Second Spanish Republic

The Second Spanish Republic emerges in the book’s historical account from the breakdown of the dictatorship established by Miguel Primo de Rivera. Its arrival follows economic and political crisis, but the account also traces the authoritarian movement that preceded it and the fascist conflict that came afterward, placing the Republic within a compressed sequence of unstable rule and regime change.

Dictatorship and economic crisis

On September 13, 1923, Captain General Miguel Primo de Rivera led a military coup in Barcelona, overthrew the government, and established himself as dictator. He presented the seizure of power as temporary, promising a return to democratic rule once political and economic problems had been overcome, corruption abolished, and order restored. Much of the public supported him, and King Alfonso appointed him prime minister.

That support did not prevent the regime from losing its political foundations. By the end of the 1920s, the Great Depression was beginning and Spain’s economic boom had ended. A poor harvest in 1929 and rising inflation intensified the downturn; many blamed government spending on public works. The historical note thus connects the weakening economy with the loss of confidence in Primo de Rivera’s rule without reducing the crisis to a single cause.

The Republic’s emergence

Primo de Rivera lost the support of both the king and the army, and resigned on January 28, 1930. The monarchy did not recover its footing: King Alfonso subsequently lost the army’s support and abdicated on April 14, 1931. The Second Spanish Republic followed. In this account, its establishment is the consequence of a sequence of political withdrawals—the dictator’s resignation, followed by the monarch’s abdication—rather than an isolated change of government.

Later political consequences

The transition did not settle Spain’s political conflicts. Two years after the Republic followed the abdication, Primo de Rivera’s eldest son, José Antonio, founded the Falange, identified in the historical note as a fascist party. The note’s chronology then extends to the Spanish Civil War, which began in July 1936: both of Primo de Rivera’s sons were imprisoned and executed, and the Nationalists led by Franco won the war and established a fascist regime.

The Republic is therefore situated between the collapse of Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship and the later victory of the Nationalists. The book’s historical framing gives it significance as part of a chain of regime changes shaped by economic strain, contested political authority, and the persistence of authoritarian and fascist movements.