R/W response

• • Azana's reforms alienated conservative forces in Spain
  • he made enemies of senior figures in the army, church and among landowners
  • conservative right - reforms were a threat to traditional, social and religious order
  • reforms would unleash forces of social revolution that would lead to communism and the wholesale destruction of the institutions they valued
• • Elites responded in different ways.
  • landowners responded to agrarian reform by refusing to allow workers to plant or harvest crops.
  • unemployment rose significantly as landowners laid of workers
  • other landowners ignored the new regulations - discovered the new gov had no way of enforcing the new rights.
• Bloque Agrario of Salamanca:

  • an organisation representing landowners in Salamanca
  • coordinated a campaign to encourage landowners not to grow crops on their land
  • they argued gov policies were increasing the cost of crop production so much that it was no longer profitable for landowners to produce crop
  • gov arrested leading members of the Bloque, which prompted protests from Gil-Robles and other r/w politicians
• • FNTT argued that as landowners were refusing to cultivate the land, the FNTT should take over the land and produce food for its members
  • landowners employed armed gangs which forced peasants off the land and therefore throughout the province of Salamanca land remained uncultivated for much of 1932-33