Ii Republic

Unit 7 - THE SECOND REPUBLIC: 1931 CONSTITUTION AND REFORMS
General Primo de Rivera was ruling the country with an authoritarian regime but it was a failure. When Alfonso XIII returned gradually to the previous system he called General Dámaso Berenguer to form a government it was called Dictablanda but it failed too.
In August 17, 1930 the Pacto de San Sebastián was signed, it was ameeting led by Alcalá Zamora and Miguel Maura in order to overthrow the “turno system” and the monarchy, at last the decision taken was the establishment of a Republic. At this meeting a “committee” was formed headed my Alcalá Zamora.
Berenguer resigned and the king gave the government to Admiral Aznar, who later he called for local elections on April 12, 1931.
In this elections therepublican and socialist parties won a major victory, with this, the Second Spanish Republic was immediately established, two days later, April 14, under a provisional government led by Alcalá Zamora. This Second Republic had 4 phases:
The first phase was the provisional government, which lasted until October 1931, it was a coalition government presided over by Alcalá Zamora and the groupsrepresented at San Sebastián Pact, Lerroux’s radicals, the Socialist and the Republicans, led by Manuel Azaña. The first serious problem in the provisional government was originated in Barcelona, Francesc Macia proclaimed the Catalan Republic or “estat catalá”.
The coalition had four goals, the reform and reduction of the army; separation of church and state; reform of the unitarystructure of the Spanish state; and the broad social and economic reforms. At first, the only one of the goals compatible with the -democratic regime was the anti-catholic bent of the left coalition. The “quema de conventos” set the tone for relations between republicans left and Spanish Catholicism.
In June 1931, elections for the constituent Cortes were held. In the fall of 1931, there werediscussions concerning to the constitutional text, about the article 26 that says that the church and state are separated, this destroyed Catholic education in Spain.
The new Constitution was completed in December 1931, reflected the ideas of the majority, popular sovereignty, a new state was defined as a “democratic republic of workers of all kinds”; male and female suffrage, Spanish womengained the right to vote; extensive bill of rights and freedoms, such as, the civil rights, divorce, right to education; State power was divided in Legislative(in hands of the unicameral Cortes), the Executive (the president had a few power, whose aim was to choose the head of government, with the approval of the Parliament) and finally Judicial (in hands of the courts); the right of regions toestablish an autonomy statute; and the last main feature was the “religious question”, a secular state was established, the separation of church and state, the budget of worship and clergy disappeared, the prohibition to education and the freedom of conscience and worship.
The second phase was the Reformist Biennium, when a lot of important reform were done, the government was headed my ManuelAzaña and Alcalá Zamora was elected President of the Republic. The government began a wide reform program in an adverse economic context, marked by the rise in unemployment.
A reform in the army was done, when Azaña was minster of war: Officer corps were cut 50 percent, the size of the army was reduced, reorganizing some sections and privileges or special promotions abolished.
Thegovernment continued making reforms in the agriculture with the Agrarian Reform Law of 1932, which affected Andalucía, Extremadura, La Mancha and Salamanca. The objective was to give land to landless labourers in uncultivated “latifundio” lands and these uncultivated lands were subject to expropriation. But only after the suppression of the Sanjurjada a progress was made. The agrarian reform was a...