the Legion and
the Regular Troops from Africa to
Asturias, commanded by General
Yagüe, who joined the army
commanded by General López Ochoa
who arrived from Galicia. They
strongly repressed the revolt, which
ended on the 18th October, leaving
more than 1,100 miners dead, more
than 2,000 wounded and 30,000
arrested. The public order forces and
the army had 300 casualties. What
happened in Asturias was a precedent
of what would happen during the
Civil War: revolutionary committees
that replaced the official power, anti-
clerical persecution, strong repression
of the revolt by the military among
others.
López Ochoa’s entrance in Oviedo, 14th
October
Column of revolutionaries arrested after the end
of the uprising

The final consequences of the October
Revolution were thousands of arrested,
suspension of the Catalan autonomy and the
growth of the influence of the CEDA in the
government (more ministries). In May 1935
Gil Robles was appointed minister of War
and Franco became Chief of General Staff.
Counter-reformist decisions accelerated
and all the leftist forces united against the
government policies, around a common
program that included amnesty for all the
arrested after the October events.
In July 1935 the government presented a
project to reform the Constitution, which
included a restriction of the autonomy of
the regions, the abolition of divorce and the
prohibition of socializing property. In August
the Cortes finally passed the Law of Reform
of the Agrarian Reform. But these counter-
reforms couldn’t be implemented due to the
corruption scandals that affected the
radicals.
Gil Robles, minister of War, with Franco, his Chief
of General Staff
Companys and some members of the Generalitat in the
Modelo Prison in Madrid. They were sentenced to 30
years imprisonment

STRAPERLO AND NOMBELA SCANDALS
- The Straperlo scandal was related
to the bribes several radicals and
Lerroux’s adopted son had
accepted in exchange for giving
licenses to two shady
businessmen (Strauss and Perle)
to install fraudulent roulettes in
Spanish casinos. As the licenses
didn’t arrive, Strauss and Perle
tried to blackmail Lerroux, but this
one rejected to help them. Then,
they told everything to Alcalá
Zamora, who made the scandal
public and obliged the
government to resign.
- The Nombela scandal was a case
of illegal payments to one of
Lerroux’s friends, denounced by
Antonio Nombela, who was
dismissed in revenge.
Strauss, Perle and Lowann
Straperlo roulette
http://www.lasprovincias.es/v/20100410/valencia/estraperl
o-corrupcion-desacredita-politica-20100410.html
http://www.elconfidencial.com/alma-corazon-vida/2014-05-17/aqui-
empieza-todo-el-estraperlo-una-estafa-colosal_130601/

As these scandals touched the Radical Party
directly, the CEDA demanded power again,
but Alcalá Zamora blocked Gil Robles one
more time and asked the moderate
republican Joaquín Chapaprieta to form
government in September. Chapaprieta
couldn’t stabilize the situation and in
December he was replaced by the centrist
Manuel Portela Valladares. As Alcalá Zamora
continued to reject the CEDA demands for
power, Gil Robles contacted several military
men (Franco, Goded, Fanjul) to check the
possibility of a coup d’ État, but they told
him to wait. Portela Valladares formed a
government without the participation of the
radicals or the CEDA, with very limited
support in the Parliament. In January 1936
the Cortes were finally dissolved and new
general elections were called for February.
Joaquín Chapaprieta Manuel Portela Valladares
El Siglo Futuro, 1st January 1936

- The leftist parties grouped in an electoral
coalition called Popular Front, which presented a
unified list in all the country. It included Izquierda
Republicana, Unión Republicana, the UGT, the
PSOE, the Socialist Youth, the PCE and the POUM
(Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, a
Trotskyist party led by JoaquínMaurín and Andreu
Nin) and the Partido Sindicalista (founded by
Ángel Pestaña after his expulsion from the CNT).
The CNT-FAI didn’t campaign for abstention and
some of their leaders recommended voting for
the Popular Front. The Popular Front political
program focused on amnesty for all the arrested
in October 1934, the reinstatement of all those
who had lost their posts for political reasons
and the continuation of the reforms of the
Reformist Biennium.
- The right- wing parties were not so united (the
CEDA went to the elections with different groups
in every district) and the radicals, discredited,
went to the elections alone.
Demonstration with members of the Popular
Front at its head.

The electoral campaign was
more peaceful than the one in
1933, participation was high
(72.9 % of the census) and the
elections were quite clean.
The right-wing parties got
good results in both Castiles,
León, Navarre and part of
Aragón, while the left got the
majority in the big cities and
the coastal regions.

The Popular Front obtained 34.72% of
the ballots, the right parties 25.09%,
the centrist ones 3.31%, the Basque
nationalists 0.96% and FET de las JONS
only 0.36%. In number of votes, the
leftist forces obtained 4,363,903
(47.1%), the right 4,155,153(45.6%)
and the centre forces 556,008 (5.3%).
The most voted parties were the PSOE
(99 seats) and the CEDA (88) and in
every district the most voted
candidates were the most moderate
ones.
As the electoral law gave 80% of the
seats to the most voted party in every
district, the Popular Front obtained the
majority in the Cortes, with 263
deputies, over 156 got by the right
parties and 54 deputies for the
centrists. The Radical Party suffered a
serious setback and even Lerroux
wasn’t elected.

