Reign of Alfonso XIII

REIGN OF ALFONSO XIII:

At that time the reign of Alfonso XIII was in force, which took place in 1902, after the fulfillment of the majority of age until 1931, once the Second Republic was proclaimed.

During his reign, numerous problems took place, which caused the strongest crises of the restoration system.Regarding the politics of his reign, he had the Cánovas System, which highlights the turn of parties or bipartisanship where the conservative and liberal party was.

On the other hand, the republican, nationalist and labor movements grew because of social discontent due to the crisis.At the same time, society and economy have signs of modernization, which was one of the objectives of Alfonso XIII at the beginning of his reign.

FIRST WORLD WAR (1914-1918):

This first international conflict was occasioned by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the imperial throne of Austria-Hungary, with his wife the Duchess of Hohenberg in the city of Sarajevo, declaring the war to Serbia.In this war two sides faced each other; The Triple Alliance founded in 1882, by the German Chancellor Bismarck, formed by Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy.On the other hand was the Triple Entente, created in 1907 to prevent the economic, technological and imperialist development of the Triple Alliance. It was integrated by the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Romania.Spain remained outside of this conflict considering itself as a neutral power because it lacked economic and military reasons and resources to face a war. Spain did not participate actively in the war, but it was a producer of resources and supplies such as agriculture, weapons, textiles, steel and mining, which would be used by countries at war, which meant an increase in the economy.As a consequence of this neutrality, modernization was promoted due to the increase in production, opening the way to new markets.That’s why there was a clear surplus of the trade balance. Thanks to this, the Spanish external debt was canceled and gold was accumulated in the Bank of Spain.As a consequence of the increase in exports, there was a food shortage that caused the rise in prices above wages, that is, inflation, which caused great social upheavals due to the loss of purchasing power.

Spanish Trade balance 

Consecuences of inflaction

Around 1928, the regime began to fall as a result of:

• Growing number of opponents: conservatives, liberals, republicans, anarchists, socialists, communists and Catalan nationalists.
• Opposition of the working classes that return to activity: strikes, demonstrations of protests ...
• Financial and budgetary difficulties of the State, together with the devaluation of the currency.

PRIMO DE RIVERA DICTATORSHIP:

As a result of this crisis, unsuccessful attempts were made to make reforms to improve the system, which would give rise to an authoritarian system with the coup d'état of General Primo de Rivera in 1923.This dictatorship carried out an interventionist policy, which was not successful but had a stage of economic prosperity.It is characterized by a higher level of tariff protectionism, more subsidies to help the development of markets and increase public spending.

Primo de Rivera brought the following changes to Spain:

• Improvement of the road and rail network, eliminating the work unemployment and increasing the development of the industry.
• Hydrographic alliances were created whose objective was take advantage of the river’s water.
• Monopolies were created that favored the protectionist economic policy.
• Develop of tourism.
• Irrigation systems were improved.
• The political parties were outlawed, ending the bipartisanship.
• Growth of foreign trade (imports)

After the failure and the resignation of Primo de Rivera, Aznar is named as head of government calling elections that would be decisive for the beginning of the Second Republic, since most of the votes rejected the monarchy.