The Military before the Second Republic

Abstract

The article raises the question of why half of the commanding cadres of the Spanish army joined the 1936 coup and why this had the sympathies of a good part of the other half. It starts from the characteristics and attitude of that group before the proclamation of the Second Republic and then analyzes the internal and external factors that influenced their subsequent evolution. Among the internal factors, the incidence exerted by the structural and organizational changes introduced by the Minister of War Manuel Azaña between 1931 and 1933 and by the apparent deterioration of public order is considered. And among the external ones, the approval of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia in 1932, an issue widely considered as a rupture of the unity of Spain, and the conviction that the Komintern was trying to unleash in Spain a revolution similar to the Russian one of 1917. Finally, the victory of the Popular Front in February 1936 and the return of Azaña to power increased the rejection of many officers towards the Republican regime. From that moment on, the false predictions of the imminent establishment of a Bolshevik regime made the number of supporters of the need and urgency of an armed intervention grow day by day, also encouraged by the strong pressures exerted from their family.