Second Spanish Republic

República Española Spanish Republic 1931–1936 / 39
flag coat of arms
← navigation →
Motto : Plus Ultra
Constitution	Constitution of the Spanish Republic
Official language	Spanish
Capital	Madrid Seats of government during the Civil War: Valencia (1936–1937) Barcelona (1937–1939)
Form of government	Parliamentary republic
Form of government	Semi-presidential system of government
Head of state	President : Niceto Alcalá-Zamora 1931-1936 Manuel Azaña 1936-1939
Head of government	Prime Minister : Niceto Alcalá-Zamora 1931 Juan Negrín López 1936–1939
currency	Peseta (1 Pts = 100 Céntimos )
Residents	23,677,794 (1930) (thereof in Spanish Sahara and Spanish Guinea : 113,927)
founding	April 14, 1931 (proclamation of the Republic)
resolution	April 1, 1939 (exile of the Republican government)
National anthem	Himno de Riego
map
Spanish heartland Spanish Morocco Protectorate Spanish Sahara and Spanish Guinea International Zone of Tangier

The Second Spanish Republic ( Spanish Segunda República Española [ seˌɣunda reˈpuβlika espaˌɲola ]) describes the period from 1931 to 1936 or 1939 in Spain , in which a new democratic form of government ( republic ) existed and which was characterized by sharp political and economic conflicts in the country . A coup d'état by right-wing sections of the army against the elected left-wing government sparked the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) in 1936 , in which the republic was forcibly ousted by Francoism .

prehistory

Main page of the Heraldo de Madrid of April 13, 1931, on which the electoral success of the Republicans is welcomed

Celebrations for the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in Barcelona, ​​1931

After the downturn in the economy during the Great Depression in 1929 and the failed dictatorship of Primo de Rivera , who had set a goal to significantly improve or replace entirely the regime of the Restoration period either. After its failure in 1930 and a brief interlude under General Berenguer, the monarchy finally came to an end. With the Pact of San Sebastian , promoted by two former monarchist politicians - Miguel Maura and the landowner Niceto Alcalá Zamora  - the republican movement had gained traction, while the old order had lost more and more of its prestige. After a failed republican military coup in December 1930, nationwide municipal elections were held in April 1931, which were generally interpreted as a clear vote against the ancien régime , including by supporters of the monarchy . The first partial results showed a seemingly clear majority of the monarchists who, according to the memoirs of the monarchist minister Hoyos, had won four times more seats at the time the republic was proclaimed. However, this was partly due to a regulation (Article 29) that in some municipalities awarded mandates without voting, 90% of which benefited the monarchists. Overall, according to historian Javier Tussell, the Republicans achieved 48.8% of municipal mandates and won a majority in 41 of 50 provincial capitals (in Madrid they exceeded the monarchists' results by three times, in Barcelona by four times). The monarchist politician Marqués de Hoyos commented on the outcome of the election as follows: "The news that came from the important villages was just as disastrous as that from the provincial capitals."

In view of these results, Alcalá Zamora proclaimed the new republic on April 14, 1931 . The republic was enthusiastically welcomed by the majority of the population, as it had high hopes for democracy . The republic was known as la niña bonita "the beautiful girl". Alfonso XIII, too . recognized a vote against the monarchy in the election result and left the country without formally renouncing his claim to the throne. On April 17th, the monarchist daily ABC published its farewell manifesto, which read:

«Las elecciones celebradas el domingo me revelan claramente que no tengo hoy el amor de mi pueblo. Mi conciencia me dice que ese desvío no será definitivo […] »

“The elections that were held make it clear to me that I no longer have the love of my people today. My feeling tells me, however, that this aberration will not last [...] "

- Alfonso XIII. from Spain : letter of April 17, 1931 to General Aznar

There was no resistance to the coup, which was unusual in the history of Spain, in which political conflicts were mostly violent. This led to a government alliance between the left-wing Republican parties and the socialists of the PSOE . The writer Manuel Azaña of Republican Action was elected first prime minister. Zamora occupied the office of president.

The birth of the republic came at a time when liberal representative democracy in Europe was on the defensive. In 1922 the Italian fascists seized power and in 1925 were able to shut down the parliamentary system for good. Conditions in France deteriorated, tensions and attacks increased. The conflicts in Austria were even more intense . The German Weimar Republic , which was a constitutional point of orientation for Spain, was practically no longer in existence in 1933.

Socio-economic structure

Population density of Spain in 1930. The centers of urbanization and industrialization were Catalonia and the Basque Country.

The largest cities in the Second Spanish Republic (after the 1930 census)

rank	city	Residents
1.	Barcelona	1,005,565
2.	Madrid	952.832
3.	Valencia	320.195
4th	Seville	228.729
5.	Málaga	188.010
6th	Zaragoza	173.987
7th	Bilbao	161,987
8th.	Murcia	158.724
9.	Granada	118.179
10.	Cordoba	103.106

Even during the Second Republic, Spain remained a society with a strongly agrarian, semi- feudal structure. Only in the northern outskirts of the Iberian Peninsula , especially in the regions of Catalonia and Basque Country , which were striving for more autonomy , had an industry developed that was comparable to Western European standards. Nevertheless, a permanent loss of income threatened the very existence of large parts of the population in industrial conurbations and in the country. This situation harbored a high potential for social conflict, as the economic elites were not prepared to make socio-political concessions. The Spanish economy was not directly affected by the global economic crisis from 1929 onwards, as it was strongly oriented towards the domestic market; she hardly exported. However, it was dependent on a constant influx of foreign investments, which decreased due to the crisis and a certain aversion to the republic. Cases of capital flight also increased , which overall contributed to rising unemployment and worsening poverty.

Bearer of the old order

The sector agriculture was especially in the southern regions of Andalusia and Extremadura by extreme concentration of ownership in favor of landowners affected. These contributed little to the development of the economy and purchasing power , as they were largely limited to defending their economic and political positions of power against the large mass of farm workers and day laborers (yunteros) , instead of supporting productive development and more efficient economic methods , of which more people could have benefited. They acted according to their ideal of Hispanicity , inspired by the imperial grandeur of Spain during the early modern period , when the grandees had unreservedly dominated the life of the nation. The industrialists and bankers, on the other hand, were still under suspicion of not being “real Spaniards”.

Hispanicity was embodied primarily by the officers who, since the defeat in the Spanish-American War in 1898 and the costly Morocco campaigns, increasingly devoted themselves to the conditions in their home country. In doing so, they saw themselves in a tradition in which the army had intervened in political life several times since the early 19th century and overthrew ruling governments through coups (Spanish pronunciamentos ). In the meantime, the number of officers in the entire corps had risen disproportionately and the army's equipment was in a condition that only enabled it to put down internal unrest.

The third pillar of these traditional power structures was the Spanish Catholic Church . She wanted her privileges, which were very far-reaching compared to the rest of Europe, untouched by tendencies towards secularization . It also involved significant possessions, as the members of the high clergy were among the largest landowners in the country and the most influential people in the banking sector.

