Analyse the principal causes of the Spanish Civil War. Essay

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After Alfonso XIII decided to abdicate in 1931, as he feared the Spanish population’s reaction with him staying in power, many problems aroused and added up to the existing issues that the Second Republic inherited. The Second Republic in fact, was subject of numerous incentivized problems that came with the ending of the monarchy, as a disloyal army for example, an important dominance of the Catholic Church as well as the important division within Spain. Not only, the monarchy had left behind an unstable economy, as well as a considerable amount of unemployment and the majority of the Spanish population was poor and disdained the small elites, which benefitted of all the wealth. However, the Republic itself was very weak. In fact, the center wasn’t dominant because of its ideological divisions. Moreover, the provisional government was a failure, mainly because of the constitution it drew up. It was a combination of all these causes put together that caused the Spanish Civil War.

To begin with, the monarchy had developed and put together an enormous army that was useful when Spain wasn’t stripped of all her colonies. However, they had all been taken by the United States, and the army was now far too imposing in Spanish political life. As Alfonso XIII had given the army an important amount of power during his monarchy, the army expected to have the same influence in Spanish politics during the Second Republic as well. The Provisional Government however, had a different point of view on this, in fact, they wanted the army to be reduced considerably. Therefore, they introduced for all the officers an immediate retirement on full pay. However, these retirements were for every officer, not only for those against the Republic but many supporting the new regime were sent home. This created not only an important cut in the army’s size but also a disloyal army.
Another very influential ‘’party’’ in Spain was the Church who had always been extremely important in the monarchies throughout time. In fact when monarchy still ruled Spain there was absolutely no division between the Church and state, decisions were taken together. The Republic, being anti-clerical, had to face this issue as well. This question aroused numerous divisions within the country as the old aristocrats were revolted by the secularizing decisions taken by the government. In fact, school had been made laic, and religious liberty had been declared in Spain. The ordinary Catholics felt betrayed and thought that the new state would not respect their religion or protect them.
The divisions between the peripheries and center were another problem at that time as well, in fact, since a long time, Catalonia wanted independence from the rest of Spain as
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