4th March 1936
Once the results were known,
Portela Valladares government
received pressure on all sides:
rumours of a coup d’État, agitation
in several cities to release political
prisoners and demands to declare
the state of emergency. On the 19th
February he decided to resign and
Azaña assumed power
immediately. He formed a
government only with republicans,
but with the parliamentary support
of the socialists and he quickly
started implementing the Popular
Front program: an amnesty decree
allowed 30,000 political prisoners to
go out from jail and the companies
were obliged to reinstate the
workers fired by the 1934 events.
The Catalan government recovered
power and negotiations to approve
the statutes for the Basque
Provinces and Galicia started. Release of the October 1934 prisoners
GOVERNMENT OF THE POPULAR FRONT (February- July 1936)

- The rumours about a coup d’État decided
the government to move some generals to
other places: Mola was sent to Pamplona,
Franco to the Canary Islands and Goded to
the Balearic Islands. All this exasperated the
right, but the decisions the government
made didn’t satisfy the workers, who
demanded faster reforms.
- Strikes and demonstrations started again
and the government had to face
mobilization from its theoretical supporters.
- Falange launched a violence campaign
against the trade unions and leftist parties
(“the dialectic of fists and weapons”, in the
same way as other fascist parties in
Europe). Many young members of the
CEDA, who belonged to the JAP (Juntas de
Acción Popular) joined the paramilitary
fascists and contributed to increase tension,
with continuous street confrontments with
workers.
General Mola
General Goded
Franco with officers and the heads
of the Canary Islands garrisons, 16th
June 1936

Onésimo Redondo Ramiro Ledesma
Rafael Sánchez
Mazas
Julio Ruiz de
Alda
José Antonio
Primo de Rivera
FE de las JONS emblem
FE de las JONS had been
created in 1934 after the
merger of Falange Española
(FE) and the JONS (Juntas de
Ofensiva Nacional
Sindicalista). Their ideology
was very similar to Italian
Fascism: radical nationalism,
anti-Marxism, rejection of the
political practices of the ruling
classes, authoritarianism, but
they also included traditional
Catholicism. Their paramilitary
groups used violence against
the workers’ unions and
increased tension in the first
months of 1936. Their leaders
were arrested in March.

In May 1936 the new Cortes dismissed
Alcalá Zamora and Manuel Azaña was
appointed President of the Republic. The
monarchists and the CEDA boycotted the
voting, but Azaña got the support of the
PNV, the Lliga, the radicals and the
Mauristas. Casares Quiroga became prime
minister. Alcalá Zamora’s dismissal
deprived the Republic of a moderate
figure, Azaña seemed too dangerous and
radical for the right parties and his
strategy of getting the PSOE in the
government with Prieto as prime minister
failed, due to Largo Caballero and the UGT
opposition.
Santiago Casares
Quiroga, from ORGA,
replaced Azaña as prime
minister
Manuel Azaña’s emblem
as president of the Republic

Tension increased with the continuous confrontments between extreme right and extreme left
groups and the threat of a military conspiracy:
- The UME (Unión Militar Española), a right-wing, counter-reformist clandestine organization
created in 1933, had an important role in the planning of the coup and General Mola was the
brains of the coup. Other military men involved were Fanjul, Goded, Varela, Saliquet and Franco.
There were also monarchists, Carlists, members of the CEDA and Falange and they got the
support of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
- The plot included a simultaneous uprising in all the possible garrisons, the intervention of
Africa’s army, commanded by Franco, and the priority control of Madrid and Barcelona. Besides,
the paramilitary groups of the Carlist Comunión Tradicionalista (requetés) and FE de las JONS
would also join the conspiracy.
The purpose of the coup wasn’t
completely clear, because those involved
had different goals. It seems that Mola
wanted to impose a military dictatorship
and eliminate the Popular Front. The
CEDA and other monarchic groups
wanted the restoration of the monarchy,
the Carlists wanted the establishment of
a traditional government and the Falange
wanted a similar regime to Fascist Italy.
The main military plotters

In the first days of July
1936 incidents between
extremist groups
increased: on the 12th
some members of Falange
killed the assault guard
lieutenant Castillo,
instructor of the Socialist
Youth (Juventudes
Socialistas) militia. In
revenge, his colleagues
killed José Calvo Sotelo,
member of the extreme
right party Renovación
Española, some hours later.
Lieutenant Castillo and José Calvo Sotelo’s corpses
Lieutenant Castillo and José Calvo Sotelo’s burials

These assassinations coincided with the last preparations
of the coup, but can’t be considered as an immediate
cause of it, but rather as a demonstration of the increasing
social and political tension.

In the afternoon of the
17th July (Friday) the army
in Morocco rose up and
on the 18th the uprising
extended to the
Peninsula. However, the
coup failed in many
places, because the
military in command were
loyal to the government.
But the government was
unable to subdue the
uprising where it had been
successful. The failure of
the coup and the inability
of the government to
control the situation
converted a military
uprising into a bloody and
cruel three-year war.

The Second Republic (1931-1936)

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The Second Republic (1931-1936)