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The 1931 Constitution
Constituent Assembly elections were held to choose the drafters of the new Republican Constitution. The victors were the parties forming the Provisional Government: PSOE and PRR. The drafters described it as a progressive, democratic and left-wing constitution.
The main democratic features were: popular soverignity, division of powers, declaration of civil rights and the declaration of collective rights. -
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Reformist biennium
Niceto Alcalá Zamora was named president of the Republic and Manuel Azaña was named president of the government. Azaña´s introduced a variety of reforms. The Statute of Autonomy for Cataluña was passed, the subordination of the army to the civil government led the the military to withdraw its support for the Republic, Jesuits were expelled, and the agrarian reform took place. -
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The black biennium
Elections were held in November 1933. CEDA and PRR won the elections. Lerroux (PRR) was in charge of forming the government. Some leaders of PSOE, like Feancisco Largo Caballero, feared that CEDA was beginning to resemble fascism so they called a general strike which grew into the Revolution of October 1934. It involved some uprisings like that Cataluña declared itself independient, or, that in Asturias the miners staged an armed revolt. -
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The start of the civil war
On 12 July, Lieutenant Castillo, a member of the government´s assault guards and a socialist sympathiser, was murdered by right-wing gunmen. in revenge, Castillo´s colleagues kidnapped and killed the right-wing deputy Calvo Sotelo. This event triggered the military coup. General Emlio Mola was in charge of organising the rebellion under the leadership of José Sanjurjo. The rebel coup was supported by a number of conservative groups, including Carlists and the Fascist Falange. -
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The Popular Front
New elections were called for February 1936. The left-wing parties joined together to form the Popular Front coalition. They defended the right to ammnesty for political prisioners and pushed the social reforms begun in 1931. Radical right-wing were represented by the Bloque Nacional, led by José Calvo Sotelo, and the Falange Española, afascist party which was founded by José Antonio Primo de Rivera.
