Second Spanish Republic

By yuban10031

  • The left republic of 1931

    ▪ The Republican government granted autonomy to the region of Catalan
    - the Right were not happy, because they felt it was a threat to Spain’s overall level of power
    ▪ The Agrarian Reform Law allowed the state to nationalise (control) the latifundia (large areas of land owned by the wealthy) and then hand them over to the peasants
    - however, compensating the landowners was complicated and expensive, and
    - not everyone in the government agreed on the plan to take over the latifundia;
    - so, it wa

  • The left republic of 1932

    • a military revolt by General Sanjuro in 1932 was crushed ▪ The government’s decisions led to the foundation of the right-wing Catholic CEDA party
    • led by Gil Robles.
    • At the same time a fascist party – the Falange (Phalanx) - was established by the son of Primo de Rivera, Jose Antonio.

  • The right republic of 1933

    In 1933 government troops shot dead anarchist prisoners in Cadiz.
    - This created a crisis that led to elections being called for November 1933.
    ▪ A right-wing coalition government had power after the elections.
    - It 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

  • The right republic of 1934

    ▪ 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
    - Franco became known as the "Butcher of Asturias".
    - Mass arrests followed (even Azana was briefly arrested),
    - left wing newspapers were closed and
    - the Catalan Autonomy Statute was suspended
    .▪ The Asturias Uprising was “a watershed in the history of the Republic” (a quote from the hi

  • The right republic of 1936

    ▪ 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.
    ▪Increasing tension meant that the Left now regarded the Right as Fascists; the Right regarded the Left as Communists.
    ▪ 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