Asturias Rising - WHAT WAS IT?

Question 1

Where was the Asturias?

Answer 1

industrial region of northern spain (mining)

Question 2

What political influences were strong in this area?

Answer 2

socialism + trade union influence
+ anarchist CNT
despite traditionally best-paid industrial workers in Spain

Question 3

What motivated their actions?

Answer 3

political ideology rather than econ factors - bc of good pay + anti-clerical feelings amongst members

Question 4

How were they organised + who was particularly prominent?

Answer 4

revolutionary committees with CNT prominent?
(gov were taken by surprise by the determined nature of the miners’ actions)

Question 5

How was the rising brought under control?
How many troops were sent in + by who?

Answer 5

Asturian miners proved difficult to repress despite the fact:
20,000 gov troops under General Franco sent to quell the uprising + incl. support from navy + airforce

Question 6

How many were killed during the quelling of the Asturias Uprising?

Answer 6

control was brutal:
- 2,000 insurgents killed
- 7,000 wounded
many miners killed by the army + villages within the region indiscriminately bombed/burned to the ground

Question 7

How long did the uprising last?

Answer 7

uprising lasted 2 weeks

Question 8

Timeline?

Answer 8

Oct 4th 1934
- attacks on Civil Guard positions

Oct 6th 1934
- regional capital of Oviedo had been seized

Oct 7th 1934
- most of province under control of the insurgent miners
- other parts of the region seized by anarchists e.g. coastal city of Gijon