ABSTRACT
The officers concerned were convinced that they were acting to save their country from proletarian disorder inspired by foreign agents. In fact, they were protecting the reactionary landed oligarchy from sweeping reform of Spain’s antiquated economic structures. The belief gained currency in Spain, as it had done earlier in Italy and Germany, that the existing political order could no longer adequately guarantee the economic interests of the middle and upper classes. The fact that Spain was a non-belligerent put her in the economically privileged position of being able to supply both the Entente and the Central Powers with agricultural and industrial products. In the main, the great latifundia estates are concentrated in the central and southern regions of New Castile, Extremadura and Andalusia, although there are also substantial latifundios to be found scattered in Old Castile and particularly in Salamanca.
