Spanish Civil War - Background

Background

At the end of the 19th century, the owners of large estates, called latifundia, held most of the power in a land-based oligarchy. The landowners' power was unsuccessfully challenged by the industrial and merchant sectors. In 1868 popular uprisings led to the overthrow of Queen Isabella II of the House of Bourbon. In 1873 Isabella's replacement, King Amadeo I of the House of Savoy, abdicated due to increasing political pressure, and the short-lived First Spanish Republic was proclaimed. After the restoration of the Bourbons in December 1874, Carlists and anarchists emerged in opposition to the monarchy. Alejandro Lerroux helped bring republicanism to the fore in Catalonia, where poverty was particularly acute. Growing resentment of conscription and of the military culminated in the Tragic Week in Barcelona in 1909.

After the First World War, the working class, the industrial class, and the military united in hopes of removing the corrupt central government, but were unsuccessful. Fears of communism grew. A military coup brought Miguel Primo de Rivera to power in 1923, and he ran Spain as a military dictatorship. Support for his regime gradually faded, and he resigned in January 1930. There was little support for the monarchy in the major cities, and King Alfonso XIII abdicated; the Second Spanish Republic was formed, whose power would remain until the culmination of the Spanish Civil War.

Niceto Alcalá-Zamora became the first prime minister. The Republic had broad support from all segments of society; elections in June 1931 returned a large majority of Republicans and Socialists. With the onset of the Great Depression, the government attempted to assist rural Spain by instituting an eight-hour day and giving tenure to farm workers. Fascism remained a reactive threat, helped by controversial reforms to the military. In December a new reformist, liberal, and democratic constitution was declared. It included strong provisions enforcing a broad secularization of this Catholic country, which many moderate committed Catholics opposed. In October 1931 Manuel Azaña became Prime Minister of a minority government. In 1933 the Right won the general elections following an unsuccessful uprising by General José Sanjurjo in August 1932.

Events in the period following November 1933, called the black two years, seemed to make a civil war more likely. Alejandro Lerroux of the Radical Republican Party (RRP) formed a government and rolled back changes made under the previous administration. Some monarchists joined with the Fascist Falange Española to help achieve their aims. Open violence occurred in the streets of Spanish cities and militancy continued to increase, reflecting a movement towards radical upheaval rather than peaceful democratic means as solutions.

In the last months of 1934, two government collapses brought members of the right-wing Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA) into the government. Farm workers' wages were cut in half, and the military was purged of republican members. A Popular Front alliance was organized, which narrowly won the 1936 elections. Azaña led a weak minority government, but soon replaced Zamora as president in April. Prime Minister Casares ignored warnings of a military conspiracy involving several generals, who decided that the government had to be replaced to prevent the dissolution of Spain.