The Second Spanish Republic: History and Political Evolution

The Second Spanish Republic

Chronology

• Progressive Biennium (1931–1933)
• Conservative Biennium (1933–1936)
• Triumph of the Popular Front (Feb–Jul 1936)

Introduction

The Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed on April 14, 1931, as a result of the political mismanagement of the monarchy, which was unable to address the serious problems the state had carried over from the discredited nineteenth century, and for having supported the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera.

The Fall of the Monarchy

After the resignation of Primo de Rivera in 1930, the government of General Berenguer attempted to return to the situation of 1923 and restore the Constitution of 1876. However, the internal problems of the dynastic parties and social unrest favored the cohesion of the anti-royalist opposition, which soon called for democratic change.

On August 17, 1930, various nationalist and republican parties signed the Pact of San Sebastian to promote a revolutionary political movement that soon gained the support of the Socialists and the CNT (anarchists).

The revolutionary movement was a failure; the military uprising, centered in Jaca, was suppressed. In these circumstances, the government was forced to call elections on April 12, 1931, which were framed by the opposition as a referendum on the monarchy or the republic. Despite electoral fraud, the Republican-Socialist candidates won in 41 provincial capitals and major cities in industrial regions.

Given the election results, King Alfonso XIII went into exile, and on April 14, 1931, the Republic was proclaimed. Niceto Alcalá-Zamora announced it from Madrid for Spain, forming a provisional government.

The provisional government soon called constituent elections and began a series of urgent reforms. These reformist actions faced immediate opposition from a section of the military and the economic oligarchy.

The international context also hindered the stabilization of the new regime. Europe was beginning to show the effects of the global economic crisis that began in 1929 with the crash of the New York Stock Exchange. In this environment of economic crisis and social unrest, authoritarianism proliferated in Europe, influenced by Italian fascism and the German Nazis. Conversely, the example of the Soviet communist regime also hindered the acceptance of Republican reformism.