The Catalan State ( ca, Estat Català, ) was a short-lived state proclaimed during the
events of 6 October
The events of 6 October ( ca, Fets del sis d'octubre) were a general strike, armed insurgency and declaration of a Catalan State by Catalonia's autonomous government on 6 October 1934, in reaction to the inclusion of conservatives in the repub ...
1934 by
Lluís Companys
Lluís Companys i Jover (; 21 June 1882 – 15 October 1940) was a Catalan politician who served as president of Catalonia from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War.
Companys was a lawyer close to labour movement and one of the most prominent l ...
as the "Catalan State within the Spanish Federal Republic".
Background
![Lluis Companys](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Lluis_Companys.jpg)
On 6 October 1934 the
President of the Generalitat of Catalonia
The President of the Government of Catalonia ( ca, President de la Generalitat de Catalunya, ) is one of the bodies that the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia stipulates as part of the Generalitat de Catalunya, others being the Parliament, the gov ...
, Lluís Companys (
ERC), proclaimed the Catalan State within the Spanish Federal Republic. The event was part of a
semi-insurrectional program of the left against the new Spanish right-wing republican government led by
Alejandro Lerroux
Alejandro Lerroux García (4 March 1864, in La Rambla, Córdoba – 25 June 1949, in Madrid) was a Spanish politician who was the leader of the Radical Republican Party. He served as Prime Minister three times from 1933 to 1935 and held severa ...
, which incorporated as ministers some members of the right-wing
CEDA
The Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (, CEDA), was a Spanish political party in the Second Spanish Republic. A Catholic conservative force, it was the political heir to Ángel Herrera Oria's Acción Popular and defined itself in t ...
, Spanish political party that at the time was considered close to
fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
and, therefore, they feared that it was the first step of this party to take power as
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
and
Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
had in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
.
Proclamation
In the afternoon of October 6, Lluís Companys appeared on the balcony of the Generalitat accompanied by his advisers and proclaimed the Catalan Republic.
In this solemn hour, in the name of the people and the Parliament, the Government over which I preside assumes all the faculties of power in Catalonia, proclaims the Catalan State of the Spanish Federal Republic, and in establishing and fortifying relations with the leaders of the general protest against Fascism, invites them to establish in Catalonia the provisional Government of the Republic, which will find in our Catalan people the most generous impulse of fraternity in the common desire to erect a free and magnificent federal republic.
The attempt was quickly aborted by the Spanish government. General
Domènec Batet
Domènec Batet i Mestres ( es, Domingo Batet Mestres; Tarragona, August 30, 1872 – Burgos, February 18, 1937) was a Spanish military man who became general of the Spanish Army.
Starting as a lieutenant, Batet quickly escalated ranks during ...
, chief of the IV Organic Division in Catalonia, crushed the uprising. Companys was arrested and imprisoned; the autonomous government suspended, and virtually all its members jailed. After the
Popular Front
A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".
More generally, it is "a coalition ...
victory in the
February 1936 Spanish general election, his government was pardoned and reinstated in their functions.
Consequences
In the failed rebellion forty-six people died: thirty-eight civilians and eight soldiers. More than three thousand people were imprisoned, most of them in the "Uruguay" steamer, and placed under the jurisdiction of the councils of war. Azaña was also arrested, who happened to be in Barcelona to attend the funerals of the former minister of his cabinet, Jaume Carner. The soldiers who had taken part of the insurrection, the commander Enric Pérez Farràs and the captains Escofet and Ricart, were condemned to death, their sentence being commuted to life imprisonment by the President of the Republic, Alcalá Zamora, in spite of the protests of both the
CEDA
The Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (, CEDA), was a Spanish political party in the Second Spanish Republic. A Catholic conservative force, it was the political heir to Ángel Herrera Oria's Acción Popular and defined itself in t ...
and the Republican Liberal Democrat Party of
Melquiades Álvarez, who demanded a strong hand.
[Casanova (2007), p. 139] The President and the Government of the Generalitat were tried by the Constitutional Guarantees Tribunal and were sentenced for military rebellion to thirty years in prison, which was carried out by some in the Cartagena prison and others in the
Puerto de Santa María
Puerto, a Spanish word meaning ''seaport'', may refer to:
Places
*El Puerto de Santa María, Andalusia, Spain
*Puerto, a seaport town in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines
*Puerto Colombia, Colombia
*Puerto Cumarebo, Venezuela
*Puerto Galera, Orient ...
. On February 23, 1935, the
Mayor of Barcelona
This is a list of mayors of Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. Wi ...
and the detained councilors were provisionally released.
The government of Lerroux unleashed "a harsh repressive wave with the closure of political and trade union centers, the suppression of newspapers, the removal of municipalities and thousands of detainees, without having had a direct action on the facts", which showed "a punitive will often arbitrary and with vengeance components of class or ideological".
Catalan autonomy was suspended indefinitely by a law passed on December 14 at the proposal of the Government (the CEDA demanded the repeal of the Statute) and the Generalitat of Catalonia was replaced by a Council of the Generalitat appointed by the Government and presided by a Governor General of Catalonia (the first was
Colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...
Francisco Jiménez Arenas, who acted as "accidental president" of the Generalitat since October 7, and who in January 1935 was replaced by
Manuel Portela Valladares
Manuel Portela y Valladares (Pontevedra, 31 January 1867 – Bandol, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France 29 April 1952) was a Spanish political figure during the Second Spanish Republic. He served as the 43rd Attorney General of Spain betw ...
). In April 1935, when the state of war was lifted, Portela was replaced by the radical Joan Pich i Pon, and some of the powers of the Generalitat were returned to him, but not those of Public Order.
[ The Catalan League participated in that government, "which confirmed its image as an accomplice of the enemies of autonomy and alienated middle class sectors from it, although at the same time, since the end of October, it denounced the central government for taking advantage of the situation created to suppress or reduce the autonomous faculties, maintaining that "a people should not be punished for the mistakes of their rulers". In the name of the Lliga, the vice-president of the Catalan parliament, A. Martínez Domingo, challenged before the Guarantees Court the law of January 2, 1935, which emptied the Generalitat of its contents".]
The Crop Contracts Law
The Crop Contracts Law (in Catalan ''Llei de Contractes de Conreu'') was a law passed by the Parliament of Catalonia on March 21, 1934, and enacted on the symbolic date of April 14, 1934. The basic purpose of the law was to protect the tenant fa ...
was annulled and almost three thousand eviction lawsuits of "rabassaires" and sharecroppers were processed. The left-wing Catalan nationalist newspapers were suspended.[
]
References
{{Catalonia topics
States and territories established in 1934
History of Catalonia
Politics of Catalonia
1934 establishments in Spain
1934 disestablishments in Europe
Former countries in Spanish history
Federalism in Spain