Interprovincial Council of Santander, Palencia and Burgos Spanish: Consejo Interprovincial de Santander, Palencia y Burgos
Autonomous entity of  Spanish Republic
1937
Coat of arms
Location of Santander (red) within Old Castile
Capital	Santander
Status	Autonomous entity
Government	Interprovincial Council
• Type	Council republic
President
• 1937	Juan Ruiz Olazarán
Vice-President
• 1937	Alfonso Orallo Pérez
• 1937	Vicente del Solar Romero
Historical era	Spanish Civil War
• Santander Defense Council established	27 July 1936
• Established	8 February 1937
• Battle of Santander begins	14 August 1937
• Disestablished	26 August 1937
• Battle of Santander ends	17 September 1937
Subdivisions
• Type	Province
• Units	Santander, Palencia, Burgos
Preceded by Succeeded by Second Spanish Republic Spanish State

The Interprovincial Council of Santander, Palencia and Burgos was a governing body established on 8 February 1937 to coordinate the Republican areas in Cantabria (then officially called the Province of Santander), Palencia and Burgos during the Spanish Civil War. The council was dissolved in August 1937 after the occupation of the region by Nationalist forces.^[1]

Creation of the Interprovincial Council

Prior to the constitution of the Interprovincial Council, the Bank of Spain in Santander issued banknotes of different denominations; later the Council minted coins of one peseta and fifty cents.

With the outbreak of war in July 1936, Cantabria and the northern parts of Palencia and Burgos remained under Republican control, as well as the neighboring Asturias and Biscay, while most of Castilla feel under nationalist rule. On 27 July, a "War Committee" was formed to direct the war effort, while the "Santander Defense Council" was in charge of directing the regional government.

On 23 December, the government of the Spanish Republic decided to create three Interprovincial Councils to replace the Defense Councils in Asturias and León, Santander, Palencia and Burgos, and Aragon.^[2] Following this order of the central government, the Interprovincial Council of Santander, Palencia and Burgos was officially constituted on 8 February 1937.

The government of the Republic delegated to the Council all functions except those of law enforcement, press and radio censorship, as well as meetings and public demonstrations.^[2] Among other functions, the Council assisted refugees from neighboring provinces, evacuated children and refugees, provided food and weapons, and minted its own currency.

Composition of the Interprovincial Council

Following the guidelines of the Government of the Republic that determined that the number of councilors was double that of the provincial deputies, ^[2] The Interprovincial Council was made up of fourteen members, two of them from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Spanish: Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE), two from Mountain Workers Federation-General Union of Workers (Spanish: Federación Obrera Montañesa-Unión General de Trabajadores, FOM-UGT), two from the Republican Left (Spanish: Izquierda Republicana, IR), two from the National Confederation of Labor (Spanish: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, CNT), two from the Communist Party of Spain (Spanish: Partido Comunista de España, PCE), one from the Unified Socialist Youth (Spanish: Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas, JSU), one from the Federal Democratic Republican Party (Spanish: Partido Republicano Democratico Federal, PRD Fed.), one from the Republican Union (Spanish: Unión Republicana, UR) and one from the Iberian Anarchist Federation (Spanish: Federación Anarquista Ibérica, FAI). This composition resulted in six Socialists, four Republicans, three Anarchists and two Communists, of whom four belonged to the trade unions.

On 10 February 1937, the distribution of portfolios of the council was published in the Official Gazette of the Province:

End of Council

The end of the Interprovincial Council came with the military setbacks of the republican forces in the summer of 1937. The last agreements made during those days corresponded to a request for arms for the defense of the region and food with which to alleviate the situation of the population,^[3] aggravated by the arrival of refugees from the nationalist-occupied areas.

With the fall of Santander on 26 August 1937 and the evacuation of the authorities to Asturias, the council was dissolved.

See also

• Regional Defence Council of Aragon
• Sovereign Council of Asturias and León

References

Bibliography

• Ruiz Martínez, J.R. (1985). Consejo Interprovincial de Santander, Palencia y Burgos, El" (in Spanish) (Edit. Cantabria SA ed.). Santander: Gran Enciclopedia de Cantabria. pp. 35–36. ISBN 84-86420-03-2.