Spain

F

4

Restoration of the Monarchy

The new regime was determined not to repeat the errors of recent failed governments. Under Alfonso XII, the Spanish Cortes drafted a constitution in 1876 that established a system of limited parliamentary government and laid the basis for greater political stability. The constitution introduced a two-house legislature and a cabinet, and it restricted the powers of the crown. In addition, the constitution provided for a two-party system designed to represent the interests of the propertied middle and upper classes. Suffrage was confined to male property owners and taxpayers, and the two major parties—the Conservatives and Liberals—shared the same basic goals and assumptions. A contrived system of rotation, called the turno pacífico (peaceful turnaround), allowed the parties to alternate in office at regular intervals. To produce the desired rotation, elections were supervised by the incoming government and in much of the country were rigged by political bosses. The result was a closed political system controlled mainly by a rural oligarchy of conservative property owners that resisted broader political participation or social reform.

In 1885 Alfonso XII died without an heir, but his wife, Queen Maria Christina, bore him a posthumous son. The son came of age in 1902 and took the throne as Alfonso XIII. Until then, Maria Christina acted as regent.

Under the turno pacífico system, Spain enjoyed greater prosperity than it had known since the 18th century. The government defeated the Carlist insurrection in 1876, and the Ten Years’ War with Cuba came to an end in 1878. High tariffs protected Spanish agriculture from foreign competition, and the Basque iron, steel, and manufacturing industries boomed. Madrid and Barcelona grew rapidly and installed electrical systems, telephones, electric trams, and other modern conveniences. It was also an era of cultural flowering. Barcelona became a vibrant example of avant-garde architecture, the impressionist painter Joaquín Sorolla achieved world renown, and Spanish flamenco dancing became popular across Europe. In literature, Spain produced one of its greatest authors, novelist and playwright Benito Pérez Galdós.

Spain faced several difficult problems during the late 19th century. Stable rule and economic progress led to the emergence of new political forces that could not be contained by the existing political system. Industrialists and merchants in the Basque regions and Catalonia benefited from economic development, but they were largely excluded from political power; many gave their support to regional autonomy movements. A radicalized labor movement also began to develop, and political dissent emerged among the middle classes. In 1890 universal male suffrage was restored. Elections became more honest and representative in urban areas, but the rural oligarchy still dominated the government. Then, in 1898, Spain lost most of its remaining overseas colonial possessions in the devastating Spanish-American War.

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F4

a

Spanish-American War

In 1895 another revolt began in Cuba, following Spain’s failure to carry out reforms promised at the conclusion of the Ten Years’ War. The United States sided with Cuba and in 1898 declared war on Spain after the battleship USS Maine mysteriously exploded and sank in Havana Harbor. In the fighting that ensued, Spain’s naval fleet was destroyed. Badly defeated, Spain withdrew from Cuba and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands to the United States.

The war marked the end of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and shattered Spain’s lingering claims to great-power status. The humiliation caused by the war led many young Spanish intellectuals to ponder their country’s predicament. Known as the generation of 1898, these intellectuals included important writers and critics such as Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo, Pío Baroja y Nessi, Jacinto Benavente y Martínez, and Antonio Machado y Ruíz (see Spanish Literature). They began a searching criticism of Spanish institutions and initiated the Spanish cultural renaissance of the early 20th century.

F4

b

Domestic Upheaval

After the defeat of 1898, Spain’s parliamentary monarchy lost stability amid growing dissidence throughout Spanish society. Political groups increasingly resorted to violence. Republican movements pressing for greater democracy reemerged and demanded constitutional reforms. Support for anarchism took root among farm laborers in Andalucía and industrial workers in Barcelona. A small, though durable, socialist movement appeared in factories and mines in the Basque provinces and Asturias, and regionalist sentiments in Catalonia grew into demands for autonomy. King Alfonso XIII, favorably disposed to the military and authoritarian rule, intervened more frequently to try to achieve stability. As a result, he was accused of meddling and personal ambition, and the monarchy lost prestige.

Conflict also arose within the major political parties. Reforms initiated by Conservative prime minister Antonio Maura, who took office in 1907, attempted to resolve some of the sources of popular dissent. He legalized strikes, reformed the judiciary, and attempted to regulate rural rents and make elections fairer. However, Maura’s harsh repression of anarchists alienated the left and drew strong criticism from the Liberal Party, which had become allied with republican parties. In 1909 Spanish troops were sent to Morocco to protect Spain’s possessions there. Maura attempted to reinforce the military expedition with workers conscripted from Barcelona, Spain’s most volatile city. This sparked bloody riots in Barcelona that deepened class antagonisms. A Liberal ministry under José Canalejas y Méndez replaced Maura, but its reform program was cut short when Canalejas was assassinated by an anarchist in 1912. Throughout the next decade, political and social strife increased, aggravated by World War I (1914-1918) and the economic dislocation that followed.