The middle class

On the edge of this oligarchical triad lived the middle class , the social supporter of a modern democratic republic . It contained clearly liberal and secular, but also Catholic- conservative to nationalistic tendencies. However, it did not even make up 20% of the population and was split between the authoritarian tendencies of the old elites and the sometimes violent demands of the organized workers.

The organized workforce

In 1869 envoys from the divergent currents of the First International had traveled a short distance across the Pyrenees to spread their ideas. At first the success had been very uneven, because above all the anarchists who were competing with the socialists had been able to quickly gain supporters among the Spanish peasants. After the failure of the First Republic in December 1874, the state still unrestrictedly and violently represented the interests of the “upper ten thousand”, while the “ social question ” in the rest of Western Europe before the First World War was alleviated by legal reforms that contained socio-political concessions was.

In addition, unlike socialist organizations, membership in anarchist organizations was free of charge; there were almost no paid functionaries there. Over the years, the socialist union UGT, founded in 1888, has also seen a steady increase in membership. It maintained its reformist course even after the Russian Revolution of 1917. The anarchists, who had their own ideas about a revolution and a communist society , developed a new form of organization adapted to industrial conditions at the beginning of the 20th century. Inspired by French syndicalism , they founded the CNT union . In the development of the two unions mentioned, regional focal points were formed. The socialists were particularly well represented in the Castilian areas of León and La Mancha , Extremadura and Asturias ; the anarchists in Valencia , Catalonia, Andalusia and Aragon . Both unions had a membership that exceeded the million mark.

Reform years 1931–1933

The new state claimed to make Spain more modern and fairer. In doing so, the government wanted to overcome three complexes of problems: The competences of the Madrid central state were to be redefined in favor of the historical regions, the dominance of the traditional elites should be pushed back and the question of property in the countryside should be re-posed.

In addition to these fundamental questions, the continuation of the economic upswing that began during the dictatorship was of immediate importance. During this time, Spain was able to catch up its economic deficit on the major European countries for the first time since the Napoleonic Wars , albeit at the expense of doubling the national debt, but at a - in European comparison - low level of 22% of GDP . The new finance minister managed to reduce the debt level by 50% while maintaining the tax system.

Social

The “social question” represented the greatest challenge for the republic. Only an improvement in the economic situation of the marginalized agricultural and industrial workers could have pacified them and thus created a wider acceptance for the republic. While Primo de Rivera only allowed the industrial sector to be promoted with economic stimulus programs, the precarious social situation in the countryside was to be defused by means of land reform . However, this was approached very hesitantly, and none of the new measures were envisaged without the impact on political competition.

The aim of the agricultural statute of September 1932 was to make the southern latifundia with their fallow land usable for society. Although there was an agreement in principle about the need for reform, the Republicans and Socialists fell into disagreement about how to deal with the confiscated large domains: PSOE and UGT demanded collective farming, the Liberals demanded a division of the land among the farmers. This was based on strategic considerations: the liberals sought the emergence of a petty-bourgeois class, the left wanted to prevent it. The ecological conditions provided them with an additional argument, as they made it extremely difficult to cultivate the areas individually.

In political practice, however, Republicans avoided really making the agrarian issue a central political issue and were more concerned with the political issues affecting their own living conditions. In two years only a small part of the fields was sold under unfavorable conditions: the new owners had to buy the land at full price as compensation was granted to the previous owners. In addition, the banks regularly refused to grant loans, which exacerbated the stagnation in agriculture. Two thirds of the new unemployed after 1931 came from the agricultural sector, where 40% of the strikes took place. The smallholders , who feared increased competition from additional providers, belonged to the republicans' reservoir of voters and used their influence to postpone the reform. Also for the extremely difficult situation of the tenant farmers in the north and in Castile no tangible settlement was sought.

The socialist labor minister Francisco Largo Caballero , who had already worked as state secretary under Primo de Rivera, passed numerous laws since December 1931 to improve the legal situation of wage earners in the industrial sector and to regulate the course of strikes. This, in turn, ran counter to the anarcho-syndicalist strategy which aimed at an immediate overthrow of the situation.

Education and culture

The policy of the new government in matters of culture and education proved particularly controversial. The Republicans were the first rulers of Spain to care about educational literacy. When the republic was proclaimed, around a third of Spaniards over ten years old could not read or write. The government endeavored to increase the school enrollment rate for children, set up commissions to promote vocational training, installed evening courses for adults, and sent hiking libraries to remote regions. So far, only the left unions have made similar efforts .

This policy inevitably had to affect the position of the Catholic Church, which also had great influence in other civil affairs. The liberals despised Catholicism no less than the left. A draft constitution, which granted the church a special status, but would have reduced large parts of its privileges, was viewed by the majority in parliament, the Cortes , as inadequate and rejected. A teaching ban for religious orders was issued. This caused great problems, as the spiritual education providers could not be replaced quickly, especially since the financial means for this were hardly available. The influential Jesuit order was declared illegal; however, his extensive possessions could be withdrawn from the control of the state by being overwritten. The changes in the law were accompanied by violent actions against church property. On May 11th, less than a month after the proclamation of the republic, circles hostile to the church began to set fire to churches after an alleged monarchist provocation (the Marcha Real was played in a quarter of the upper class ) after initially unsuccessfully attempting the monarchist one Storm Daily ABC . Azaña rejected the use of the Guardia Civil against the rioters with the words “It is better for all churches to burn than for a Republican to be harmed” . Only after the destruction of more than 100 churches, libraries and exhibition rooms did the government finally agree on the use of armed forces. The government had thus found new opponents in the Catholic Church and among the moderate conservatives.

military

The republican government pursued the goal of subordinating the army to civil authority. It tried to tighten the structures that had been inflated in the officer ranks by transferring many officers to the reserve against their will , while those who remained in active service watched the staff cuts with growing displeasure. The government offered commanders who refused to take the oath of republic the option of retiring while retaining their salaries . The aversion of those who remained to the republic grew. The abolition of the privileged military jurisdiction and the Academia General Militar was viewed as an affront. In August 1932 there was an attempted coup in Seville under the leadership of General José Sanjurjo , who had refused to obey the king the previous year. Because of his excessive reprisals against the labor movement, he had been replaced as commander of the Guardia Civil . The CNT succeeded in ending the relatively isolated military uprising with the general strike it called . One of its Catalan sections, on the other hand, had to witness the overthrow of its own revolt by miners in the Llobregat in January of the same year .

