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Alternative meaning: Spanish Civil War, 1820-1823

The Spanish Civil War (July 1936–April 1939) was a conflict in which the incumbent Second Spanish Republic and left-wing groups fought against a right-wing nationalist rebellion led by General Francisco Franco, who succeeded in overthrowing the Republican government and establishing a dictatorship. It was the result of the complex political, economic and even cultural divisions between what Machado famously characterized as the two Spains. Republican Spain represented those—mainly liberals, socialists, and Basque and Catalan nationalists—who defended the democratic principles of the Constitution of the Second Spanish Republic, as well as anarchists and some communists pursuing social revolution. Nationalist Spain represented the landed elite, the urban bourgeoisie, the Roman Catholic Church and conservative sectors. These two factions had become increasingly radicalised during the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939). The Republicans had a primarily urban, largely secular power base, while some other, more rural regions, also supported them. Particularly strong support for the Republicans came from Madrid, Catalonia and the somewhat conservative Roman Catholic Basque Country, partly because these regions were granted a strong autonomy during the Second Republic. The ultimately successful Nationals, led by Franco, had a primarily rural, religious and conservative power base in favor of the centralization of power. The military tactics of the war foreshadowed many of the actions of World War II.

File:Terualsiege.jpg

A Republican soldier seeks cover on the Plaza de Toros in Teruel, east of Madrid

While the war only lasted about three years, the political situation had already been violent for several years before. The number of casualties is disputed; estimates generally suggest that between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people were killed. Many of these deaths, however, were results not of military fighting but the outcome of brutal mass executions perpetrated by both sides. The war started with military uprisings throughout Spain and the Colonies, which were followed by Republican reprisals against the perceived allies of the rebels: the Church. There were massacres of Catholic clergy and churches, monasteries and convents were burned. Twelve bishops, 283 nuns 2,365 monks and 4,184 priests were murdered. ^[1] In the wake of the war, Franco's regime initiated a thorough cleansing of Spanish society of anything "red" or related to the Second Republic, including trade unions and political parties. Archives were seized, house searches were carried out, and unwanted individuals were often jailed, forced into exile, or killed.

Following the war, the Spanish economy needed decades to recover (see Spanish miracle). The political and emotional repercussions of the war reverberated far beyond the boundaries of Spain and sparked passion among international intellectual and political communities. Republican sympathizers proclaimed it as a struggle between "tyranny and democracy", or "fascism and liberty", and many idealistic youths of the 1930s who joined the International Brigades thought saving the Spanish Republic was the idealistic cause of the era. Franco's supporters, however, viewed it as a battle between the "red hordes" (of communism and anarchism) and "Christian civilization". But these dichotomies were inevitably oversimplifications: both sides had varied, and often conflicting, ideologies within their ranks.

Introduction

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Political background

File:Celebracion de la victoria electoral del Frente Popular en Madrid.jpg

Jubilant demonstration in Madrid after the Popular Front victory in the Spanish general elections of 16 February 1936

From 1934 to 1936, the Second Spanish Republic was governed by a center-right coalition that included the conservative Catholic Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (CEDA) as well as liberal politicans. This coalition had reached power by default after the conservative government had lost the municipal elections in 1934. In the face of widespread social unrest they fled. The internal contradictions in the government led to a limited ability to take action or make decisions. During this time, there were general strikes in Valencia and Zaragoza, street conflicts in Madrid and Barcelona, and a miners' uprising in Asturias, which was put down forcefully by the troops commanded by General López Ochoa and the Legionnaires commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Juan Yagüe, under the direction of Minister of War Diego Hidalgo. During this time, the government expended great efforts to annul the social gains that had been made in the previous years, especially in agrarian reform.

