We explain what the Primo de Rivera dictatorship was and what the coup d'état consisted of. Also, its causes and consequences of its fall.
What was the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera?
The dictatorship of Primo de Rivera It was a stage in Spanish political history that began with the coup d'état headed by the Spanish military man Miguel Primo de Rivera in September 1923. It was an authoritarian regime that suspended the Constitution of 1876 and governed the country with the approval of King Alfonso XIII.
The dictatorship of Primo de Rivera began on September 13, 1923 and ended on January 28, 1930, when General Primo de Rivera, who had lost support, was forced to resign. The king appointed Dámaso Berenguer in his place, with whom the period known as “dictablanda” began.. Shortly after, municipal elections led to the proclamation of the Second Republic and the end of the monarchy on April 14, 1931.
The causes of the coup d'état of 1923
Various factors explain that the establishment of a military dictatorship was contemplated by the upper bourgeoisie, part of the middle classes and the army as a solution to the economic, social and institutional crisis that Spain was going through:
- The discontent of the army with the government after the Annual disaster (the Spanish defeat against the rebellious populations of the Rif, in Morocco, in 1921) and the attempt of some important generals, such as General Dámaso Berenguer, to avoid the consequences of the Picasso file (the report that revealed the responsibilities of the military hierarchy in the defeat and, therefore, in the loss of territories and the death of thousands of soldiers).
- The rise of peripheral nationalisms (especially in Catalonia and the Basque Country) and the rise of the Republicans.
- The growing organization of labor movement, in a context of economic crisis that caused strikes and the exchange of violence between businessmen (“pistolerianism”) and workers.
- The triumph of fascism in Italy after the March on Rome in 1922 and the rise to power of Benito Mussolini.
The coup d'état of 1923
Miguel Primo de Riveracaptain general of Catalonia, revolted on September 13, 1923 against the constitutional government of Spain. The coup immediately had the support of the king of Spain, Alfonso XIII.
The rebels declared a state of war, the suspension of constitutional guarantees and the dissolution of the Cortes (the Spanish parliament). In this way, the regime based on the Constitution of 1876 was replaced by a military dictatorship amid popular indifference and with hardly any resistance.
The Military Directory (1923-1925)
After the coup d'état of September 1923, The dictator Primo de Rivera became the sole minister and began to be advised by a military Directorate. Behind the new government was the same power bloc that had dominated the country during the Restoration: the oligarchy of landowners and industrialists.
The Military Directory He quickly took some measures:
- The ban on the Catalan flag and anthem, and the restriction of the Catalan language to private territory.
- The establishment of the “iron fist” policy in everything related to public order.
- Press censorship and repression to the anarcho-syndicalist movement.
- The formation of the Patriotic Unionsingle party under the leadership of a military man. It was about following the fascist model imposed by Mussolini in Italy.
The main success of the Military Directorate took place in Africa. The landing of Al Hoceima in 1925 put an end to the resistance of the Kabyles (Berber tribes) of the Rif, in Spanish Morocco. Their leader, Abd-el-Krim, He surrendered to the authorities of French Morocco.
The end of the war in Morocco gave the dictator great popularity.
The Civil Directory (1925-1930)
At the end of 1925, a civilian government, chaired by Primo de Rivera, replaced the military Directorate. With the formation of the civil Directory was tried institutionalize the dictatorship.
In 1927, a National Consultative Assembly was formed, made up mostly of members of the Patriotic Union elected by restricted suffrage. Primo de Rivera once again imitated the Italian model, in this case the Fascist Council. However, The National Assembly quickly failed in its attempt to draft a fundamental law that played the role of Constitution of the dictatorship.
The social model of Italian fascism was also imitated with the establishment of the National Corporate Organizationa kind of state-controlled union that tried to arbitrate between bosses and workers. This new attempt to institutionalize the regime, which included the participation of the socialist union UGT (General Union of Workers), failed when, at the end of the 1920s, the economic situation worsened and workers' demands increased.
In economic matters, The dictatorship favored protectionism and state interventionismespecially in public works, which caused difficulties due to debt.
Opposition to the dictatorship and the fall of Primo de Rivera
Opposition to the dictatorship covered a wide political spectrum: some liberals and conservatives, republicans, socialists, anarchists, intellectuals and the student movement.
A key element was the growing discontent in the ranks of the army in the face of the arbitrariness of Primo de Rivera.
Behind him crash of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929, economic problems spread very quickly throughout the world and also affected Spain. The social discontent, which manifested itself with The return of the strike movements increased opposition to the dictatorship.
Elderly, sick and without social support, On January 28, 1930, Primo de Rivera presented his resignation to the monarch, who hastened to accept it. Two months later, the dictator died in exile in Paris.