Autonomous projects for Catalonia, Basque Country and Galicia

Despite these critical events, the state was able to gain some stability in 1932. Catalonia was granted autonomy in September . (In 1931, the republic was proclaimed earlier in Barcelona than in Madrid ). It got its own government, the Generalitat , and its own parliament. The strongest Catalan party was the left-liberal party Esquerra (ERC), which provided the president of Catalonia with the lawyer Lluís Companys . The Esquerra was the union of the Catalan winemakers, the Unió de Rabassaires (UdR), close. The autonomous status of the Basque Country, which was dominated by Catholic parties, initially failed because of the government's secularism and the conflicts with the neighboring province of Navarre . A corresponding statute of autonomy for the Basque Country did not come into force until October 6, 1936 after lengthy negotiations. A corresponding statute of autonomy was also planned for Galicia . In a referendum on June 28, 1936, the vast majority of Galician residents approved the project. However, because of the civil war that had broken out, it was no longer implemented.

End of the Azaña government

In January 1933, an uprising by a group of anarchist peasants in the Andalusian village of Casas Viejas was brutally suppressed by a massive contingent of military and civil guardians. Twelve civilians were killed. There were protests across the country, also supported by the anti-republican right. A committee of inquiry confirmed the government's complicity and responsibility of the local authorities. Prime Minister Azaña had given the civil guards instructions to shoot the rebels "in the stomach" . The anarchists saw their fundamentally negative attitude towards the new form of government confirmed, while the socialists, who were involved in the incident, were accused of collaborating with the elites.

The climate in the country deteriorated rapidly, a wave of strikes hit the country and the parliamentary right now turned against further reform projects of the government. Under the influence of the events of Casas Viejas and the barely noticeable results of the reforms so far, those wings of the left-wing trade unions that saw no solution to the social problems in the republic gained popularity. In 1933 there were almost twice as many strikes as in 1932 and 1934 combined. Led by the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI), the anarchists pushed their course of confrontation against the republic, which the law enforcement officers responded to with armed violence. The FAI was founded in 1927 to strengthen the subversive currents of Spanish anarchism. In the meantime she had become very influential in the anarcho-syndicalist movement. Opposition to their militant actions sparked controversy within the CNT. A small group, the Treinistas , split off from the union.

The liberal head of government Azaña founded a new paramilitary police force, the Guardia de Asalto (Assault Guard), in order to be able to defend them against their enemies. Their boss became Agustín Muñoz Grandes . In October, the far-reaching new law to defend the republic came into force, as did a new censorship policy that monarchists and anarchists alike saw as provocation.

In September the incumbent government finally came to an end. A rift had broken out between the liberals and the socialists. The situation was reminiscent of the situation during the dictatorship. The unrest irritated the middle class and this new bourgeois state did not seem to offer any better prospects than the previous one for the workers.

"Black Double Year" 1934–1935

The term bienio negro "black double year" refers to the consequences of the politics of the bourgeois government, which its political opponents called this and which historiography also adopted.

Triumph of the Right

In the 1933 elections, women were also eligible to vote for the first time

The new elections in November 1933 ended in a decisive defeat for the left-wing Republican parties. The electoral alliance Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (CEDA) and the other right-wing parties received five million votes, the monarchists 800,000, while the left ruling parties and the communists received 3.2 million. This defeat was also due to the fact that the anarchist working class, which in 1931 had linked their approval for the new democracy with voting to the Republicans, now abstained after the CNT-FAI launched an anti-socialist anti-election campaign Had led. The turnout was 67.5 percent; for the first time women were allowed to vote. In contrast to the divided left, the right-wing camp had managed to forge an electoral alliance. It also benefited from the introduction of the right to vote for women, the majority of whom voted conservatively, as well as from the majority vote, which meant that the right-wing parties received twice as many seats as the left, although this did not correspond to the proportion of votes.

The winner was the heterogeneous right-wing electoral alliance consisting of the CEDA - an association of Catholic parties -, the monarchists of the Renovación Española ("Spanish renewal"), the PNV (Basque nationalists), a Carlist party, and a faction of large landowners. The leader of the CEDA was José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones , a bourgeois Catholic who had married a noblewoman. During his honeymoon in Germany he had begun to admire Hitler , but in view of his actions against the Catholic Church turned more to Austria , where Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sought a right-wing authoritarian corporate state . Gil-Robles' political goals were to turn the CEDA into a Catholic mass party and, after the successful takeover, first to abolish the secular constitutional articles. He pursued the strategy of gaining power through elections and then abolishing democracy:

“We have to move forward to a New State. Who cares if blood is spilled in the process? We finally have to get things done, that's what counts. In order to achieve this ideal, we will not be held back by traditional ideas. For us, democracy is not the goal, but a means of conquering a new state. When the time comes, the Cortes will submit - or we will make them disappear. "

The events in Italy and in the German Empire were a model for him.

During the election campaign, the CEDA carried out an unusually large propaganda effort for right-wing parties in Spain, which probably contributed to its victory. The election campaign was paid for by large landowners.

The share of the CEDA in the parliamentary seats was not enough for a sole government . President Zamora refused to give Gil-Robles the mandate to form a government, but also to comply with Azañas and Largo Caballero's advance and dissolve the Cortes immediately. That is why the bourgeois Partido Radical became a government-forming party, which could choose which faction wanted to be tolerated by. She opted for the CEDA, whereupon a small part of the radical faction split off under Martínez Barrio . The Catalan Right (Lliga) and the Big Landowners Party also joined the government. Prime Minister was Alejandro Lerroux . The new coalition had a comfortable majority and was free to act.

Government action and resistance

The new government initially withdrew the social legislation and church laws of its predecessor. The budget for education has also been cut. (This against the background that the radical party had presented itself as secular.) The latifundists were compensated again and were able to control their territories again without restrictions. Just as consistently they proceeded with the wages, which were soon lowered. Layoffs increased. Despite resistance in parliament and on the part of the president, a law was passed that amnestied the 1932 coup officers and ordered them back to their old command posts.

There were repeated violent reactions from the population. The economy stagnated. In Aragon, with the anarchist stronghold of Saragossa , a CNT section called for an uprising on December 8, 1933. In Andalusia and Valencia (but not in Catalonia) people demonstrated their solidarity with strikes and the burning of churches. However, the anarchists were too weak for a nationwide campaign. After four days the uprising was over. Right-wing military and Republican police united against the anarchists who were rehearsing the social revolution . But as early as March 1934, Saragossa experienced another general strike.

The UGT, previously loyal to the republic and reformist-oriented since it was founded, fundamentally changed its political position. Since taking office, the number of its members has almost quadrupled. The new self-confidence was personified by Largo Caballero, the popular ex-minister who felt betrayed by the Republicans. Because of his experience in office, he stated that it seemingly impossible is, "and to realize just a little bit of socialism in the framework of bourgeois democracy" . He claimed that his staff at the ministry had sabotaged all of his instructions. The majority of the union members felt in the same way their aversion to the bourgeois liberals. The victory of the right was interpreted as the rise of fascism , which happened not least with a view to other European countries. The 65-year-old Largo Caballero turned around: “The only hope of the masses is now the social revolution.” For the anarchists, however, this change of course was incomprehensible; they provisionally rejected an alliance with the UGT.

