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The Republican government granted autonomy to the region of Catalan. This lead to the right side not being happy as they felt threaten by Spain's overall power.
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▪ Primo’s Labour Arbitration Scheme was extended and improved with the help of the UGT
- The UGT trebled its membership during this period -
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 was never implemented on a large scale.
- As a result it angered the landowners and disappointed the peasants too. -
Niceto Zamora elected president of the Second Spanish Republic.
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The Jesuits were no longer allowed to operate as a religious group
- the state withdrew subsidies to the Church
- civil marriage was permitted
- divorce was allowed and
- Prime Minister Azana, well-known for being direct and honest (or insensitive and arrogant, depending on your perspective), said “all the convents in Madrid are not worth the life of a single Republican”. -
▪ Half of the officer corps were made to retire at full pay (leaving little money for social reform);
- Azana told the army they had no right to challenge the government;
- 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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▪ In 1933 government troops shot dead anarchist prisoners in Cadiz.
- This created a crisis that led to elections being called for November 1933. -
▪ In 1936 an election was called
▪ A Popular Front of Communists, Socialists, Republicans and Separatists was formed to oppose the government. -
▪ The socialist UGT called a general strike among the proletariat
▪ The fascist Falange started to grow dramatically
▪ Most seriously, the army began plotting to overthrow the weak new government..
- The leader of the plot was General Mola.
▪ On the 13th of July the monarchist politician, Calvo Sotelo, was assassinated by Republican police (revenge for the murder of one of their men by a Falangist).
- The military now had the perfect excuse to make their move.
- Their revolt began on the 17th o -
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 historian, Knight) because it led to more extreme politics:
- It pushed the Left (especially the UGT of Caballero) towards a revolution, and
- Convinced the Right that the Fascism promoted by Rivera’s Falange was the only way to control the workers. -
▪ The international situation strongly influenced the development of opposite ideas in Spain:
- the growing power of Fascism and Communism in Europe convinced many on both sides of politics that moderate politics would mean disaster. -
▪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. -
▪ 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 Caballero ) who wanted violent opposition to it -
▪ 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 bitter about the failures of Azana’s earlier government, refused to join.
- This weakened not only the government but also the Left wing of Spanish politics as a whole.
▪ Despite these problems, the new government immediately reintroduced the reforms of the 1931-3 government -
An electoral pact is signed by the Socialist Party and Communist Party.
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President Niceto Alcalá Zamora appoints Manuel Azaña as prime minister.