1.1.3 Political Unrest

• Conservative Elites:

  1. Wanted to preserve Spanish culture
  2. Opposed democracy and equality
  3. The small middle class feared democracy so sided with the traditional elites
• Anarchists:

  1. Wanted to abolish capitalism and the state
  2. The CNT grew from 1 million members in 1933 to 1.44 a year later
• Socialists and Communists:

  1. PSOE wanted Spain to become a capitalist democracy
  2. Wanted to protect individual and workers rights
  3. The PCE was divided between Stalinists and Trotskyists
• Basque and Catalan culture had been repressed in the 1920s. Catalonia was one of the most affluent in Spain due to its rapid industrial development
• How Conservative Elites Retained Power:

  1. The peaceful way in which the Republic was founded
  2. Accidentalists, such as Gil Robles, wanted to resist change by forming democratic governments
  3. Monarchists wanted to overthrow the republic using violence
• Political violence began in May 1931 with a series of church burnings. The right claimed that this showed how the republic was lawless and determined to destroy Spanish traditions