As internal disagreements mounted in the coalition, a radicalisation of the situation in the country was under way. Strikes were frequent, violence was rife, and communists and anarchists killed clergy, burned churches and persecuted people deemed to be conservative. After a series of governmental crises, the elections of February 16, 1936 brought to power a Popular Front government supported by the parties of the left and centre and opposed by those of the right. The new government was unstable, and on April 7 1936, President Niceto Alcalá-Zamora was deposed by the new Parliament, which named Prime Minister Manuel Azaña as the new President.

Foreboding the conflict: Salvador Dalí's *Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)*

During this period of rising tensions, according to official sources, 330 people were assassinated and 1,511 were wounded in politically-related violence; records show 213 failed assassination attempts, 113 general strikes, and the destruction of 160 religious buildings;^[2] the actual numbers may be higher. On 12 July 1936, José Castillo, a lieutenant in the Assault Guards and member of the Socialist Party, was murdered by a 'far right' group in Madrid. The following day a group of Assault Guards officers took revenge by murdering José Calvo Sotelo, a Member of Parliament and one of the leaders of the extreme anti-republican opposition, as well as a former finance minister under the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera. This assassination precipitated the following events.

File:Monumento Brigadas Internacionales en Universidad de Washington.jpg

Monument tribute in the University of Washington to the International Brigades, who defended in Spain the effective democratic order --emanated from the Constitution of the Spanish Republic-- against the attack of Mussolini, Franco and Hitler.

On July 17, 1936, the conservative rebellion long feared by the leftist Popular Front government of Prime-Minister Santiago Casares Quiroga began. Casares Quiroga, who had succeeded Azaña in the office, had in the previous weeks exiled the military officers suspected of conspiracy, including General Manuel Goded y Llopis and General Francisco Franco, sent to the Balearic Islands and to the Canary Islands, respectively. The rebellion was not only a military coup; it also had a substantial civilian component. The rebels had hoped to gain immediate control of the capital, Madrid, and all the other important cities of Spain. Seville, Pamplona, Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera, Córdoba, Zaragoza and Oviedo all fell under control of the Nationalists but failed in Barcelona and Madrid. Because of this, a protracted civil war ensued.

The active participants in the war covered the entire gamut of the political positions and ideologies of the time. The Nationalist side included the fascists of the Falange, Carlist and Legitimist monarchists; Spanish nationalists; and most conservatives. On the Republican side were most liberals, Basque and Catalan nationalists, socialists, Stalinist and Trotskyist communists, and anarchists of varying ideologies.

To view the political alignments from another perspective, the Nationalists included the majority of the Catholic clergy and of practicing Catholics (outside of the Basque region), important elements of the army, the majority of landowners, and many businessmen. The Republicans included most urban workers, peasants, and much of the educated middle class, especially those who were not entrepreneurs.

The leaders of the rebellion were the generals Francisco Franco, Emilio Mola, and José Sanjurjo. Sanjurjo was the unquestioned leader of the uprising, but he was killed in a plane crash on July 20 as he was going to Spain to take control of the rebel side. Franco, the overall commander of the Spanish army since 1933 and already a noted pro-Fascist, flew from the Canary Islands to the Spanish colonies in Morocco and took command there. For the remaining three years of the war, Franco was the effective commander of all the Nationalists.

One of the Nationalists' principal motives, claimed at the time of their initial uprising, was to confront the anticlericalism of the Republican regime and to defend the Roman Catholic Church, which was censured for its support for the monarchy and which many on the Republican side blamed for the ills of the country. In the opening days of the war, churches, convents, and other religious buildings were burnt without action on the part of the Republican authorities to prevent it. Articles 24 and 26 of the Constitution of the Republic banned the Jesuits, which deeply offended many of the Nationalists. Notwithstanding these religious matters, the Basque nationalists, who nearly all sided with the Republic, were, for the most part, practicing Catholics. Pope John Paul II later canonised several of these martyrs of the Spanish Civil War, murdered for being priests or nuns.

Foreign involvement

File:Mussolini and Hitler in 1936 The Rome-Berlin Axis.jpg

Image: Mussolini and Hitler in 1940. The Rome-Berlin Axis.

