19th and early 20th century The
anarchist movement reached
Spain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, spreading from the coast of
Cádiz and
Málaga into the shores of the
Guadalquivir. Anarchism became especially popular among the
jornaleros of Andalusia, as the liberal agrarian reform implemented in the early XIXth century proved especially harsh for the south of Spain, resulting in short term leases and large numbers of peasants being left without access to plots of land on which to cultivate crops, which by 1860 numbered 450.000. This resulted in multiple revolts in different Andalusian villages like
Arahal, Utrera (both in 1857),
Loja (1861),
Montilla (1873) and
Jerez de la Frontera (1892) which featured calls for
republican and
democratic reforms. Anarchism also became popular amongst the miners of the
British owned Rio Tinto mines and the French owned
Peñarroya mines. The situation became more and more tense starting in the 1870s when the
Spanish Regional Federation of the IWA was formed and around 1913 to 1914 the strategy of general strikes was consolidated amongst the worker's organizations of Andalusia while a synthesis of
anarcho-communism and
collectivist anarchism was endorsed by various provincial worker's committees of the recently constituted
National Federation of Farmers (which would later join the
CNT in 1919). The
1917 general strike initially only affected the mining and industrial sectors, however by the end of 1918 and the start of 1919 the agricultural sector was also affected with
Córdoba being one of the most affected provinces, while in Cádiz the most affected towns were
Jerez de la Frontera,
Sanlúcar de Barrameda and
Arcos de la Frontera. Between 1914 and 1920, the province of Cádiz saw 74 agrarian strikes accompanied by irrational and extraordinary enthusiasm. On 15 April 1931, the
provisional government of the Second Spanish Republic promised to carry out an agricultural reform to save the Spanish peasantry which up until that point had been abandoned by the government.
Anarchist Insurrection of January 1933 In a regional plenary of the CNT held on the 1st of December 1932 in Madrid, the syndicate of railway workers requested the support of the CNT to declare a
general strike to demand an increase in wages. However, the syndicate ended up retracting since more than half of its filials thought the strike would result in failure, despite this the Regional Defense Committee of
Catalonia retook the idea proposed by
Juan García Oliver, who was willing to put "revolutionary gymnastics" into practice, which consisted of an insurrection to prevent the consolidation of the "Bourgeois Republic". The date chosen was the 8th of January 1933. The insurrection was largely a failure. Before it had even began, the
Civil Guard found a stash of 185
improvised explosives being manufactured in a clandestine workshop under Mallorca Street in
Barcelona. The subsequent investigations led to the
FAI and the discovery of documents detailing the shipment of explosives allowed the gendarmerie to subsequently detain and disarm several of the revolutionaries involved. Despite this the revolution went ahead. In
La Felguera, several bombs were detonated on the local mines and the homes of the foremen who worked there while in
Sama de Langreo a bomb was planted on the road as a truck carrying members of the
Security and Assault Corps went by, though it failed to detonate on time. Meanwhile in
Madrid, the Civil Guard arrested 36 anarchists attempting to make their way to the city center. In Valencia, some anarchist syndicates went on strike after some revolutionaries managed to detonate three explosive devices before being arrested by the Civil Guard as well as carrying out a failed assassination attempt against the governor of Valencia,
Luis Doporto, trying to block the
tram network and placing explosives on a
railway line which were defused by a civil guard who ripped the lit fuse from the explosive before it detonated. During the follow up arrests, a policeman was shot and killed. Other similar incidents took place in several villages like
Pedralba,
Alcira,
Algemesí,
Tabernes de Valldigna,
Bétera,
Fuenterrobles,
Mira,
Bugarra,
Cerdanyola,
Ripollet,
Sallent,
Tarrassa and
Monteagudo where the anarchists attempted to seize the local town halls, besiege the Civil Guard
garrisons, sever communications and in some cases destroy the local churches with varying degrees of success. In Barcelona, policemen were placed in key positions armed with
carbines as a deterrent. Numerous improvised explosives were detonated across the city as anarchists tried to assault factories and
army bases while others tried to requisition civilian vehicles for quicker movement within the city. Once the failure of the revolution was evident some turned to individual attacks, murdering a
mosso and an assault guard while others resorted to barricading themselves within their syndicalist headquarters to hold out as long as possible. In Andalusia, anarchists rose up in the capital of Seville and the town of
La Rinconada and
Alcalá de Guadaíra,
Las Cabezas and
Lebrija as well as in
Granada,
Motril,
Sanlúcar de Barrameda,
Medina Sidonia and
Cádiz. In Cádiz, the revolt was started prematurely as security forces attempted to arrest a football player. During the ensuing riot, a worker was shot and killed. The local anarchist syndicate called for a strike before the set date in protest. In the following funeral, the presence of Civil Guards sent to prevent further disturbances resulted in another confrontation as members of the funeral procession assaulted them, with another worker being wounded after being hit by a stray round while running away from a charge. Violence spread to the rest of the town as anarchists took to the rooftops to shoot or hurl objects at the civil guards attempting to restore law and order and suppress the uprising. This, along with confusing reports of revolts in several surrounding villages led the local governor to formally request the assistance of a detachment of the Security and Assault Corps from Madrid, which would be sent under the command of Captain
Manuel Rojas. == Incident ==