Catalan autonomist campaign of 1918–1919

"[1] We, from this Catalonia... systematically eliminated from any active intervention in the government of Spain, we, treated as separatists and localists, we to the other Spaniards of good faith, to those who feel their souls oppressed by the current impotence and wish to elevate their land to a greater internal and international dignity, we point out the obstacle: this enervating, exhausting struggle, unconscious at times, well aware now, between a predominant nationality and others that do not resign themselves to disappear; and we invite you to close this period, to harmoniously unite the Spanish nationalities with one another and all with the State, in such a way that each one freely governs its internal life and all have the participation that corresponds to their importance in the direction of the community, making Spain, in this way, not the sum of a people and the spoils of other peoples, but the living, powerful resultant of all the Spanish nations, whole, as God has made them, without mutilating them first, tearing from them the language, the culture, the personality, which are the root of their strength.

[...] Do not have any illusions in Madrid; the question of Catalonia will not be solved with violence, nor with KulturKampf, nor with betrayals of former patriots, nor with the political skills of rulers who are masters at winning elections by imprisoning opposing voters and distributing favors and threats in violation of all laws.

In March 1916, the Regionalist League published the manifesto Per Catalunya i l'Espanya Gran, written by Prat de la Riba —who would die the following year— and signed by all the deputies and senators of the party.

The solution was the recognition of the autonomy of Catalonia, "a work of justice" and "of the highest convenience" and to put an end to the assimilationist policy, which would make possible the authentic unity "of all Spaniards, whole, just as God has made them", converted into a "peninsular empire of Iberia" —which also implied the integration of Portugal—.

In the declaration they approved, signed even by Alejandro Lerroux, it was stated "that it is the general will of Catalonia to obtain a regime of broad autonomy" and a federal structure was demanded in accordance with "the reality of Spanish life", which would increase "its organic cohesion" and develop "its collective energies".

[7] That same day Cambó was called to the Palace to meet with the king, who accepted his proposal to form a "concentration government" which would be presided over by the liberal Manuel García Prieto and which would include a minister from the League, Joan Ventosa.

[12] At the beginning of November 1918, on the occasion of the end of the First World War, several allied and hostile demonstrations to the monarchy were held in Barcelona, together with rallies called by radical Catalan nationalist groups.

On November 10, when the news of the abdication of the German Kaiser spread, Francesc Layret asked the Commonwealth to call an assembly of town councils to request the League of Nations to intervene in favor of Catalonia.

[14] According to the historian Javier Moreno Luzón, "Alfonso XIII was convinced that only the League, satisfied with some autonomic potion, could dissuade the masses and stop the imminent revolution in Barcelona, a transcript of the Russian or German ones".

The Catalan leader of the CNT Salvador Seguí said in a meeting held on January 12, a few days before he was arrested by the police taking advantage of the suspension of constitutional guarantees decreed by the Romanones government.

Nor do we want to play into the hands of the central power, since the latter is only waiting for the occasion when the men of autonomy are impotent or for any other reason, to deny its concession, on the pretext that they cannot dominate nor know how to govern the diverse elements that make up Catalonia.The committee appointed by the Commonwealth prepared the draft of the bases in just a few days.

[28] However, in Barcelona the Aragonese Regionalist Union was formed and organized an act of support for the Catalan autonomist campaign, in which the deputy for Zaragoza of the Radical Republican Party Manuel Marraco Ramón intervened and said that if Catalonia achieved autonomy it would favor Aragon.

[31] In July 1918, when the end of the "Great War" was near, the Committee Pro Catalonia was formed with people from the Unió Catalanista, chaired by the director of the magazine La Tralla, Vicenç Albert Ballester, inventor of the Estelada, the flag of the new Catalan nationalist independence movement.

Therefore, the Count remained calm and Cambó had an unpleasant surprise when he found that the person he thought was going to be his main supporter —Wilson, president of the United States— simply ignored his proposals because he already had to negotiate more than a few issues throughout Europe.

