Late Nineteenth and early twentieth century Spain, was a period of great change, optimism, division and conflict. Until 1931, Spain had a monarch, Alfonso XIII, and a series of military dictators; however, both proved unpopular in the long-term. The unpopularity and downfall of Miguel Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship, and the popular hatred the King who backed it, laid open the foundations on which the Second Republic could establish itself with relative ease. With modernization, came more liberal and socialist beliefs, believing in a new mass republican movement, that would offer the chance to address Spain’s long-term problems, and accept a more modern Spanish society. This is turn, meant that the republic had the backing of the majority of the Spanish people which therefore, allowed for a relatively opposition-less establishment of the Second Republic in 1931.
The unpopularity and fall of Miguel Primo de Rivera’s Dictatorship contributed to the ease in which the Second Republic was established. The dictatorship lasted seven years. Its politics reflected both ‘reactionary and progressive attitudes.’ However, Rivera eventually, by the beginning of 1930, ended up alienating himself from the social and political groups that had supported his ascension in 1923, leaving open a power void that enabled the Republic to be formed with relative ease.
In September 1923, Captain General of Barcelona, General Miguel Primo de Rivera, issued a pronunciamiento hereby overruling the Liberal government of Garcia Prieto. He was seen by many as a saviour figure of Spain. Initially, he had the support of the King, the army and the Church and wide popular consensus. Although, Rivera’s regime lacked the organized mass base and fanatical imperialism that might have labelled it fascist, as noted by Hugh Thomas. Nevertheless, Rivera dismissed the pre-existing Cortes, suspended elections and trial by jury, censored the press and forced many into, including some conservatives, into exile. This caused a rift in support, and initiated the creation of opposition that would eventually rise to support and form the Second Republic.
Rivera was dependent on a booming and successful international economy, but also internal cooperation. However, the economic program was open to political sabotage, and susceptible to fluctuations in the world economy. This is apparent in the resistance of the Latifundistas, towards the potentially successful agricultural scheme that introduced compulsory wages and conditions arbitration committees; those which were already operating with success in urban areas. This is important, as it suggest the Latifundia felt their position threatened, whilst being suspicious and distrusting of Rivera’s economic plans. Similar opposition was shown by Jose Calv” Sotelo, the finance minister, in blocking Rivera’s attempts to increase tax to pay for public works, instead, he had to resort to significant borrowing and an unsuccessful budget, that ultimately led to the collapse of the peseta. Therefore, economic pressure and instability caused the public to shift support towards the economic prosperity promised by the new republican movement.
Rivera did not have full and undying support from the Army. The war against the Riff and Jabaal rebels not only drained Spain economically, but also the military strength. Furthermore, Rivera had a withdrawal policy, which was utterly rejected by the army, and instead succumbed and allowed military action. This was damaging to his position; he lost some significant sectors of support within the army, which despite the victory in Morocco being popular at home, certainly did not guarantee loyal and a stable support from the army. Moreover, low wages and poor weapons led to an undermining of support from the army.
A crucial part of the fall of the military government and the establishment of the republic, lies with the significance of the Pact of San Sebastian. Leading opponents of the military dictatorship met in the Basque town in August 1930, in order to co-ordinate opposition to the regime. The republican groups joined forces and bought together: the Radicals, Republican Action, the Radical Socialists, ORGA, and three Catalan parties and the more conservative DLR, for fronted by Alcal” Zamora, a moderate of the DLR. This is important, as it created a united revolutionary committee with a common goal; the failed coup prevented the establishment of the republic using force, therefore, aiding the overall ease in which it was created.