F

5

World War I

Despite many pressures to become involved, Spain remained neutral during World War I. The conflict brought significant economic benefits to Spain, as warring nations purchased large quantities of goods from Spanish factories, mines, and farms. Improvements in infrastructure and rapid industrialization in the early 20th century had enhanced Spain’s ability to profit on the wartime trade. Much wealth had returned to Spain from its former colonies after the defeat in 1898, and new investments in railroads, hydroelectricity, and heavy industries greatly increased Spain’s industrial production.

The war, however, made it difficult for Spain to import goods, and inflation soon became rampant. At the same time, labor unrest increased as workers demanded better wages and working conditions. In Catalonia, regionalists agitated for home rule. Throughout Spain, republican parties gathered force to demand reforms.

By 1917 labor unrest, strikes, and uprisings dominated Spanish life. Amid these troubles, a Conservative government led by Eduardo Dato triggered a new crisis when it attempted to reform the budget and reduce the officer corps. In the summer of 1917 the officer corps, upset over changes in pay and promotion, rebelled. They organized military juntas to press their demands on the state and refused to obey orders. The government backed down and withdrew the reforms. The military crisis was followed by labor protests in Barcelona and other cities that degenerated into urban terrorism by the anarcho-syndicalists (groups who opposed all forms of government and advocated the control of all social and economic institutions by trade unions). The army put down the protests with ferocity. The antagonism between conservatives and the military on one side and left-wing social and political forces on the other grew deeper and more entrenched.

The end of World War I brought Spain severe economic distress. Wages fell and unemployment spread as Spain lost its wartime customers. Violent strikes became common, and the government declared martial law. A struggle for independence in the Spanish sector of Morocco—a protectorate since the 1880s—aggravated the economic crisis. Ruinously expensive, the Moroccan war became especially unpopular when Spanish forces were badly defeated at the Battle of Anoual in 1921. In the next two years a succession of Spanish governments collapsed and domestic violence escalated, especially in Barcelona.

F

6

Primo de Rivera’s Dictatorship

In September 1923 General Miguel Primo de Rivera, Barcelona’s military governor, led a coup d’état that gave vent to widespread disillusionment with the parliamentary regime. Rather than resisting, King Alfonso XIII endorsed the coup and made Primo de Rivera head of the government. The Cortes was dissolved, and a military directorate took charge. There were few arrests and little police or army brutality, but political parties were banned. Socialist trade unions continued to operate, however, and Primo de Rivera insisted that his dictatorship was only a temporary measure. One of his most popular achievements was the conclusion of the costly conflict in Morocco in 1926.

In 1925 the military directorate was abolished, and Primo de Rivera appointed a civilian government, which he led as prime minister. The new government focused on economic development and launched a broad program of public works. Major investments were made in roads and railroads, schools and universities, and new irrigation works. Opposition to Primo de Rivera’s administration grew in the late 1920s amid student protests, regionalist discontent in Catalonia, and disaffection within the army. Primo de Rivera became increasingly unpopular with the onset of the worldwide depression in 1929. In 1930 Alfonso, with backing from the military, dismissed Primo de Rivera.

Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship severely weakened support for the crown. Even moderates and conservatives no longer enthusiastically supported the monarchy because Alfonso had betrayed them by accepting authoritarian rule. The socialist, anarcho-syndicalist, and Catalan regionalist movements began to cooperate with the republicans, as did numerous former monarchists and army officers.

Alfonso hoped to bring about a return to constitutional government without threatening the monarchy. After a difficult year under a temporary government headed by General Dámaso Berenguer, Alfonso agreed to call municipal elections in April 1931. The elections gave overwhelming majorities to republican candidates in most of Spain’s provincial capitals. Support for the monarchy collapsed, and Alfonso—who refused to abdicate the crown—went into exile. The second Spanish republic was proclaimed at once, and a provisional government established under President Niceto Alcalá Zamora quickly arranged parliamentary elections. In December 1931 the Cortes approved a new constitution that was modern, democratic, and rigorously secular.

G

Republican Spain and the Dictatorship of Francisco Franco

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