Timeline of Spanish History
Part 1: A Misfortunate Monarchy
Our story starts in 1905, with Spain having recovered from past convulsions; revolutions, coup d’etats, and the loss of the Empire. Alfonso XIII oversaw a political system known as “turnism”, in which the Conservative and Liberal Parties held a secret pact to take turns in leading the country, thus ensuring a steady stream of moderate reforms. Industrialization was slow but steady, and a new bourgeoise flourished in large, modern cities. Hand-picked Prime Ministers continued turnism, and the future seemed bright and prosperous.
However, by the time of the Melilla War in 1909, cracks had begun to show. The decision to call on reserves from working-class families sparked violent revolts and strikes that were put down by force, ending in the arrest and execution of several anti-war activists. Understanding the need for more decisive changes in the system following the fiasco, some politicians tried to renovate the regime more radically, whilst retaining the monarchy. Antonio Maura tried to end the political machine that determined Spanish politics at the time: the landowning class, those who entrenched turnism through their voting districts. However, the opposition to this reformism stood too strong; forces of the bourgeoisie and the old aristocracy allied against attempts to reduce their influence in rural regions, fending off the hand of the Prime Minister time and time again. Seeing this, Alfonso XIII chose to maintain a policy of not-rocking-the-boat, oblivious to the delicate political climate. Anarchism began to rear its head in terrorist attacks, trade unions swelled with angry workers, and leftist organizations emerged from obscurity. Social malaise ran rampant, and the underpaid and bitter army began to see the civilian class with suspicion.
As conflicts during 1913 in the so-called “Powderkeg of Europe” sparked what would become the Great War, Spain, far removed from the web of alliances that enveloped Europe, remained neutral. The King regained some international standing for his role as mediator in prisoner exchanges, as money was made through lucrative sales of various goods to multiple sides of the war. All in all, Spain was able to somewhat recompose itself during the war, with an increase of peace at home and stable colonies.
Part 2: The Five Years’ Dictatorship
But the good times didn't last long, and immediately after the war’s end , the problems that were mitigated by the small economic boom reappeared with renewed intensity. In North Africa, a native uprising led by former collaborationist Abd el-Krim caught Spain off-guard. In 1923, a Riffian ambush of Spanish troops operating in the desert beyond secure lines of communication led to the Battle of Annual, which ended in a colossal disaster. Most of the troops caught in the trap were mercilessly slaughtered, and the commanding Spanish officer Manuel Fernández y Silvestre killed himself on the field to avoid capture. This, for General Miguel Primo de Rivera, was the last straw in a series of intolerable mistakes caused by the civilian government. Supported by the Army of Africa, Primo de Rivera launched a coup that very same year with the reluctant acceptance of Alfonso XIII.
In the early years between 1923 to 1925, the dictatorship presented itself as a purely temporary emergency measure. Its duration would only be determined by how long it took to solve the three main crises that affected Spain: the economic chaos, widespread political violence, and the war in Africa. After some hard negotiations, Primo de Rivera, to everyone’s surprise, reached an agreement with the social-democratic Partido Socialista Obrero Español and its UGT trade union wing by which they would aid in the composition of “patriotic syndicates” to provide a way for the government to be more directly involved in labor disputes. This alliance, led by PSOE politicians Largo Caballero and Julián Besteiro, forced their expulsion from the Second Internationale and the split of the Partido Comunista Español.
With new ground to stand on, the de Rivera dictatorship began its attempt to solve the three crises. Beginning with the economic malaise, the nationalization of several industries, and the creation of a modern electric grid and railway system proved to be massive boons. Regarding street violence, new measures were taken; the strengthening of the Guardia Civil with more resources, a stronger intelligence service to root out organized crime, and a paramilitary force known as the Somatén to force agitators into hiding. Spain, finally, seemed to join modernity as a full-pledged nation not dragged behind the cart of circumstance. In 1926 it became clear that despite the spectacular advances made by the joint Franco-Spanish intervention in Africa, Primo de Rivera would not give up on power after a victory in the Rif, and his ambitions for a new Spain grew bolder by the day. A group of liberal politicians, aristocrats, and resentful industrialists led by the Queen herself begin plotting the dictator’s downfall.
In 1927, immediately after the official end of the Rif War, Primo de Rivera announced that an official dossier of the war would be published pointing fingers at those who were responsible for the military disasters, as well as several corruption cases concerning the private dealings of the Crown and the political class in Africa. Seeing this as their last chance, liberal-leaning generals took up arms and occupied major cities, and major military bases across the Peninsula revolted against the government in an event known as the Sanjuanada. With Primo de Rivera refusing to leave power peacefully despite direct orders from the King, his regime ended bitterly in the forced arrest of the General and his accidental death in jail from a suspiciously timed heart attack.
