The power of religion and gunpowder

The army

The army played an important role in Spanish society, although (or maybe because) it was nowhere near the great military force that built the Spanish empire in South-America. The Spanish army had one general to every hundred soldiers, while the navy had more or less ceased to exist after the Spanish-American war. Over the years, the once liberal army shifted to the conservative, monarchist side of politics–partly thanks to king Alfonso’s obsessions with militarism. As it was without a job the army took on the role of protecting Spain from internal enemies and social unrest, often with the use of violence.

Tensions between society and the army further rose after the army suffered its greatest defeat in history in 1921, when an army of Moroccan natives took back almost all the territories Spain had occupied over the years; while also inflicting terrible losses on the Spanish forces. While the people were embittered by the humiliation, the military felt misunderstood, having not received sufficient resources to fight the Moroccan war.

The military discontent with Spanish society leads to Miguel Primo de Rivera orchestrating a military coup. Spain is placed under military dictatorship backed by king Alfonso XIII from 1923 to 1930. Primo de Rivera took a tight grip on the state, but was forced to step down in 1930 because his government went bankrupt after trying too hard to remedy unemployment with public spending. Spain had lost its confidence in the military as well as in the king, and soon the second Spanish republic was founded.

The Church

Religion held a special place in Spanish society ever since the reconquista, and the power of the church extended to politics, law and order, education and health care. Catholicism in Spain condemned all forms of liberalism and capitalism, doing all it could to ‘save European society from itself’. In the ’30′s, government efforts to separate state from church failed due to lack of resources to replace the church. Still, Clerical influence waned as workers detested the church for preaching to accept poverty while amassing vast riches. In some regions, the church stopped teaching children to read so as to keep them from studying socialist theory later. Despite left-wing resentment for the church, conservative powers considered the church the heart of Spanish civilization. So it came that the church was not only a driver, but also the subject of social unrest.

Boiling point

Tensions in Spain between movements along all kinds of axes would inevitably lead to a climax, be it uncertain what kind of climax. Next up is a description of the rising of the army of Africa and the failed coup that would turn into a full-scale civil war.