The rebellion was opposed by the government (with the troops that remained loyal to the Republic), as well as by Socialist, Communist and anarchist groups. The British government was officially neutral but still maintained an arms embargo on Spain and actively discouraged the anti-fascist participation of their citizens. The last president, Juan Negrín, hoped that with the beginning of the Second World War, the European powers (mainly Britain and France) finally would help the Republic, but neither Britain nor France, supported the Republic. Both fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini and Nazi Germany violated the embargo and sent troops (Corpo Truppe Volontarie and Legión Cóndor), aircraft, and weapons to support Franco. The Italian contribution amounted to over 60000 troops at the height of the war. In addition, there were a few volunteer troops from other nations who fought with the Nationalists, such as Eoin O'Duffy of Ireland, and including such romantic Catholic intellectuals as the poet Roy Campbell. On July 27, 1936 the first squadron of Italian airplanes sent by Benito Mussolini arrived in Spain.^[3]

Thanks to the Franco-British arms embargo, the Government of the Republic could receive aid and purchase arms only from the Soviet Union, which was thousands of miles away and in economic disarray itself. These arms included 1,000 aircraft, 900 tanks, 1,500 artillery pieces, 300 armored cars, hundreds of thousands of small arms, and 30,000 tons of ammunition (some of which was defective). To pay for these armaments the Republicans used US$500 million dollars in gold reserves. At the start of the war Spain had the world's fourth largest reserve of gold, about US$750 million [4], although some assets were frozen by the French government. While some have contended that the Soviet government was motivated by the desire to sell arms and that they charged extortionate prices [5], they also sent more than 2,000 personnel, mainly tank crews and pilots, who actively participated in the war, including in combat, on the Republican side [6]. Later, the "Moscow gold" was an issue during the Spanish transition to democracy. Mexico also aided the Republicans by providing rifles and food. Throughout the war, the efforts of the elected government of the Republic to resist the rebel army were hampered by Franco-British 'non-intervention', long supply lines and intermittent availability of weapons of widely variable quality.

File:Sello republica espanola.jpg

Seal of the Spanish Republic (1937)

Volunteers from many countries fought in Spain, most of them on the Republican side. 40,000 men and women fought in the International Brigades, organised in close conjunction with the Comintern to aid the Spanish Republicans. Others fought as members of the CNT and POUM militias.

'Spain' became the cause celebre for the left-leaning intelligentsia across the Western world, and many prominent artists and writers entered the Republic's service (as well a larger number of foreign left-wing working class men, for whom the war offered not only idealistic adventure but an escape from post-Depression unemployment). Among the more famous foreigners participating on the Republic's side were Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell, who went on to write about his experiences in Homage to Catalonia. Orwell's novel Animal Farm was loosely inspired by his experiences, and those of other Trotskyists, at the hands of Stalinists when the Popular Front began to fight within itself, as were the torture scenes in 1984. Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls was inspired by his experiences in Spain. The third part of Laurie Lee's autobiographical trilogy ('A Moment of War') is also based on his Civil War experiences, (though the accuracy of some of his recollections has been disputed). Norman Bethune used the opportunity to develop the special skills of battlefield medicine. As a casual visitor Errol Flynn used a fake report of his death at the battlefront to promote his movies.

However, while the Nationalists were receiving substantial overt aid in the form of arms and troops from Germany and Italy, the Republicans received no aid from any major world powers (e.g., Britain, France or the United States) besides the aforementioned Soviet contribution. Britain and France were deeply divided politically and had weak governments, while the United States was isolationist, neutralist, and unconcerned with what it saw as an internal matter in a European country. Many in these countries were also shocked by the violence practiced by anarchist and POUM militias - and reported by a relatively free press in the Republican zone - and feared Stalinist influence over the Republican government. Reprisals, assassinations and other atrocities in the rebel zone were, of course, not reported nearly as widely.

