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Birth
Manuel Azaña Diaz was born in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid. He is the son of a wealthy liberal family. His father belonged to a family of notaries and clerks, and for a time he was the adult of the city where Manuel Azaña was born. His mother does not work and belongs to a well-to-do family with business connections. -
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Childhood and adolescence
Manuel grew up with his siblings. They all lost their parents between 1889 and 1890. Manuel was raised by his grandmother and uncle, who were very influential in his ideas.
He studied at the Colegio Complutense de San Justo y Pastor, and he was known for his excellent grades. He began studying law at university and used his free time to read hundreds of books. -
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Working as a notary and secretary
Manuel Azaña obtained his doctorate in 1900. He wrote many books and helped his brother in the family business, but the project was not successful. In 1909, he began working at the Dirección General de los Registros y del Notariado. Then, in 1911, he moved to Paris to continue his education, and he wrote a large number of books while living there. In 1913 he became secretary of the Madrid Athenaeum, where he expressed his critical attitude towards the Generation of '98. -
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First years in politics / Working as a journalist
In 1913, he joined the Reform Party (led by Melquiades Álvarez). In 1918, Azaña founded the Spanish Democratic Union, but he failed in successive attempts to be elected deputy of the Cortes de laosystemración. He left politics for a while and focused more on journalism. -
Miguel Primo de Rivera's coup d'état
Miguel Primo de Rivera, an army general, staged a coup in 1923. He was supported by the king making Manuel Azaña, who was very pro-democracy, a republican. -
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Life under Primo de Rivera's dictatorship
Azaña left the Reform Party and declared himself a supporter of the republic, so he founded the Acción Republicana in 1925. He published several books during this period and he was appointed president of the republic. Ateneo de Madrid. By 1930 he had become a national figure and was part of the Treaty of San Sebastián, the treaty that ended Alfonso XIII's monarchy. -
Proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic
After the Treaty of San Sebastián, a Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. Manuel Azaña became the interim government's minister of war. He was appointed President of the Council of Ministers when Niceto Alcalá Zamora was forced to resign (he became President of Spain). -
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Spain under Azaña's rule.
Azaña joined the Constituent Cortes and was appointed CEO. He introduced a broad program of reforms: civil marriage and divorce, strengthening of the army, initiating agricultural reforms, allowing self-governing Catalonia... He was forced to resign in September of that year 1933. -
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Life from his resign to the start of the Spanish Civil War
In 1934, Manuel Azaña united his party with extremists led by Marcelino Domingo, forming the Republican Party of Izquierda. He led a successful campaign against the government. José María Gil Robles became president and Azaña joined the October Revolution of 1934 and was sent to prison. He joined the Popular Front, along with all the leftist parties. Azaña won the 1936 election and he became president. -
Francisco Franco's coup d'état
Manuel Azaña again became President of Spain in 1936. He immediately took over the first biennial republic program, but he did not have enough time to develop it, since General Francisco Franco and other army generals led a coup in July. This event marked the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. -
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Life during the Spanish Civil War
Manuel Azaña began to isolate among the Republicans. Unable to bring them together (there was a lot of internal conflict within the unions), the oppressors took advantage and won numerous battles against the Republicans. -
Death
Missing during the war, Manuel Azaña was forced to resign and live in exile in Montauban (France), where he died in 1940.