Council of Defense of the Generalitat de Catalunya | |
Conselleria de Defensa de la Generalitat de Catalunya | |
Established | July 31, 1936 |
---|---|
Dissolved | May 5, 1937 |
Parent organization | Generalitat de Catalunya |
The Defense Council (Catalan : Conselleria de Defensa) was a ministry created by the Generalitat de Catalunya on August 2, 1936, [1] and that existed during the first years of the Spanish Civil War to take charge of military matters in Catalonia, despite the fact that defense powers were exclusive to the government of the Republic. [2]
After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the Generalitat de Catalunya began to assume powers that did not correspond to it according to the Republican Constitution and also according to its own Statute of Autonomy. [3] On July 31, 1936 the government of the Generalitat established a Ministry of Defence to take charge of the military issues. This body was clearly unconstitutional since the powers of defense belonged to the government of Madrid. [2] Such a fact would have had serious implications in a normal situation, but in the context of the chaos of the first days of the conflict this was another fact that went unnoticed. [n. 1]
Lieutenant Colonel Felip Díaz i Sandino was appointed Minister of Defense. [5] Vicenç Guarner was appointed Undersecretary of the Ministry in August 1936, being in charge of organizing the columns that left towards the Front of Aragon, to establish military industries, officers' schools and fortifications. [6] Another of the works carried out by this body was the establishment of a war industry in Barcelona to support the republican war effort, given that in Catalonia there was no such industry. The Generalitat took over a dozen factories, although in reality they were controlled by anarchists. [7]
The lack of coordination with the Madrid authorities was another major problem. For example, militias from Barcelona operating on the Aragon Front did so from the outset without any coordination with the Ministry of War in Madrid, [8] which also happened during the Mallorca landings. [9] When the Minister of Navy and Air, the socialist Indalecio Prieto, visited Díaz i Sandino, he was received "as if he were a minister of a foreign power". [10]
Díaz Sandino achieved the dissolution of the Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia in October 1936, [11] which in theory left him at the head of all military forces for Catalonia. [12] For Díaz Sandino it was a priority to carry out the militarization of the militias, as had already been done in the central area. On December 6, he signed a decree creating the People's Army of Catalonia, [2] which in theory consisted of three divisions, nine infantry regiments, three artillery regiments and numerous support groups. However, despite his daring efforts, he was unable to carry out the long-awaited militarization and the anarchist militias continued to enjoy broad autonomy in both Catalonia and the Front of Aragon. Certainly, the anarchists also had a great influence within the Ministry of Defense, [12] and after December 1936 it was an anarchist, Francesc Isgleas i Piarnau, who served as Minister of Defense. [13]
After the May Days, the republican government intervened in Catalonia and regained its powers in defense matters, so the Ministry was dissolved. The Popular Army of Catalonia was also dissolved and in its place the Eastern Army was created, [14] which proceeded to the definitive militarization of the militias.
Name | Start | End |
---|---|---|
Felip Díaz i Sandino | July 31, 1936 | December 17, 1936 |
Francesc Isgleas i Piarnau | December 17, 1936 | May 5, 1937 |
Lluís Companys i Jover was a Catalan politician who served as president of Catalonia, Spain from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War.
The Spanish Revolution was a workers' social revolution that began at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and for two to three years resulted in the widespread implementation of anarchist and, more broadly, libertarian socialist organizational principles throughout various portions of the country, primarily Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia, and parts of the Valencian Community. Much of the economy of Spain was put under worker control; in anarchist strongholds like Catalonia, the figure was as high as 75%. Factories were run through worker committees, and agrarian areas became collectivized and run as libertarian socialist communes. Many small businesses, such as hotels, barber shops, and restaurants, were also collectivized and managed by their workers.
The Generalitat de Catalunya, or the Government of Catalonia, is the institutional system by which Catalonia is self-governed as an autonomous community of Spain. It is made up of the Parliament of Catalonia, the President of the Government of Catalonia, and the Executive Council of Catalonia. Its current powers are set out in the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006.
The May Days, sometimes also called May Events, were a series of clashes between 3 and 8 May 1937 during which factions on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War engaged one another in street battles in various parts of Catalonia, centered on the city of Barcelona.
Revolutionary Catalonia was the period in which the autonomous region of Catalonia in northeast Spain was controlled or largely influenced by various anarchist, communist, and socialist trade unions, parties, and militias of the Spanish Civil War era. Although the constitutional Catalan institution of self-government, the Generalitat of Catalonia, remained in power and even took control of most of the competences of the Spanish central government in its territory, the trade unions were de facto in command of most of the economy and military forces, which includes the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo which was the dominant labor union at the time and the closely associated Federación Anarquista Ibérica. The Unión General de Trabajadores, the POUM and the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia were also prominent.
