As a result of the bad economic situation in Spain, immense pressure was placed upon the government. Before Primo de Rivera, Spain had had an inefficient and corrupt constitutional monarchy leading it. When Primo de Rivera did take control, his radical reforms meant that he had to suspend the Spanish government (Cortes) as well as freedom of speech and freedom of press. Politically, his reforms included banning anarchist party, the CNT, supporting the UGT, which caused controversy because the party refused to join his National Assembly, and his newly-found Patriotic Union never found much support amongst the people. Primo de Rivera’s resign and Manuel Azaña’s take over announced the beginning of the 2nd Spanish Republic. Azaña didn’t hesitate in installing a whole bunch of new policies. These new policies angered all the powerful bodies in Spain including the Church, the landowners, the military and the industrialists as well as both the left and the right. Whilst the right formed a Church-based political party, the CEDA, the left were responsible for strikes and uprisings around the country. Azaña stepped down and the CEDA won the elections following this. Gil Robles hence took power and undid everything that Azaña had done. This may have been the key event that was responsible for the civil war because of the left wing’s reactions to this – notably the creation of extreme wing party, the Popular Front. To answer to this, the right wing created a National Front. Both were violent, extremis parties that were responsible for causing much trouble throughout the country. These disturbances really showed which way Spain was headed. Many people also believe that the foundation of fascist party, “The Falange” had a great influence on the outbreak of the Civil War. However, Patricia Knight describes it as “insignificant in numbers and influence” in 1936. The final straw was the murder of leading right-wing politician, Sotelo, the “Franz Ferdinand” of the Spanish Civil War. The split between left and right became too much for Spain to bear and the right began accusing the left of wanting a communist leadership whilst the left continued with their uprisings, strikes and vandalism.
These political problems were exacerbated by the influence of the Church in Spain. Up until Rivera’s reign, the Church had been using its influence to tell people which way to vote as well as having a monopoly in the education system. Primo de Rivera only worsened things when he allowed degrees from all Catholic universities official recognition. Many opposed to this and wanted a more secular regime. So when Azaña came to power, he legalised divorce, banned religious education in schools and expelled all Jesuits from Spain. The CEDA, led by the Church, hated this and when Gil Robles came to power through election in 1933, he got rid of all the reforms that had been introduced by Azaña and gave the Church even more power than before, once again causing much anger amongst the Spanish people and the left.
One of the policies that the Church pursued involved the withdrawal of all the new-found independent rights that Catalonia had obtained. This was yet another cause of discontent in Spain. Catalonia and the Basque countries had wanted independence for years. When Catalonia was finally granted some self-government with a regional assembly, it lasted little more than 2 years before Gil Robles, leader of the CEDA, stripped the region of it. The Catalonian flag was then banned when the newly-formed regional assembly made it clear that they weren’t going to support the CEDA.
One of the reasons explaining the Church’s aggression is the fact that they had the army backing them up. The military situation in Spain had been difficult for a very long time. Since Spain had lost the last section of its empire, Cuba in 1898, the army had been overstaffed and over powerful to rule just one country. This was costing the economy a lot of money. Primo de Rivera introduced a scheme of “Promotion by Merit” within the army and although this was hugely popular with the Africa Corps, who had never really had the opportunity to rise in the ranks, the Artillery Corps hated the scheme and they attempted a coup in 1928, led by General Sanjuro. The coup was crushed but was, nevertheless, another blow to Spain’s stability. Then came Spain’s defeat in Morocco, a huge blow to the country’s pride. Spain later managed to beat Morocco, under Primo de Rivera, with France’s help. Despite the victory, the war cost a huge amount of money and so to try and solve the economic problem within the army, Azaña made sure that many officers retired on half pay. This angered many and in 1932, General Sanjuro led a coup against the government. The coup was crushed however because the army stayed loyal to the fairly elected government. Over the following years, strikes and riots broke out from the left. The military was hence very busy trying to control these situations. However, it was sometimes difficult and in January 1933, 25 people were killed in Cadiz, following an anarchist movement. Other similar incidents, often organised by the Popular Front, were ruthlessly crushed by the army. Notably, Franco was responsible for controlling an uprising in Asturias. This was a strike by coal miners in 1934. From this, Franco carried on building up his position within the army until - in July 1936 - he took complete control of it and used it to take over Spanish Morocco and then mainland Spain overthrowing the government. The Spanish Civil War had begun.
In conclusion, it is understandable to see why what had once been a great and powerful nation fell to pieces. However, why was Spain affected like this? Why did Germany, a country that found itself in a similar position to Spain’s with the impact of the depression and a weak government, never fall into a civil war? One of the questions to ask is why there was not an arising before, considering the accumulation of Spain’s problems during the 2nd Republic. Andrew Forrest asks why, during 1931 to 1935, “did the army not stage a large scale revolt?” He answers that one of the reasons was the fact that the Spanish population never really showed what they wanted. They never really showed any strong support for any particular party during the 2nd Republic and as a result, there was no popular support. I disagree with this. From the support that Primo de Rivera gained when he first came to power, it is obvious that the Spanish people did indeed some radical change.
