1930, and in Spain, things are getting a bit tense. It was at this point led by King Alfonso XIII and his prime minister-slash-dictator, General Miguel Primo de Rivera. Rivera was hugely unpopular and had cracked down on many democratic opponents, and he'd also alienated the army, which led to his resignation in January.
He was replaced by General de Maso Berenguer, who continued the dictatorship, but Spaniards named it dicta blanda, or the soft dictatorship. Opposition to the dictatorship and the monarch who maintained it continued to grow during 1930 and to the outbreak of an uprising in Caca, here. This uprising was crushed and Alfonso chose to replace Berengue in 1931 with Admiral Juan Batista Athnad who called for local elections.
The opposition, known as Republicans, won and went one step further by declaring Spain a democratic republic and Alfonso, who couldn't count on the military for support, simply left. This ushered in the period of the Second Spanish Republic, which incidentally was one of the few nations to have the colour purple on its flag. A new provisional government led by Niceto Azalath Armada was established and quickly began to implement reforms.
In June 1931, an election was held to elect men for a constitutional cortes, which would draft the new Spanish constitution. This constitution included things such as freedom of speech and assembly, as well as the separation of church and state. It also importantly placed the church's money under the control of the government and prevented religious orders from teaching in state schools.
This upset many of the deeply Catholic population and led to Asalathar Moda, himself a very religious man, resigning his position of prime minister in October. He wasn't jobless for long, however, since he was elected to the mostly ceremonial role of president by the Constitutional Cortes in November. His replacement as Prime Minister was a man called Manuel Athania, who was a left-wing Republican and wanted to push through major reforms.
You may have noticed that neither of these two were elected in general elections, and in fact the Constitutional Cortes continued to govern the nation well after the Constitution was finished, not very democratic. Athania continued to bring in reforms, such as expanding the franchise to women in 1933 and redistributing land from the rich to the poor. Further reforms included granting greater local autonomy to Catalonia and the Basque country, and shrinking the size of the army.
Athania struggled to keep public order though, and after some revolts which were quickly crushed, it became clear that the Spanish people no longer wanted him in charge, and so elections were called in 1933. Athania lost and was replaced by a right-winger called Alejandro Leroux, who sought to reverse many of the previous reforms. Leroux struggled to govern effectively, and when it became clear that his government would be a very conservative one, the Socialists demanded a general strike to bring the country to a halt. This led to the Astorius Rising which saw armed socialists seize Oviedo in October of 1934. The army put this revolt down and so left-wing parties realised that they needed to cooperate if they were to regain power and so together formed the Popular Front in 1936. Leroux's government collapsed due to a financial scandal and elections were called which saw the Popular Front led by Athania win. Athania soon after ousted Arsalath Amoda as president and took his place but his presidency was tarnished by local violence between left and right-wing groups.
The most notable of these right-wing groups was the Falange, which was modelled on the fascist parties of Europe and whose leader, José Antonio, had been arrested. The breakdown of civil order and the promises of greater autonomy to the regions worried many in the army who thought that the country would disintegrate. Led by General Moller, much of the army planned to oust the government to stop this. Both sides started assassinating members of the other, and the most notable of these was the murder of José Calvo Sotelo, the leader of the Monarchist Party.
This left basically no notable right-wing leaders, and so the army decided now that this was the time for a coup to begin. The elite African army began a revolt in Spanish Morocco on July 17th 1936, seizing it and they were soon after joined by their leader, a certain Francisco Franco. The expectation was that the republican government would surrender. It didn't. Instead, the new prime minister, José Giral, issued weapons to unions and workers to fight the army.
The rebels had the advantage of the support of most of the army, whereas the republicans had the navy on side as well as the industry and resources of most of Spain. By the end of August, though, the front lines looked like this, with the rebels now calling themselves the Nationalists, controlling about a third of the country. In October, the Nationalists proclaimed General Franco as the head of state because all of the other leaders, like Moller, had died.
Since the arrested José Antonio of the Falange Party had been executed, Franco placed himself as its new leader. So both the Nationalists and the Republicans had their foreign backers in the Civil War. The Nationalists were supported by Portugal, Italy and Germany, whereas the Republicans were given aid by the Soviet Union, Mexico and, to a much lesser, unofficial extent, France.
So by April 1937, Spain looked like this, and it was in this month that one of the most famous events of the Civil War occurred, the bombing of Guernica by the German volunteers, the Condor Legion. This bombing devastated the city, killing 5% of its population in one day. This wasn't the only atrocity of the war, though. Both sides massacred civilians and prisoners, and the Nationalists operated concentration camps and used forced labour. The Nationalists were able to conquer the north of the country, taking most of Catalonia by the end of 1938. It was here, incidentally, that George Orwell fought and became disillusioned with communism and with bullets since he got shot in the throat.
One of the reasons that the Republican side struggled was that it contained many diverse political groups, such as communists, socialists, liberals and anarchists. These factions often bickered and sometimes attacked one another, meaning unity was all but impossible since they had different end goals. In February 1939, the Nationalists conquered Barcelona, and Britain and France recognised Franco as the Spanish head of state. The next month saw the fall of Madrid and the Republican leadership flee.
