Catalan Republic República Catalana (Catalan) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 | |||||||||||
 | |||||||||||
| Anthem: Els Segadors (Catalan) "The Reapers" | |||||||||||
 Location of the Catalan Republic within Europe | |||||||||||
| Status | Republic withinIberian Federation | ||||||||||
| Capital | Barcelona | ||||||||||
| Common languages | |||||||||||
| Demonym | Catalan | ||||||||||
| Government | Unitaryrepublic underprovisional government | ||||||||||
| President | |||||||||||
• 1931 | Francesc Macià | ||||||||||
| Historical era | Interwar period | ||||||||||
• Proclaimed | 14 April 1931 | ||||||||||
• Establishment of the Generalitat | 17 April 1931 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Today part of | Spain ∟Catalonia | ||||||||||
TheCatalan Republic (Catalan:República Catalana,IPA:[rəˈpubːlikəkətəˈlanə]) was a state proclaimed in 1931 byFrancesc Macià as the "Catalan Republic within theIberian Federation",[4][5] in the context of the proclamation of theSecond Spanish Republic. It was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, and superseded three days later, on 17 April, by theGeneralitat de Catalunya, the Catalan institution of self-government within the Spanish Republic.[6]
After the abolition of theCommonwealth of Catalonia (an administrative body shared by the four Catalan provinces, established in 1914) and the implementation ofanti-Catalanist policies by theDictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, Catalan nationalism became radicalized and moving towards various degrees ofleft-wing positions, establishing or reinforcing already existing political parties such as Francesc Macià's pro-independenceEstat Català, theCatalan Republican Party,Catalan Action or theSocialist Union of Catalonia, as well as trade unions such as the CADCI or theUnió de Rabassaires.
In 1926, Estat Català attempted to liberate Catalonia with a volunteer militia and establish an independent Catalan Republic, butthe plot (with its headquarters in the border town ofPrats de Molló, France) was discovered by the French police and aborted. Francesc Macià was arrested and judged in France, however, gaining popularity.[7] The repression carried out by the Dictatorship facilitated a rapprochement between Catalan nationalism and Spanish republicanism, both targets of its policies.
After the resignation of Primo de Rivera, Spanish republican parties agreed through thePact of San Sebastián (17 August 1930) to prepare for a change of regime in case of victories in upcoming elections. In this project, there was a provision for the political autonomy of Catalonia, within the Spanish Republic. On 12 April 1931, local elections gave a large and unexpected majority in Catalonia (including Barcelona) to theRepublican Left of Catalonia[8] (Catalan:Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC), a party that had been founded three weeks earlier by the union of Macià's pro-independenceEstat Català, theCatalan Republican Party, led byLluís Companys, and theL'Opinió group. Two days later (14 April), few hours before the proclamation of theSecond Spanish Republic in Madrid, ERC's leader, Francesc Macià, proclaimed the "Catalan Republic" from the balcony of thePalau de the Generalitat (then the seat of theProvincial Deputation of Barcelona), "expecting that the other peoples of Spain would constitute themselves as republics, in order to establish an Iberian Confederation".[9] The proclamation of Macià was preceded by a proclamation of the Spanish Republic by another ERC member,Lluís Companys, from the balcony of the City Hall, and theCatalan andSpanish Republic flags were hoisted from the balcony.[10][11] Francesc Macià proclaimed himself president of Catalonia,[12] and ratified in this position by the elected councillors of Barcelona.[13]
Macià immediately dismissed GeneralIgnasi Despujol [ca], chief of the Spanish Army in Catalonia, appointing in his placeGeneral López Ochoa, who was loyal to the new republican government,[14] while Companys was designated civil governor ofBarcelona andJaume Aiguader becamemayor of Barcelona. The juristJosep Oriol Anguera de Sojo [ca] was appointed president of the Territorial Audience of Barcelona[15] (the highest court of justice in Catalonia at the time). Helped by socialist Manuel Serra i Moret, he also appointed the ministers of the Catalan government, dominated by the Republican Left of Catalonia. He included among his ministers a member of theRadical Republican Party, a member of theUGT trade union, a member ofCatalan Action, as well as two representatives from theSocialist Union of Catalonia, but none from the previously hegemonic and conservativeRegionalist League (in the streets many citizens clamored against the leader of the League, chanting "Long live Macià and death toCambó!").[16] Macià even offered a ministry to the anarchist trade unionCNT, but the anarcho-syndicalist organization finally refused to participate, claiming its traditional apoliticism.[17]
The provisional government of the Catalan Republic was made up of:[18]
The next steps of the new Catalan Government involved taking control of the territory. It ordered every municipality in Catalonia to ensure the proclamation of the Republic. It also appointed delegates of the government in the provinces ofGirona,Lleida andTarragona. A volunteer militia, the Civic Republican Guard (Catalan:Guàrdia Cívica Republicana) was raised in order to protect the Palace of the Generalitat and the surroundings. On 15 April, a decree making Catalan the official language was passed.[19] On the same day, Macià signed a decree allowing freedom of broadcast time toRàdio Associació de Catalunya [ca].[20] On 16 April, the first issue of the Official Journal of the Catalan Republic (Diari Oficial de la República Catalana) was published.[21]
On 17 April, three days after the proclamation, the provisional government of the new Spanish Republic, concerned about this proclamation and the duality of powers it created, sent three ministers (Fernando de los Ríos from thePSOE,Lluís Nicolau d'Olwer from Catalan Action andMarcel·lí Domingo from theRadical Socialist Republican Party) to Barcelona in order to negotiate with Macià and the Catalan provisional government. After some hours of intense debates, Macià reached an agreement with the three ministers,[22] in which the government of the Catalan Republic was renamed the Generalitat of Catalonia (Catalan:Generalitat de Catalunya), becoming a Catalan institution of self-government within the Spanish Republic,[23][24] that would be granted aStatute of Autonomy in 1932 afterthe elections for Spain's Parliament (Cortes Generales).[25] Francesc Macià would become thePresident of the Generalitat of Catalonia (officially appointed in November 1932 by the newly electedParliament of Catalonia), a position he held until his death on 25 December 1933.[26]
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