1. Spain was considerably poorer after 5 years of the Second Republic and economic problems further destabilised the government. Spain's economic problems were part of the global depression, which affected countries across the world, but the Republic took blame. Many Spaniards turned to radicals on either the left or the right for a solution.
2. The International Political situation also weakened the authority of the Republic. In America, Britain and France, democracy appeared to be in trouble as democratic politics struggled to solve the problem of the Great Depression. Counries that had rejected democracy appeared to be doing much better.
2.1. E.g. Stalin's Russia was growing at a rate of 13% a year. There was much talk of a Nazi 'economic miracle' in Germany, where unemployment halved in the first 2 years of Hitler's government and continued to decline. We now know that these economic 'achievements' were not nearly as impressive as they seemed but, in the 1930s, radical anti-democratic regimes appeared to be succeeding where democratic nations failed.
3. The traditional battle between reactionaries and reformers continued during the Second Republic. The battle was still fought along class lines, with the workers and the peasants supporting the reforms that the aristocracy and many of the middle class opposed. But, for many on the right, the election of 1936 showed that Democracy could not be trusted to save Spain.
3.1. On the right, traditional Catholic feared that Spain was abandoning God's ways, landowners wanted to end land reform, business leaders felt threatened by the power of the unions and the army feared further national betrayal by weak politicians. The right were prepared to work within the rules of the Republic.
3.2. But, for many on the right, the election of 1936 showed that Democracy could not be trusted to save Spain. On the left, the growing influence of communists and anarchists further weakened the Republic. The anarchists wanted to destroy the capitalist Republic and replace it with a worker's state.
4. On both sides, the influence of moderates withered and the strength of the radicals grew. Even elements in the aristocracy began to radicalise, as large numbers of young aristocrats joined the Falange. As politics polarized, compromise became impossible and conflict appeared inevitable.
4.1. On the right, CEDA's Gil-Robles, who was formerly considered to be an extreme conservative, was eclipsed by the monarchist Calvo Sotelo, whose radical conservatism surpassed that of the CEDA right.
4.2. On the left, the 1936 May Day demonstrations in Madrid showed the popularity of revolutionaries such as Largo Caballero.
5. The landowners were afraid of the day labourers and saw them as a potentially revolutionary force.
5.1. There were serious tensions between the great landowners of the south - the latifundistas - and the day labourers who worked their farms for a pittance.
6. The middle class - who were numerically small and politically weak - feared that democracy would lead to radical socialism.
6.1. In the industrialised cities of the north, industrialisation and poor working class conditions led to the development of radical ideas among the working class.
7. The Church, landowners and monarchy saw trade union right, redistribution of land to the peasants and religious and political freedom as a threat to their position of power.
7.1. Before the Second Republic, political power was largely in the hands of those who did not support democracy: the landowners, Church and the monarchy.
8. Many people in Catalonia and the Basque Country wanted greater autonomy or total independence from Spain. As these regions were among the most industrialised in the country, this was seen as a significant threat by those who wanted Spain to remain as it was (military).
