Restauración española: Alfonso XII

• In 1875, the monarchy was restored in Spain with Alfonso XII de Borbón (1875-1885), son of Isabel II.
• This restoration succeeded due to Antonio Cánovas del Castillo's political work, who led the future Conservative Party.
• Cánovas ensured Isabel II's abdication for her son and established a constitutional monarchy guaranteeing stability and tranquility.
• After Alfonso XII's death in 1885, the Restoration continued under the regency of María Cristina (1885-1902) during Alfonso XIII's minority.

Functioning of the Political System

• The Restoration's political system rested on two foundations:
  • The 1876 Constitution was moderate yet flexible, featuring a broad declaration of rights, shared sovereignty between the king and the Cortes and suffrage to be determined by the ruling party.
  • The "turnismo" or peaceful alternation rotated power between the Conservative Party, led by Cánovas del Castillo and supported by the upper classes and the Liberal Party, led by Mateo Sagasta with backing from the bourgeoisie and middle classes.
  • When the government wore out, the king assigned the opposition leader to form a new government, who then rigged elections for victory using electoral fraud, vote manipulation, and pressure via local bosses (caciques).

Political Problems During the Restoration

• The political system faced serious political issues:
  • A corrupt system led to opposition from political parties without government options.
  • Parties who pushed back included: the Republican party, the Carlist party (which initiated a new war against Alfonso XII), and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which grew with labor movement progress.
  • The labor movement saw socialism spread after the General Union of Workers (UGT) formed in 1888.
    • Anarchism founded the Workers' Federation of the Spanish Region (FTRE) in 1881.
  • Regionalism and nationalism arose in Catalonia and the Basque Country (the Catholic and conservative PNV formed in 1897).

The Crisis of '98

• The loss of Spain's last colonies started with uprisings in Cuba and the Philippines.
• U.S. support assisted the rebels, leading the U.S. to declare war on Spain after the American battleship Maine exploded in Havana harbor in April 1898, deemed a Spanish sabotage.
• The war occurred in the Pacific (Philippines) and Atlantic (Cuba and Puerto Rico), where U.S. fleets destroyed the Spanish fleets.
• Spain recognized the independence of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, leading to moral and ideological grief and prompted regenerationism.
  • Regenerationism was an intellectual and political movement aimed at ending political corruption and solving the country's severe problems.

Alfonso XIII and Primo de Rivera's Dictatorship: Alfonso XIII's Reign

• Alfonso XIII ascended to the throne in 1902 amid a political crisis of the canovista system.
  • The party alternation continued from 1902-1917.
  • The War in Morocco was from two protectorates: a French zone and Spanish zone, where war with Rif inhabitants occurred.
    • In 1909, the Spanish mobilized reservists, mostly family fathers which led to violent disturbances in Barcelona known as the Tragic Week.
  • The canovista system faltered from 1917-1923.
    • In 1917, a severe crisis resulted from price increases due to exporting essential products during World War I, prompting leftist parties and unions to call a general strike.
    • From 1919-1923, governments lasted shorter periods, dealing with conflicts between employers and laborers (pistolerismo).
    • In 1921, the Disaster of Annual in the Morocco war led to 10,000 deaths, resulting in public outcry.

Primo de Rivera's Dictatorship

• General Primo de Rivera staged a coup in 1923 with royal support.
• Primo de Rivera suspended the constitution, dissolved the Cortes, prohibited political parties, repressed the labor movement, and defeated the Moroccans.
• This victory, plus economic boom of the 1920s helped Primo de Rivera remain in power until 1930, when he resigned due to the economic crisis of 1929.
• Factors that led to his downfall were: increased unemployment and labor movement, nationalist issues, and rejection from many intellectuals.
• Alfonso XIII attempted to reinstate the parliamentary system; however, his support for the dictatorship discredited him.
• Republicans won in major cities during the municipal elections of 1931, leading to the king's departure and proclamation of the Second Republic on April 14, 1931.

The Second Republic (1931-1933)

• After the Second Republic was proclaimed:
  • A provisional government was formed and called elections to the Constituent Cortes in June 1931.
  • A majority was given to leftist parties who drafted a new constitution.

