The Civil War has been the central episode of contemporary history. Misunderstandings and confrontations latent for decades led to it, and historical events that have developed since then have derived from it, including our most immediate present. It should not be understood, however, as some historians have rushed to determine, that it was an inevitable fact. Neither history was previously written nor was it the result of any curse that weighed on the Spanish people. It was simply the direct consequence of the failure of a coup, that of July 18, 1936, at a time of maximum political tension and polarization . Once underway, yes, hatred, grudges and violence hitherto unknown were immediately uncovered. An inevitable desire to impose ideas and behaviors on locals and strangers completed the panorama of a conflict that only ended, as it could not be otherwise, with the victory of the strongest.
In a century plagued by wars of all kinds, the Spanish Civil War has never lost the interest it aroused since its inception. In it, in addition to Spaniards against Spaniards, the main ideologies of the 20th century clashed for the first time -communism, fascism, democratic liberalism -, whose main battle would be transferred to the Second World War and the subsequent cold war.
Reign of Alfonso XIII
When Alfonso XIII is proclaimed King of Spain, in March 1902, the political system of the Restoration is not at its best. Only four years earlier, in the fateful 1898, the last overseas territories (Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines) were lost after a humiliating defeat in the war with the United States . This disaster causes a serious crisis and opens a public debate in which politicians and intellectuals try to find out its causes and look for possible solutions.
Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, the politician who organized the return of the Bourbon dynasty in 1874 , after a series of revolutionary experiences, and inspired the Constitution of 1876, which would give way to the most stable constitutional period to date, he was assassinated by an Italian anarchist in 1897. If the father of the new king, Alfonso XII, who reigned until 1885 , date of his premature death, and his mother María Cristina, queen regent until he came of age, had enjoyed the political tranquility that accompanied the system devised by Cánovas, the new monarch reaches the head of State at a time when the signs of wear of a model based on the agreed alternation of the two major political parties are beginning to be palpable.
19th century background
The Spanish 19th century had differed little from what had happened in other European countries. After the Napoleonic invasion of 1808, the struggle between liberals and supporters of the old regime was the constant that went through an era full of conflicts, riots, pronouncements and various other manifestations of the prevailing political violence. This struggle would manifest itself in the initial conflict between the liberal supporters of the Cadiz Constitution of 1812 and the absolutists entrenched on the side of Fernando VII, and would continue throughout practically the entire century in the different Carlist wars.
Philosophical Doctrines
The liberals were characterized by defending the pre-eminence of parliament over the king , which under the formula of the constitutional monarchy conserved a good part of its power, as well as the validity of rights and freedoms; while the absolutists, for their part, rejected the idea of representation and were in favor of the government of the monarch , without any limitation, and the main role of the Catholic Church in the political game. If Ferdinand VII was an absolutist who only made concessions to the liberals when he was forced to do so, as when, for example, after Riego's pronouncement of 1820 he was forced to replace the liberal Constitution and cynically proclaimed that "let's march all together and I the first on the constitutional path» , Isabel II relied on the Liberals to fight the Carlists who, backed by the Church and the most ultra-conservative sectors of the rural areas of Navarra, Vascongadas, Catalonia and Aragón, tried to restore an absolutist system that had been dissolving for decades. Along with this conflict, the creation of a structured state Administration (which included a new provincial division in 1833) and a latent national consciousness were the two phenomena that, with greater or lesser success, characterized the political action of that period.
The Restoration
When the Restoration arrived, liberalism had prevailed naturally, receiving support even from the Catholic Church, which considered its presence in the system more timely than its opposition. The same cannot be said of democracy. Despite the fact that suffrage became universal (male) in June 1890, the political system was based on a democratic fiction through which non-competitive elections were held that allowed a constant alternation of the two great parties, the Liberal and the Conservative . Sagasta, at the head of the Liberals, and Cánovas, of the Conservatives, successively took turns at the head of the Government. This electoral fraud was possible thanks to the particular existing patronage power structure:the so-called caciquism. The caciques, true political entrepreneurs, obtained the support of their natural clients through the exchange of favors of all kinds (a position, a license, a posting in the military service, an administrative procedure...) that were returned in the form of a vote and unconditional support. In turn, the local cacique was directly related to the Madrid elite with whom he maintained the same link that, ultimately, ensured the election of the government in power. It goes without saying that the operation of this system was only conceived thanks to social demobilization and the absence of public opinion.
