Notes on Spanish History between 1874 and 1931 SLS 110 Spn History n Culture Swagata Basu

1

Historical Context

We have already seen how on 11th of February, 1873 the First Spanish Republic was established

by the Cortes (the Parliament) after the King Amadeo de Savoy abdicated in the midst of

extreme conflicts and chaos. Republicans had formed the government with a federal nature and

within them there was a lot of difference of opinion and hence instability. This is reflected in the

fact that within the first 11 months there was a change of president four times (1st: Figueras, 2nd

Pi y Margall). On 3rd Jan 1874, General Pavía performs a coup d’état (golpe de estado)1 and

dissolves the Cortes. In December of the same year, General Martínez Campos sends a

declaration which finally ends the Ist Republic and begins the Restoration of the Spanish

Monarchy.

Restoration of the Monarchy (La Restauración de la Monarquía)

By Restoration we refer to the period between 1874 and 1931. It begins with the return of a

member of the Bourbon Dynasty as the King of Spain: Alfonso XII, son of Isabel, after the

Army headed coup d’état and subsequent declaration of 1874. The Restoration period ends when

Spain becomes a Republic for the 2nd time in 1931. This period of history is extremely relevant as

events in this period leads to the polarization/division in Spain that causes the Spanish Civil War

(1936-1939) to break out.

Antonio Cánovas de Castillo was the man behind the restoration and the constitution of 1876.

With this constitution he created a constitutional monarchy with limited suffrage (voting rights

to a few) in Spain. A positive result of this was the beginning of a political activity in the form of

elections in the country. But because (1) right to vote was not universally available and (2) a lot

of fraud took place in the elections, it created an environment of mistrust in politics among the

common people of Spain. It was an oligarchic system i.e the rule of a small group (the elite class).

There was also a system of Alternancia Pactada which means pre decided alternating terms of the

two major parties: Conservatives and Liberals. Cánovas was the leader of the conservative party

and Práxedes Mateo Sagasta was the leader of the Liberal party. This system was put in place to

decrease the threat of mutinies and declarations. But it led to a situation where elections became

meaningless as the King would call one of the two parties to rule in the parliament. The

underprivileged classes of workers and peasants grew more and more discontented with the

political condition of the country.

Problems of Spain- 1876 onwards:

Caciquismo: A Cacique in Spain during this period was an over powerful person in the village

who played a decisive role in manipulating the electoral process and controlling the voting

results. Typically the Cacique enjoyed economic power and social status due to the huge land he

owned and/or his position in public institutions such as the Town Council. The villagers

therefore had to depend on him for their livelihood and could not dare to disobey him. He used

both armed men to intimidate and bribe to persuade people. He was of course an instrument in

the hands of the politicians in the cities who would decide who should win the election and the

1 The sudden overthrow of a government by a usually small group of persons in or previously in positions of authority

Notes on Spanish History between 1874 and 1931 SLS 110 Spn History n Culture Swagata Basu

2

cacique will manipulate the results accordingly. Caciquismo completely corrupted the democratic

traditions in Spain.

Administrative and Political Corruption as we can make out from the Caciquismo system,

public servants, administrative personnel, people working in government bodies and politicians

were all extremely corrupt. Favours, bribery and lack of work was common.

Latifundismo: was a problem in Spain as it is a system of agriculture where huge areas of land

belongs to one family or individual and those who work on these fields do so in precarious

conditions with very low income. The Latifundista is the owner of the latifundios. Due to his

already privileged economic position he felt no need to invest in improving the technology of

Agriculture. This in turn leads to a low production and slowing down of the economy. A huge

part of these Latifundios were in fact left barren with no cultivation while on the other hand a vast

majority of the country were landless farmers living in extreme poverty.

Illiteracy and General Backwardness Spain was hardly industrialized till this point. Although

it saw the need for developing its technology and industries, it simply did not have the required

capital to build these. A huge majority of people were still illiterate.

Regionalism Amidst all the disorder and repression that the people face in this period, there

emerges the problem of ‘Nacionalismos of Spain’. By this we refer to the surge of Nationalist and

therefore Separatist feeling in different regions of Spain. Intellectuals and politicians in Cataluña,

Basque Region, and Galicia start to affirm their separate status from the unified Spain. This is

another problem of Spain that takes shape in the end of 19 th Century and goes on till date.

Foreign Affairs: Spain had been losing its colonies since the beginning of the 19th century but

still it had the possession of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philipines. Spain tried incessantly to

suppress the independence movement in Cuba but the United States of America intervened.

Spain was forced to fight a war with U.S which is known as the Spanish American War. Spanish

Navy went to face American battleships with wooden ships and received a humiliating defeat.

***

Historical Context

Alfonso XII died in 1885. The Queen was expecting a child and became the regent till he

acquires the age to rule. Alfonso XIII became the king in 1902. During the First World War

(1914 to 1918) Spain remained neutral. Dissatisfaction and anger with the government increased

under Alfonso XIII’s reign. Several strikes and public protests started taking place that the

government tried to brutally suppress thereby inciting the people into further violence. In the

decade 1913-1923 Spain made considerable social, economic, and cultural progress, but its

political life degenerated, even while becoming freer and more democratic. Many politicians were

assassinated including the president Canalejas.

