*** Welcome to piglix ***

Niceto Alcalá Zamora

Niceto Alcalá-Zamora
Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12783, Alcala Zamora.jpg
6th President of the Spanish Republic
1st of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939)
In office
10 December 1931 – 7 April 1936
Prime Minister Manuel Azaña,
Alejandro Lerroux,
Diego Martínez Barrio,
Ricardo Samper,
Joaquín Chapaprieta,
Manuel Portela
Preceded by Francisco Serrano, 1st Duke of la Torre
(Alfonso XIII as King of Spain)
Succeeded by Manuel Azaña
Spanish Minister of War
In office
7 December 1922 – 28 May 1923
Monarch Alfonso XIII
Prime Minister Manuel García Prieto
Preceded by José Sánchez Guerra
Succeeded by Antonio López Muñoz
Spanish Minister of Public Works
In office
1 November 1917 – 21 March 1918
Monarch Alfonso XIII
Prime Minister Manuel García Prieto
Preceded by
Succeeded by Francesc Cambó
Personal details
Political party Liberal Party
(1899–1923)
Independent
(1923–1931)
Progressive Republican Party
(1931–1936)
Spouse(s) Purificación Castillo Bidaburu
Children 3 sons
3 daughters
Alma mater University of Granada
Profession Lawyer, teacher
Religion Roman Catholicism
Awards Order of Isabella the Catholic

Niceto Alcalá-Zamora y Torres (6 July 1877 – 18 February 1949) was a Spanish lawyer and politician who served, briefly, as the first prime minister of the Second Spanish Republic, and then—from 1931 to 1936—as its president.

Alcalá-Zamora was born in Priego de Cordoba, Spain, son of Manuel Alcalá-Zamora y Caracuel (brother of Gregorio (d. Madrid, 28 February 1894) and Luis (1833–1873)) and wife Francisca Torres y del Castillo (sister of Gloria, married to José de Torres y Ortega (b. Valdepeñas, 13 March 1833), and Enriqueta), paternal grandson of Gregorio Alcalá-Zamora y García and wife María de Santa Engracia Caracuel Serrano, and maternal grandson of Juan Manuel Torres y Baro and wife María del Rosario Castillo.

A lawyer by profession, from a very young age he was active in the Liberal Party. Chosen as a deputy, he quickly gained fame for his eloquent interventions in the Congress of Deputies, arriving to be minister of Public Works in 1917 and of War in 1922, comprised part of the governments of concentration presided over by García Prieto. He was also Spain’s representative in the League of Nations.

Disappointed by the acceptance on the part of the King, Alfonso XIII, of the coup d'état by General Miguel Primo de Rivera on 13 September 1923, Alcalá-Zamora did not collaborate with the new regime. After the departure of the dictator in 1930, he declared himself a republican in a meeting that took place on 13 April in the Apolo theatre of Valencia. He was one of the instigators of the Pact of San Sebastián. The failure of the military uprising (Revolt of Jaca) in Aragon of that same year sent him to prison, as a member of the revolutionary committee, but he left jail after the municipal elections of 12 April 1931. In these elections, although the monarchist candidates won more overall votes than the republicans did, the republicans did so well in the provincial cities that Alfonso soon abandoned power. Without waiting for a fresh election, Alcalá-Zamora put himself at the head of a revolutionary provisional government, becoming the 122nd Prime Minister, which occupied the ministries in Madrid on 14 April and which proclaimed the Second Spanish Republic.


...
Wikipedia

...