JAÉN

Agrarian struggles still happened at the beginning of the 20th and finished with the Civil War. They were very important in Jaen, but the most important ones were those that had the leading role of socialism movement.

Miguel Primo de Ribera, general and statesman who, as dictator of Spain from September 1923 to January 1930, founded an authoritarian and nationalistic regime that attempted to unify around the motto “Country, Religion, Monarchy”. The dictatorship had two periods: the first one, the Military Dictatorship, lasted from the uprising to January 1926. At this point in time the dictator decided, against public opinion, to transform his governance into a permanent institution. The second, the Civil Dictatorship, which finished in January 1930. There were few practical differences between the two periods, however, the main achievements occurred during the Military Dictatorship.

 

Besides this, in Jaén, Primo de Ribera inaugurated the Jardinillos Park.  

The Second Spanish Republic was the democratic regime that existed in Spain from 1931 to 1939, date when the Spanish Civil War finished and began the Franco’s dictatorship.

During the Spanish Civil War, the city of Jaén was loyal to the government of the Second Spanish Republic

 

Jaén suffered, during the war, strong bombing by fascist planes. The most serious bombing was the suffered on 1937, 1st April, when five Junkers of the Cóndor's Legion of the Nazi's army were sent to Jaén. Their mission was a punishment to the civil population from Jaén that supported the republican bombing in Cabra, Córdoba. While the Junkers were flying above the city, they left their mortal load. The population had not air defense, so the tragic balance was 159 death and 280 wounded.

During the Civil War in Jaén, Miguel Hernandez was very important because he actively participated in the communist newspaper called 'Frente Sur'. He lived in Llana's street, and nowadays, in the same street, there's a plaque that remembers this incident.

 

Jaén, like other cities of Spain, was under the 'White Terror' (also known as la Represión Franquista, the “Francoist Repression”). It was a series of acts of politically-motivated violence, rape, and other crimes committed by the nationalist movement during the Spanish Civil War and during Franco's dictatorship. The mass killings of members from different political parties started in the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and continued until 1945.

 

White Terror carried thought steps like repressive laws, executions and forced labors, fates of republican exiles, purges and labor discrimination, suppression of women's rights and marriage law.  Those steps were too strong, and people that come to Spain were shocked by the brutality of the Falangist repression.

 

The end of Franco’s dictatorship supposed a new thrust of the development of the city.