The radicalization of the socialist union met with resistance from parts of its affiliated party, the PSOE. A strong man of the PSOE was the publisher and banker Indalecio Prieto , who had already taken a course contrary to his intimate enemy Largo Caballero during the dictatorship. Prieto had a relationship of trust with the liberal republicans and saw in them the natural ally for the socialists. (In the elections he had won Manuel Azaña a seat in parliament, although official relations with the liberals had ended.) Prieto was against a revolution in principle and saw the PSOE as a representative of the interests of the workers in peaceful consensus with the bourgeoisie.

Meanwhile, the new government tried to revive the situation with economically liberal methods. At least in rural areas, however, the situation was more likely to deteriorate. Some spontaneous collectivizations of farm workers were accepted (e.g. in the provinces of Toledo or Jaén ) in order not to provoke even stronger reactions. A general strike in 15 provinces in June 1934, in which the CNT and UGT had participated, was ended after nine days with the help of a compromise.

In April the new left-liberal Generalitat of Catalonia, elected with anarchist help, passed new laws with which it tried to protect the small farmers. This brought them into conflict with the central government in Madrid, as the Catalan law explicitly violated the constitution and the corresponding law from Madrid, which put the interests of the landlords in the foreground. The Catalan negotiator later stated that his mandate was to cause a scandal on the matter. Lluís Companys announced that it would go its own way. The Catalan right, which was involved in the central government, withdrew from the Catalan parliament. In return, the faction of the Esquerra ruling in Catalonia left the Cortes .

In the Basque Country, too, the central government created enemies, even though the CEDA had been elected by a majority there. But the central government wanted to impose a new tax on the region that would have further curtailed its historical privileges. The provincial government led by moderate nationalists called special elections, which were banned by Madrid. The ABC read: “Better communists than Basques!” In September 1934, the Basque MPs also left the Madrid parliament. Spain found itself again in a domestic political crisis.

"Spanish October"

→ Main article : Asturian miners strike of 1934

The CEDA announced changes; Liberals and socialists were alarmed. They feared that Gil-Robles could revise the constitution if he came to power, as had happened in Austria (see Austrofascism ). In an internal vote, the socialists spoke out in favor of an uprising. Before the new constitution of the Cortes, the parliamentary left warned the president not to appoint even one member of the CEDA to the government. Zamora chose to give cabinet posts to at least three subordinate members of the collection movement. The socialists responded by calling a general strike . The Azañas party left parliament and declared the president to be a non-person.

The insurrection had different starting points. In total there were deaths in 26 provinces. In Barcelona the Generalitat proclaimed its independence. CNT-FAI stayed out of all insurrection plans. The survey failed. In Madrid, where Largo Caballero coordinated the uprising, the UGT had no chance. The city had strong garrisons and the workers had no weapons. Instead, they arrived in Asturias via detours, where the Asturian miners' strike broke out into armed clashes.

The railway workers and miners from Gijón , Oviedo and the surrounding area offered bitter resistance to the state power. Here the Allianza Obrera was proclaimed, the workers' alliance made up of UGT, the anarcho-syndicalist Treinistas and the few communists of the PCE who had joined the uprising at the last minute. This regional alliance is considered to be the forerunner of the later Popular Front. The social revolution was proclaimed in some cities. Based on the Russian October Revolution , the uprising was referred to as "Spanish October".

The Spanish Foreign Legion (Tercio) and the notorious Moorish units ( Regulares ) were used to put down the uprising . These non-Spanish troops were known for their strength and cruelty. They uncompromisingly crushed the uprising in twelve days. They were also led by officers who had taken part in the Sanjurjo coup. The commander in chief of the operation was Francisco Franco , whom the new defense minister Diego Hidalgo had appointed to the office.

The number of victims is being discussed (as of 2007). According to the historian Julián Casanova, 1,100 dead and 2,000 wounded on the part of the insurgents and 300 dead on the part of the armed forces. Furthermore, 34 priests were murdered during the uprising. Casanova's numbers agree well with those of historian Hugh Thomas, who came to a total of 2,000 deaths: 230–260 deaths from the military, 33 priests, 1,500 insurgents and 200 deaths from retaliation after the crackdown. The historic city center of Oviedo suffered severe damage, with the Campoamor theater and the library of the University of Oviedo burned down with numerous irreplaceable writings. In Oviedo Cathedral , the Cámara Santa was badly damaged by explosives, and relics stored there were also destroyed. The Spanish public was particularly shocked by the murders of priests; they were perceived as breaking a taboo .

After martial law was declared , the army took arbitrary acts. Workers who had surrendered were executed in groups without a trial. Others were tortured in special camps to reveal where the weapons that could not be found were hidden. The government intervened late and ended the campaign of revenge.

After that, courts-martial were set up, which imprisoned over 40,000 people, mostly without concrete evidence. Manuel Azaña, Largo Caballero and Lluis Companys also went to prison; only the latter could be proven active participation.

End of government and new elections

In March 1935 there was a government crisis because the CEDA and the agrarians wanted to see the socialist Gonzáles Peña executed as the ringleader of the Asturian uprising. However, on the advice of the Prime Minister, the President changed the judgment.

The government was re-established in April. The CEDA now held five ministerial posts; Gil-Robles became Minister of War. He used the office to finally push any sympathizers of the left out of the army with General Franco, whom he appointed chief of staff. The first logistical measures were taken around Madrid, which the putschists knew how to use in the civil war.

The social situation became more and more critical. Those who wanted to introduce improvements had no backing in the government. With the university professor Manuel Jiménez Fernandéz , the CEDA had appointed a moderate to the cabinet as minister of agriculture, who focused on the Catholic social doctrine and the encyclicals of Leo XIII. called. Even the few measures that he wanted to take in favor of the yunteros aroused bitter resistance from the latifundists: "If you take our country away from us with your encyclicals, we will become schismatics ," a monarchist deputy from Cortes called out to him.

The new finance minister presented a law to reduce bureaucracy and to make the ailing civil service more effective, which was passed but never actually implemented. The Radical Party and the CEDA were at odds.

The left, on the other hand, experienced an upswing. The resistance of the Asturian workers had impressed many people and the reprisals of the government had given the aversion to the conservative camp a new influx. Largo Caballero and Azaña were released; Companys, who had actually not wanted the uprising, showed himself to be uncooperative and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. These three prominent opponents of the right drew new sympathies. From the base of the socialist and anarchist trade unions the demand went to the leaders to strive for lasting cooperation in order to finally make the revolution possible.

Another cabinet was set up after Gil-Robles' demands for more powers led to disagreements. At the time when the new Prime Minister Joaquín Chapaprieta Torregrosa tried to submit a new budget, a financial scandal in which the Partido Radical was involved became public . The reputation of the commoners was permanently damaged. The large agrarians took advantage of this and refused to accept an increase in inheritance tax from 1 to 3.5% and the reduction in civil servants' salaries. The coalition fell apart.