Spain after the fall of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship
The “soft dictator” of Dámaso Berenguer
After the resignation of Primo de Rivera, Alfonso XIII appointed General Dámaso Berenguer as head of Government. It started like this a period known as the “soft dictatorship”in which an unsuccessful attempt was made to return to the situation prior to 1923.
The traditional parties (liberal and conservative) were incapable of organizing a party system that was accepted by Spanish society. Furthermore, only very discredited personalities agreed to collaborate with Berenguer, such as the Count of Romanones or Juan de la Cierva.
The slow return to constitutional freedoms was taken advantage of by an opposition that was increasingly gaining more support. In August 1930, Republicans, socialists and others opposition groups signed the so-called Pact of San Sebastián, by which they committed to overthrowing the monarchy and establish a democratic regime. To coordinate the opposition's work, they created a Revolutionary Committee chaired by Niceto Alcalá Zamora, a conservative Republican.
Alfonso XIII found himself increasingly isolated. Many soldiers began to view the republican possibility favorably. Even the CNT (National Confederation of Labor), with anarchist ideology, supported the conspiracy to establish the Second Republic.
From monarchy to republic
On December 15, 1930, a republican military uprising in Jaca failed.. Its leaders, Fermín Galán and Ángel García Hernández, were tried by a War Council and executed. Most of the Revolutionary Committee was arrested, amid growing anti-monarchist discontent.
Berenguer resigned on February 14, 1931, which gave way to a new government, chaired by Admiral Juan Bautista Aznar. The new cabinet called municipal elections for April 12, with the intention of gradually returning to constitutional legality.
However, the local elections became a plebiscite on the monarchy. The overwhelming victoryin urban areas, of the republican and socialist candidacies precipitated the king's departure into exile and the proclamation of the Republic on April 14, 1931.
The social context of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship
The Spanish population at the beginning of the 20th century
The Spanish population grew slowly but continuously in the first third of the 20th century: it went from 18.6 million inhabitants in 1900 to 23.5 million inhabitants in 1930. The drop in the mortality rate, due to the Health improvements were the main reason for this demographic increase. However, the rate of Infant mortality was one of the highest in Europe.
The greatest health catastrophe of the period was the flu epidemic of 1918-1919which caused the death of 230,000 people in Spain, out of a total of eight million sick. Known in the world as the ““Spanish flu”, It is estimated that it caused more deaths in the world than World War II.
Internal migration from the countryside to the cities led to growing urbanization of the country (with 50% of the urban population in 1930), and foreign emigration also stood out, with more than a million Spaniards leaving for Latin America (to countries like Cuba and Argentina). The emigration boom took place before the First World War.
Spanish society at the beginning of the 20th century
Spanish society was throughout this period a society marked by great differences in wealth among the various social groups.
Groups linked to industry and finance had growing weight in the upper classes. Many new bourgeoisie, enriched by the businesses brought about by the First World War, gradually integrated into the traditional dominant oligarchy.
The urbanization process allowed the middle classes to experience a significant increase in the first third of the 20th century. These middle classes, sometimes hit by economic difficulties, They were turning towards political positions in opposition to the Restoration regime.and were linked to republican groups or, in Catalonia and the Basque Country, with nationalist sectors.
In relation to the popular classes, yesTwo phenomena stood out: the numerical growth of the working class, increasingly organized around the unions of the CNT (anarchist) and the UGT (socialist), and the survival of a large mass of landless day laborers. in the south of the country, in a desperate social situation that led them towards increasingly radical political positions.
The labor movement at the beginning of the 20th century
The labor movement in Spain at the beginning of the 20th century was organized mainly around socialist and anarchist organizations. The socialists of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) and the UGT were essentially present in Asturias, the Basque Country, Madrid and areas of the Andalusian countryside. The anarchists and their union, the CNT, established their predominance in Catalonia, Aragon, Levante and Andalusia.
The PSOElike the other European socialist parties, lived a major crisis after the triumph of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917. Most of the party refused to join the Communist International promoted by Lenin, but a small group split and founded the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) in 1921. In 1930 the communists were still a very minority group.
The anarchists also experienced strong tensions between the supporters of moderation and the more revolutionary faction. These last They formed the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) in 1927, during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera.which had great influence in the Second Republic.
Finally, Catholic unions They were a minority and they developed especially in the northern regions of the country, where smallholdings and small peasant property predominated. In 1917 they were grouped into the National Catholic-Agrarian Confederation.
References
- Aladro Majúa, I. (sf). Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja. Royal Academy of History. https://dbe.rah.es/
- Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2023). Miguel Primo de Rivera. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/
- Casanova, J. & Gil, C. (2012). Brief history of Spain in the 20th century. Ariel.
- Congress of Deputies (sf). Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. National Assembly 1923-1930. Official portal of the Congress of Deputies. https://www.congreso.es/
- González Calleja, E. (2005). The Spain of Primo de Rivera. Authoritarian modernization, 1923-1930. Alliance.
