 |
Catalans, inhabitants of Catalonia, were perturbed by the swing of Spain's
central government to the right, by its overturning of an agrarian law passed by
the Catalan Generalided (local assembly), and by the slow implementation of a
statute of autonomy for Catalonia. Leftists and communists led a general strike
on October 5, 1934; the semi-fascist Catalan police, called escamots,
brutally opposed the leftist strikers, creating turmoil in Catalonia. On October
6, 1934, Spain's President Niceto Alcala Zamora y Torres (1877-1949) proclaimed
martial law throughout Spain, and that night Luis Companys (1883-1940),
president of the Generalidad, declared Catalonia a fully independent republic.
Immediately government troops moved in, killed several rebels, and squashed the
separatist movment; the Catalan government, including Companys, was jailed for
revolting against Spain's legal authority; the proclamation for Catalan autonomy
was voided; and Madrid (the central government) regained control of Catalonia.
|