Germany and the USSR used the war as a testing ground for faster tanks and aircraft that were just becoming available at the time. The Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter and Junkers Ju 52 transport/bomber were both used in the Spanish Civil War. The Soviets provided Polikarpov I-15 and Polikarpov I-16 fighters. The Spanish Civil War was also an example of total war, where the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica by the Legión Cóndor, as depicted by Pablo Picasso in Guernica, foreshadowed episodes of World War II such as the bombing campaign on Britain by the Nazis and the bombing of Dresden by the Allies.

The war: 1936

File:GuerraCivil-Italia.jpg

Helping the Nationalist forces from the start of the conflict, the Italian government assembled troops, composed of "volunteers" for legal purposes, since the Kingdom of Italy never declared war against the Spanish Republic. A poster of the Republican forces urges Spaniards: "Rise up against the Italian invasion of Spain!".

For a fully detailed chronology see Spanish Civil War chronology 1936.

In the early days of the war, over 50,000 people who were caught on the "wrong" side of the lines were assassinated or summarily executed. The numbers were probably comparable on both sides of the lines. In these paseitos ("promenades"), as the executions were called, perpetrated by both sides, the victims were taken from their refuges or jails by armed people to be shot outside of town. Probably the most famous of these was the poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca. The outbreak of the war provided an excuse for settling accounts and resolving long-standing feuds. Thus, this macabre practice became widespread during the war in areas conquered by either side. In most areas, within each village, both sides committed these assassinations.

Any hope of a quick ending to the war was dashed on July 21, the fifth day of the rebellion, when the Nationalists captured the main Spanish naval base at Ferrol in northwestern Spain. This encouraged the Fascist nations of Europe to help Franco, who had already contacted the governments of Germany and Italy the day before. On July 26, Germany and Italy cast their lot with the Nationalists.

The Axis Powers helped Franco from the very beginning. His Nationalist forces won another great victory on September 27 when the city of Toledo was captured. A Nationalist garrison under Colonel Moscardo had held the Alcazar in the center of the city since the beginning of the rebellion. Two days later Franco proclaimed himself Generalísimo and Caudillo ("chieftain") while unifying the various Falangist and Royalist elements of the Nationalist cause. In October, the Nationalists launched a major offensive toward Madrid, but increasing resistance by the government and the arrival of "volunteers" from the Soviet Union halted the advance by November 8. In the meantime, the government shifted from Madrid to Valencia, out of the combat zone, on November 6.

On November 18, Germany and Italy officially recognized the Franco regime, and on December 23, Italy sent "volunteers" of its own to fight for the Nationalists.

The war: 1937

For a much more detailed chronology see Spanish Civil War chronology 1937

With his ranks being swelled by Italian troops and Spanish colonial soldiers from Morocco, Franco made another attempt to capture Madrid in January and February of 1937, but failed again. On February 21 the League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee ban on foreign national "volunteers" went into effect. The large city of Málaga was taken on February 8, and on April 28, Franco's men entered Guernica, in the Basque Country, two days after the bombing of that city by the German Condor Legion equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes (the legion arrived in Spain on May 7). After the fall of Guernica, the government began to fight back with increasing effectiveness.

In May, the government made a move to recapture Segovia, forcing Franco to pull troops away from the Madrid front to halt their advance. Mola, Franco's second-in-command, was killed on June 3, and in early July, despite the fall of Bilbao in June, the government actually launched a strong counter-offensive in the Madrid area, which the Nationalists repulsed with some difficulty.

File:GuerraCivil-Cruzada.jpg

The frequent and violent attacks by Republican forces on clergy, laity, and property of the Catholic Church led the Nationalist side to call the Spanish Civil War a modern-day Crusade. This Nationalist poster proclaims: "CRUSADE. Spain, spiritual guide of the world".

After that, Franco regained the initiative, invading Aragon in August and then taking the city of Santander (now in Cantabria). Two months of bitter fighting followed and, despite determined Asturian resistance, Gijón (in Asturias) fell in late October, which effectively ended the war in the North.

Meanwhile, on August 28, the Vatican recognized Franco under pressure from Mussolini, and at the end of November, with the Nationalists closing in on Valencia, the government moved again, to Barcelona.

The war: 1938

File:Italians leave Spain for home.jpg

The Italians marching through the streets of Cadiz on their way to the troopships for home. October 1938

For a much more detailed chronology see Spanish Civil War chronology 1938-1939

The battle of Teruel was an important confrontation between Nationalists and Republicans. The city belonged to the Republicans at the beginning of the battle, but the Nationalists conquered it in January. The Republican government launched an offensive and recovered the city, however the Nationalists finally conquered it for good by February 22. On April 14, the Nationalists broke through to the Mediterranean Sea, cutting the government-held portion of Spain in two. The government tried to sue for peace in May, but Franco demanded unconditional surrender, and the war raged on.

The government now launched an all-out campaign to reconnect their territory in the Battle of the Ebro, beginning on July 24 and lasting until November 26. The campaign was militarily successful, but was fatally undermined by the Franco-British appeasement of Hitler in Munich. The concession of Czechoslovakia destroyed the last vestiges of Republican morale by ending all hope of an anti-fascist alliance with the great power. The retreat from the Ebro all but determined the final outcome of the war. Eight days before the new year, Franco struck back by throwing massive forces into an invasion of Catalonia.

The war: 1939

For a much more detailed chronology see Spanish Civil War chronology 1938-1939

The Nationalists conquered Catalonia in a whirlwind campaign during the first two months of 1939. Tarragona fell on January 14, Barcelona on January 26 and Girona on February 5. Five days after the fall of Girona, the last resistance in Catalonia was broken.

On February 27, the governments of the United Kingdom and France recognized the Franco regime.

Only Madrid and a few other strongholds remained for the government forces. On March 28, with the help of pro-Franco forces inside the city (the infamous "fifth column" General Mola had mentioned in propaganda broadcasts in 1936), Madrid fell to the Nationalists. The next day, Valencia, which had held out under the guns of the Nationalists for close to two years, also surrendered. Victory was proclaimed on April 1, when the last of the Republican forces surrendered.

Social Revolution

Main article: Spanish Revolution.

In the anarchist-controlled areas, Aragon and Catalonia, in addition to the temporary military success, there was a vast social revolution in which the workers and the peasants collectivised land and industry, and set up councils parallel to the paralyzed government. This revolution was opposed by both the Soviet-supported communists and the democratic republicans. The agrarian collectives had considerable success despite opposition and lack of resources, as Franco had already captured lands with some of the richest natural resources. This success survives in the minds of libertarian revolutionaries as an example that an anarchist society can flourish under the right conditions — or at least under siege, oppositors may argue.

As the war progressed, the government and the communists were able to leverage their access to Soviet arms to restore government control over the war effort, both through diplomacy and force. Anarchists and the POUM were integrated with the regular army, albeit with resistance; the POUM was outlawed, falsely denounced as an instrument of the fascists. In the May Days of 1937, many hundreds or thousands of anti-fascist soldiers killed one another for control of strategic points in Barcelona, as George Orwell relates in Homage to Catalonia.

People

Figures identified with the Republican side

Norman Bethune
Manuel Azaña
Joaquín Arderíus
Buenaventura Durruti
Federico García Lorca
José Giral Pereira
Valentin Gonzalez
Ernest Hemingway
Miguel Hernández
Francisco Largo Caballero
André Malraux -French-
Diego Martínez Barrio
Jose Miaja
Juan Modesto
Juan Negrín
George Orwell
Indalecio Prieto
Vicente Rojo Lluch
Henri Rol-Tanguy (leader of Free French Forces during Paris uprising in 1944)
Dolores Ibarruri
Miguel de Unamuno

Journalists and spies

American pilots

Figures identified with the Nationalist side

Political parties and organisations

The Popular Front

The Popular Front was an electoral alliance formed between various left-wing and centrist parties for elections to the Cortes in 1936, in which the alliance won a majority of seats.