The Constitution of 1931

• The constitution established:
  • A broad declaration of rights (expression, assembly and association).
  • Popular sovereignty.
  • Separation of powers.
  • Universal male and female suffrage.
  • Regional autonomy reflected in autonomy statutes.
  • The separation of Church and State.
• The Republic's development progressed through three stages from then on.

The Reformist Biennium (1931-1933)

• Following constitution approval, Niceto Alcalá-Zamora became President of the Republic, and Manuel Azaña led a coalition government formed by leftist republicans and socialists.
• The Azaña government launched an ambitious reformist policy:
  • Undertook political decentralization, by approving a statute of autonomy for Catalonia and draft statutes for the Basque Country and Galicia.
  • Reduced the number of officers and ensured loyalty to the Republic.
  • Addressed an agrarian reform, expropriating poorly managed large estates with compensation and settling peasants on them.
  • Set a 40-hour work week, minimum wage, and created insurance.
  • Limited Church influence, authorizing civil marriage and divorce, and prohibiting religious orders from teaching.
  • Promoted public education, creating schools and hiring teachers.
• These reforms led to mobilizations from both the right, who deemed them too radical (General Sanjurjo's coup) and the left, who believed they did not go far enough.
• Azaña resigned, and elections were called in November 1933.

The Conservative Biennium (1933-1936)

• The 1933 elections led to a victory for right and center political parties.
• The Radical Party, led by Alejandro Lerroux, formed the next government who oversaw the following:
  • Relied on parliamentary support from the Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights (CEDA), a coalition of right-wing parties.
  • Majority of previous reforms were halted, leading to a rise in strikes and mobilizations by leftist parties.
  • CEDA then demanded to enter the government, provoking the Revolution of October 1934.
  • Miners led a social revolution in Asturias, which the government harshly repressed with support from the African army.
  • A Catalan Republic was proclaimed in Barcelona within the Spanish Republic, which led to the autonomy statute being suspended and the Generalitat dissolved when this movement was suppressed.
• Discontent from the left, economic troubles, and corruption scandals within the Radical Party forced elections in February 1936.

The Popular Front (February-June 1936)

• The left united in a large coalition, the Popular Front, and achieved victory.
• Reforms were instated by the new government, led by Manuel Azaña and later by Santiago Casares Quiroga which:
  • Granted amnesty to political prisoners of the 1934 revolution.
  • Continued the reforms interrupted during the Conservative Biennium, including agrarian reform.
• These actions caused:
  • Growing political radicalization.
  • Growth of a radical sector of the PSOE on the left.
  • Founding of the Falange Española on the right, an ultra-rightist party created by José Antonio Primo de Rivera, son of the dictator, who sought to impose a fascist regime.
  • Political violence manifested in attacks and street clashes between Falangist, communist, and anarchist militants.
• More conservative sectors of the Army conspired against the Government, deciding to end the Republic through a coup led by General Emilio Mola.
• The assassination of José Calvo Sotelo in Madrid on July 13, 1936, provided the pretext for the military insurrection.

The Military Uprising (1936-1939)

• The coup began in Spanish territory of North Africa on July 17, 1936.
• The coup expanded throughout Spain, succeeding in rural areas and failing in more industrialized ones, splitting the country into two zones: the Republican zone and the rebel or "national" zone.
• The military coup turned into a long Civil War.
• Support for the rebellion came from:
  • Conservative military.
  • Landowners.
  • Upper bourgeoisie.
  • Monarchists.
  • Carlists.
  • Many Catholics.
• The Republicans were supported by:
  • Progressive military.
  • Landless peasants.
  • Petite bourgeoisie.
  • Republicans.
  • Parties of the left

Efforts to avoid escalation

• The goal was to be that foreign aid to each contender would averted, and a world war would ensured. To this end:
  • A Non-Intervention Committee formed; however, the rebels received assistance from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
  • The Republican government received aid from the USSR and the International Brigades, composed of volunteers from various countries.

