Background
Was born in Alcalá de Henares, in New Castile, on January 10, 1880. He was educated at the college of the Augustinian Order at Escorial, and became one of the leading literary figures of Spain and, in 1930, president of the Madrid Ateneo. He organized the Republican Action Party, which helped overthrow King Alfonso XIII, and in the provisional government set up, April 14, 1931, with Niceto Alcalá Zamora as premier, Azaña became war minister. As champion of a movement to restrict clerical power and dissolve the Jesuit Order, he replaced Alcalá Zamora as premier in October 1931.