The Impact of Political Violence During the Spanish General Election of 1936

Abstract

Political violence was a significant force in Europe between the two world wars, and the Spanish Second Republic (1931–6) was no exception to this general trend. The purpose of this article is to analyse its role in the campaign leading up to the February 1936 general election – the last to be held prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. Without doubt, this election constituted a crucial moment in Spain’s new experiment with democratic competition, and for this reason, the presence and characteristics of violence during the campaign are useful tools for analysing the process of democratic consolidation and its peculiar features. Until the present, historians have possessed a certain amount of information on electoral violence in the Spain of February 1936, but this has remained incomplete and is poorly documented. Therefore, this study presents the results of a more thoroughgoing and systematic analysis of the subject, based on a rigorous examination of the available primary sources. In addition, it also introduces a reflection on the comparative prior context of interwar European politics.