Nearing the end of the dictatorship, it had outgrown any significant utility which it initially owned and no political alternative had been suggested or offered. By the beginning of 1930, unrest and discontent was arising from all social groups; Agriculture was under strain from the beginning of the depression, Rivera had relied too heavily on the budget and inflation had caused the peseta to fall steeply. Business owners, whom had once supported the regime, were growing skeptical; all the while the middle-class, in particular, had grown increasingly distant. Republican parties were growing in popularity, and perhaps most significantly, the dictatorship had lost the backing of the army. With sectors of the army actively undermining a military dictator, Primo de Rivera consented to his resignation at the end of January 1930. This laid an easy path open, in which the republic was able to form together and gather support, in turn establish the Second Republic with relative ease.
Popular hatred of the dictatorship and the King who backed it, led to the fall of the monarchy and the creation of a democratic republic. Up until 1923, Spain was a constitutional monarchy, in which King Alfonso XIII was the head of the Spanish state. Despite the fact that the king was meant to work with the Spanish parliament, Cortes, in reality he worked more closely with the military elite; this led to a series of tensions amongst the politicians and the military dominated governments. The king did not trouble himself with the popular views of the Spanish people. As a result, he failed to implement reformist policies that would have resulted in a shift of power, and property away from the Spanish elite towards the working people. As Raymond reiterates, the King was inevitably identified with unpopular government decisions, such as the sending of the working-class to shore up mining concerns in Morocco. The King put his trust in the conservative and traditionally supportive systems, such as the army and the Roman Catholic Church, who represented the oppressive systems within society. This includes the caciques, powerful local figures that would manipulate and enforce votes and well as oppression, that of which can be seen in the primary source from 1923, in which Manuel Aza”a states: ‘the activity of the cacique is the everyday sordid oppression, that rarely gets reported in the press or in parliament; an oppression that bears fruit in votes, because it demands them.’ This created a long-term resentment that built up, and resulted in growing nationalistic movements in both the Catalan and Basque regions, and led to more unions beginning to form, which would ultimately support the republican movement and ensure a relatively easy establishment without conflict.
Writing in the mid-1990s, both George Esenwein and Adrian Shubert’s analysis emphasizes that Alfonso XIII, himself, betrayed the constitutional monarchy by accepting General Primo de Rivera’s coup and his Dictadura. The King finally abandoned the pretence of ruling constitutionally. Predictably, this fuelled the Republican cause as observed in Alcal” Zamora’s conversion, who had important role in San Sebastian and later became the President of the Republic, and that the anit-monarchist, pro-republican stance acquired its highest profile yet at this exact Pact of San Sebastian in August 1930. Furthermore, this resulted in being closely identified with the dictatorship’s failures to resolve significant socio-economic problems that had been plaguing Spain for many decades. An example of this, is the high levels of inflation, which led to making the poorest of the Spanish poorer; Alienating himself further from his people. Interestingly, despite dismissing Primo de Rivera January 1930, he continued to back a military-led government. Spain’s new dictator, Damaso Berenguer, did end some of Prime de Rivera’s most repressive policies, in an attempt to dilute and appease some the opposition to the regime. However, Berenguer failed to gain the support he needed and was too unpopular, furthermore, his more moderate policies simply earned his regime the nickname of ‘Dictablanda’. Carr emphasizes that Berenguer’s role in delaying the elections, added fuel to the campaign against the King.
Although Spain was a dictatorship, some aspects of Spanish government were partially democratic. The Spanish people were allowed to vote regularly in local government or municipal elections. Importantly, the municipal election in April 1931 in particular, highlighted the strength of the republican movement. This can be examined in source B: ‘the revolutionary movement had hardly yet reached the countryside’with two or three exceptions, all the provincial capitals voted for the united list forwarded by the coalitions of those parties that had signed the Pact of San Sebastian.’ The movement gained significant majorities within urban areas increasing their overall confidence needed to rally up the parties towards uniting and forming a republic. Forrest states that the results of the elections did indeed show public alienation from the monarchy, but this wasn’t universal. The King’s initial refusal to recognize the results led to widespread violence. He refused to believe that the people had truly lost faith in him, and that they would come to realize that he had been serving Spain to the best of his abilities. However, even the monarchists were not necessarily loyal to Alfonso himself but instead were deeply troubled by him due to being constantly linked to political failures. Despite his beliefs, key advisors, including Berenguer, advised that he could not continue without Spain’s public support; he fled Spain, laying open the opportunity for the foundations of the republic to be established with ease. The King was replaced by a coalition government in April 1931: ‘The Spanish people had said let there be a republic and the Republic had been born’we went to the Constituent Cortes and told them: Here are the powers that the republican people delegated to us.’ An extract of the speech to the Republic Action Party by Manuel Aza”a on 17th of July 1931, highlighting the united and legitimate representation, largely compromised of socialists and liberals, that formed the Second Republic.