Primo de Rivera’s Dictatorship

On Semtember 1923, at the peak of unrest and problems, general Primo de Rivera did a

pronunciamiento, declaration to take over the government. He was accepted Madrid as head of

Notes on Spanish History between 1874 and 1931 SLS 110 Spn History n Culture Swagata Basu

3

government, with temporary powers to dissolve parliament and rule by decree. The new military

government was received with frank enthusiasm by much of the public; even certain liberal

intellectuals announced their satisfaction. The dictatorship had no distinct ideology or political

theory. Its original notion was that it had received temporary decree powers from the crown to

resolve severe national problems, after which the normal political process would be resumed.

Primo de Rivera’s government was able to achieve many developments in Roadways, Railways,

Electricity, Hydroelectric Projects, Banking and Tax System. However by 1928 Primo de Rivera

started losing support from most of the groups. His poor health, lack of vision for the future and

the lack of support from other groups led to his dismissal by the monarch in 1930.

Rise of the Left in Spain/Europe

The Workers’ Socialist Party was formed in Madrid which became a trade unionist organization

called UGT by 1888. During 1930 republicanism, the ideology that supports that the leader of

the country should be chosen through elections, began to gain its greatest vogue in Spanish

history. Karl Marx, German philosopher and revolutionary socialist through his works Communist

Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867–1894) called the working class to unite and free

themselves from the clutches of capitalism which he described as the "dictatorship of the

bourgeoisie" run by the wealthy classes for their own benefit . Organized Labour Movements

were on the rise from the mid of 19 th century. International Workingmen's

Association (IWA, 1864–1876), often called the First International, an international

organization was formed which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-

wing socialist, communist[1] and anarchist political groups and trade union organizations that

were based on the working class and class struggle. In Spain Anarchism was more influential

than anywhere else. Anarchism believes that the society should be based on non-hierarchical free

associations and have no state at all. Anarcho-Syndicalism is a branch of Anarchism that believes

trade unions should intervene in the unjust capitalist society through radical revolutions. CNT-

Confederación Nacional de Trabajo was a major anarcho-syndicalist party formed in Barcelona

in 1910. CNT played a very important role till the beginning of Franco’s dictatorship.

Culture of Spain between 1874 – 1931

This period of turmoil in Spanish politics have produced many of the masterpieces of Spanish

Art and Literature. In the mid of 19 th century in Spain Romanticism is the dominant literary

tendency. The Romanticists rejected the rational and objective worldview of neoclassicism and

focussed once again on emotions adding to that the exaltation of liberty and therefore criticism

of the vices of society and politics. After Romanticism came Realism, artistic tendency that tries

to objectively represent the contemporary reality in art. Novels become the apt genre to describe

the society and thereby offer a critique of it. Benito Pérez Gáldos is the greatest realist novelist

of Spanish literature. His series of Historical novels called the Episodios Nacionales bear testimony

to the politics of late eighteenth and nineteenth century. It has been termed as the Silver Age of

Spanish Culture.

Generation of 98 is a term used to describe the group of writers and intellectuals who were

deeply affected by the political, economic and social crisis of Spain in the end of nineteenth

century and the beginning of 20 th century and as a result wrote retrospective literature in which

Notes on Spanish History between 1874 and 1931 SLS 110 Spn History n Culture Swagata Basu

4

they tried to find the cause of such a condition. They are also called the Disaster Generation.

This Disaster is the humiliating loss of Spain in the hands of United States in the Spanish

American War through which they lose their last colonies Cuba, Puerto Rico and Philippines in

1898. These writers talked about Spanish Identity, mainly highlighting Castilla as the Heart of

Spain, exalted its past glories, the Reyes Católicos, and lamented its present decadence, the

Restored Monarchy System and some suggested the way forward. Most important writer of G 98

is Miguel de Unamuno. Others were Pio Baroja, Azorin, Ángel Ganivet.

A few years later came another group called the Generation of 1914 who advocated the

Europeanization of Spain to solve its problems and an gave an impetus to science and

technology and overall modernisation. Ortega y Gasset was the leader of this group.

Modernism and Avant-Garde

After the 1920s these were the two dominant artistic tendencies. The French word Avant-Garde

was refers to the group of front line soldiers who lead the rest of the soldiers while travelling to

unknown territories. So they were the artistes who took art to completely new, unknown

territories. Modernism can be understood as the art which reacts to the ‘Modern’ times- the rapid

growth of cities and industries around the world, the horror of World War and the changing

realities at the turn of the century. What we mean when we call something Modern Art is

generally something that does not convey a coherent meaning and something that does not

follow any conventions. This was the period when this kind of art emerged. Poetry no longer

needed to rhyme. Paintings no longer needed to represent a reality. Avant-Garde artistes also

experimented a lot with forms and genres, mixing painting and sculpture, music and poetry, film

and theatre. These experiments produced a completely new kind of art and culture, often

radically challenging the norms and traditions of society.

Generation of 27 This group is made up by some of the greatest poets, artistes and even film

makers of Spanish history. What is special about this group is that they were the product of their

time, which means they were influenced by Avant Garde tendencies. However they did not

abandon their traditional roots either. The year 1927 was the three hundredth anniversary of

Baroque poet Góngora who had been forgotten in between and was rediscovered by some of the

poets of G 27. The list of important poets of this time is endless but the brightest star of this

galaxy was Federico García Lorca. Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso were pioneers of Modern

Art. Luis Buñuel was a great filmmaker also part of this group.

Watch Art of Spain III for further explanation on this

***

To find out how the 2nd Republic of Spain came to exist in 1931 and how things developed from

there till the break out of Civil War and what happened during the Civil War read The

Historical Background (to Spanish Civil War) by David Garrioch.