Manuel Azaña

Dr. Manuel Azaña (1880 - 1940) was the second and last President of the Second Spanish Republic. He had previously served as Defence Minister in the first government of the Second Spanish Republic (April-June 1931), Prime Minister between June 1931 and September 1933, and President of the Republic (May 1936 - April 1939).

He studied in the Complutensian School, the Cisneros Institute and the Agustinos of El Escorial. He became a Lawyer by the University of Zaragoza in 1897, and a doctor in 1900. In 1909 he achieved a position at the Main Directorate of the Registries and the Profession of notary. In 1911 he travels to Paris. He collaborates in newspapers like El Imparcial and El Sol. He directed the magazines Pluma and Spain between 1920 and 1924. He was secretary of the Ateneo de Madrid (1913-1920) and becoming its president in 1930. On 1926, he founded Acción Republicana.

After his liberation in January of 1935, it initiated a political campaign that gave rise to the creation of the Popular Front, a leftist coalition that won the elections of February of 1936. In May of that year, he was chosen President of the Republic, a position that he occupied during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). He died in exile in Montauban , France on 3 November 1940.