Andorra is a sovereign landlocked microstate believed to have been created by Charlemagne.
Andorra was ruled by the count of Urgell until 988, when it was transferred to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Urgell.
The present principality was formed by a charter in 1278. It is headed by two co-princes: the Bishop of Urgell and the President of France.
The Andorran Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1933, was a democratic uprising led by the Young Andorrans, a trade union related to the CNT-FAI, that called for political reforms, universal suffrage for all Andorrans and acted in defense of the rights of local and foreign workers during the construction of FHASA's hydroelectric power station in Encamp.
On April 5, 1933, the Young Andorrans seized the Andorran Parliament. These actions were preceded by the arrival of Colonel René-Jules Baulard with 50 gendarmes and the mobilization of 200 local militias or sometent led by the Síndic Francesc Cairat.
The interwar period in Andorra was characterized by a continuation of the economic crisis that arose in the second half of the 19th century. The country lived very precariously on the economy of the Ancien Regime. Although an attempt was made to outsource the economy, it did not take off and waves of emigration continued to decimate the population and its activity. Over time, the interwar period in Andorra meant an extension of the popular revolts and noble uprisings of the previous decade.
It was at this time that the country
saw a wave of protests with which, for the first time, it was possible
to implement universal male suffrage -authorized only to men of legal
age and Andorran nationality. This was an unprecedented fact because
before that the country was still living under the New Reformation
regime. Although it was a step forward to approve it, the New
Reformation was completely obsolete and inadequate with the turn of the
twentieth century. It continued to give the votes to a privileged few
and did not contemplate the participation of women. This meant that the
bulk of the population was excluded from being able to participate in
the country's politics.
More information: Govern d'Andorra (Catalan version)
The waves of Andorrans fleeing the Andorran economic situation to settle in France or Catalonia lead Andorran politics to see the so-called Revolution of 1933.
From outside the associations of Andorran emigrants virulently criticized the Andorran government's policy, through newspapers they brought new liberal and capitalist currents to Andorra. The General Council wanted to censor the opinion that was published abroad because it questioned the New Reformation.
Andorran politicians wanted to show that Andorra was a bucolic place, with the aim of avoiding any kind of foreign interference in Andorran affairs. The government tried to ban the collection of signatures that the emigrants carried out in Andorra, to give the right to vote to all adults and change the Constitution to transform Andorra into a constitutional monarchy.
From Catalunya there was widespread support for this change of regime and thanks to each other, the Pariatges and their feudal character began to be criticized for the first time. The establishment of the Spanish Republic did not change Castilian ambitions towards Andorra. The country continued to be treated as part of Spanish territory. Spain sought to eradicate the co-principality, while France tried to preserve it.
The construction of the FHASA hydroelectric plant changed the country's economic
course. The project was conceived as a mechanism for modernizing the
country and economic activation. Its presence did not broadly change the
country's politics, although it allowed the entry of new ideological
currents that until then had never set foot in Andorran soil: socialism,
communism and anarcho-syndicalism.
The universal suffrage granted to men managed to be approved, but the Spanish Civil War and subsequent WWII stopped the modernization and economic activation of Andorra. France and Spain have always considered Andorra their territory. It has been disputed practically since Andorra obtained the Pariatge. The beginning of the era of nationalism did not change this situation much. Castile within its concept of pan-Hispanic nationalism dubbed Andorra a Hispanic territory. France, within its concept of natural borders, treated Andorra as a French protectorate.
The Andorran protectorate regime made the governor the vicar and representative of the co-prince which should normally correspond. 20th century Andorrans had to register in France and the passport granted to them was protected by France.
Influenced by Catalanism, which found it incongruous that Andorra continues to be a fief, many Andorrans were taking steps to recognize Andorra as a separate nation-state. This is how the General Council addressed the League of Nations during the 1930s so that it could intervene in the Andorran affair in view of the paternalistic attitudes of Spain and France. At this time, Andorra achieved the Andorran national regime, which did not differ much from the national regime in the French colonies.
Spain claimed its right to conquest over Andorra and for this reason tried to influence education. Spain wanted to ban the Catalan Andorran schools. The desire to be and be independent ends up in the mood of Andorrans. Wanting to edit their own labels, looking to introduce a national system, would command on the Spanish school teachers looking to enter the Catalan school, addressing the United Nations, among others, are examples clear that Andorra did not want to belong to either side.
The Andorran position towards Catalanism was open, because many Andorrans defended the right of Catalans to self-determination, but contained, because the pan-Hispanic and pan-French projects clearly endangered the ill-defined status of Andorra.
Although from Catalunya, Andorra was seen as a separate and admirable country as it was the only independent Catalan state, this independence was more de jure than de facto. The refusal of the League of Nations to accept Andorra as a full member exemplified this.
Andorrans felt and saw themselves as a separate country.