The crisis of the Restoration
At the beginning of the century, therefore, certain social groups and institutions seek a solution to the crisis of the system. Intellectuals, grouped around the Generation of '98, undertake a reflection on the future of Spain . Some, like Joaquín Costa, point to the origin of the problem:the oligarchy and chiefdom, serious scourges that must be overcome by regenerating the country with promotion and instruction. The Catalan and Basque industrial classes, very affected by the definitive loss of the colonies and skeptical about the future of Spain, fell back in the exaltation of their own identity. The excluded, workers and day laborers, ask to participate and strive to strengthen their organizations.
It is the moment in which the unions and socialist parties arise and are reinforced, among which the UGT and the Spanish Socialist Workers Party of Pablo Iglesias stand out, and the anarchist movement . The Church, which in the heat of power was able to recover its privileged position, is attacked from different fronts:the Liberal Party, in its desire to make a difference with the conservatives, returns to its anticlerical privileges; socialists and anarchists attack her as a defender of the interests of the bourgeoisie and bearer of its principles; intellectuals such as Galdós or Blasco Ibáñez criticize its condition as a hindrance to progress. The military, in short, humiliated after the disaster of the colonies and criticized by a good part of society, claim the lost protagonism. Removed at the time from power thanks to the ability of Cánovas, who in view of what had happened up to then considered it convenient to remove them, little by little they managed, increasing their pressure, to be noticed in national politics. The occupation of northern Morocco, where the Algeciras Conference had favored the Spanish presence in 1906, is the right opportunity to compensate for the dishonors and offenses suffered.
Tragic Week in Barcelona
Although the electoral turn continues its course, with Francisco Silvela and Antonio Maura being the most prominent leaders for the Conservatives, and José Canalejas and the Count of Romanones for the Liberals, the governments are shorter and the political situation becomes more complex and unstable. The occupation of Morocco, encouraged by a Maura eager to regain international prestige, will have greater difficulties than initially anticipated. Popular anger was unleashed in 1909, during the so-called Tragic Week in Barcelona, when the reservists were mobilized after a serious defeat in the Barranco del Lobo, in Morocco . The same sectors that push the colonial presence based on an exalted patriotic speech buy the exclusion of military service for their children. The humble classes that do not have resources but that, when this time comes, have greater mobilizing capacity than ever, are sent to war. The Tragic Week, in which the demands of workers' societies and outbursts of ferocious anticlericalism come together, culminates in the intervention of the army and a hundred deaths. The subsequent execution by firing squad of the anarchist Francisco Ferrer Guardia, a scapegoat subjected to an irregular trial, brings with it the only thing that was missing:international disrepute.
Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera
Abd el Krim's attack on the French zone of the protectorate, in 1925, gave rise to the Spanish-French understanding that would lead to the landing in Al Hoceima. The intervention in Morocco and the growing participation of the army in politics would be the breeding ground for military coups. During the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, an effort was made to modernize the country, which included the creation, in 1924, of the National Telephone Company of Spain. Notable investments were also made in infrastructure, such as the construction of the hydroelectric power plant in Villalba de la Sierra, on the Júcar River.
The Second Republic
After the resignation of Primo de Rivera, in January 1930, General Berenguer will be called by Alfonso XIII to preside over the new government.
In August 1930, the republican forces agreed to replace the monarchy and the main reforms that, once it was overthrown, should be carried out. General Berenguer leaves power. Admiral Aznar takes power from the Government in February 1931 and calls for elections which becomes a plebiscite on the permanence or not of the monarchy. In most Spanish cities the Republican-Socialist candidacy prevails.
Alfonso XIII undertakes the path of exile to France.
The Republic is celebrated by the crowd in the main Spanish cities. A commission is formed to draft a draft of the new Constitution, agreeing on legislative supremacy, which is approved on December 9, 1931 where Alcalá-Zamora is elected President of the Spanish Republic (1931 – 1936) and Azaña is appointed. President of the goverment.
Catalan autonomy and land reform would be two of the most important issues addressed by the republic. The CEDA of Gil Robles was imposed in the 1933 elections, the revolutionary uprising arose in October 1934, which was stopped throughout Spain except in Asturias where it lasted a few more weeks. In the 1936 elections, the popular front was victorious, but due to various attacks between parties, a coup d'état took place.
