Niceto
Alcalá Zamora
was
born in Spain in 1877. He became a lawyer and later became involved
in politics. As a result of his republican views he was jailed in
1930.
Alcalá
Zamora took part
in the successful revolution that led to Alfonso
XIII leaving
the country. He became the first president of the new Spanish Republic.
In the elections of February
1936, 34.3 per cent of the vote went to the Popular
Front, 33.2 per cent to the conservative parties and the rest
to regional and centre parties. This gave the Popular Front 271 seats
out of the 448 in the Cortes
and enabled them to form the government.
The Popular Front government
immediately upset the conservatives by releasing all left-wing political
prisoners. The government also introduced agrarian reforms that penalized
the landed aristocracy. Other measures included granting Catalonia
political and administrative autonomy.
As a result of these measures
the wealthy took vast sums of capital out of the country. This created
an economic crisis and the value of the peseta declined which damaged
trade and tourism. With prices rising workers demanded higher wages.
This led to a series of strikes in Spain.
In May 1936
Alcalá
Zamora was ousted
as president and replaced by the left-wing Manuel
Azaña.
Soon afterwards Spanish Army officers, including Emilio
Mola,
Francisco
Franco and José
Sanjurjo,
began plotting to overthrow the Popular Front government. This resulted
in the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War
on 17th July, 1936.
Alcalá
Zamora moved to
France. After the invasion of the German
Army he
went to Argentina. Niceto
Alcalá Zamora died
in 1949.
(1)
Edward
Knoblaugh,
Correspondent in Spain (1937)
Azana's government had
a difficult time maintaining order. There was a rash of strikes, violence,
church burnings and other disorders. Virtually all the news coming
out of Spain during my first nine months there dealt with these disorders.
Each day would see some new form of violence-some phase of industry
tied up or some blood spilled. Rex Smith, then bureau manager of the
Associated Press in Madrid, once quite appropriately remarked that
it might save us time and cable tolls if we had stereotyped forms
made for New York and referred to them by number in indicating repetitions
of violence.
The Azana government found
itself obliged to use strong measures to curb the disorders. One of
these incidents caused Azana's overthrow. Thirteen anarchists, having
barricaded themselves in
a cafe called Casa de Seis Dedos in the little village of Casas Viejas,
fired on the police. The head of the Casas Viejas constabulary asked
Madrid for instructions. The Ministry of Interior sent orders to the
effect that the place should be cleaned up: "we want neither
prisoners nor wounded." The police took these orders literally.
Not one of the thirteen escaped alive
The extreme Left took
up Casas Viejas as their war cry the thirteen men who had been killed
by police bullets became martyrs. Public opinion was so aroused that,
following Spanish tradition, it ended in reaction. The Right-Centre
coalition of the then unknown newspaperman, Jose Maria Gil Robles,
carried the November, 1933, elections in a
sweeping upset. Azana was ousted. Gil Robles, by virtue of heading
the largest parliamentary minority - the Popular Action group with
112 of the 473 Cortes votes - was first in line to succeed him. But
President Niceto Alcala Zamora, although a strong Catholic, did not
deem it wise to encourage a Right trend in parliament at that time.
Instead, he named Lerroux, the veteran, to the post of Premier.
(2)
Luis
Bolin, Spain, the Vital Years (1967)
Alcala Zamora was kicked out for dismissing the Cortes unconstitutionally,
though he had acted thus - not unwillingly - at the behest of those
who ejected him. Azana was elected his successor. No worthier candidate
for the Presidency of such a Republic could have been found. His most
unprincipled adherent, Casares Quiroga, was appointed Premier and
Minister of War. Other posts in the Cabinet were allotted to Republican
Left, Republican Union and Catalan Left, willing pawns of the Red
extremists, who, for the time being, directed operations from the
wings. Revolt broke out in a dozen towns, and outrages were committed
daily in Barcelona, Malaga, Saragossa, Granada, Bilbao and Seville.
In Madrid, a riot was caused by a preposterous rumour to the effect
that ladies who worked for social welfare had distributed poisoned
sweets to children. As a reprisal several churches were burnt and
three nuns and two other women, one of them of French nationality,
were assaulted and almost lynched by an infuriated mob.
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