The Contemporary Age

The nineteenth century in Asturies was shaped by growing industrialisation mainly funded by foreign capital invested in the mining sector. As a result of this investment and activity the first urban and industrial nuclei of central Astudes were formed, centres which were to radically transform the physiognomy of the landscape with the arrival en masse of workers from the rest of the country and abroad. Workers' organisations, in which anarchists and socialists were to play a large part, had their beginnings here, especially from the time of the huelgona or great strike of 1906, and the first general political strike, in 1917.
By the time of the proclamation of the Second Republic in 1931, Asturian workers and miners had achieved a high level of organisation. In October 1934 the Revolutionary Movement for the Defence of the Republic exploded on the scene, made up as much of left-wing parties as by Catalan nationalists who felt that the Republic was indeed in danger.
This movement was only to triumph in Asturies:from the fifth to the sixteenth of October the "Asturian Commune" was developed; workers organised in revolutionary committees moblilised an army of 30,000 men. Given the gravity of the situation, the government in Madrid commissioned Generals Goded and Franco to "pacify" the Asturian territory with African troops. After the workers' surrender and in spite of promises given, the repression was brutal.
The October revolution was in reality the prelude to the Civil War of 1936, in which Asturies, loyal to the Republic, was left in isolation and organised itself into the Sovereign Council of Asturies and León, which even minted its own currency. During the forty years of dictatorship under General Franco, Asturies was to have a crucial role in the fight for liberty, and the miners' strikes in the Spring of '63 were to draw the attention of the whole world as an authentic beacon of hope amid the repression. During this period the growth of the central region was incessant owing to the great iron, steel and mining complexes, particularly those which were state-owned, concentrating nearly 80% of the population in only 14% of the territory and accounting for over 90% of the net-added value of production.
From the eighties onwards the economic model based on the monocultures of iron and steel, mining and milk production underwent a sharp decline, and Asturies was declared a region of traditional industry, having the highest levels of unemployment in the whole of the European Union, which especially affected women and young people. At the present time Asturies is coming once again to itself through the general collective conviction that only through a sustainable development of its potential strengths will it be able to face up to the future.