Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera - Summary

The September 13, 1923 the captain general of Catalonia, Miguel Primo de Rivera, staged a coup, also publishing a manifesto in the that were exposed what were the causes for which he rebelled, as well as his intentions declaring the state of war. Next, in this lesson from a TEACHER we offer you a summary of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, a political regime that was in force in Spain from 1923 until 1930 when he resigned and was replaced by General Berenguer.

We will begin this summary of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship by talking about the causes that led this general to decide to rise up and impose his political ideology. They were the following:

• The degeneration and crisis of the Restoration regime as a political system: since until now the dynastic parties had been taking turns in power, that is, between the liberals and the conservatives, but neither of them was able to abolish the old caciquil system, choosing then to solve said crisis either through the democratization of the system or by implanting a dictatorship, the latter being elected.
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• Discontent on the part of the army after the war in Morocco: the very serious Spanish defeat that occurred with the Annual disaster it increased the suspicions of the military towards politicians.
• The worsening of social conflicts: the impact of the Russian revolution, as well as the crisis caused after World War I, led to numerous large protests, strikes, demonstrations... by of the working classes increased the fear of the bourgeoisie before the anarchist terrorism that was especially in favor of carrying out measures to be able to solve them.
• The triumph and rise of nationalism as it was fascism in Italy: which brought Mussolini to power after the March on Rome. Likewise, in countries like Greece or Portugal there were right-wing dictatorships at that time, so the Primo de Rivera dictatorship was not going to be the only one.

The main objective of the coup was to end the parliamentary system to guarantee public order and solve the problem with Morocco.

Miguel Primo de Rivera was a great defender of traditional values ​​that were based on discipline, order, love of the country and authority and his motto was “Homeland, Religion and Monarchy ”, he hated parties and distrusted politicians, but he allowed himself to be influenced by the fascism of Mussolini, whom he admired so much. He believed that It was only necessary to show love towards his country, good will and honesty to govern and take a country forward.

Thus, there was hardly any opposition to the coup and most of the social support was found in the army, the landowners, the working world and a large part of the middle classes. Just the communists and anarchists were those who opposed collaborate in the regime, calling demonstrations and strikes against the dictatorship, since the socialists showed their participation.

In this other lesson from a TEACHER you will discover a summary of the coup d'état of Primo de Rivera.

We continue with this summary of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship to talk now about the two main stages into which this dictatorial regime was divided.

1st stage: The military directory (1923 - 1925)

During this period the dictatorship showed itself as a interim solution to put order and solve the main problems of Spain, it was thus an authoritarian dictatorship.

The first measures carried out were the annulment of the Constitution of 1876 as well as constitutional rights, the break with the courts and the establishment of a Military Directory headed, of course, by Miguel Primo de Rivera, who would be in charge of governing the Spanish country.

Being an authoritarian dictatorship, Miguel Primo de Rivera concentrated on his person all the powers (legislative, executive and judicial), leaving advise the military, to whom he gave key positions to lead the Administration, such as José Calvo Sotelo who put him in Tax authorities. Also banned strikes and unions with a heavy hand to maintain, among other things, public order.

In Catalonia it prohibited the use of Catalan as its official language, as well as the flag of Catalonia and dancing the sardana, however, what it achieved Carrying out with these measures was to further radicalize Catalanism, emerging a new party such as was the Catalan Status which was chaired by Maciá. The popularity came when Spanish troops landed in the Bay of Al Hoceima and defeated the Rif troops of Abd el-Krim.

2nd stage: The civil directory (1925 - 1930)

Primo de Rivera wanted to institutionalize the dictatorial regime and therefore in 1927 the National Consultative Assembly generally made up of members of the Patriotic Union, a political party that followed the fascist model and who were elected by restricted suffrage.

Its economic policy stands out as one of the greatest achievements of the regime in which its economic prosperity, for this they intervened by the state, taking control of the productive sectors, protectionism was reinforced, increased public investments for infrastructures such as schools, hydraulic works, emerging Hydrographic Confederations and roads.

They took over the monopoly of Telefónica, CAMPSA, lotteries and tobacco companies dealing with its distribution. However, the big beneficiaries were the capitalists and although it is true that the workers saw their standard of living improve, wages continued to be very low.

Regarding social policy, the Joint Committees in charge of solving labor disputes. The UGT led at that time by Largo Caballero participated in some of these committees carrying out a reformist policy aimed mainly at the workers by offering them housing and better assistance.

Will be in the middle of the year 1928 when the decline of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship began to be visible for the following reasons:

• Movements against the regime: an increase on the part of republicans, communists, anarchists, students, intellectuals such as Ortega y Gasset, Unamuno... nationalists who they were against the dictatorial regime.
• The discontent on the part of the army before the illegalities of Primo de Rivera.
• The State budget difficulties that he was unable to carry out a tax reform to establish a single income tax in the face of opposition from the more affluent classes.
• The Ibero-American exhibition held in Seville in 1929, with which the debts increased and consequently the crisis.

All these factors made the social conflicts reappear once again and in the face of this already uncontrollable situation, Miguel Primo de Rivera delivers his resignation to King Alfonso XIII who ended up accepting it under pressure from liberal and conservative politicians who were eager to return to parliamentarism.

For it appointed General Berenguer head of government who among other things imposed on him to replace the Constitution of 1876 and rid the unpopularity of the post king that he was seen as one of the people responsible for the fact that during the seven years ago he had given himself the dictatorship.