Stages of the War

• The coup leaders aimed to seize Madrid by:
  • Sending a northern army from Navarra led by General Emilio Mola.
  • Sending another force from Africa commanded by General Franco.
• Republican army stalled the attacks.
• The war shifted to the Cantabrian coast (Bizkaia, Santander, Asturias), as the severity of combats mirrored Germany's Condor Legion bombing of Gernika in 1937.
  • The rebels incorporated industrial and mining regions. The rebels then relocated combat to the Mediterranean to split in two the Republican region.
  • The Republicans launched the Ebro offensive in 1938 to prevent it, resulting in significant losses on both sides.
• The rebels won, conquering Catalonia in 1939, marching through Madrid with no issues.
• The Civil War concluded on April 1, 1939.

Republican and National Developments

• In the Republican zone, social revolution broke out: lands and industries were collectivized, anticlericalism was high, and the Basque autonomy statute was approved.
• From here:
  • The Socialist Party led until 1937 with Largo Caballero; then Juan Negrín presided.
  • Anarchists vs Communists weakened it as the divided groups each wanted the war to go their way first.
• In the national zone the rebels controlled it by repealing the republican reforms.
• The zone's new administration included:
  • General Francisco Franco ("Generalísimo" of the armies).
  • He concentrated civil and military power, unified forces in a sole party, Spanish Traditionalist Falange and the JONS and prioritized winning the war.

Repercussions of the War

• It caused deaths of roughly 380,000:
  • About 350,000 political exiles.
  • Destruction of fields, industries, transport, buildings, and infrastructure.
• The war supposed the social victory of the most conservative groups and of the Church, who supported the rebels, and a cultural loss.
• Franco imposed a dictatorial political system after the Civil War.

Demographic Evolution (1875 - 1939)

• Between 1875 and 1939, the Spanish population grew from 16.4 to 26 million due to:
  • A gentle decline in birth rates.
  • A dramatic drop in mortality with enhanced food and medicine availability.
• Internal and external migration grew, but later declined after the 1920s.
• The rural exodus mainly hurt peninsular regions, but the coast and cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, and Bilbo/Bilbao boomed.
• External migration targeted mostly Latin America, as a way to avoid impoverished farms and military duty.

Silver Age of Culture

• Spanish culture experienced a peak in the twentieth century first third known as the Silver Age.

Cultural Output

• In humanities:
  • Notable figures belonged to the Generation of '98 that consisted of Unamuno, Maeztu, Baroja, Valle-Inclán and Azorín.
  • To modernism consisted of Juan Ramón Jiménez and Jacinto Benavente.
  • To the Generation of '27 was Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti, and Vicente Aleixandre.
• Philosopher standouts featured Ortega y Gasset.
• Standout scientists in medicine and engineering included Jaime Ferrán and neurologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal.

The caciquil system of the Restoration

• The system was based on "turnismo" and electoral fraud, which had a special impact in rural Galicia:
  • The cacique emerged as a link between voters and elite families.
  • Their mediation entailed sharing favors in exchange for votes.

Emigration towards America

• Emigration in the century's first third affected expansive Galicia's society segments and above all, new young men.
• The stay they had to spend in America granted many emigrants a level of consciousness thanks to their involvement in local associations which gave awareness to blockages that obstructed Galicia's development.
• When they did returned, they strengthened local schools, their parishes, and all sorts of services.

Agrarianism

• This movement of peasants who were committed societies aimed to promote local and technical improvement in the rural and livestock area.
• The ultimate goal would be to fight "foral" laws, which had many restrictions on the people.

Nationalism

• The movement wanted Galicia's status changed, promoting a federal system.
• The "Irmandades da Fala" was established as a germ of Galician nationalism.
• "ORGA" or the "Republican Galician Autonomous Organization" gained great electoral support.
• "Partido Galeguista" had as a referent, Galicia's desire to be governed as a statute of autonomy.

The Franco Dictatorship and its Support: Evolution of Francoism

• After winning the Civil War, General Francisco Franco imposed a dictatorship similar to Italian and German totalitarian regimes, remaining until his death in 1975.
  • Two distinct phases are usually differentiated in the regime's evolution. -The new State's bases legally laid as hard political repression carried out, economic self-sufficiency and isolation from foreign influence that went on during 1939 and 1959.
  • Opposition to the dictatorship grew, weakening the regime which abandoned autarky, achieved high growth, and improved its international standing during 1959 and 1975.

