European states (Spain): Causes of SCW/reasons for political polarization between 1931 and 36

Question 1

Paragraphs

Answer 1

• Long-term causes, pre-dating the creation of the Second Republic
• Medium-term causes (Left and Right governments of the Second Republic, role of Azana and Robles
• Short-term and trigger cause (Popular Front and failure of the Nationalist coup)

Question 2

Long-term causes, pre-dating the creation of the Second Republic- examples

Answer 2

-The army had a powerful political position in Spain due to its role in Spain’s imperial past. It had intervened several times, including in 1923, when the military had led coups.

-Catalan and Basque regions wanted independence (divided due to separate languages, cultures, even churches and economies)

-Agriculture did not provide sufficient food, and work was only seasonal. Workers needed to migrate in search of work and most lived in abject poverty. There was a vast gap between the rich and the poor. In the center and south of Spain, the land was organized in huge estates, the latifundia, while in the north, peasants owned small plots of land that were too small to allow them to make an adequate living.

Question 3

Long-term causes, pre-dating the creation of the Second Republic- explanation and historiography

Answer 3

-This political instability and people’s lack of faith in a central government set the stage for tension and resistance to the system. This view is supported by Paul Preston, who argues that beneath political instability on a ‘superficial level’, there was ‘tremendous social instability’ and ‘the population was forced into apathy or violent opposition to the system’.

-With no support from the Church, some looked to groups such as the Anarchists, who argued for land redistribution. Yet many small Catholic landholders were very conservative and resistant to socialist or anarchist ideas.

Question 4

Medium-term causes (Left and Right governments of the Second Republic, role of Azana and Robles

Answer 4

The Left Republic (1931- 1933):

• Each reform was perceived as an attack on one or more right-wing groups, such as the church, army, landowners, or industrialists.
• After Azana became president of the Republic in May 1936, and there were more than 200 political assassinations prior to the military coup in July, and Azana was unable to prevent this escalation in violence and suppress the Falange.
• Although the right did ultimately carry out the coup, Azana’s failure to unify the left behind his regime and inability to defuse the right-wing plot to overthrow it meant that he wasted the opportunity to prevent this coup.

The Right Republic (1933- 1936):

• The new government ruled for two years in what became known as the ‘Biennio negro’, or ‘two black years’ because it embarked on systemically reversing the Left Republic’s reforms.
• This tense and polarized political climate could also be seen on the right, as the fascist Falange Party was formed.

Question 5

Short-term and trigger cause (Popular Front and failure of the Nationalist coup)

Answer 5

Popular Front (February-July 1936):

• The Popular Front resumed the left-wing agenda, including agrarian and urban reforms that aimed to help the poorer rural and urban citizens.
• They right fiercely opposed the Popular Front’s reforms and became increasingly militant and anti-democratic. The right was drifting further towards extreme military solutions to solve their problems.
• The trigger for the war was an uprising that the military launched against the Popular Front in July of 1936.
  Preston argues that the Right was determined to not give the Left or its reforms a chance during the Second Republic, and that its reactions to the Left’s reforms were inflammatory and destabilizing