UNIT 8. MODERN SPAIN II (SOCIAL SCIENCE)

UNIT 8

YEARS OF POLITICAL INESTABILITY

While Isabel II was the queen (1833-1868), her government was was dominated by two military politicians: Ramón María Narváez and Leopoldo O´Donell. When they died, General Juan Prim sent the Queen into the exile and started to llok for a new mocharh.

1870-1873: King Amadeo I de Saboya

After two years looking for a King, Amadeo, the itialian Duke of Aosta, accepted the throne. But when General Prim was assissinated there was inestability.

Amadeo dealt with conflicts between political parties, the Cuban Revolution, rebellions by Carlists in Basque and Catalan Regions, problems with the army. In 1873 he returned to Italy.

1873-1874: First Republic

On 11th February 1873 the first Republic started in Spain. There was inestability and it lasted just 11 months. It had four presidents and three civil wars.

On January 1874, General Manuel Pavia mounted a coup and the republic finished.  Ggeneral Martínez Campos restored the monarchy and Alfonso XII (Isabel II´s son) became the new King of Spain.

THE RESTORATION: 1875 – 1923

1875 – 1885: King Alfonso XII

There was a constitutional monarch with Alfonso XII and the Constitution of 1876.        There was a new political system: the turno pacífico. There were two legal parties: the Liberals and the Conservatives.  Thye took turns to have the power.

There were two important people:

-          Antonio Cánovas del Castillo who was the Prime minister six times and was the leader of the Conservatives.

-          Práxedes Mateo Sagasta who was Prime minister eight times and the leader of the Liberals.

Characteristics of this period:

Pros:

-          Spain was stable again.

-          It was a good period for economy and modernisation.

-          There was peace in Cuba and Puerto  Rico.

Cons:

-          There was electoral fraud because the King chose the government.

-          Basque and Catalan nacionalisms were agains the unfair system.

FROM ALFONSO XIII TO THE SECOND REPUBLIC

When Alfonso XII died his son Alfonso XIII became King but his mother, María Cristina, was his regent until he was sixteen.

                During the regency period, Spain lost its colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico and suffered defeats in Morocco and a violent rioting in Barcelona.

Primo de Rivera organised a coup. He suspended the Constitution and became a dictator between 1923 – 1930. He was not a good leader and  Spain went bankrupt.  The army stopped supporting him and Alfonso XIII forced him to resign. However, people did not trust  Alfonso XIII and in 1931, the Republicans won the elections and the Second Republic started. It lasted unitl the end of the Civil war in 1939.

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1931

-          Freedom of speech

-          Women could vote.

-          Divorce was legal

-          No special status of the Spanish nobility

-          Limited powers of the church.

OPPOSITION TO THE REPUBLIC

-          The church because the republic limited its power.

-          Tthe military and the Nacionalists

-          Workers groups: The Secondary Republic for opressive for them.

-          Monarchists and fascits: their status was reduced.

THE CIVIL WAR 1936 – 1939

On 18th July 1936, General Francisco Franco led a takeover and the civil war started. Span was divided into: the Republicans and the Nacionalists.

The war ended on 1 April 1939 with a Nacionalist Victory.

FROM DICTATORSHIP TO DEMOCRACY

When the civil war finished in 1939, Francisco Franco started a dictatorship until 1975. After the war Franco developed a policy based on economic self- sufficiency, he cut international trade.  In 1960s Spain was prosperous and tourism became an important part of the economy.

LIFE DURING THE REGIME

-          Repression: A lot of prisión went to prison due to their political beliefs.

-           Starvation: people had ration books to buy the specific quantity of first necessity goods they could buy.

-          Lack of freedom (in press, protests were repressed).

-          Cultural restrictions: many traditions were repressed.

THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY

In 1969, Franco named Price Juan Carlos, Alfonso XIII´s, as his successor. When Juan Carlos became King he wanted a constitutional monarchy for Spain. In 1975, when Franco died, the transition from a dictatorship to democracy began.

King Juan Carlos I named Adolfo Suárez as Prime Minister  in 1976. He got free elections and a democratic state. He did all these things:

-          Released of political prisoner

-          Dissolution of secret police

-          Right of strike and formed trade unions

-          Legalisation of all political parties.

-          New electoral law. In 1977 the first elections took place.

In 1978, the Parliament approved the Spanish Constitution and then the people by a referéndum.