The Spanish Civil War Read Online Free PDF

against the clerical control of education and the freedom of the orders to organize schools without inspection. In fact, Canalejas revised the system of taxation to benefit the poor, temporarily solved the Catalan question by the grant of
Mancomunidad
(limited self-government), and reached a compromise with the church in the
Ley de Candado
(Law of the Padlock) which limited the growth of religious orders, unless they had government permission. Canalejas also abolished the practice whereby the rich could buy themselves out of military service. Well might an English historian celebrate him as‘the only liberal who got things done’. 1 He was assassinated by an anarchist in 1912. His successors as liberal leaders (the Conde de Romanones, García Prieto, Santiago Alba) had neither Canalejas’s energy nor his gifts.
    The First World War brought the problems of restoration Spain to a climax. The conflict benefited all neutral nations, and in Spain it created wealth, contrasting with surviving poverty. Basque ships, Catalan textiles, Asturian coal, zinc and copper gained high prices. The consequent inflation was felt most by the working class, though wages went up too and, in some jobs, outstripped prices. Huge numbers of workers were, as it were, sucked up to Barcelona on the train from Murcia and Almería which became known as the
transmiseriano.
The atmosphere was confused by sterile arguments as to which side Spain should support in the war. (The Left were mostly pro-Ally, the Right mostly pro-German; so that the King could say that only he and ‘the rabble’ hoped that Britain would win.) Meantime, the government of the Conde de Romanones (who personally preferred the Allies) was turning a blind eye to the activities of terrorists financed by German agents who attacked pro-Allied industrialists. Romanones himself resigned on the issue of whether German submarines should be allowed to use Spanish bases to refit in the battle of the Atlantic.
    The army now re-entered politics. Their position had been complicated by the growth of
juntas de defensa,
professional associations of junior infantry officers protesting against the low pay which, like that of the agricultural workers, had not kept pace with inflation. The
juntas
also disliked promotion by ‘combat merits’ or royal favouritism which was enjoyed by the officers fighting in Morocco. The
juntas
were founded in Barcelona and spread all over Spain. In May 1917, their leader, Colonel Benito Márquez, a foolish, deaf officer, was arrested for insubordination, with some colleagues. Other
junteros
asked to be arrested too. The King ensured the release of all of them and the government fell. All politicians were shocked at this apparent new surrender. But the press liked the
juntas
and gave publicity to the notion that they might take the first step in a nationwide movement of regeneration. Cambó, the financier who was leader of the Catalan movement, the Lliga Regionalista (founded in 1901), thought so too.
    Meantime, in the south of Spain, the intoxicating news of the Russian Revolution inspired widespread unrest including occupations of land and intimidation of rural guards, these actions being mostly inspired by anarchists; while, in Barcelona, the anarchist unions believed that the crisis offered them a new opportunity.
    In the face of this multi-sided challenge, a new government, headed by a conventional conservative, Eduardo Dato, suspended constitutional guarantees and closed the Cortes. The more progressive politicians, outraged, responded by convening an alternative ‘Assembly’ of Catalan nationalists which met in Barcelona to ‘renovate’ the Spanish constitution. The government declared this seditious, and introduced censorship. The ‘Assembly’ movement might have gone far had it not been for reckless action by the Left. The socialists, caught up in the mood of the moment, had, in 1916, deserted their cautious reformism, and prepared a general strike