born Oct. 15, 1869, Madrid, Spain
died March 23, 1946, Paris, France
Spanish socialist leader and prime minister (193637).
He joined the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party in 1894 and rose to become head of the party's trade-union federation in 1925. He cooperated with the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera , then served in the Second Republic as labour minister (193133). After the Popular Front 's election victory in 1936, he became prime minister and tried to unify the leftist parties; however, an extreme-left uprising in Barcelona in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War caused a cabinet crisis and he was forced to resign. He went into exile in France and was interned by the Germans in World War II (194245).