In December 1935, Gil-Robles saw another opportunity to become prime minister. But instead, President Zamora entrusted the bourgeois Manuel Portela Valladares with the office. When this did not find a majority in the Cortes, Zamora dissolved the parliament and called new elections.

Popular Front and Conspiracy 1936

The situation had now come to a head that two enemy blocks were openly formed. This was favored by the Spanish electoral law, which preferred list connections over individually competing parties. The left had learned from their experience of the 1933 elections and formed the Popular Front (Frente Popular) ; the right to the National Front (Frente Nacional) . In between stood an almost insignificant center.

On February 16, 1936, the elections ended with a narrow but clear majority in the Frente Popular . Events in the country then precipitated and led to a coup and civil war on July 17th.

Victory of the left

On January 15, 1936, the parties Azañas and Barríos, the PSOE and the UGT, a syndicalist party, the PCE and the new POUM formed an electoral alliance. The POUM was a left communist party that emerged from anti-Stalinist groups. Two of its main characters were the teachers and former anarchists Andreu Nin and Joaquín Maurín , who, as a result of the Russian Revolution, had adopted Marxist and Leninist theories but rejected the politics of Stalin . In this way, the party became an intimate enemy of the PCE, which it was wrongly dubbed “ Trotskyist ”. The CNT-FAI also viewed the new Left Party with some skepticism, because Catalonia was the only region in which it had a larger following. But the anarchists indirectly supported the Frente Popular by deliberately not formulating an election boycott.

The Popular Front election manifesto announced a stimulus package and land reform, educational reform, and financial reform. But there should be no state unemployment insurance . Accordingly, no nationalization of the land or the banks and no socialization of businesses was planned. The Republicans largely determined the draft program. The middle class should be won over to the left bloc. One of the signatories of the agreement was Largo Caballero, who, however, had developed completely different ideas and, with the help of his employees, made them public. But the revolutionary advocates of the UGT, POUM and the CNT-FAI emphasized the central common denominator of the agreement, namely the blanket amnesty and compensation for all those imprisoned in the October uprising. A left-wing Republican government could be elected: the urgent need for a revolution and the will to carry it out remained, however. The participants agreed in advance on a proportional representation of the distribution of seats, in which the Republicans and the PCE were favored. The strongest group, however, should be the PSOE.

On February 16 the new Cortes were elected. The camp election campaign shaped the political climate in the country. The Popular Front advertised with slogans like "The CEDA and the monarchists know that the Popular Front means their definitive death" or "Vote against the thieves and torturers", while the CEDA put huge posters with the likeness of the "Chief" Gil-Robles in the streets Spain wore. There it was said: “All power to the Führer!”, “The leaders are never wrong!” And “Gil-Robles demands the war ministry and all power from the people”. For the Vatican , the choice was a choice “between Jesus and Lenin ”.

Although the CEDA was able to increase its share of the vote, the victory of the Popular Front could not be prevented. With an increase in voter turnout by 12 to 72 percentage points, the left-wing camp won with a lead of 150,000 votes over the right and won a total of 47.17% of the votes. Many anarchists did not take part in the elections, which resulted in numerous abstentions in the Andalusian provinces. The center remained insignificant. Because of the electoral legislation, the left's lead in the Cortes was even more pronounced: it received 277 of 441 seats, 90 of which went to the PSOE; the right received 132 seats, the middle 32. There were protests on both sides against alleged voter intimidation and fraud. Nevertheless, both Spanish and foreign media reported that the elections were running correctly: the day after the election, the monarchist newspaper ABC wrote: “Everyone could vote in absolute freedom as they wanted.” The election was “without strikes, threats and scandals” . The British Times also praised the elections as “almost exemplary”. The historian Bullón de Mendoza, on the other hand, quotes the previous President Alcalá-Zamora of the Conservative Republican Party, who stated a few months after his election defeat that there were irregularities not in the election itself but only the following night:

“On the same night of February 16 and February 17, without waiting for preliminary results or even the official election result, which was to be announced on the 20th, the Frente Popular begins its offensive on the street. The Frente Popular used force to claim power. [...] The mob seized the election results and in many places these could have been falsified. "

Politicians on the left and historians, on the other hand, pointed to the structure of the countryside, where the big landlords apparently misused their power to force the peasants to vote against the Popular Front.

On February 20, the so-called comisión de actas was convened, a committee that dealt with complaints about any irregularities and in which the Frente Popular was in the majority due to the new majorities. The historian Bullón de Mendoza, classified by critics as “ultra-right”, and others accuse this committee of unilateral action, as irregularities occurred in the La Coruña constituency, which was won by the Frente Popular, which the committee did not investigate, during the one with irregularities The election victory of the Frente Nacional in Orense was partially canceled by the commission. At the end of the Commission's work, not a single MP from the Popular Frente lost his seat, but instead MPs from the Right and the Center. The lead of the Frente Popular grew to 392,000 votes, which now means a share of 52% or a two-thirds majority in parliament.

The seat portion of the Partido Radical was reduced to a minimum. After the PSOE, the CEDA was only the second largest parliamentary group. The party of the monarchists, the Renovación Española under Goicoechea and Calvo Sotelo , had also not achieved a good election result. The defeat brought a certain change in content. Calvo Sotelo, the former finance minister during the dictatorship, gradually steered the party away from restorative politics towards corporate state ideas. He maintained good contacts with the fascist Duce regime . On March 31, 1934, Goicoechea, representatives of the Carlist and the Catalan right, had reached an agreement with Mussolini to overthrow the republic. After the defeat of the National Front, Calvo Sotelo took over the role of Gil-Robles and intensified the rhetorical attacks against the republic.

On election day, the CNT was able to get the political prisoners free in Valencia. After that, thousands of those convicted were released from prison all over the country (including Lluis Companys). Strikes with new demands for wage increases and better working conditions took place across the country. There were also further solidarity strikes to demonstrate the determination of the unions. Without waiting for appropriate decrees from Madrid, agricultural workers collectivized land, including that of President Alcalá Zamora. The civil guard often intervened by force. Eighteen farmers were killed near Alicante . Churches and monasteries were set on fire in numerous places; Rumors of conspiracies hatched by monks added to the general unrest.

The republican parties provided all ministerial posts. The socialists, according to their new line, did not participate in the government. Manuel Azaña, who had meanwhile been re-elected Prime Minister, became the new President: Zamora had no support from either the Left or the National Front. When he was elected, the right handed off white papers to demonstrate against the process as such. Azaña's successor as prime minister was Santiago Casares Quiroga .

