Second Spanish Republic - Causes

Causes

The Second Republic was proclaimed during a period of worldwide economic depression. In spite of the high hopes, the Republican authorities had to struggle with rising unemployment and poverty. In the ensuing civil unrest, violence in the form of assassination, revolutionary general strikes, and mob actions increased dangerous levels in the eyes of the traditional centers of power, such as the landowners, the Church and the nobility. Thus it was easy for them to whip up dissatisfaction with the republican government.

Nazism in Germany, fascism in Italy and other forms of totalitarian government were on the rise in Europe. Right-wing political discourse became increasingly polarized, often as a form to check the threat of communism, that was perceived to be expanding from the Soviet Union. Rather than working towards consensus between political forces, politicians on the right and the left leaned towards polarization and called openly for violence.

The murders of the leftist military leader José Castillo and the rightist politician José Calvo Sotelo opened the way to a rapidly increasing flood of violence between the political left and right.

Rightist elements in Spain still justify the military coup against the established Republic claiming that it was ungovernable and failed to respond adequately to the threats of communism, anarchism, anti-clericalism, and acts of random violence. At any rate there was great devastation caused by the three years of civil strife and the destructive war of attrition imposed by General Franco on the impoverished country.