Foundations of the Regime

• The ideological supports after 1939 the Franco regime rejected economic liberalism and communism and declared itself an enemy of parliamentarism and freedoms with very conservative views.
• Fascism's influence concentrated all power in Franco, "Caudillo of Spain by the grace of God and the system prohibited.
• National Catholicism consisted of the Catholic Church having a tight relationship with the State: validating the coup, considering the Civil War a crusade against Marxist atheism, and supported the Franco regime.

Political and Social Support

• Inside and outside Spain, the Franco regime had political and social supporters that varied over time.
• Falange members were in charge of ideological propaganda and social control through organizations like a bunch youth, social services, and women's services.
• Additional supporters consisted: the military, who held high political positions and controlled public order, Catholics, and monarchists.

Political System Breakdown

• From 1939 and 1942 Franco concentrated State and government power into a single political organization: the National Movement.
• A set of so-called Fundamental Laws ruled Spain to be drafted and enacted without democratic means.
• First, the Labour Code of 1938 took into regard labor views and implemented vertical unions, or associations for workers and employer, that segmented economic sectors into branches

Democratization Simulation

• Starting in 1942 however, Franco reestablished the Spanish Parliament so as the regime could have a democratic veneer, and was named the "organic democracy".
• As of 1945, after the close of the second world war, this attempt was redoubled, for the rest of Europe was now running on liberal policies.

Stalemate and Crisis (1959-1975)

• From 1959 and 1975: Franco maintained his political immobility but softened his authoritarian image and began with a timid "opening" that sought to ensure the regime's durability.
• An easing in censorship regulations, and a law of the State.
• • With all the other factors combined, Franco designated the leader Prince Juan Carlos as his successor.

Deterioration

• The end crisis of the Spanish administration was set up in 1973.
• 1975 saw the death of Franco, and Juan Carlos I's coronation of King, two days after.

Reppression Policies

• Franco had led a stark suppression of his regime's enemies: the people that had to went into exile those that were killed, and the rest were incarcerated or tortured.
• This was done with great vehemence, and against the law of the time and of all codes.

Internal Political Opposition

• Inside Spain, the maquis was the main center of opposition (around tens of thousands in the mountains).
• Communist, socialist, anarchist groups, and groups of Catalan/Basque nationalists existed as well.

Exiled Opposition

• The republicans went to exile in 1945.
• Monarchist opposition groups existed, led by Juan de Borbón
• Both of these groups made known their plans for a transition.

Franco's Foreign Policy: The Franco Regime in Foreign Media

• The foreign policy saw two evolutive time frames.
• During second world war Spain claimed neutrality/non-belligerency but sent The Blue Division towards Germany.
• It was excluded from UN in 1946: it was essentially isolated. The western block of countries would soften in support of The Franco Regime

Decolonization in Africa

• Africa was decolonized when Spain gave Morocco independence (1956) and to Equitorial Guinea in 1968

Economic Evolution: The Autarkic Period (1939-59)

• Fascist forces were internationally secluded so it made for Spanish independence by:
• Minimizing both imports and exports.
• Making things from scratch.
• Maximizing public works
• The economy dwindled, hunger became widespread, and the black market flourished.

Economic Development

• An adjustment was made to the system in 1959, which allowed some industries to grow.
• There was lots of money coming from other countries for all sorts projects.
• All economic sectors were eventually better off.

Demographics: Population Growth

• Spain grew by ~10 million (26-35.4mn)
• Spain became a popular destination for economic or political forces, resulting in growth.

Arts And Culture

• There was heavy censorship, and many talented writers were forced out of their homes.
• It was called the New Wave.
• A mass culture was the norm due to radio, newspapers, and cheap entertainment.

Galicia

• Galicia experienced autarky and repression in the first stages of Franco.
• With lack of fertilizers and machinery, most were set at the very base.
• The state created pine and eucalyptus forest with industrial logging.
• Agriculture benefited in the 60's, and this created mass migration.
• In total roughly 600,000 departed of people who were looking to get away from hard times.
• "Editorial Galaxia" was known to be highly driven at this point, as the regime was in force.

A restauración da monarquía española en 1875 con Alfonso XII marcou unha nova etapa. O sistema político baseouse na Constitución de 1876 e no 'turnismo', a alternancia pacífica entre o Partido Conservador e o Partido Liberal. Este período trouxo estabilidade política a España.