Revolution and reaction

Largo Caballero and his followers propagated the consistency and inevitability of a revolution and the “ dictatorship of the proletariat ” in the Claridad magazine and at mass events . The majority of the UGT members supported them in this. The communists deliberately approached the socialists and praised Largo Caballero as "Spanish Lenin". According to the instructions from the Soviet Union, however , the revolutionary workers should consolidate the bourgeois-liberal state - not eliminate it. Open rejection came from the PSOE itself, which Largo Caballero had chosen as the executive body of the revolution. Indalecio Prieto and his followers were decisive here. They rejected the idea of ​​a revolution. For them, this was tantamount to a “socialization of poverty”: the expected rural exodus could never be compensated for by a socialist economic order. Above all, everything should be avoided that could provoke a military coup.

The fact that a coup was on its way could hardly be ignored. The UGT, however, did nothing to start a revolution itself. Instead, Prieto and Gonzáles Peña narrowly got away with their lives in an assassination attempt by a UGT militant.

The anarchists also expected a coup d'état by the officers. They emphasized their will to resist and emphasized that their commitment would not aim to defend bourgeois democracy, but to promote the long-awaited social revolution. At the National Congress of the CNT in Saragossa in May 1936, which was attended by over 300,000 people, the union reunited with its dissident sections and formulated its ideas of the Comunísmo Libertario ( Eng . " Libertarian Communism"). The dictatorship of the proletariat she refused, however, strictly. The mood was euphoric. The internal differences of opinion have been settled for the time being. Largo Caballero was warmly received as a guest speaker, but kept at a distance.

Communists and fascists

The last few months before the outbreak of the civil war showed the gradual rise of two groups that were more closely linked to European conditions than the traditional greats of Spanish politics.

In 1934 the previously insignificant PCE had stepped into the limelight on the political scene. Stalin had ordered the communists of all countries to cooperate with the commoners. Participation in the Alianza Obrera and the Popular Front had benefited the communists. Added to this was the revolutionary mood among the workers and the propaganda support from the Soviet Union. Your attention was on the socialists. The PCE managed to gain influence in the ranks of the PSOE. In April 1936, the chairman of the Socialist Youth, Santiago Carrillo , merged with the Communist Youth to form the JSUC , the Union of Young Socialists . (A few months after the outbreak of the civil war, the entire association converted to the PCE). This was done through the mediation of the deputy, Largo Caballeros, who maintained good contacts with the PCE. A mirror image took place on the side of the right when the youth organization of the CEDA joined the fascists.

In February 1934, the radical nationalist groups Falange and JONS merged to form Falange Española de las JONS in Seville . Italy was the model. One of these groups was funded by Juan March . March was a bourgeois tobacco trader (he is said to have made a huge fortune with tobacco smuggling) and banker , confidante of British financiers, constitutional judge and conspirator against the republic, which had imprisoned him for treason and fraud, but then given him amnesty. The party was headed by José Antonio Primo de Rivera , the son of the former dictator. Outwardly, they approached the Italian black shirts , but also borrowed some from the anarcho-syndicalists, whose black and red flag was copied.

Programmatically, they were anti- bourgeois and militantly anti-socialist. The main enemies were "the Marxists" of the UGT and PSOE. Imperialist dreams of a new great Spain were made the program. For the time being, the FE de las JONS was nothing more than a welcome auxiliary force for the oligarchical elite to destabilize the situation in the country. After the election victory of the left-wing coalition, they carried out political attacks across the country. Sometimes they made use of those hired killers, the pistoleros , who had once been recruited by both militant anarchists and entrepreneurs. Trucks with machine guns drove through the working-class neighborhoods of Madrid, shooting around. Journalists, officials, police officers and judges were murdered. The state was unable to protect them or capture the murderers, even though the party was declared illegal in March. A bomb attack on Largo Caballero failed. On July 12, the storm guard Lieutenant José del Castillo was shot dead in the street. This attack was to have special consequences.

Military and government

As the situation escalated and violence increased across the country, the military planned the coup. On February 17th, the monarchist Calvo Sotelo urged the President and the incumbent Prime Minister to simply declare the elections invalid, as Azaña had done after the CEDA's election victory. When that failed, the Unión Militar Española met to put an end to the republic. After the victory of the Popular Front, which fueled revolutionary expectations, the republican order had definitely become obsolete in the eyes of the oligarchs.

The Unión was a circle of senior officers founded by Sanjurjo in 1934. Money and arms flowed from Italy to the conspirators. During the summer maneuver in Asturias in 1935, "initial preparations" for a coup were made. Now it was felt that the time had come to put the plans into practice. The conspirators had a contact in the War Ministry . Sanjurjo, who had lived in exile in Portugal since 1934, traveled to the German Reich to find supporters there.

The government did not escape the conspiratorial goings-on. But she limited herself to transferring those responsible. Francisco Franco was allowed to continue commanding the Canary Islands ; General Manuel Goded was summoned from northern Spain to the Balearic Islands . General Emilio Mola was transferred from North Africa to Navarre because it was believed that the Republican Mola would quickly fall out with the Carlist there. Instead he came to terms with them and, as El Director, was free to act and act. The conspirators could not stop the transfers. The plan was merely modified. Franco was supposed to fly from the Canary Islands to Spanish Morocco , a colony where the Republican politicians wielded almost no power.

The plan to carry out the coup on April 20 had to be canceled because of the knowledge of the government. But the government took no further countermeasures. Instead, two new officers joined the conspirators who had previously been considered loyal: General Gonzalo Queipo de Llano and General Miguel Cabanellas . The coordination center went to Navarre with Mola. A compromise had to be found there with the ultra-Catholicist Carlists; after all, Mola was still striving for a secular state. The support of the paramilitary Carlist associations, the Requétes , was obtained for the regular army associations of the Union .

Meanwhile the government tried to defend the officers' reputation. On March 18, she officially protested against the "unjust attacks" against the military when parts of the press reported about the coup intentions. (The left had numerous informants in the military.) The government did not want to turn the officers against it. This would have meant that in return the workers would have been armed and the fate of the republic would have been handed over to them with the guns. Prime Minister Casares Quiroga knew about the events of overthrowing the government, but decided not to intervene. He felt that he did not have enough information and thought a coup would be hopeless or even desirable anyway. When Prieto pointed out the imminent coup, he replied: “I already know that, and so do the government. What I want is for the military to take to the streets so we can put down the rebellion once and for all. This time it will not remain with expropriations, as in 1932 after the coup of General Sanjurjo. ”President Azaña also gave the corresponding warnings dismissive.

On July 16, General Mola was able to inform the leader of the Falange, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, arrested since March, of the officers' intention to strike on July 18. Primo de Rivera was still able to demand the violent overthrow of the republic in May under liberal prison conditions. (However, he was executed after the outbreak of civil war.)

Violence and coup

Violent demonstrations and political murders have now become the order of the day, not least in the countryside. The number of unemployed had risen to one million, which, including family members, meant around 4 million people suffering from hunger, the highest figure recorded in Spain until then. Even the members of the Cortes had to carry out a body search before entering the building to prevent firearms from being smuggled in. In Valencia, Falangists stormed the radio station. The counter-demonstration by the left ended with an attack on the CEDA party headquarters .