After Maura's intervention, Cambó wrote a letter to the king on December 12 in which he terminated the secret agreement adopted a month earlier[38] and in which he justified the withdrawal from the Cortes of the great majority of Catalan deputies and senators as a sign of protest against the rejection of the autonomy of Catalonia, a gesture that was very much disapproved by the dynastic parties.

In the letter Cambó wrote:[39]The result of yesterday's session means the failure of all our actions in Spanish politics and the abandonment of all hope that the Catalan problem could have the solution in which I had placed all my illusions.

Think of the immense responsibility that weighs on you as you are almost the only ones in general Spanish politics who maintain in your convictions and in your feelings this compatibility.The following day, December 13, there were demonstrations in Barcelona in support of autonomy, harshly repressed by the police.

The incident was magnified by the military press of Madrid and caused great indignation among the officers of the garrison of Barcelona as the captain general of Catalonia Jaime Milans del Bosch immediately made known to the government of Romanones.

[45] In the second half of December there were rallies in favor of autonomy, in which, together with the Republicans, the Socialists Francisco Largo Caballero and Julián Besteiro took part, as well as attempted demonstrations which ended with the intervention of the police.

On December 18, a group of Spanish nationalists attacked the demonstrators with sticks without the police intervening, and the following day they forced to shout "Viva España" to those who cheered "Catalunya lliure", threatening them with pistols.

Thirdly, the mixed and parity commission established in the bases, which was in charge of settling conflicts of competences, was renounced, passing this power to the Spanish Parliament, so that it was left to be both judge and party.

Between January 11 and 26, 1919, while the draft of the Statute of the Commonwealth was being elaborated, practically every day the attempts of demonstration of the Catalan nationalist groups to the cry of "Visca Catalunya Lliure" and the police charges to prevent them returned to the center of Barcelona.

On January 17 a large group of the Patriotic League, among them army officers stationed in Barcelona, burst into a theater at the moment when those gathered were singing the hymn Els Segadors and began to shoot.

But in vain do these elements want to disengage themselves from the campaign of the unions, to which they involuntarily lend help with their rebellious attitude; their issues are different, but the abnormality receives the incentive from both sides, and thus we see the government turn with the same haste to the two sources of disturbance, entrusting to a committee the drafting of the regional statute and immediately ordering the Institute of Social Reforms to study new improvements for the working class.After the suspension of the guarantees, the violence of the groups of the Spanish Patriotic League did not stop.

On Sunday, January 27, while the act of ratification by the municipal delegates of the draft Statute of the Commonwealth was being held in the Palacio de la Música, the last violent confrontations took place.

Finally, Romanones closed the Cortes on February 27 —precisely the day on which the Catalan plebiscite proposal was to be voted—, taking as a pretext the social conflict that had broken out in Barcelona as a result of the La Canadiense strike.

Moreover, it should not be forgotten that the Spanish National Monarchist Union (UMN) had just been formed, which constituted a serious threat to the hitherto hegemonic Regionalist League and to the autonomist movement, which until then had had almost all the Catalan parliamentarians of the dynastic parties.

[62] "During the four years that followed the events of 1919, the existence of the UMN, together with the predominance of the periods of exception, which were directed against the CNT but restricted general political freedoms, made it impossible to rebuild the autonomist front to raise again the demand for a statute.

[63] In conclusion, according to historian Borja de Riquer, the extra-parliamentary commission presided over by Antonio Maura drew up a draft Statute that was very limited and therefore unacceptable to the Catalan deputies who had returned to Congress.

[65] On the other hand, the failure of the League favored the emergence of other more radical Catalan nationalist groups such as the Federació Democràtica Nacionalista of Francesc Macià, which would generate Estat Catalá, the Partit Republicà Català of Lluís Companys and Marcelino Domingo and the Socialist Union of Catalonia.