Political Chaos
In 1868, Spain fell into disorder as the death of a strict and prominent general, Ramón María Narváez, sparked a Liberal army rebellion of officers who had grown tired of church interference in politics being allowed by the Queen. The ruler Isabella fled abroad and a revolution in Spain followed. Generals promised votes for all, a free press and the abolition of all monastic orders. Spain became a republic for the first time in history. The nation fell into increasing chaos as the Republic failed to find an efficient leader, Separatists vied for independence and revolts heightened against the Church. Provinces, towns, even villages wished to be independent from Spain, causing further disputes and hatred of government. The contrary ideas of the Church, the Liberals and the Army all led to the trouble, yet it was the beliefs of the Anarchists which split Spain during the First and Second Republics. This group disliked all government and in their ideal world, nobody would give orders and the country would be an association of independent districts or societies[1]. In towns and countryside areas the conviction that all government was wrong spread and in parts where Churchmen were hated because of their friendship with the rich landowners, slogans such as ‘Property is theft’ and ‘God is evil’ echoed through the streets. Rallies and violent strikes in which the workers often did not wish to make an agreement with their employers became common. An example of which being in Cordova, 1905, where they demanded a seven-and-a-half hour rest during an eight hour day precisely because they knew their employers could not agree. Much of the disorder during the First Republic was caused by this destructive belief and encouraged much of the hatred which prompted the Civil War.