At the same time, the UGT and CNT unions in Madrid jointly carried out a week-long construction workers' strike in which 70,000 people took part. That meant lost wages (there were no strike funds ) and hunger. The Falange targeted the strikers. The anarchists no longer wanted to accept this and finally see the workers armed. A state arbitration commission met the wage demands; the socialists declared the action over. But the CNT section was keen to continue and relied on the existing agreement between the unions. Five people died in fighting between socialists and anarchists.

When the anarchists responded to another Falange provocation with a machine gun attack that killed three bodyguards, José Antonio Primo de Riveras , the government cracked down. She arrested the leading activists of the CNT and closed the union's district office. But the anarchists continued; they fought against UGT members, the police and the Falange.

The situation became more and more acute. Leading military men conspired from afar; in the capital, militant workers were the main problem. Republicans also showed that they could use force. After the assassination of Lieutenant José del Castillo Sáenz, assault guards and members of the Guardia Civil responded promptly with a counterstrike. They chose José Calvo Sotelo as their victim. In him they saw the head of anti-Republican activities and, wrongly, however, the mastermind behind the murder of their comrade. They shot him dead in Madrid on the morning of July 13th.

The funerals of the two murder victims turned into demonstrations of irreconcilability. The nationalist politicians Goicoechea and Gil-Robles openly demanded revenge and the fight against the government. The Asturian workers started digging up the hidden weapons. The government dismissed some of the military, sent the conscripts home and arrested some Falangists again. Indalecio Prieto warned the coup plotters that they would definitely face resistance. Only the Prime Minister Casares Quiroga was optimistic. He was counting on General Emilio Mola of all people . He did not accept any evidence of a conspiracy.

With the assassination of Calvo Sotelo, the military had found the reason with which they could justify their coup. At the beginning of July Mola said that the preparations for the coup were going according to plan, but that “the enthusiasm for the cause has not yet reached the necessary level” . This changed with the murder of the monarchist politician. This made the conspiracy larger than the isolated coup of 1932, so that the hopes of high-ranking Popular Front politicians that the uprising would come to an end quickly were soon dashed. On July 17, 1936, the uprising began in the Spanish exclave of Melilla on the North African coast. It continued in Tétouan and invaded the mainland on July 18. The africanistas , the officers of the colonial army, as well as the vast majority of the other Spanish officers set about subordinating the motherland to their ideas.

When Casares Quiroga heard about it, he only said: What, they are getting up? Well, then I can lie down! However, the coup did not lead to the rapid success of its protagonists, but developed into the Spanish Civil War .

Civil War and the end of the Second Spanish Republic

The head of the military coup was originally General José Sanjurjo , who failed with a coup in 1932. However, he had a fatal accident on the return flight from Portuguese exile on July 20, 1936. The resulting power vacuum was filled by the generals Francisco Franco , Emilio Mola and Gonzalo Queipo de Llano . On the Republican side, Prime Minister Casares was replaced on July 19 by the more moderate Martínez Barrio , who promised the insurgents a say and the restoration of public order. When efforts to mediate failed, however, this was exchanged by José Giral Pereira a day later . The majority of the generals, two-thirds of the navy and half of the air force remained loyal to the republic. The troops loyal to the republic with parts of the paramilitary Guardia Civil and the Guardia de Asalto together with the militia groups of the Social Democrats, the Communists, the Socialists and the Anarchosyndicalists formed the military backbone of the republic at the beginning of the civil war. After the battles of Talavera de la Reina and the march of the expeditionary forces from Morocco on Madrid , Giral resigned as Prime Minister on September 4, 1936 and was replaced by Francisco Largo Caballero .

Ruins in bombed Guernica

The putschists soon took control of Seville , Cádiz , Jerez de la Frontera , Córdoba , Saragossa , Oviedo, as well as Galicia , Mallorca and Carlist Navarre . In October 1936 the advance of the nationalists came to a standstill, and the Republicans were able to achieve success on some sections of the front thanks to the support of the International Brigades . The provinces of Madrid , Valencia and Barcelona , which together accounted for 70% of Spanish industrial production, remained in the hands of the Republicans. From November 1936, Valencia became the seat of government of the republic instead of Madrid, which was located directly in the combat zone. The Axis powers recognized the Franco regime after the releasing of the Spanish national soldiers trapped in the Alcázar of Toledo on November 18, 1936. Italy sent the first official volunteers on December 23, 1936; soldiers from the German Condor Legion had already arrived in Cádiz in November 1936 on the orders of Adolf Hitler . With these and reinforced by colonial troops from Morocco, Franco tried to conquer Madrid again in January and February 1937, but failed again. Malaga was captured on February 8, 1937, and on April 28, Franco's troops entered the Basque Guernica, two days after the bombing by the German Condor Legion . After the events of May of Barcelona in May 1937 appointed President Manuel Azana Juan Negrin as Prime Minister, in the hope that the republican forces of the trade unions with which UGT and CNT and the anarchists of the bourgeoisie to reconcile and the middle class. The government began a campaign to recapture Segovia, and in early July the government even launched a counter-offensive at Brunete , near Madrid. However, the nationalists were able to repel them using the Condor Legion. Then Franco was able to conquer Santander and Gijón . Under the pressure of Benito Mussolini , Pope Pius XI recognized. on August 28, 1937 the Franco regime. At the end of November 1937, the Republican government went to Barcelona.

On March 6, 1938, the Republican side won the greatest naval battle of the civil war, the Battle of Cabo de Palos . On April 14th, however, the nationalists broke through to the Mediterranean Sea , splitting the republican area into two parts. In May, the Republican government made peace proposals, but Franco demanded their unconditional surrender. The government began an offensive to reconnect their territories: the Battle of the Ebro began on July 24th and ended on November 26th, 1938 with the almost complete defeat of the Republican troops. On December 23, 1938, the nationalists launched the Catalonia offensive . This was made easier by the fact that, after the losses on the Ebro, the Republicans hardly had any modern weapons to fend off their opponents. Franco's forces conquered all of Catalonia during the first two months of 1939 . Tarragona fell on January 14th, Barcelona on January 26th and Girona on February 4th. Five days later, the last resistance in Catalonia was broken. On 7 February President Azaña went into exile. He resigned on February 24th and declared the war lost. On February 27, the governments of Great Britain and France also recognized the Franco regime.

On March 28, 1939, Madrid also fell to Franco with the support of the “ fifth column ”. The following day, Valencia gave up. On April 1, 1939, Franco announced victory. Prime Minister Negrín had already fled to France, where he formed a government in exile and served as President of the Second Spanish Republic until 1945 in Mexican exile. Another government in exile in Spain was based in France . After the death of the dictator Francisco Franco, the first free democratic parliamentary elections were held in Spain on June 15, 1977 . The government in exile of the Second Spanish Republic under President José Maldonado González and Prime Minister Fernando Valera Aparicio declared itself dissolved.

