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The newly established republic in the years before the war was a system where a so called old spain lost its power to new spain. The Civil War was an effect of the unwillingness of old Spain to recede from the political scene. A main cause of the Civil War, then, was not (as it usually is) an emergence of a new social and economic class but the unwillingness of the traditional aristocracy, land owners, old army and the church to allow such modern political ideals to run the government. Furthermore, the new republic before the war supported a wide spectrum of modern political ideals which seemed to disagree on whether the republic was a means to achieve a more extreme goal, whether the republic was a satisfactory achievement of liberal aims or whether the republic was inadequate and needed to be replaced with a more extreme, authoritarian government. Moreover, new Spain seemed to be divided in aims but certainly was united in the fact that they bitterly opposed what old Spain stood for and vice versa.
In effect, we can notice a see-sawing in decision making and policy in the years before the civil war between conservative reforms / laws and liberal reforms / laws which only served to aggravate those who wanted stability, which was pretty much everyone. Finally, the element of regionalism contributed to tensions within Spain in that both Catalonia and the Basque regions seemed to have a quite separate identities from Spain and were not in line with the spanish system. Spain had a highly polarized political system. The constituents of old Spain were in direct opposition with those of new spain. Conservative forces included the aristocracy of spain, wealthy land owners, the prestigious army and the church.
These forces stood against liberalism and democracy. Opposition included pretty much everyone who did not belong in that category and included anarchists, socialists, Basque and Catalonians, and those in the grip of poverty. One thing all the opposition had in common was that they were against old Spain. The fact that there was no moderating influence, such as a large middle class would have been, created an atmosphere where compromise was hardly possible.
The lack of a middle class caused this polarization of spain to be a serious problem whereas if there had been a large middle class, it would have created a moderating influence which would have made compromise a more likely possibility. Although the opposition consisted of many different groups, it can be said that their united opposition to the old class was the reason that the republic emerged. Often, the republics attempt to appease one group made another even more enfuriated. An example of this was the passing of the agrarian reforms in 1932 where land from the wealthy land owners were distributed among peasants. The quantity of land given, though, was not huge and had to be distributed among many peasant. This had a double negative effect.
Firstly, the peasantry was still impoverished and the agrarian reforms helped this only to a very limited extent. The effect of this was an awakened desire among the peasantry to ameliorate their situation adding to tensions in Spain. Secondly, it made the landowners feel the republic was completely against them. The biggest threat to the republic was the army. Of the conservative forces, the army was the one who posed the biggest threat to the success of democracy, and was the force that made civil war eminent, as it had the physical capabilities for a civil war.
In the past, the army had always been a powerful force that eradicated constitutions. The republic, trying to reduce the army's threat, reduced the size of it as well as thinned out the top of its echelons because the army was quite top-heavy with officers who were firmly rooted in old Spain. Also, the republic held the army by civil law rather than by its own separate law. Finally, the republic made universal conscription law so those sympathetic to the republic would become part of the army. These actions largely served to infuriate the army further. Another element of old Spain that oppose the new republic was the Church.
Many rural peasants in spain were still in the grips of the church and the church's influence went quite far. The separation of church and state as well as the educational reforms which removed much of the church's influence on education made the church look to other conservative institutions for help. The natural thing to happen was a coalition of the church, the army, and the land owning aristocracy to produce a national front to oppose the parties of the left. The success of this coalition was evident in 1933 when the right wing coalition won the elections. As was natural, all the previous reforms that the left made against the right were overturned in favor of the national front. These reforms included the reducing of priests salaries, the agrarian reforms, and the separation of church and state.
Spain seemed to go forward, then backwards. New Spain was evolving just when old Spain interfered to return to old ways. This seriously annoyed everyone in that power was passing from left to right and there was no stability to speak of in Spain. The last element of instability in spain as a cause of the Civil War was the element of regionalism. Both the Basque and the Catalonian regions felt they had a separate identity from spain. One of the ways in which regionalism increased tensions in Spain was when the republic granted autonomy to Catalonia.
Like all those other things, once power fell in conservative hands again, their autonomy was repealed. Two things the issue of autonomy did was, one, the discontentment of the right when Catalonia was granted autonomy, two, anger among the catalonian people once their autonomy was repealed. Furthermore, both the Basque Country and Catalonia were where most of Spain's industrialisation was occurring. This caused the emergence of a population of workers which were both regionalism and extreme left wingers. Within Spain, we can notice an all or none situation where you cannot have a system who will attempt to appease both the extreme left and right while having a constitutional, middle of the spectrum system. Spain either had to belong to old spain or new spain.
The Civil War was a result of varied interests who could not mix. As we can see with hindsight, this is the same issue that will become the cause of a larger european war, Spain's situation is a micro representation of a universal problem that would arise throughout the world. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Separation Of Church And State Civil War
