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The left republic of 1931
▪ The Republican government granted autonomy to the region of Catalan
- the Right were not happy, because they felt it was a threat to Spain’s overall level of power
▪ The Agrarian Reform Law allowed the state to nationalise (control) the latifundia (large areas of land owned by the wealthy) and then hand them over to the peasants
- however, compensating the landowners was complicated and expensive, and
- not everyone in the government agreed on the plan to take over the latifundia;
- so, it wa -
The left republic of 1932
- a military revolt by General Sanjuro in 1932 was crushed ▪ The government’s decisions led to the foundation of the right-wing Catholic CEDA party
- led by Gil Robles.
- At the same time a fascist party – the Falange (Phalanx) - was established by the son of Primo de Rivera, Jose Antonio.
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The right republic of 1933
In 1933 government troops shot dead anarchist prisoners in Cadiz.
- This created a crisis that led to elections being called for November 1933.
▪ A right-wing coalition government had power after the elections.
- It reversed the process of reform and cancelled the measures against the Church
- The period from 1933 to 1935 became known as the “two black years” by those on the Left, who became divided between
- socialists (led by Prieto ) who wanted to work with the coaltion and
- the UGT (led by -
The right republic of 1934
▪ In 1934 opposition to the government exploded into violence in the Asturias Uprising, an anarchist miners’ revolt
- lasting two weeks which was only stopped after much fighting by the troops of General Franco
- Franco became known as the "Butcher of Asturias".
- Mass arrests followed (even Azana was briefly arrested),
- left wing newspapers were closed and
- the Catalan Autonomy Statute was suspended
.▪ The Asturias Uprising was “a watershed in the history of the Republic” (a quote from the hi -
The right republic of 1936
▪ In 1936 an election was called
▪ A Popular Front of Communists, Socialists, Republicans and Separatists was formed to oppose the government.
▪The right wing formed the National Front.
▪Increasing tension meant that the Left now regarded the Right as Fascists; the Right regarded the Left as Communists.
▪ The Popular Front won only slightly more votes than the National Front, but
- the voting system made this into a large majority of seats in Parliament.
▪ However, Caballero’s socialists, still