Up to 150,000 people were killed on the battlefields of the civil war alone, and around 500,000 went into exile. Up to 400,000 people were interned in Franco's concentration camps; the last camp in Miranda del Ebro was not closed until 1947.

See also

• History of Spain
• First Spanish Republic

literature

• Antony Beevor : The Spanish Civil War. 2nd Edition. Munich 2006, ISBN 3-570-00924-6 .
• Gerald Brenan : The History of Spain. About the social and political background of the Spanish Civil War. Karin Kramer Verlag, Berlin 1978, ISBN 3-87956-034-X .
• Pierre Broué , Émile Témime : Revolution and War in Spain (Part One ). Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-518-27718-9 .
• Walther L. Bernecker : Social history of Spain in the 19th and 20th centuries. From the ancien régime to the parliamentary monarchy. New Historical Library - edition suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-518-11540-5 .
• Julián Casanova: República y Guerra Civil. Vol. 8 de la Historia de España, dirigida por Josep Fontana y Ramón Villares. Crítica / Marcial Pons, Barcelona 2007, ISBN 978-84-8432-878-0 .
• Hugh Thomas : La Guerra Civil Española. Ed. Grijalbo, (Barcelona) 1976, ISBN 84-253-2767-9 .
• Stanley G. Payne : The Collapse of the Spanish Republic, 1933-1936. Origins of the Civil War. Yale University Press, New Haven / London 2006, ISBN 0-300-11065-0 .
• Stanley G. Payne: Spain's First Democracy: The Second Republic, 1931-1936. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1993, ISBN 0-299-13674-4 .
• David Ruiz: Insurrección defensiva y revolución obrera. El octubre español de 1934. Labor 1988, ISBN 84-335-9406-0 .
• Heleno Saña: The Libertarian Revolution. The anarchists in the Spanish Civil War. Edition Nautilus, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-89401-378-8 .
• Peer Schmidt: A Brief History of Spain. Reclam, Dietzingen. ISBN 3-15-017039-7 .
• Manuel Tuñón de Lara et al. a .: The Spanish Civil War. An inventory. edition suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-518-11401-8 .
• Pierre Vilar : The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-8031-2334-8 .

Web links

Commons : Second Spanish Republic  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Results of the 1931 election. ( Memento of October 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ; PDF)
• Results of the 1936 election. ( Memento of November 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ; PDF)
• Literature on the Second Spanish Republic in the catalog of the library of the Instituto Cervantes in Germany (Spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Censo de 1930 / Tomo II. Resúmenes generales de la nación / Resúmenes por provincias, generales de la Nación, capitales y posesiones del norte y costa occidental de África / Resumen por provincias. (PDF; 450 kB) Instituto Nacional de Estadística, 1930, accessed on April 26, 2013 (Spanish, there was no census at the time of the Second Spanish Republic. The next census in 1940 showed a population of mainland Spain of 25,877,971, Source: INE). 
2. ↑ Marqués de Hoyos: Mi Testimonio. Madrid 1962, p. 122 ff.
3. ↑ Article 29 of the Electoral Act of 1907 deprived around 20% of the total Spanish population of their choice, especially in small municipalities. 14,018 such monarchist mandates were awarded without voting, compared to only 1,832 republican ones.
4. ↑ Javier Tusell quantifies the final result - which was only available after the proclamation of the republic - as follows: Monarchists: 40,324; Communists 67; Republicans: 34,688; Socialists: 4,813; Other 1,207. Miguel Martínez Cuadrado calculated the following distribution of seats in 1969 ( Elecciones y partidos políticos en España, 1808–1931 ): 19,035 supporters of Alfonso XIII, 39,568 republicans; 15,198 others that cannot be assigned to any warehouse.
5. ↑ Quoted from Jorge Hernández Aliques (ed.): Historia de España. Espasa Calpe, Volume 11, ISBN 84-239-8959-3 , p. 476.
6. ↑ He aquí el texto del documento que el Rey entregó as presidente del último Consejo de minisros, capitán general Aznar. Al Pais, April 17, 2013, accessed April 14, 2013 (Spanish, digitized). 
7. ↑ Censo de 1930 / Tomo II. Resúmenes generales de la nación / Resúmenes por provincias, generales de la Nación, capitales y posesiones del norte y costa occidental de Africa / Resumen de capitales. (PDF; 2.4 MB) Instituto Nacional de Estadística, 1930, accessed on April 26, 2013 (Spanish). 
8. ↑ Enrique González: A 75 años de la Revolución española (II).
9. ^ Julián Casanova: República y Guerra Civil . Vol. 8 de la Historia de España, dirigida por Josep Fontana y Ramón Villares . Crítica / Marcial Pons, Barcelona 2007, ISBN 978-84-8432-878-0 , pp. 131-133.
10. ^ Hugh Thomas: The Spanish Civil War . (2001), p. 136.
11. ^ David Ruiz: Insurrección defensiva y revolución obrera. El octubre español de 1934 . Labor 1988, ISBN 84-335-9406-0 , pp. 128-129.
12. ^ Antony Beevor: The Spanish Civil War. P. 53 (see literature list).
13. ^ Beevor 2006, p. 572.
14. ^ Horst Pietschmann, Walter L. Bernecker: History of Spain. Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-17-016188-1 , p. 317.
15. ↑ Beevor 2006, p. 59 cit.
16. ^ Hans-Christian Kirsch: The Spanish Civil War in eyewitness reports. P. 21.
17. ↑ Alcalá-Zamora, quoted from: Alfonso Bullón de Mendoza: José Calvo Sotelo. Barcelona 2004, pp. 574-575.
18. ↑ Gerald Brenan: The History of Spain. Pp. 342/343.
19. ↑ « […] personas de procedencia ultraderechista como el Rector de la Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU de Valencia, el carlista Alfonso Bullón de Mendoza. »(German:“ […] people of ultra-right provenance like […] the Carlist Bullón de Medonza ”), Juan Luis Galiacho, in: e-Defensor from June 17, 2005 Page no longer available , search in web archives: e-defensor .com ; see. also Diario critico from November 12, 2007: diariocritico.com
20. ↑ z. B. Niceto Alcalá Zamora: Memorias. Barcelona 1977, p. 352.
21. ↑ Alfonso Bullón de Mendoza: Calvo Sotelo. Barcelona 2004, p. 587 ff.
22. ^ Beevor 2006, p. 61.
23. ↑ Alfonso Bullón de Mendoza: José Calvo Sotelo. Ariel Ed., Barcelona 2004, ISBN 84-344-6718-6 .
24. ↑ Birgit Aschmann : "Treue Freunde ...?" West Germany and Spain 1945–1963 , Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999, p. 60 ( books.google.de ).

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on December 23, 2005 .