Estat Català is a pro-independence nationalist historical political party of Catalonia (Spain).
The July 1936 military uprising in Barcelona was a mutiny that occurred in Barcelona, the capital and largest city of Catalonia, in the Second Spanish Republic from 19 to 21 July 1936. It was one of the main events that marked the start of the Spanish Civil War.
The Regional Defence Council of Aragon, was an administrative entity created by the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) in the context of the Spanish Revolution, during the Spanish Civil War. Until its dissolution, the CRDA controlled and administered the eastern half of Aragon. The price of goods was centrally controlled to mitigate inflation.
Miquel Badia i Capell (1906–1936) was a prominent figure of radical Catalan separatism during the days of the Second Spanish Republic, member of Estat Català and the JERC, Chief of Public Order of the Generalitat of Catalonia. He became known among his followers as Capità Collons'Captain Balls'.
The People's Army of Catalonia was an army created by the Generalitat of Catalonia on 6 December 1936, during the Spanish Civil War. Its existence was more theoretical than real, because the original structure of the popular militias continued to exist despite the efforts of the Generalitat. After the May Days it was dissolved and its structure assumed by the Spanish Republican Army, which definitively militarized the militias of Catalonia and Aragon.
The Catalan coup d'etat was an unsuccessful takeover of power in autonomous Catalonia, planned by the independentist party Estat Català. The conspirators intended to declare the total independence of Catalonia as a state neutral in the Spanish Civil War, and to marginalize all non-aligned political groupings, especially the Anarchists. They counted on party militias and Catalan army and security units, infiltrated by the Estat Català militants. The coup was planned in November, as the plotters assumed that the central Republican government, absorbed by the battle of Madrid, would not be able to take action. The plot failed because of the Anarchist counter-action, which exposed the scheme and some of its leaders. In pre-emptive strike Generalitat services detained a few of the conspirators; the others fled to France. Estat Català was sidelined, while CNT-FAI ensured its dominant position in Catalonia. The attempted coup remains a poorly researched and rather unknown episode; in historiography it is discussed against the background of Catalan fascism.
The Eastern Army, also translated as the Army of the East, was a unit of the Spanish Republican Army that operated in the eastern part of Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Republican forces deployed on the Aragon front of the war initially came under the command structure of the unit. Later in the Civil War, the unit operated in Catalonia, defending the Republican defensive line along the Segre river.
The confederal militias were a movement of people's militia during the Spanish Civil War organized by the Spanish anarchist movement: the National Confederation of Labor (CNT) and the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI). The CNT militias replaced clandestine defense committees instituted earlier. As the war progressed, the militias were progressively dissolved and assimilated into the Spanish Republican Army, in spite of many militiamen refusing the militarization.
The Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia was an administrative body created on 21 July 1936 by the president of the Government of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, under pressure by the anarcho-syndicalists of the National Confederation of Labor (CNT) and Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI), which led the workers' struggle against the July 1936 military uprising in Barcelona.
Gregorio Jover Cortés was an Aragonese anarcho-syndicalist and a member of the CNT during the first third of the 20th century. During the Spanish Civil War he was commander of the Ascaso Column and later the militarized 28th Division, which fought on the Aragon front.
Enric Pérez i Farràs was a Catalan military commander.
Josep Rovira i Canals (1902–1968) was a Catalan politician, a leader of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification. During the Spanish Civil War he managed to send several militia units to the Aragon front, and was arrested by the republican authorities in the context of the repression against the POUM.
The Internal Security Board of Catalonia was a body created in September 1936 as a result of the pact reached by the republican political forces on the one hand and the CNT-FAI on the other. The Generalitat de Catalunya and all democratic parties reached this agreement with the CNT-FAI to try to pacify public safety, severely altered since the July 1936 military coup, under the auspices of the anarcho-syndicalist organization. This pact involved the dissolution of the Central Committee of Antifascist Militias, replaced in part by the Junta. The militant anarchist Aurelio Fernández Sánchez was appointed general secretary, while in one way or another Rafael Vidiella (PSOE) and Joaquim Olaso i Piera (PSUC) were also present, as well as Tomàs Fàbregas Valls (ACR).
Josep Dencàs i Puigdollers was a Catalan nationalist politician active in the Republican Left of Catalonia.
The Autonomous Region of Catalonia 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 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.