The
Spanish Constitution of 1931 meant the beginning of the
Second Spanish RepublicThe Second Spanish Republic was the system of government in Spain between April 14, 1931, when King Alfonso XIII left the country following local and municipal elections in which republican candidates won the majority of votes in urban areas and April 1, 1939, when the last of the Republican ...
, the second period of
Spanish historyThe history of Spain spans the period from Prehistoric Iberia, through the rise and fall of the first global empire, to Spain's current position as a member of the European Union.Modern humans entered the Iberian Peninsula more than 35,000 years ago...
to date in which the
electionAn election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and...
of both the positions of
Head of StateHead of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state...
and
Head of governmentHead of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet. In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled Prime Minister, President of the Government, Premier, etc...
was democratic. It was effective from 1931 until 1939 (although the Constitution continued to be nominally in effect, since the spring of 1936, just prior to the
Civil WarThe Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
, it had been largely abandoned, the extreme left having taken power, disenfrancising the center and conservatives).
The Second Republic began on 14 April 1931 after the abdication of King
Alfonso XIIIalign=right|Alfonso XIII , King of Spain, posthumous son of Alfonso XII of Spain, was proclaimed King at his birth. He reigned from 1886-1931...
, following local and municipal elections in which republican candidates won the majority of votes in
urbanAn urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
areas.
The
Spanish Constitution of 1931 meant the beginning of the
Second Spanish RepublicThe Second Spanish Republic was the system of government in Spain between April 14, 1931, when King Alfonso XIII left the country following local and municipal elections in which republican candidates won the majority of votes in urban areas and April 1, 1939, when the last of the Republican ...
, the second period of
Spanish historyThe history of Spain spans the period from Prehistoric Iberia, through the rise and fall of the first global empire, to Spain's current position as a member of the European Union.Modern humans entered the Iberian Peninsula more than 35,000 years ago...
to date in which the
electionAn election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and...
of both the positions of
Head of StateHead of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state...
and
Head of governmentHead of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet. In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled Prime Minister, President of the Government, Premier, etc...
was democratic. It was effective from 1931 until 1939 (although the Constitution continued to be nominally in effect, since the spring of 1936, just prior to the
Civil WarThe Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
, it had been largely abandoned, the extreme left having taken power, disenfrancising the center and conservatives).
The Second Republic began on 14 April 1931 after the abdication of King
Alfonso XIIIalign=right|Alfonso XIII , King of Spain, posthumous son of Alfonso XII of Spain, was proclaimed King at his birth. He reigned from 1886-1931...
, following local and municipal elections in which republican candidates won the majority of votes in
urbanAn urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
areas. The abdication led to a
provisional governmentA provisional government is an emergency or interim government set up when a political void has been created by the collapse of a previous administration or regime. The early provisional governments were created to prepared for the return of royal rule...
under Niceto Alcalá Zamora, and a
constituent CortesConstituent Cortes is the description of the Cortes when convened as a constituent assembly.In the 20th century only one Constituent Cortes was officially opened , and that was the Republican Cortes in 1931.The Cortes in 1977 passed the new Spanish constitution;...
to draw up a new
constitutionA constitution is a set of rules for government—often codified as a written document—that establishes principles of an autonomous political entity. In the case of countries, this term refers specifically to a national constitution defining the fundamental political principles, and establishing the...
, adopted on 9 December 1931. The document provided for
universal suffrageUniversal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and noncitizens...
and proclaimed a purported complete
separation of Church and StateSeparation of church and state is a political and legal doctrine that government and religious institutions are to be kept separate and independent from each other...
, but in actuality it provided for significant governmental interference in church matters, including the prohibition of teaching by religious orders and the banning of the
Society of JesusThe Society of Jesus is a Catholic religious order of clerks regular whose members are called Jesuits.Jesuits are the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church, with 18,815 members—13,305 priests, 2,295 scholastic students, 1,758 brothers and 827 novices—as of January 2008, although the...
. Some scholars have characterized the Constitution as hostile to religion and seen that hostility as a cause of the subsequent civil war. The Second Spanish Republic lasted from April 14, 1931 to July 18, 1936 (military uprising) or April 1, 1939 (republican defeat by Francoist forces).
The flag
The
flagA flag is a piece of fabric, often flown from a pole or mast, generally used symbolically for signaling or identification. It is most commonly used to symbolize a country...
of the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939) was a
tricolourA tricolour or tricolor is a flag or banner more-or-less equally divided into three bands of differing colors...
(red, yellow and purple) in horizontal stripes of the same dimension, unlike the traditional red-yellow-red
Spanish flagThe flag of Spain , as it is defined in the Spanish Constitution of 1978, consists of three horizontal stripes: red, yellow and red, the yellow stripe being twice the size of each red stripe...