The unpopularity of the King fuelled the military involvement in Spain’s emerging republicanism. In 1930, the King had to face a revolt staged by the junior officers in Jaca in Aragon. This had been provoked by Alfonso’s failure to upkeep his promise to overturn Rivera’s policy of promotion through merit and the harsh policy towards the artillery corps, resulted in many in the military feeling a strong distrust towards the monarchic system but ultimately directed at the King in particular. Despite the failure of the uprising in sparking a widespread uprising, two leaders were shot for treason, which caused reverting shock throughout Spain, especially as executions occurred during peacetime, and consequently, the two young officers became martyrs to the continuously growing republican cause. The significance of Alfonso’s decisions surrounding the army, can be directly linked to his downfall and the rise of the ever-growing support that enabled the relative ease with which the establishment of the Second Republic occurred.
Republicanism was stimulated further through rapid changes in social, cultural and economic structures of Spain. These changes initiated a rapid and significant expansion of the urban population and industrial labor force, in Spanish recent years. Between 1920-1930, the percentage of work force in manufacturing had increased from 15.6% to 19.2% and overall total industry had increased from 22.0% to 26.5%. Agriculture remained the largest single sector, however, the percentage of active engagement within the sector had remarkably fallen from 66% in 1910 to 45.5% in 1930. Spain, was no longer an agrarian country that it had been prior to 1910. Interestingly, the growth in urban and industrial sectors, and the decrease in the agricultural sector within Spanish society, would have directly impacted the political shift towards republicanism due to accelerated social and economic modernization that spread across Spain, and in turn people were looking towards a more modern system that benefitted the working-people rather than the archaic monarchical and military-led systems. Furthermore, these archaic systems lost the large agrarian support, of which, it can be argued, they always had guaranteed support. Moreover, major educational improvements resulted in illiteracy falling to almost 9% during the 1920s, which according to Stanley G Payne, was the most rapid improvement within ten years in all Spanish history. Opportunities offered to women also saw improvements, with an increase of 9% in the proportion of women in the labor work force during the 1920s; Similarly, the percentage of women attending university almost doubled from 4.79% to 8.3% between 1923 to 1927. It wasn’t only women’s attendance that increased, the overall number of students attending universities approximately doubled between 1923 to 1930. Therefore, despite the overall underdevelopment of Spain in comparison to other modern European countries, the data suggests that rapid social changes caused a significant modernization within Spanish society; through a better educated and more urban population, rising expectations were creating the foundations for a republic from post-WWI onwards. Arguably, it can be deduced that the establishment of the Second Republic, to some degree, was an inevitable evolution due to the modernization of Spain.
To conclude, the unpopularity of Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship, through alienation from his people, that resulted in unrest in almost all sectors of society, and failures directly linked to his military dictatorship, allowed the Second Republic to be established with relative ease in 1931. Similarly, the King’s betrayal of the constitutional monarchy and failures to resolve Spain’s long-standing problems, led to wide spread disillusionment towards the monarchy. The rapid modernization of Spanish society, pushed people further away from accepting the monarchy and its military-led government, towards the rising of new political movements. To reiterate once again, a boom in a more urban and educated society, created expectations for a more egalitarian and modern political system, which allowed for the backing of the masses and aided the overall ease in which the Second Republic was established.