Definition of the Second Spanish Republic

The municipal elections of April 12, 1931 in Spain turned the situation around completely politics, which would end up leading, in 1936, into the reactionary armed insurrection that, in 1939 would achieve victory in the subsequent Civil War, leading to the Franco dictatorship that it would last 37 years.

The municipal elections of April 12, 1931 gave a broad victory to the republican forces in urban areas, not so in rural areas.

This phenomenon can be explained in part by a more traditionalist vote in rural areas, and also by the action of caciques, landowners with links with the industrialists and the nobility, who exercised a tight control of the towns, and also of the votes, who bought or they forced.

These traps were more difficult to carry out in cities, which were also more politicized environments and in which large voting masses of the left-wing parties resided, which in turn were in favor of a form of government republican.

The Spanish monarchy, headed by King Alfonso XIII, had been discredited in the eyes of a large part of the Spanish population, who demanded a change.

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The king had supported the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, which had been overthrown by the same monarch involved in a scandal. Economically, Spain was not having a good time, and the colonial adventures in North Africa had cost the nation sweat, blood and tears. population civilian who had not seen the benefit of these adventures, which had ended up in the pockets of the great potentates.

Political corruption, an endemic problem in Spain, also affected the prestige of the government in the eyes of the citizens.

The abysmal difference between the number of republican councilors, who multiplied by three or four to the monarchists, in the large cities, led to the proclamations of a new Spanish republic beginning to spread like wildfire in the large cities of Spain.

Among these, the capital, Madrid, or Barcelona, ​​capital of Catalonia and powder keg of a problem of integration of the region in the rest of Spain that lasts until today with a strong movement independentista.

On April 13, the Republicans are aware of his victory, and although some monarchists raise resistance to the popular will, Alfonso XIII begins negotiations to leave Spain.

He will not abdicate until 1941, being a monarch in exile, an exile in which he will continue to be active and participate in conspiracies to give a coup to restore the monarchy, to the point of collaborating economically with the side fascist during the Civil War.

Looking strong, the Republicans demand that the king leave Spain, which the monarch agrees to do the next day, April 14.

On April 14, the Second Spanish Republic is proclaimed, with mass celebrations in large cities.

The republican will, however, be a regime that was born with the enemy at home, a posteriori victim of the famous “two Spains” that several authors have already sung and painted by the masterful Goya.

The right, united with the monarchists at the juncture, will not forgive the republican regime for its victory and measures of the new government that this would carry, conspiring and working from the same day 14 to overthrow it.

The first republican government would be headed by Niceto Alcalá-Zamora, who would be briefly replaced by Manuel Azaña before being reelected by Congress.

During the first months and years, the republican period would be characterized by its secularism in a country traditionally linked to Catholicism, which caused a conflict between the government and the church.

The higher ecclesial spheres would align themselves with the opponents of the Republic, to the point where the The church officially supported the military uprising of 1936 and later also supported the regime Francoist.

The Republic also fell out with a number of nobles, large landowners, and businessmen, such as the banker Juan March (who later would be the great financier of the coup adventure in 1936).

All these enmities were causing the split of Spanish politics into two clearly differentiated camps: the Republicans on the one hand, and the opponents on the other. Within this last faction there were both monarchists, as fascists, the church, and other diverse socio-political tendencies but faced with the thought republican.

While some sectors of the army were manifestly republican, others remained monarchists, with others who admired the growth of totalitarianisms in Europe, especially the Italian and the German.

Although the monarchical military remained quiet at first, as if containing the breathing following the instructions of Alfonso XIII, the tension was building and the monarchical and anti-republican military began to speak of taking action.

This action would materialize on July 18, 1936, but previously, on August 32, the so-called Sanjurjada, a failed attempt at a military uprising led by General José Sanjurjo (hence its name). This, in 1936, would join the rebel side.

The Republic reduced the number of troops in the army, and changed positions as some commanders became publicly dissatisfied with the government's actions.

This was taken by many military personnel as an attempt by Republican politicians to undermine their power and presence in the society, which pushed many commanders to align themselves actively (and no longer just passively) with the opposing side of the Republic.

Republican authorities sought to modernize the institution military, anchored at all levels in the past, although it should not be ruled out that in the process it tried to get rid of politically annoying commanders.

But the tensions not only came to the Republic from the right, but also from the left.

This is the case of the Asturian revolution of 1934, starring left-wing workers and which was harshly repressed by the army, commanded, among others, by General Francisco Franco, future dictator with the title of "generalissimo".

The so-called “Catalan question” was another of the sensitive points that the Second Spanish Republic had to face.

In April 1931, Francesc Macià had proclaimed the Catalan Republic within the framework of an Iberian federal state that, to At that time, it did not exist, with the hope of forcing a union that would allow Catalonia to take the definitive step towards independence.

After negotiating with Madrid, Macià renounced the Catalan Republic in favor of broad autonomy and the restoration of the Generalitat, the traditional governing body of Catalonia since the age half.

Finally, social reforms were also another mainstay of the Republic and a source of social tension.

Agrarian reform, an ever-pending issue in Spain, was raised in terms of some expropriations and advantages for the day laborers, whose figure had been greatly degraded in the south of the country by the abuses of the landowners.

On July 18, 1936, the Republic suffered its most devastating blow, which would ultimately end it: the attempted coup led by the military establishment that, after its failure, would lead to a bloody civil war that would end three years later with the defeat of the Republic.

However, the Republic would not die, but would go into exile; various countries, such as France or Mexico, would welcome the organisms Republican government in exile, who would collaborate with the allied side during World War II and would be betrayed by this due to what was already glimpsed of the Cold War, for which western countries relied on the Franco regime as ally.

The Second Spanish Republic would formally end in 1977, when the transition sought to reconcile the positions faced since 1936.

The new Spain that emerged after the Franco dictatorship embraced the monarchy, with King Juan Carlos I as a a figure of consensus that could bring together both the moderate rights, such as the army, as well as the left.

Idealized by some, demonized by others, the Second Spanish Republic has not been forgotten, and some aspire to reissue it in what would become the Third Republic. But that is - or rather, will be - another story.

Issues in the Second Spanish Republic