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The Left Republic
The Catalan region was granted independece by the Republican government. Therefore the Right were not happy, because they felt it was a threat to Spain’s overall level of power. -
The Left Republic
The Agrarian Reform Law allowed the state to control the large areas of land owned by the wealthy and then hand them over to the peasants.
However, rewarding the landowners was complicated and expensive, and not everyone in the government agreed on the plan to take over the large areas of land owned by the wealthy (latifundia), so it was never applied on a large scale. As a result it angered the landowners and disappointed the peasants too. -
Primo’s Labour Arbitration Scheme
Primo’s Labour Arbitration Scheme was extended and improved with the help of the UGT. The UGT trebled its membership during this period. -
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 also 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
Azana told the army they had no right to challenge the government and a military revolt by General Sanjuro was crushed in 1932. -
Foundation of the right-wing Catholic CEDA party
The government’s decisions led to the foundation of the right-wing Catholic CEDA party led by Gil Robles. And at the same time a fascist party – the Falange (Phalanx) - was established by the son of Primo de Rivera, Jose Antonio. -
The Right Republic-The Two Black Years
In 1933 government troops shot dead anarchist prisoners in Cadiz.This created a crisis that led to elections being called for November 1933. -
right-wing coalition
A right-wing coalition government had power after the elections. This 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. -
Asturias Uprising
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. He became known as the "Butcher of Asturias". Mass arrests followed (even Azana was briefly arrested), The left wing newspapers were closed and the Catalan Autonomy Statute was suspended. -
Asturias Uprising
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: Such as pushing the Left (especially the UGT of Caballero) towards a revolution, and it convinced the Right that the Fascism promoted by Rivera’s Falange was the only way to control the workers.Also the international situation strongly influenced the development of opposite ideas in Spain:the growing power of Fascism and Communism in Europe convince -
The Countdown to War
In 1936 an election was called. A Popular Front of Communists, Socialists, Republicans and Separatists was formed to oppose the government.The right wing formed the National Front. And increasing tension meant that the Left now regarded the Right as Fascists; the Right regarded the Left as Communists. -
The Popular Font won against the National Font
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. -
Reintroduced Reforms
Despite these problems, the new government immediately reintroduced the reforms of the 1931-3 government banned the Falange and sent Franco to Morocco. Disorder and political violence spread throughout the country.The anarchist CNT encouraged the peasants to take over the land. The socialist UGT called a general strike among the proletariat. Fascist Falange started to grow dramatically. Most seriously, the army began plotting to overthrow the weak new government. The leader was General Mola. -
Calvo Sotelo was assassinated by Republican police
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 Revolt in Spanish Morocco
The military now had the perfect excuse to make their move.Their revolt began on the 17th of July in Spanish Morocco which was led by Franco.