Catalonia Catalunya (Catalan) Cataluña (Spanish)
1931–1939
Flag Seal
Location of Catalonia (dark green) within the Spanish Republic (light green) and Europe
Status	Autonomous region within the Second Spanish Republic
Capital	Barcelona
Common languages	Catalan, Spanish
Demonym(s)	Catalan or Catalonian
Government	Generalitat of Catalonia
President
• 1931-1933	Francesc Macià (first)
• 1933-1939	Lluís Companys (last)
Legislature	Parliament of Catalonia (1932–1939)
Historical era	Interwar period / Spanish Civil War
• Established	17 April 1931
• Statute of Autonomy	9 September 1932
• Events of 6 October	6 October 1934
• Military uprising	19 July 1936
• Francoist occupation of Barcelona	26 January 1939
Preceded by Succeeded by Catalan Republic (1931) Francoist Spain Generalitat de Catalunya in exile
Today part of	Spain  ∟Catalonia

The Autonomous Region of Catalonia (Catalan: Regió autònoma de Catalunya, Spanish: Región autónoma de Cataluña) was established after the grant of self-government to Catalonia during the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939), becoming an autonomous region within the Spanish Republic. The Generalitat of Catalonia (Catalan: Generalitat de Catalunya) was the institution in which the autonomous government of Catalonia was organized, it was established in order to replace the Catalan Republic proclaimed during the events of the proclamation of the Spanish Republic.

Historians often uses the term "Republican Generalitat" (Catalan: Generalitat Republicana) to refer to this period of the history of Catalonia, in order to distinguish it from the second and current stage of Catalan self-government.

Background

In 1914, the Commonwealth of Catalonia was established, under the presidency of Enric Prat de la Riba (1914-1917) and Josep Puig i Cadafalch (1917-1923), both members of the conservative Regionalist League, then the leading force of Catalan nationalism. It was an administrative institution composed of the provincial councils of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona, but lacked any political or legislative powers.

The Commonwealth was abolished in March 20th, 1925 by decision of the Dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923-1930). After the failed pro-autonomy campaign of 1919,^[1] Catalan nationalism became radicalized and adopted more left-wing positions, establishing or reinforcing political parties such as Francesc Macià's pro-independence Estat Català, the Catalan Republican Party, Catalan Action or the Socialist Union of Catalonia, as well as trade unions such as the CADCI or the Unió de Rabassaires. These factors and the shared repression carried out by the Dictatorship facilitated a rapprochement between Catalan nationalism and Spanish Republican forces.

In 1926, Estat Català attempted to liberate Catalonia from the Dictatorship with a volunteer milita and establish an independent Catalan Republic, but the plot was discovered by French police and aborted. Francesc Macià was arrested and judged in France, however, gaining popularity. By the Pact of San Sebastián of August 17, 1930, Republican and Catalan political parties agreed on a global design for the imminent change of regime that included the political autonomy of Catalonia within the projected Republic.

Proclamation of the Republic and the Provisional Generalitat

Proclamation of the Catalan Republic in Plaça de Sant Jaume by Francesc Macià, Barcelona, 14 April 1931

On 12 April 1931, local elections gave a large and unexpected majority in Catalonia (including Barcelona) to the Republican Left of Catalonia (Catalan: Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC), a party that had been founded three weeks earlier by the union of Macià's pro-independence Estat Català, the Catalan Republican Party, led by Lluís Companys, and L'Opinió group. Francesc Macià proclaimed in Barcelona "the Catalan Republic as a State of the Iberian Federation" on April 14, few hours before the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed in Madrid.^[2] This proclamation and the duality of powers it entailed worried the new Spanish Republic provisional government and, on the 17th, Macià reached an agreement with Spanish ministers Fernando de los Ríos, Marcel·lí Domingo, and Lluís Nicolau d'Olwer, under which the Catalan Republic was renamed with the more ambiguous name of Generalitat de Catalunya, thus recovering the name of one of the most relevant government institutions of the ancient Principality of Catalonia, abolished in 1714.

On April 28, 1931, through a decree of the Spanish Council of Ministers, the Provisional government of the Generalitat was set up, presided by Macià himself and composed by a council or government, an assembly of representatives of the municipalities (the Provisional Deputation of the Generalitat) and the commissioners who, as delegates, were in charge of the services belonging to the suppressed provincial councils of Girona, Tarragona and Lleida. The seat of the Generalitat was established in the Palace of the Plaça de Sant Jaume, Barcelona (which, in turn, was the seat of the original Generalitat). Despite the lack of formal autonomy in this period, the Generalitat showed deployment efforts such as the establishment of the Council of Culture, on June 9, 1931.