Part 3: Liberal Lollygagging
The new cabinet was led by rising star Melquiades Álvarez. He was a man outside the system’s control but who chose to collaborate with the Liberal Party against the dictatorship, believing there was still a chance for common-sense reformism. He was to be disappointed. The old elites still fiercely resisted any diminishing of their power and worked to reinforce their political machines, forcing his resignation barely a year after the coup. In a move to placate the unhappy Africanists after Primo de Rivera’s downfall, Alfonso XIII bought off the rights to the Protectorate of Morocco from the recently-victorious PRRRS government in France following a series of severe revolts against colonial authority. General Francisco Franco would be tasked with putting down these revolts and reorganizing the territory; he was successful in restoring order, but this was not adequate to mollify the Africanists.
His successor was none other than former Prime Minister Álvaro Figueroa, Count of Romanones. Always the public face of the landowning class and a firm believer in the utility of turnism, he attempted to continue the old system as if nothing had happened. This façade of normalcy only made things worse. In a famous article by José Ortega y Gasset titled “The Romanones Mistake”, he described this pretension of returning as things were before the dictatorship as the last nail in the coffin for the monarchy, calling for a republic to take power as soon as possible. Socialists, communists, republicans, and anarchists grew bolder, with open attacks and challenges against the government, such as multiple consecutive General Revolutionary Strikes. Seeing that neither the old order nor reformism had worked, Alfonso XIII dismissed the Count and dissolved the Parliament in 1929.
Part 4: The Dead King and the Pauper
After the formal dissolution of Parliament, however, Alfonso XIII did not call for new general elections. Alfonso had decided to forge his own path, which meant assuming direct control over the state apparatus. What followed was an iron-fisted royal autocracy supported by a small clique of opportunistic generals and barely a handful of industrialists. Major crackdowns befell not only the opposition to the regime, but also high ranking officials, neutral politicians, intellectuals, and many, many others. Among these prisoners, you could count José Díaz, future General Secretary of the PCE, Abrahám Guillén, CNT agitator, Alejandro Lerroux, a ringleader behind the republican opposition, José Ortega y Gasset, and even the son of the former dictator, José Antonio Primo de Rivera.
The situation’s tension reached insurmountable heights, and the ever-more alienated army fell into the arms of the Republican underground movement. By December 1930, revolution sparked in the military base of Jaca in Madrid. Soon after, military bases and cities across the Peninsula rose in open defiance against the Crown, as the Army of Africa under Francisco Franco refused to put down the revolutionaries in a key move. The figurehead of the uprising in Madrid and the movement’s most recognizable face, brother of Francisco and popular aviator Ramón Franco, bombed the Royal Palace after learning of the monarch’s refusal to evacuate or stand down. In the midst of the chaos, either an indirect impact from the projectile or the subsequent fire ended Alfonso XIII’s life. The Spanish Republic was immediately proclaimed after the orderly surrender of the last loyalist forces.
Part 5: Four Years of Pain
The Second Spanish Republic started off on strong footing, with an immediate call for general elections by the provisional government. These first elections were a clear victory by the ORAN, or Organización Republicana Autónoma Nacional, an umbrella platform of left-leaning Republicans who helped organize the coup against Alfonso XIII. However, the first President, Santiago Casares Quiroga, would find himself completely unable to transform the previous revolutionary momentum into a functioning democracy because of the intense disagreements between republicans, controversy over the PSOE’s place in the new system after serving as a dictator’s lackeys, and the unwillingness of some to stop at a French-style republic. After repeated failures to draft laws for agrarian reform and the lack of a consistent policy on regionalism, the Casares Quiroga government was forced to step down just one year after their victory. Because of the loss of this initial optimism, the ORAN completely collapsed as a platform, vomiting a plethora of smaller parties and factionalist cliques onto the national stage.
Yet another set of general elections saw the largest splinter of the ORAN win, the remnants of the old Acción Republicana. President José Giral, who took control of AR after Manuel Azaña’s death in jail in 1929, proved to be more efficient yet more divisive than his predecessor. He could indeed pass an Agrarian Reform law with ease using clever political maneuvering, but it was severely limited and ineffective in practice, placing most of the opposition in open antagonism against the government. Despite calls by generals to continue the old Africanist policies in Morocco, Giral believed that to have a Moroccan monarchy within a Spanish Republic was senseless, and so abolished the crown without forfeiting the colony itself. Because of the Africanists’ fierce complaints, the government proceeded to reorganize the army to surgically extract so-called “reactionary elements”. Many officers would be forced to retire on the spot, among them Francisco Franco himself. Despite Giral’s successes, the project fell from inside out, as a large portion of the left of his own party seceded and joined Lerroux’s Partido Republicano Radical. This also meant that many AR members of Parliament crossed the floor and joined the PRR as well, triggering the downfall of Giral’s government and provoking renewed calls for elections after two years of presidency.
The General Elections of 1934, even tenser than those in ‘31, somehow ended on a hopeful note for many Spaniards. The famous regicide, independent politician Ramón Franco, led a broad left-wing coalition of anti-Giral parties with the tacit support of the PCE, winning with a wide margin because of his personal renown and the agreement of Lerroux to join the coalition. Many now believe that the rebel-turned-president is the last chance of the Republic to rebuild itself, with the fear that it may perish in the attempt engendering increasing paranoia among the republicans and fierce radicalization in the opposition.