THE SECOND REPUBLIC

STAGE DATE MAIN FIGURES MAIN POLICIES AND EVENTS

April 1931 Manuel Azaña  The government was made up of republican parties and PSOE.
Alcalá-Zamora It introduced rights and liberties for people.
PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT Clara Campoamor  In December 1931 the Constitution established a democratic
system
 There was separation of powers (executive, legislative and
judicial).
 The universal female and male suffrage was recognized.
 Spain has no official religion.
 Decentralization, this was useful to create autonomous
regions, which favored Catalonia and the Basque Country.
 Social welfare, the government could expropriate properties
for public interest.

June 1931- Manuel Azaña The Bienio Reformista passed many reforms to help Spain situation.
1933  Autonomist reformation: autonomy for Catalonia (Creation of
BIENIO REFORMISTA the Generalitat)
 Military reformation: reduced the amount of army leaders
(they had to swear obedience to the Republic).
 Labour reformation: Minimum wages and insurances in case
of accidents.
 Social rights: civil marriages and divorce were made legal.
 Education reformation:
o Thre were only secular schools (religious were
closed)
o Many schools were built many teachers were
employed.
o Misiones pedagógicas education in rural areas.
 Agrarian reforms:
o Church properties, uncultivated lands and big lands
were exapropiate and given to peasants
 o Rural areas were underdeveloped: peasants lived in
harsh conditions as they had no lands and had low
salaries.

September Alejandro Lerroux All right wing parties joined in the CEDA (Confederación Española de
1933-1935 Derechas Autónomas)
BIENIO CONSERVADOR  They won the elections but Alcalá-Zamora didn’t approve
they to vote because he thought that they wouldn’t support
the ideas of the republic.
 Alejandro Lerroux was the president and had support from
the CEDA.
 All reforms introduced were paralyzed
 Amnesty to the participants in Sanjurjo Coup d’état
 Lerroux named 3 ministers from the CEDA
o This caused a revolution in Asturias. Strike turned
into insurrection and workers occupied factories.
(Communist revolution: workers were imprisoned or
killed)
o The President of Catalonia proclaimed a Catalan
State within the Spanish Federal Republic. (it was
repressed by force)

February to Manuel Azaña All left winged parties(socialists, communists, nationalists and left
July 1936 Socialists, republicans) joined in the elections of 1936 and won.
POPULAR FRONT Communist,  Continue with the reformations of the Bienio Reformista.
Nationalists o They exapropiated more lands in 5 months than the
Bienio Reformista.
 They gave amnesty to those imprisioned in the Asturian
revolution.
Far right wing, fascists and army leaders start to prepare a coup d’état.
 Big social tensions and violence
o Falange and JONS members made demonstrations
and violent attacks to lefties.
o Left wing parties and anarchists burned churches
o GUNFIGHTING the left-wing army officer (Coronel
Castillo) was killed by the right wing members.
Then Calvo Sotelo from the right wing parties was
 killed.
On 17th July 1936 a military rebellion against the Republic began in
Spanish Morocco. Later it exapanded to the rest of the Iberian
Peninsula.
THIS ENDED THE POPULAR FRONT AND WAS THE START OF
THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR