Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella (January 8, 1870 - March 16, 1930) was a Spanish dictator, aristocrat, and a military official who was appointed Prime Minister by the King and who for seven years (1923 1930) was a dictator, ending the turno system of alternating parties. Miguel Primo de Rivera was born into a landowning military family of Jerez de la Frontera. His father was a retired colonel. His uncle, Fernando, was Captain General in Madrid and the soon-to-be first marquis of Estella. Fernando later participated in the plot to restore the constitutional monarchy in 1875, ending the tumultuous First Republic. The young Miguel grew up as part of what Gerald Brenan called "a hard-drinking, whoring, horse-loving aristocracy" that ruled "over the most starved and down-trodden race of agricultural labourers in Europe." Studying history and engineering before deciding upon a military career, he won admission to the newly created General Academy in Toledo, and graduated in 1884.