None of this meant that Andorran politicians had to play the game of
ambiguity to preserve the status of a territory that is being challenged
everywhere. The Catalan press reported on various occasions that it was
necessary to get rid of the Pariatges and transform the
Andorran state into a republican regime. The currents of the time
influenced many Andorrans and for this reason there were many who were
committed to the Republic and the self-determination of Catalunya.
More information: BBC
France and Spain never accepted the Andorrans in favor of the Andorran republic. Any republican claim was interpreted by these two states as a direct influence of Catalanism. Both averse to any right to self-determination, France and Spain often left their differences aside to impose their will on the Andorran parliament, to avoid progress in the Andorran territory.
The construction of the hydroelectric power plant needed a significant mass of workers. The company hired more than two thousand workers. To reactivate domestic economic activity, the General Council wanted the company to hire Andorran staff. But in the end, much labor would be Spanish, French, Catalan or Galician.
Most of the technical positions, by contrast, were Swiss. Working conditions were terrible. The company increased working hours without consensus or agreement, workers had no days off or breaks, worked for an insufficient salary to survive and there were no hygienic conditions. Some ended up staying in the country, others left. There was a clear difference between the workers and technicians. The technicians earned twice as much as those who risked their lives building the plant.
It is these living conditions typical of the initial introduction of capitalism that Andorra seeks new ideological currents that until then had never set foot in national territory.
The workers of the power station belonged mostly to the Catalan Regional Labor Confederation, a subsidiary of the CNT, the anarchist union.
Catalan unions supported the demands of the power plant workers, who demanded decent living, hygiene and working conditions.
The Andorran parliament, which was made up of a bourgeois upper class, never saw the need to regulate the labor market and saw the workers' demands as a threat to the disappearance of the co-principality regime, with clear wills to transform Andorra into a Republic. The Andorran Youth Association joined the demands of the FHASA workers and because of this, the parliament found another rival.
For the Young Andorrans, the consultations with the co-princes were seen as another way to wrap up the exchange, so as not to respond positively to the request. From their point of view, it was incongruous to have to ask the co-princes for approval when the Andorran people represented in parliament should make the decision.
The Andorran delegations saw a form of vassalship and a waste of time. Sending personal letters among the co-princes was seen as one more way to waste even more time. The multitude of travel and bureaucratic letters was not necessary for a simple extension of the right to vote that had already been previously approved through a signature collection campaign.
More information: Study Country
For all this, the Young Andorrans, taking advantage of the fact that the Andorran police were busy repressing the FHASA strikes, burst into the Casa de la Vall on April 5, 1933, confiscating its keys, closing its doors and forcing parliament to approve the extension of the right to vote. The coup began with the reading of a manifesto in parliament:
-A democratic constitution that delimited the duties and obligations of the co-princes
-A constitution that guarantees the rights of the Andorran people
-Freedom of conscience, thought and word
-Guarantee of individual and collective rights
-Parliamentary sessions open to the public
-Voting age set at 23
-Approval of universal male suffrage
-Labor rights, female education, teaching in Catalan, without vetoing any other language
It started from then a tug-of-war with the General Council. Were it not for the usual interference, it was probable that the General Council would not yield. But it did and ended up approving the electoral reform from which universal male suffrage was established in Andorra. Young Andorrans began to spread the word.
More information: International Club of Andorra
The coup was very badly received by the delegations of the two co-princes. It was considered from France and the Vatican that its sovereignty was being disputed. That is, delegations did not tolerate an association being created with the power to make decisions over it. Moreover, they also did not accept the power of the Andorran parliament to approve the Law extending the right to vote. But the tug-of-war between parliamentarians and Young Andorrans bore fruit, the parliament agreed and ended up opposing the two co-princes of its own volition.
For everything, the French co-prince warned the parliament: either abolish the electoral reform or send a detachment of gendarmes to Andorra. The discrepancies are not saved and France finally sends its detachment of gendarmes. The Andorran parliament rebuked the French state for considering it as a subject and not as its own personality, which is why it decided to support electoral reform.
In the elections, two rival camps ran. Those in favor of changing the co-principality regime and making Andorra a sovereign state with a constitutional monarchy and those opposed to all this. The former would like universal suffrage for men, the latter do not want it. Unió Andorrana constituted the reconversion of the Young Andorrans into a political party. Opponents took the form of the Integral Nationalist Group.
The French gendarmerie remained patrolling Andorra by order of the co-prince. According to the official version, they had to guarantee calm, but the strikes in FHASA and the behavior of the Andorran and French police led them to conclude at that time that the gendarmerie were kept in place because they wanted to repress Andorran trade unionism. So much so that the beatings provided against FHASA protesters were popularly described as a punitive expedition.
The elections ended up giving an overwhelming victory to Integral Nationalist Group. Andorrans living in Andorra had never experienced the radical changes that were taking place abroad and, therefore, it was more than likely that the change in mentality of Andorran emigrants was not the same as non-emigrants.
More information: Andorramania
La saviesa no sempre va acompanyada pels anys.
Wisdom goes not always by years.
Andorran proverb
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