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religiously the catholic church was given power over the education in the Condcordat between Spain and Rome -
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militarily, the army was overstaffed and overpowerful after the loss of Cuba, the last remenant of the Spanish Empire -
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Socially, problems of poverty for the peasantry and the proletariat had lead to bloodshed in the 'Tragic Week', when the army fired on protesters -
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Spain was a constitutional monarchy headed by King Alfonso XIII. Politically, Spain had an inefficient and corrupt government. Regionally, Catalonia and the Basque region wanted independance -
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A Spanish army was massacred to Morocco when it tried putting down a rebellion. This defeat was a further blow to the Spanish pride. -
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General Primo de Rivera took control of Spain in a bloodless coup to prevent the collapse of the monarchy. He was to rule until 1930. -
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Rivera ended the was in Morocco and introduce public work schemes - roads, railways, irrigation schemes. Industrial production increased by a threefold. Rivera suspended the cortes (plarliament), trial by jury and freedom of speech/press. -
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The depression hit Spain hard. Agricultural prices plummeted, Industrial production collapsed by up to 50%, unemployment skyrocketed. -
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The army withdrew its support and Rivera had to resign as government leader. -
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Regions: Catalonia recieved some self government. The church: Jesuits expelled. RE in schools banned; divorce allowed. The army: Many officers were forced to retire early on half pay. The economy: The huge estates in Spain (latifundia) were nationalised. -
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These reforms Republican government angered the military, industralists, landowners, the catholic church - the most powerful elements of society. These four powerful bodies looked towards the Facists for help against their Four-Wing goverment, and a new Spanish Fascist party (the Falange) was formed under Primo's son Jose Antonio de Rivera -
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Elections were held and Republicans won all the major cities in Spain. Alfonso advicated to avoid civil war. Spain became a Republic. -
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The goverment was split between Left and Right Wing Republicans - The former wanted rapid social reform to appeal to the working classes; the latter wanted more moderate change to reduce the opposition of the church, landowners and military -
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General Sanjuro led an army coup to overthrow the Government lead by Manuel Azana, the Prime Minister. The military coup was unsuccessful as the army remained faithful to the goverment - after all, it had one the elections early -
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Republic offends the right: A reactionary political party was formed -the ceda- determined to protect the rights of the Roman Catholic Church and landlords. Repiblic offends the left: two powerful left wing political parties, the anarchists and syndicalists (powerful trade union groups), felt that Azana's goverment was too moderate. Both wanted the overthrow of capitalism -
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The extreme left organised riots to destabilise the goverment of Azana. 25 people were killed by government troups who were attempting to catch some anarchists near Cadiz. This lost the government a great deal of support amoung the working class and the socialists withdrew their support from the government -
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Azana resigned as prime minister and elections were called; CEDA won a majority of support and formed a goverment led by Gil Robles which held power for what the left called 'Two Black Years'. Robles withdrew all of the reforms introduced by the Azana government. The Left-Wing parties joined together to form the Popular Front. They organised strikes, riots and vandilism. -
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Coal miners in the Asturias sparked off a general strike but this was ruthlessly put down by the Army led by General Franco. Spain was heading towards chaos. The Catalans had their privileges withdrawn and turned against the government. -
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A general election was called to retore order. The Left-Wing Front coalition won and Azana once again became Prime Minister. The Right-Wing formed a National Front coalition inreaction = more polarisation. The socialists withdrew their support from the Popular front government in protest at its moderation. Public disturbances occured, soon started spiralling the country out of control. -
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General Franco assumed control of the military, seized control of Spanish Morocco and crossed over into mainland Spain to take over the government. The civil war had begun. -
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Leading a right wing politician, Sotelo was murdered. The right wing politicians argued they were in serious danger of a communist takeover. They began to favour the idea of a military dictatorship, perhaps lead by General Mola.
