Latin-American Studies

Alfonso III was declared the king of Spain under his mothers regency at the age of 16. Even though the newly industrialized areas generated a lot of social unrest to the monarch, Alfonso enjoyed a lot of popularity. In 1898, Spain was defeated by the American troops and some of its colonies were taken by America.  The Catalans and Basque people of Spain were very agitated for independence as a result of the constant fighting in morocco and also by the rise of communism and lawless labor groups. A group known as the generation 98 (1898) composed of artists and other public figures formed a union which believed that time had come for Spain to embrace new forms of art, politics and customs in general. This group had very prominent members including Machado, Miguel de Unamuno, Pio Baroja, Ramon del Valle-Inclan, and others. This group wanted Spain to adopt a more modernized way of doing things as regards to science, medicine and politics. The Generation of 98 was very much worried about what came later to be referred to as the Spanish problem. They found out the beauty of the solemn Castilian scenery and developed a significant reformation in styles that were aimed at avoiding the characteristic 19th century style. This generation was so strong with its principles that some of its members acquired international status, for example Miguel de Unamuno a Basque.

The political life was very unstable and the young Alfonso had to deal with a lot of political disasters which included fourteen ministerial crisis and eight different prime ministers. After a radical publicist known as Francisco Ferrer Guardia was executed in 1909 as a result of an uprising in Barcelona, the government faced a lot of public attack. Though King Alfono XIII tried his best to keep Spain out of the First World War, he was however very dissatisfied with the functioning of parliamentary government and therefore he decided to support General Miguel Primo de Riviera in establishing a military form of government. Through his speech, Alfonso denounced the parliamentary system of government in Spain in 1921. That same year, a huge group of Spanish troops suffered a humiliating defeat from the rebellious tribes in Spanish Morocco. This defeat developed a lot of criticism to the military and the monarchy. The criticisms were so intense that General Miguel decided to take over the government and establish a military dictatorship form of governance. Alfonso was very pleased with that decision to an extent that he introduced Miguel as his Mussolini during a visit to Italy.
By 1930, the dictatorship had become so unacceptable that even the military denounced it. As a result of his association with the dictatorship, Alfonso acquired a lot of hatred for himself and the monarchy. He was dissatisfied with holding on to power after the municipal elections of 1931 where the republican acquired majority supports. The republicans demanded the resignation of Alfonso. On realizing that, Alfonso went into exile on April 1934 and suspended the exercise of royal power in order to avoid break out of a civil war. Spain became a republic in 1931. However, the republicans were unable to hold public order and political stability to the country. This led to the break out of a three year civil war after the army had rebelled in 1936.
The civil war was followed by the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. Though General Franco was not involved in the planning of the coup, he was fully aware of the coup proceedings. He rose to power and adopted a dictatorship mode of governance even though that was not a feature when the plan of the coup was being laid down. Due to complexities and lack of governance skills, Franco relegated all the leadership duties to his brother. With Francos brain behind the leadership of Spain, the republic could not be easily maneuvered and it was very difficult for Spain to join other western countries in their democratic ideologies.
The death of Francisco Franco Bahamonde, a Spanish dictator was announced by prime minister Arias Navarro on 21st November 1975. This death acted as a conversion mode in the wake of Spains political systems transformation. Various political parties were formed with an aim of reforming all sectors of life. Reforma democratic was formed with an aim of developing democracy while Raptura democratica which was supported by the communist and the socialist opposition groups were proposing a more radical approach in the development of a New Spain. A legal document known as law of political reform was developed and approved by the parliament. This reform opened a door for the formation of political parties. Alliances were formed in preparation for the forthcoming election. After a period of 40 years, a general election was held in 1977. The era of dictatorship and its dictators passed away after the death of the master mind. Aldofo Suarez gathered the entire political representative at the official residence of the prime minister the Moncloa palace Madrid in 1977 for consultations to develop a platform in the process of developing reforms. These consultations came to be referred to as the Moncloa pact and formed a very important base in the continuous rollout of change.
The Prime Minister Suares did all he could to persuade the compliant members of parliament to legalize trade unions. He also urged them to eliminate the form of government that once directed labor. In the Basque country, nationalists and conservatives parties vied for votes with the militia oriented groups. In Catalonia, the situation was also the same, leftists and conservatives regional parties vied for votes. The inflation rate which was as high as 20 was cut back to 16 and in 1978 Spain developed a new constitution which found favor in the eyes of the people. The constitution stated that the delegates to both the Senate and the Congress were supposed to be elected for a period of 4 years.
The heavy censorship that had been put in place for the press was lifted and this saw a boom in the number of publications. The electoral campaign received a remarkable coverage on the newspapers. In the 1977 elections, Aldofo Suares and his UCD party retained power. All political prisoners who had been convicted before the 1977 elections were released. The church became more liberal and Spain grew more prosperous than the early years. Spaniards were now starting to regain some hope from their parliament. In 1978, the constitution, which was based on democracy, gave freedom to all its old historic nationalities. This freedom was later extended to all the Spanish territories.  The second general election of Spain and the first after the development of a constitution was held in 1979 and the UCD (Union de Centro Democratico) with Aldofo Suarez as the prime minister won a second term in office. The major dilemma that was facing Suares was how to curb the crisis that was in Basque and keep the rich Basque country under the Spanish (Pierson, p 178).
The UDC party was under extensive pressure from the high office and also due to the crisis that were facing the country. Aldofo Suares began to isolate himself from the limelight. The government was being referred to as an inability government. The prime minister opted to resign from office when he sensed the mood of the people in 1981 (Pierson, p 178). Leopold Calvo Sotelo was elected to replace him. During the francoism era, it was very hard to obtain divorce, but the divorce bill of 1980 made this easy for Aldofo Suares in 1981. A coup was planned on 23rd February 1981 but it did not materialize. A third election was held in 1982 and the outcome of that election generated a new dawn from the political systems transition in Spain. In 1982, Spain joined NATO.
Spain became a member of the European Union in 1986. Though it was formerly a unitary system of government, Spain is currently a state of autonomies. Each and every community has different authority and laws. The current prime minister of Spain is known as Jos Luis Rodrguez Zapatero, joined PSOE in 1979 and was later chosen as the PSOEs local secretary for Leon city. He first became a member of parliament after the 1986 elections which saw the former prime minister, Felipe Gonzlez, who was a Socialist regain power.  During the Ombudsman and Constitutional parliamentary commissions, Rodrguez became the spokesman of the PSOE. Rodrguez was later to be re-elected in the 1993, 1996, and 2000 parliamentary elections.  In 1998 he was declared as the most active socialist member by journalists assigned to the congress. Spain became so prosperous and started competing with countries like Germany, Italy and French for superiority in terms of agriculture, economy and fisheries. Under the leadership of Gonzalez, Spain took a major step to strengthen its ties with other nations especially the Spanish America.  Spain also recognized Israel and has been selected as a site for holding important Israel peace meetings. Today Spaniards have embraced the warmth and individuality and gone back to their historic sense of community. Spaniards care no longer opposing each other