Primo de Rivera - Short Biography

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Miguel Primo de Rivera He was a Spanish military and politician known, among other things, for establishing a dictatorship between the years 1923 -1930, from which he had to resign due to the enormous opposition he encountered during the last years. Next, in this lesson from a TEACHER we offer you a short biography about Primo de Rivera, with the most significant aspects of his life.

Index

1. Miguel Primo de Rivera, his early years
2. Coup d'état by Primo de Rivera
3. Dictatorship: Military Directory
4. Dictatorship: Civil Directory
5. Fall of the dictatorship, exile and death

Miguel Primo de Rivera and Orbaneja He was born on January 8, 1870 in the city of Jerez de Frontera, Cádiz province, into a family of militants.

When Miguel Primo de Rivera was only 14 years old, he entered the Military Academy of Madrid, and, once he graduated in 1893, he was first assigned to Melilla, where he obtained by his own merit the Cross of San Fernando.

After Melilla, most of his military career was linked to colonial destinations such as Morocco, Cuba, where he acted as the assistant to the Captain Arsenio Martínez Campos and the Philippines, a country to which he had to go to keep his company Fernando Primo de Rivera, when he was appointed Governor of is.

In 1902 he married Casilda Saénz de Heredia, daughter of the last mayor of Havana, with whom he had six children among them. Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, which would be founder of the Spanish Falange.

In 1908 he was promoted to colonel and in 1909 destined to be part of the Moroccan War, achieving two years later the generalship of the Moroccan lands. Already in the peninsula, he was appointed military governor of Cádiz, in 1919 captain general of Valencia and later in Madrid, although in the latter he was relieved of that position, defending the abandonment of the North African colonies.

When his uncle Fernando Primo de Rivera died in the 1921 Annual disaster, he left him the title of Marquis of Estella.

In 1922 he was granted the captaincy general of Barcelona, ​​as in Madrid and Valencia, meeting with a rather rarefied political and social climate that came from the rise of the most radicalized Catalanism, from the great social discontent for anarchist terrorism, from deterioration of public order due to employer gunmen, ministerial instability and corruption of the matches. All this under a political climate that was influenced both by the Annual Disaster and by the Picasso file.

As a reaction to all this, Miguel Primo de River raised his militaristic, authoritarian and nationalist ideals and began to make preparations to carry out a military pronouncement, after having consulted with the rest of the captains.

Will be the September 13, 1923 when King Alfonso XIII himself gave him the new look, proclaiming the dictatorship, which led to the dissolution of the Constitution and Parliament. In this other lesson from a TEACHER we discover a summary of the coup d'état of Primo de Rivera.

We continue with this brief biography about Primo de Rivera to talk about the ins and outs of his dictatorship. Being already head of government, Miguel Primo de Rivera after proclaiming the Dictatorship created a military directory concentrating on his person all the powers of the State, thus excluding all politicians.

At first he met very little resistance to the new regime since this came to replace another that was even more discredited, it was also a mere dictatorship transitory that was advised by the regenerationist ideals of the first centuries such as Joaquín Costa, based on restoring order and suppressing the influence of the chiefs in political life.

Although in certain aspects this dictatorship was also influenced by the fascist model that Mussolini carried out in Italy, it was somewhat more conservative and moderate.

During the years in which the military directory was in force, that is, between the years 1923 - 1925, Miguel Primo de Rivera limited himself to persecuting the anarchists, whose union was declared illegal (CNT), ended the Commonwealth of Catalonia, expelled from political life all representative parties and institutions (replaced by conservatives and technocrats who in 1924 were grouped in the Patriotic Union), reinforced state protectionism in favor of national industry and promoted the construction of large Public Works.

Among his great achievements we have to highlight, consolidation of the Spanish presence in Morocco with a military victory ending years of permanent wars, as was the Annual Disaster) and the Landing of Al Hoceima, in which together with the help of the French army they ended the rebellion of the Kabyles of the Rif.

In this other lesson we will discover how was the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera.

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The latest achievements made encouraged Primo de Rivera to institutionalize his dictatorship in a more lasting way and for this the military directory became a civil directory which was enduring from 1925 to 1930.

To do this, it had to meet in a National Assembly, thus preparing a preliminary draft of the Constitution. All this was nothing more than a mock Parliament, not at all democratic, where the diversity of political positions was demonstrated there were among the different followers of the dictatorship.

Divided the primorrivesristas troops and, although deeply rooted the relation that the dictator had with the king, they were not able to stand up to the opposition, mobilized before the threat that what at first was something merely transitory is now perpetuated.

Republicans and Socialists were the first to join the opposition campaign, even threatening to drag with the Monarchy, that is, with King Alfonso XIII himself, for having supported him, they were joined students, intellectuals such as Valle de Inclan, Miguel de Unamuno, workers and the military themselves who also plotted against Primo of Rivera.

We finish this brief biography about Primo de Rivera to talk, now, about the last years of the dictator. Finally and disillusioned, he was disallowed both by the high military and by the king himself who saw his life in danger, thus presenting Miguel Primo de Rivera, his resignation in 1930.

He went into exile to the city of Paris, not without first recommending to the king some military men so that they could succeed him, among them, the one who ended up assuming the presidency, General Berenguer, which gave way to the period known as Dictablanda, with which it was intended to return to the constitutional normality that existed prior to 1923.

Primo de Rivera died two months later in Paris due to diabetes, amid great disappointment and bitterness for all the ingratitude he had received. Today his remains are found in the Basilica de la Merced in Jerez de la Frontera.

His son, José Antonio Primo de RiveraShortly after the death of his father, he entered political life as a way to vindicate him. Also, Francisco Franco, 17 years after his death, appointed him captain general of the Army as a posthumous title.

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