CONFERENCE: Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. The First Spanish Dictatorship of the 20th Century.

28 - 29 September 2023 | Josep Fontana Chair

1923 was the last year in which the political regime based on the 1876 Constitution inspired by Cánovas del Castillo was in force. The last eighties pronouncement led by the last of the “big swords”, General Miguel Primo de Rivera, would mean the end to the constitutional monarchy and the beginning of a dictatorship that promised to regenerate the nation and restore order, claiming that this was the only way to avoid the collapse of Spain. In the dawn of 12-13 September, the Captain General of the Fourth Military Region, that of Catalonia, took the troops to the streets, occupied the main government buildings in the city of Barcelona and published his “Manifesto to the country”.

One hundred years later, debates continue the fall of the regime of ‘76, between those who believe that it was already doomed, and those who argued that the last government of Manuel García Prieto was intended to end the political comedy that had characterised the political system initially devised by Cánovas del Castillo. Whether the Restoration was a “dying body” or a “newborn”, it cannot be denied that Primo de Rivera’s coup put a definitive end to the era of parliamentary government by means of an authoritarian solution. This needs to be framed broadly from an international perspective, in an inter-war crisis that left no European state unscathed.

For this reason, we are holding a conference with the participation of some of the most important experts on the subject. Our aim is to promote interesting historiographical debates that can shed light on this highly controversial episode in Spanish history.

PROGRAMA