Portrait of the Statute of Autonomy of 1932

Catalan representatives of the Provisional Deputation prepared a draft bill of the statute of autonomy of Catalonia in Núria (Ripollès, province of Girona) with strong federal features and an extensive list of competences, which was approved in a referendum by the Catalan people on August 2, 1931. The Constitution of the Spanish Republic approved on 9 December 1931 established an unitary state with the possiblity of create autonomous regions, thus differing from the federal Catalan statute proposal. After prolonged and harsh parliamentary debates it was substantially modified and finally passed by the Spanish Cortes on September 9, 1932.

With the Statute approved, on November 20, 1932, the first and sole elections to the Parliament of Catalonia of the Republican era were called. The Republican Left of Catalonia, in coalition with the Socialist Union of Catalonia and other minor Republican parties, won a large majority of seats (67 of 85), while the previously hegemonic Regionalist League came in second place but far behind ERC (17 from 85).^[3] which allowed the beggining of construction of the institutions and move from a provisional government to a statutory government with Francesc Macià ratified as President of the Generalitat and Lluís Companys as speaker of Parliament.

Macià Government

Once Francesc Macià was officially appointed, he formed an Executive Council made up exclusively by members of ERC. The most urgent task pending at legislative level was the exhaustive organization of the new institutions. To fullfil that purpose, the Parliament of Catalonia passed its first law, the Statute of Internal Regime of Catalonia (Catalan: Estatut de Règim Interior de Catalunya).

Companys Government

The Generalitat during the Civil War

Abolition and exile

See also

Part of a series on the
History of Catalonia
Ancient Prehistory   Iberians c. 6th BC – c. 1st BC Greek colonies c. 6th BC – c. 1st BC Roman conquest of Hispania 218 BC – 19 BC Tarraconensis 27 BC – 476 AD
Medieval Visigoths 5th century – c.720 Al-Andalus 713–1154 Catalan counties / Gothia c.760 – 12th century County of Barcelona 801–1162 Crown of Aragon 1162–1715 Principality of Catalonia 12th century – c.1714 Compromise of Caspe 1412 War of the Remences 1462–1486 Catalan Civil War 1462–1472
Early modern Catholic Monarchs 1469–1516 Habsburg Spain 1516–1700 Reapers' War / Catalan Republic 1640–1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees 1659 Revolt of the Barretines 1687–1689 War of the Spanish Succession 1700–1715 War of the Catalans 1713–1714 Nueva Planta decrees 1716
Modern Peninsular War 1808–1814 Liberals and Carlists 1833–1876 Renaixença 1833–1892 Catalanism 1870s– Tragic Week 1909 Commonwealth 1914–1925 La Canadenca strike 1919 Catalan Republic 1931 Republican Generalitat / Statute of Autonomy 1932–1939 Events of 6 October 1934 Spanish Civil War / Revolution 1936–1939
Contemporary Francoism 1939–1975 Transition to democracy 1975–1982 Statute of Autonomy 1979–2006 Barcelona '92 1992 Statute of Autonomy 2006–present Independence movement 2010–present
By topic Historiography Economy Art Military Counts Presidents
Timeline

• Revolutionary Catalonia

References

Sources and bibliography

• Sobrequés i Callicó, Jaume. Catalunya i la Segona República. Edicions d'Ara (Barcelona, 1983) ISBN 84-248-0793-6
• Roglan, Joaquim (2006). 14 d'abril: la Catalunya republicana (1931-1939). Cossetània Edicions. ISBN 8497912039.
• De la Granja, José Luis; Beramendi, Justo; Anguera, Pere (2001). La España de los nacionalismos y las autonomías. Madrid: Síntesis.
• Abello Güell, Teresa (2007). El debat estatutari del 1932 (PDF). Barcelona: Parlament de Catalunya. ISBN 9788439375876.
• Fontana, Josep (2014). La formació d'una identitat. Una història de Catalunya. Ed. Eumo. ISBN 9788497665261.

External links

• República catalana i Generalitat republicana. Una reconsideració historiogràfica i política raco.cat