On April 1st, Franco announced an end to the civil war and a nationalist victory. Franco now had the job of securing his power and rebuilding the country. Spain was formally declared a one-party state with Franco as its leader.
Franco is often described as a fascist and in many ways this is both right and wrong since he and his regime defy categorisation. He did use force to repress dissent and the independence movements of Catalonia and the Basque Country and he put the needs of the regime above those of the population. However, he did respect private property and made little effort to police people's private thoughts and actions. People were free to leave Spain, many positions in government were appointed on merit, and some criticism was tolerated so the regime could adapt. So almost immediately after the Civil War was over, a little-known event called World War II kicked off.
Franco kept Spain out of the war despite close ties to Germany and Italy, mainly because Spain was still a smouldering wreck and wouldn't have been able to do much anyway. This doesn't mean that Franco completely ruled it out though. Hitler wanted to move his troops through Spain to capture Gibraltar, but Franco's demands were too high. The price of Spanish help was forgiveness for Spain's debt.
and Franco also wanted Germany to provide most of the equipment. Franco's demands angered Hitler, who even threatened to give Catalonia to Vichy France, but in the end, nothing happened. Spain did, however, contribute some volunteers to the war, but after 1942 started to shift towards a passive support for the Allies. After World War II was over, Spain was internationally isolated since it didn't pick a side.
It was also suffering from a sluggish economy, which mostly came about as a result of Franco's economic policy called autarky. This was where Spain intentionally played very little role in international trade and sought to be entirely self-sufficient. This didn't go very well and in the 1950s the regime had to implement major economic reforms which aimed at bringing in foreign investors.
This included allowing for US military bases and placing emphasis on industrial development instead of promoting agriculture as it had done previously. Spain still held the remnants of its once great empire and in 1956 Morocco gained its independence from France. As a result of this, Franco ceded Spanish Morocco to Mohamed V, its new king, but kept the territories of Ceuta and Melilla.
Mohamed V wanted these as well as Ifni here, and so in 1957 invaded. Long story short, the Spanish, with the help of the French, won militarily, but in the peace negotiations decided to give Morocco this territory. The decade following the Ifni War was a pretty good one for Spain. The country opened up and the economy boomed, a large portion of which came from the growing tourism industry.
Press censorship was relaxed and Franco turned a blind eye towards the growing underground political parties which opposed him. A lot of these changes were due to Spain wanting to join the international community and open up trade with its European neighbours. Most of these organisations, such as NATO and the European Economic Community, said no, but Spain was admitted to the United Nations in 1955. Hereafter, the remnants of the Spanish Empire were given up, with Ifni being ceded to Morocco in 1968 and Equatorial Guinea being given independence the next year.
One territorial matter that was not resolved, though, was that of Gibraltar. Franco had made many diplomatic efforts aimed at regaining Gibraltar for Spain, but all of them were rebuked, which led to him closing the border with it in 1969. So by the late 1960s, Franco was getting a bit old, and so measures had to be taken to prepare for his death and succession. In 1947, Franco had promised to restore the monarchy, and he began making true on that when in 1969, he appointed Prince Juan Carlos of the House of Bourbon as his successor.
Incidentally, Franco had first asked the Habsburgs to take the throne, but they declined because at this point, a Habsburg hadn't ruled Spain since the 18th century. In 1973, Franco appointed Admiral Carrera Blanco as the president of the Council of Ministers, basically the Prime Minister. This was a time of growing unrest as workers demanded greater rights to go with their increased economic freedom. The economy began to slow down again and even the church began backing social change and opposition groups.
The late 60s and early 70s also saw the beginnings of ITER, a Basque terrorist organisation who were responsible for many bombings and political assassinations. The most notable of these occurred in December 1973 when ITER managed to blob Admiral Blanco on his way to mass. Blanco was replaced by Carlos Arias Navarro, who struggled to maintain order. In 1975, after suffering from repeated bouts of illness for many years, Franco died and was succeeded by the prince, who became King Juan Carlos I. Juan Carlos immediately began to lay the foundation for a transition away from dictatorship to democracy.
He asked Arias Navarro to resign and appointed a man called Adolfo Suarez as his replacement. Juan Carlos and Suarez had both promised to uphold the Francoist constitution and maintain the dictatorship. Fun fact, no. They began to work behind the scenes to pressure Francoist politicians to dissolve the parliament and begin democratic elections. The King lifted the ban on opposition political parties, even the Communist Party in 1977. In June of the same year there was an election which women could vote in and Suárez's party, the UCD, won with the Socialist Coalition coming second.
In 1978 a new constitution was written enshrining civil liberties and granting regional autonomy to both Catalonia and the Basque Country. After this, barring a failed coup in 1981, Spanish democracy remained strong and it was welcomed back into the international community. Spain's period of authoritarianism had come to an end and the work of Juan Carlos I in this is hard to overstate. He and Suárez had resisted immense internal pressures and stunned international onlookers by quickly and peacefully dismantling the Francoist system and ushering in a new age for Spain. I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching.
There are some book recommendations in the description below if you'd like to know more.