UR (Unión Republicana - Republican Union): Led by Diego Martínez Barrio, formed in 1934 by members of the PRR who had resigned in objection to Alejandro Lerroux's coalition with the CEDA. It drew its main support from skilled workers and progressive businessmen.
IR (Izquierda Republicana - Republican Left): Led by former Prime Minister Manuel Azaña after his Acción Republicana party merged with Santiago Casares Quiroga's Galician independence party and the PRRS (Socialist Radical Republican Party). It drew its support from skilled workers, small businessmen and civil servants. Azaña led the Popular Front and became President of Spain. The IR formed the bulk of the first government after the Popular Front victory, with members of the UR and the ERC.
- ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya - Republican Left of Catalonia): The Catalan faction of Azaña's Republicans, led by Lluís Companys.
PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español - Spanish Socialist Workers' Party): Formed in 1879, its alliance with Acción Republicana in municipal elections in 1931 saw a landslide victory that led to the King's abdication and the creation of the Second Republic. The two parties won the subsequent general election, but the PSOE left the coalition in 1933. At the time of the Civil War the PSOE was split between a right wing under Indalecio Prieto and Juan Negrín, and a left wing under Largo Caballero. Following the Popular Front victory it was the second largest party in the Cortes, after the CEDA; it supported the ministries of Azaña and Quiroga but did not actively participate until the Civil War began. It had majority support amongst urban manual workers.
- UGT (Unión General de Trabajadores - General Union of Workers): The socialist trade union. The UGT was formally linked to the PSOE and the bulk of the union followed Caballero.
- Federacion de Juventudes Socialistas (Federation of Socialist Youth)
PSUC (Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya - Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia): An alliance of various socialist parties in Catalonia, formed in the summer of 1936, controlled by the PCE.
JSU (Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas - Unified Socialist Youths): Militant youth group formed by the merger of the Socialist and the Communist youth groups. Its leader, Santiago Carrillo, came from the Socialist Youth but had secretly joined the Communist Youth prior to merger, and the group was soon dominated by the PCE.
PCE (Partido Comunista de España - Communist Party of Spain): Led by José Díaz in the Civil War, it had been a minor party during the early years of the Republic but came to dominate the Popular Front after Negrín became Prime Minister.
POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista - Worker's Party of Marxist Unification): A party of former Trotskyists formed in 1935 by Andreu Nin.
- JCI (Juventud Comunista Ibérica - Iberian Communist Youth): the POUM's youth movement.

Supporters of the Popular Front

Unión Militar Republicana Antifascista (Republican Anti-fascist Military Union): Formed by military officers in opposition to the Unión Militar Española.
Libertarian or Anarchist groups. The libertarians boycotted the 1936 Cortes election and initially opposed the Popular Front government, but joined during the Civil War, when Largo Caballero became Prime Minister.
- CNT (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo - National Confederation of Labour): The confederation of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions.
- FAI (Federación Anarquista Ibérica - Iberian Anarchist Federation): The federation of anarchist groups, very active in the Republican militias.
- Mujeres Libres (Free Women): The anarchist feminist organisation.
- FIJL (Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertarias - Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth)
Basque separatists.
- PNV (Partido Nacionalista Vasco - Basque Nationalist Party): A Catholic conservative party under José Antonio Aguirre, which campaigned for greater autonomy or independence for the Basque region. Held seats in the Cortes and supported the Popular Front government before and during the Civil War.
- ANV (Acción Nacionalista Vasca - Basque Nationalist Action): A socialist party which campaigned for independence for the Basque region.
- STV (Solidaridad de Trabajadores Vascos - Basque Workers' Solidarity): A trade union in the Basque region, with a strong Catholic tradition.
SRI (Socorro Rojo Internacional - International Red Aid): Organization allied with the Comintern that provided considerable aid to Republican civilians and soldiers.

Nationalists