, with a shield in the middle. The purple colour is inspired in the
ComunerosComunero is a Spanish term roughly synonymous with "rebel." Depending on the political leanings of the speaker, it may have either positive or negative connotations.Notable uprisings of rebels called "comuneros" have been:...
revolt and is a means to represent Castile and Leon. A shield with squared-edges topped by a
mural crownIn Hellenistic culture, a mural crown identified the goddess Tyche, the embodiment of the fortune of a city, familiar to Romans as Fortuna. The high cylindrical polos of Cybele too could be rendered as a mural crown in Hellenistic times, specifically designating the Mother Goddess as patron of a...
and quartered with the coats of arms of these four regions, clockwise:
CastileA former kingdom, Castile gradually merged with its neighbors to become the Crown of Castile and later the Kingdom of Spain with the Crown of Aragon and the Crown of Navarre...
(a castle),
LeonKingdom of León was an independent country situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 AD when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their main seat from Oviedo to the city of León...
(a lion),
NavarreNavarre is a region in northern Spain, constituting one of its autonomous communities - the "Chartered Community of Navarre" .-History:...
(golden chains in asterisk shape on a purple shield),
AragonAragon is an autonomous community of Spain. Located in northeastern Spain, the region comprises three provinces from north to south: Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza .Aragon's northern province of Huesca borders France and is positioned in the middle of the Pyrenees...
(vertical yellow-red stripes). Left and right of the shield are the "Hercules columns" with the motto "Plus Ultra".
Influence of the 1931 Constitution
The Second Republic in 1931 brought enormous hopes for Spanish workers and peasants, and in social terms some advances were made, especially for women. In the 1931 Constitution, women won the right to vote, and also the right to be elected to any public office. In 1932 laws on civil marriage and divorce were introduced. For the period they were the most
progressiveProgressivism is a political and social term for ideologies and movements favoring or advocating changes or reform, usually in a statist or egalitarian direction for economic policies and liberal direction for social policies...
in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
for they recognised divorce by mutual consent, and the right of women to custody of children.
In 1935,
prostitutionProstitution is the act or practice of engaging in sex acts for hire. In most cultures, prostitution is viewed by many as a deviant profession, either illegal or socially discouraged...
, which had previously been recognised by law, was declared illegal. In the field of general working conditions, some improvements were achieved, for example, the right to freedom of association and the right to belong to a union. On 1 July, 1931, the 8-hour working day was decreed. Night work was regulated, obliging bosses to allow 8 hours of rest, and the Sunday Rest Law was granted to all workers.
The revolution of 1931 that established the Second Republic brought to power an anticlerical government. Although the constitution was largely sound, generally according thorough civil liberties and representation, the notable exclusion being the rights of Catholics, a flaw which prevented the forming of an expansive democratic majority. The controversial articles 26 and 27 of the constitution, strictly controlled Church property and prohibited religious orders from engaging in education. Not only advocates of establishement of religion but also advocates of church/state separation saw the constitution as hostile; one such advocate of separation,
Jose Ortega y GassetJosé Ortega y Gasset was a Spanish liberal philosopher working at the beginning of the 20th century while Spain oscillated between monarchy, republicanism and dictatorship.-Biography:...
, stated "the article in which the Constitution legislates the actions of the Church seems highly improper to me."
Pope Pius XIPope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...
condemned the Spanish Government's deprivation of the
civil libertiesCivil liberties are rights in Freedom that protect an individual from the government of the nation in which they reside. Civil liberties set limits on government so that its members cannot abuse their power and interfere unduly with the lives of private citizens.Common civil liberties include the...
of Catholics in the
encyclicalAn encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Christian church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from Latin encyclia meaning "general" or "encircling", which is also the origin...
Dilectissima NobisDilectissima Nobis: On Oppression Of The Church Of Spain is an encyclical issued by Pope Pius XI on June 3, 1933 in which he decried persecution of the Church in Spain, specifically naming the expropriation of all Church buildings, episcopal residences, parish houses, seminaries and...
(On Oppression Of The Church Of Spain )."
Since the far left considered reform of these aspects of the constitution as totally unacceptable, commentators have opined that "the Republic as a democratic constitutional regime was doomed from the outset". Commentators have posited that such a "hostile" approach to the issues of church and state were a substantial cause of the breakdown of democracy and the onset of civil war. One legal commentator has stated plainly "the gravest mistake of the Constitution of 1931-Spain's last democratic Constitution prior to 1978-was its hostile attitude towards the Catholic Church."
The constitution also made the right to property subject to the public good, such that it could be
nationalizedNationalization, also spelled nationalisation, is the act of taking an industry or assets into the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being state...
as long as the owner was compensated.
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