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The Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed on April 14, 1931 at Puerta del Sol, after the exile of King Alfonso XIII. -
After the elections, which were won by the Socialists, a provisional government was created and proclaimed on April 14th, 1931.
This provisional government was leaded by the moderate Republican, Niceto Alcalá Zamora.
His political group was composed by republicans (for example: Manuel Azaña as the prime minister), socialists and Catalonians nacionalists.
Finally, this provisional goverment ended on November 19th, 1933 with the general elections. -
In 1931, women didn't have the right to vote so the three women who were present in the Parliament had to defend their right to vote. However, the Radical Socialist Victoria Kent considered that women shouldn't vote since they were influenced by the Catholic Church (associated with right-wing parties) confronting Clara Campoamor, who continued to defend women's rights despite their opinions.
Finally, everyone over 23 years could vote after the election of 1933. -
Through the creation of a provisional government for the second Spanish republic, governed by Manuel Azaña (leader of the left-wing party Acción Republicana), various left-wing reforms were produced from 1931 to 1933, for example: the reduction of the influence of the Catholic Church in society, the expropriation of the lands of the nobles for the farmers, the agrarian improvement, the realization of changes in the Army or the creation of regional autonomies, etc.
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Subsequent to the creation of a provisional goverment, leaded by the president Niceto Alcalá Zamora, they tried to create a republican Constitution which represented Spain as a "democratic republic of workers" and that included different changes as freedom of speech and association, universal suffrage to women, the right to divorce and the separation of Church and State. -
Thanks to the creation of the 1931 Constitution, divorce was regulated for the first time with the approval of "the Divorce Law of 1932".
In previous times that were governed by "the Civil Code of 1889" which established that "the marriage was dissolved by the death of one of the spouses" so divorce was not allowed.
However, the Divorce Law of 1932 regulated that marriages could be dissolved by petition or mutual dissent.
This law represented a great advance for the society of the time. -
As a consequence of the scarcity of resources, church burnings, strikes and further disorder broke out between January 10 and 12, 1933 and this situation that was related to the management of the Manuel Azaña government.
However, the fact that triggered the dissolution of the government of Manuel Azaña, was that several policemen were shot by thirteen anarchists in the town of Casas Viejas.
In contrast, the police killed the anarchists to end this situation. -
After the fight for women's rights, especially universal suffrage, in the elections held on November 19, 1933 it was declared that everyone over 23 years of age could vote. -
After the elections of November 19, 1933, the right-wing parties won and the right-wing reforms began based on the elimination of the reforms carried out by the left-wing parties previously.
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As a consequence of the right-wing reforms and the leadership of the right-wing parties, a general revolution took place from October 5 to 19 in 1934, which was organized by the anarchists and socialists. This revolution was important in Catalonia (there was an autonomous revolution) and the territory of Asturias was controlled by the miners for 2 weeks.
Finally, the army was sent to Morocco led by General Francisco Franco and great reprisals against the political and mining leaders were taken. -
On January 7, 1936, there were other elections that were won by the Frente Popular (made up of the Socialists, Communists, Catalan and Madrid-based left-wing) and its prime minister was Manuel Azaña until April and the moderate president was Alcalá-Zamora.
This party decided to restart the left-wing reforms: such as the land one, outlawed the Spanish Falange and released all left-wing parties, and granted Catalonia enormous in different aspects. -
Since the Frente Popular won the 1936 elections, an important faction of the Army (led by Lieutenant Emilio Mola) had been preparing a coup d'etat. -
The Falangists assassinated the lieutenant José Castillo Sáenz de Tejada (Assault Guard and member of the Anti-Fascist Republican Military Union). -
Subsequently, the leader of the the right-wing opposition, José Calvo Sotelo, was assassinated by the Castillo comrades. -
Finally, three days after the assassination of José Calvo Sotelo, the uprising began in Morocco as a "pronunciamento" (which is based on a military rebellion with the purpose of overthrowing a government), but this caused the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
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After the end of the Spanish Civil War, on April 1, 1939, this event marked the end of the second Spanish republic and the dictatorship led by General Francisco Franco began.
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