Editing History of Catalonia (section)

=== Republic and autonomy ===
{{Main|Autonomous Region of Catalonia (1931-1939)}}
[[File:Proclamació Segona República Francesc Macià. Amadeu Aragay. 14 abril 1931.jpg|thumb|left|[[Francesc Macià]] proclaiming the Catalan Republic on 14 April 1931 in Barcelona]]
After the fall of Primo de Rivera, the Catalan [[left-wing politics|left]] made great efforts to create a united front under the leadership of left-wing independentist leader [[Francesc Macià]], founder of Estat Català. The ''Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya'' ([[Republican Left of Catalonia]], or ERC) represented a break with the electoral abstentionism that, until then had been characteristic of the Catalan workers. Advocating moderate [[socialism]], [[republicanism]] and Catalan [[self-determination]], the party achieved a spectacular victory in the municipal elections of 12 April 1931, which preceded the 14 April proclamation of the [[Second Spanish Republic]]. After a brief proclamation of the [[Catalan Republic (1931)|Catalan Republic]] (14–17 April) by the ERC leader, Francesc Macià,<ref>Roglan, Joaquim (2006). ''14 d'abril: la Catalunya republicana (1931-1939)''. Cossetània Edicions, p. 13 {{ISBN|8497912039}}</ref> the [[Generalitat of Catalonia]] was revived as an autonomous government, and a [[Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 1932|Statute of Autonomy]] for Catalonia was approved on 9 September 1932 by the Cortes of the Republic after many discussions and political difficulties that considerably amended the original project. The Statute gave a strong, though not absolute, grant of self-government, and declared Catalan as official language in Catalonia alongside Spanish.<ref>Abelló Güell, Teresa: [https://www.parlament.cat/document/cataleg/47988.pdf ''El debat estatutari del 1932''] Parliament of Catalonia</ref> A similar statute granted autonomy to the [[Basque Country (autonomous community)|Basque Country]], few years later. The [[Parliament of Catalonia]] [[1932 Catalan regional election|was elected on 20 November 1932]], and ERC won a large majority of seats, while the Regionalist League, almost hegemonic during the Monarchy, came in second place but far behind ERC.<ref>* [http://www.historiaelectoral.com/e1932.html 1932 Parliament of Catalonia election in ''Historia Electoral'']</ref>

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| image2 = Luis Companys, gobernador civil de Barcelona, en Mundo Gráfico 1931-04-29.jpg
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| footer = Left: [[Francesc Macià]], first President of the restored Generalitat of Catalonia (1931–1933)  Right: [[Lluís Companys]], second President of the Generalitat (1933-1940), executed by Franco's regime
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Under its two presidents, [[Francesc Macià]] (1931–1933) and [[Lluís Companys]] (1934–1939), the Republican Generalitat, democratically led by the left, carried out a considerable task in different areas such as culture, health, education and civil law, despite the serious economic crisis that the Republic inherited, its social repercussions, the low fiscal autonomy granted by the Statute, and the political vicissitudes of the period. On 25 December 1933 Macià died and the Parliament appointed Companys as new president. Under his presidency, the Parliament continued to legislate in order to improve the living conditions of the popular classes and the petite bourgeoisie, approving laws like the [[Crop Contracts Law]], which protected the tenant farmers and granted access to the land they were cultivating, but it was contested by the Regionalist League and provoking a legal dispute with the Spanish government led by [[Ricardo Samper]], rising the tensions. Meanwhile, the Generalitat established its own Court of Cassation (Catalan: ''[[Tribunal de Cassació]]'')<ref>Roca i Trias, Encarna. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140407101706/http://www.ajilc.cat/noticies/E.%20Roca%20article%20Puig%20Salellas.pdf ''El tribunal de Cassació de la Generalitat republicana: La història d'una tradició prohibida''], 2009, 18 pages from a conference</ref> and assumed executive powers in public order. The Statute was suspended in 1934, due to [[Events of 6 October|an uprising]] in Barcelona on 6 October of that year. President Companys proclaimed the [[Catalan State (1934)|Catalan State of the Spanish Federal Republic]], as a response to the accession of right-wing Spanish nationalist party [[CEDA]] to the government of the Republic. The CEDA was considered close to [[fascism]] and, therefore, they feared that it was the first step of this party to suppress the autonomy and take the power in Spain as [[Hitler]] and [[Dollfuss]] made in Germany and Austria. The proclamation was quickly suppressed by the Spanish army, and the Catalan Government members were arrested.<ref>{{cite journal| last1=Finestres| first1=Jordi| last2=López| first2=Manel| title = Entre la revolució i l'estelada| journal=Sàpiens| year=2014| location=Barcelona| language=ca| issn=1695-2014|pages=31–32}}</ref>

As for the workers' movement, there was a crisis in the CNT (the greatest trade union in Catalonia at the time) with the break-away faction in the 1930s<ref>{{cite book |last1=Horn |first1=Gerd-Rainer |title=European Socialists Respond to Fascism: Ideology, Activism and Contingency in the 1930s. |date=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-509374-7 |page=56}}</ref> and its hostility against the Republic as a bourgeoisie regime growth, realizing demonstrations, [[general strike]]s and proclamations of the libertarian communism in some places like in the Alt Llobregat mining area in 1932, while the Marxist parties were progressively unified with the formation of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ({{langx|es|link=no|Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista}}, [[POUM]]) in September 1935 and [[Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia]] (Catalan: ''Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya'', PSUC) in July 1936.<ref>[http://psuc.cat/historia/ History] psuc.cat</ref>

After the electoral victory of the left in the [[1936 Spanish general election|Spanish general election of February 1936]] the government of the Generalitat was pardoned and reinstated in their functions.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pagès i Blanch |first1=Pelai |title=War and Revolution in Catalonia, 1936–1939|date=2013|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-9004254275|pages=16–17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IfZ0AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA16|access-date=16 March 2018}}</ref> The period between that event and the military rebellion of July 1936 is considered as relatively peaceful in Catalonia, in contrast with the rest of Spain.{{sfn|Fontana|2014|pp=352}} The Parliament restored their legislative activities and the government prepared the [[People's Olympiad]] in Barcelona, as a response against the [[1936 Summer Olympics]] held in [[Berlin]], which was then under control of [[Nazi Germany]], but the same day of its planned inauguration (19 July), the Spanish Army carried out a partially failed coup d'état which led to the [[Spanish Civil War]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Movement to Boycott the Berlin Olympics of 1936 |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007087 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202095138/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007087 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 February 2014 |website=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=16 February 2019}}</ref>