24. The road to the Dictatorship (1924-1928)
24. The road to the Dictatorship (1924-1928)
The General Elections of 1922 resulted in a victory of the Frente de Izquierdas (Lefts Front), an alliance of the Left parties, including both the PSOE and the PCE, that defeated by a small margin the Frente Nacional (National Front): 38.10% of the popular vote vs 33.61%. The sudden crisis that the collapse of the peseta had revealed had turned the national mood. Melquíades Álvarez, the leader of the Partido Reformista (PR - Reformist Party) became the Spanish prime minister until his resignation on April 17, 1923, when he felt that he was not able to go on due to the rampaging economical crisis and the pressure that came from his Socialist and Communist allies, who had forced upon him to ran a intensely anti-clerical policy that came quite close to end up in a diplomatic fallout with the Pope.
Ironically, by April 1923 foreign observers reported the improvement of the Spanish financial market, the brilliance of the post-war literature and the revival of public morale. Then came the nine-months premiership of Alejandro Lerroux (April 17, 1923 - November 6, 1924), that was plagued by the war in Morocco and a turn for the worse of the ongoing economical crisis that led to the victory of the Frente Nacional in the elections of November 1924, when 45.18% of the Spanish voters trusted the Right Coalition while only 28.19% of them opted for the Lefts Front.
From November 1924 to the coup d'etat of 1928 there were seven changes in the leadership and in the composition of the cabinet. In fact, all went well for the first three years. Niceto Alcalá Zamora, the leader of the Partido Liberal (Liberal Party), who had been selected for the role by his predecessor, Romanones, formed an able cabinet centered around him and Miguel Maura, Minister of the Interior. He was quite lucky as during his tenure the war in North Africa came to a victorious end and the crisis began to abate, which also brought down the social resentment that had favoured he rise of the Left in 1922.
Then came the Great Depression, on February 6, 1927 (1), that brought another disaster for the Spanish economy. The change peseta-dollar went from 5,85 in March 1927 to 7,29 in December that year and to 12,32 in 1928. Because of the crisis, the Spanish economy reported an slowdown of 20%, less severe than what occurred in the US, France and Germany, but very similar to the Italian and British experiences. Industrial production fell a 20% and foreign trade and foreign investment came to a stop. Thankfully, the outdated Spanish banking system helped to reduce the damage caused by the international situation (2).
Unable to find a solution and blamed by all, Alcalá Zamora resigned on November 2, 1927. In the following three months, six governments rose and fell and, in the resulting chaos, the ghost of a crushing victory of the Left parties loomed over the country as Dolores Ibarruri preached for revolution, power to the people and a dictatorship. In the end, she got it, but no the one she wanted when, on July 23, 1928, Joaquín Milans del Bosch came back from his retirement to lead a coup d'etat as the armed forced moved forward to avoid the feared Bolshevik revolution.
(1) So many butterflies that Wall Street went mind a bit ahead of schedule.
(2) Ironically, being such a backward country was a good thin in OTL and in TTL.
Ironically, by April 1923 foreign observers reported the improvement of the Spanish financial market, the brilliance of the post-war literature and the revival of public morale. Then came the nine-months premiership of Alejandro Lerroux (April 17, 1923 - November 6, 1924), that was plagued by the war in Morocco and a turn for the worse of the ongoing economical crisis that led to the victory of the Frente Nacional in the elections of November 1924, when 45.18% of the Spanish voters trusted the Right Coalition while only 28.19% of them opted for the Lefts Front.
From November 1924 to the coup d'etat of 1928 there were seven changes in the leadership and in the composition of the cabinet. In fact, all went well for the first three years. Niceto Alcalá Zamora, the leader of the Partido Liberal (Liberal Party), who had been selected for the role by his predecessor, Romanones, formed an able cabinet centered around him and Miguel Maura, Minister of the Interior. He was quite lucky as during his tenure the war in North Africa came to a victorious end and the crisis began to abate, which also brought down the social resentment that had favoured he rise of the Left in 1922.
Then came the Great Depression, on February 6, 1927 (1), that brought another disaster for the Spanish economy. The change peseta-dollar went from 5,85 in March 1927 to 7,29 in December that year and to 12,32 in 1928. Because of the crisis, the Spanish economy reported an slowdown of 20%, less severe than what occurred in the US, France and Germany, but very similar to the Italian and British experiences. Industrial production fell a 20% and foreign trade and foreign investment came to a stop. Thankfully, the outdated Spanish banking system helped to reduce the damage caused by the international situation (2).
Unable to find a solution and blamed by all, Alcalá Zamora resigned on November 2, 1927. In the following three months, six governments rose and fell and, in the resulting chaos, the ghost of a crushing victory of the Left parties loomed over the country as Dolores Ibarruri preached for revolution, power to the people and a dictatorship. In the end, she got it, but no the one she wanted when, on July 23, 1928, Joaquín Milans del Bosch came back from his retirement to lead a coup d'etat as the armed forced moved forward to avoid the feared Bolshevik revolution.
(1) So many butterflies that Wall Street went mind a bit ahead of schedule.
(2) Ironically, being such a backward country was a good thin in OTL and in TTL.