Rethinking the 1917 Military Juntas

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to reinterpret the 1917 Military Juntas, analyzing them within the framework of Dr. Villacorta Baños’ defense, twenty-five years ago, of the defensive corporatism that various professional and bureaucratic groups developed in opposition to the state and society during the last decade of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century. From this viewpoint, which up to the present has been ignored in studies of the military institution, we shall deny that the Juntas were just another of the many interventions of the Army to change the politics of the moment. On the contrary, we claim they represent a corporate movement aimed at defending the professional career of their associates, a career always questioned by the framework of cacique power abuse, which was the inner nature of the state during the Spanish Restoration; a problem the Army shared with the rest of public employees. Nonetheless, due to its extreme variety, the military corporation was unable to put together one single bargaining association. It was ultimately the scale, not the corps, which gave an aim to the divided junta movement. Thus, it propitiated the existence of various “Juntas” with corporate interests which were often conflicting. And so, instead of threatening the State with the powerful unity of the Army, they made their division evident, however much they tried to solve disagreements and settle conflicts.