Spanish Civil War

Spain before

• fragmented (regional and localism)

• Political right: traditional conservative triad of landowners

• Catholic church had a lot of influence

• Lots of contrasting political views

Latifundia

Southern Spain, large landowners, landless peasantry, serfs, anarchist or socialist

Multifundia

Northern Spain, small landholding peasantry, largely conservative.

Lack of Spanish Nationalism

Education is handled by the Catholic Church, military failure, minuscule middle class

Disaster of ‘98

Spanish American War, left Spain with a global identity crisis

Anarcho-syndicalism

decentralized, worker control of factories, stock and trade of unions - shorter work weeks, higher wages, and better working condition

• popular in urban environments

Anarchism

land distribution, decentralized authority, and feedom from taxes

• political ideiology strong in poor, rural areas

Primo de Rivera

Appointed as leader by the failing king, Alfonso XIII to reestablish order, bans all languages but Spanish and imprisons and persecutes dissidents

Wars in Morocco

Military victory → launches Franco into fame

• Victory of Spanish catholicism over their moorish enemies.

San Sebastian Agreement

Left wing organizes in favor of a new republic - 2nd republic

New elections are called for, end of monarchy.

Progressive Government

President Azana

Ambitious reforms/modernization

Sanjuro Coup

Spanish general attempts to overthrow Azana, he is exiled.

Azana’s government

Leader after the fall of the monarchy: Alfonso XIII

• laws protecting tenants from eviction, encouraged collectives and cooperatives

• split the church and state

• Reduced Military budget

• Land redistribution

• majority of ordinary people were dissatisfied, but it didn’t impact rural Spaniards

• During the election of 1933, the right wing coalition was put in power, reversed the reforms → distrust in the democractic system

Sanjurjo uprising

The Civil Gaurd rose in rebellion of the Azana Government. This revolt was quickly put down.

Comintern

Communist International, used to coordinate and promote the spread Marxist-Lenin ideas

• Known as the Popular Front

Conservative Government

“Dark Years”

• Lead by CEDA/ Gil Robes

Asturias revolution: socialist revolution, partially successfuL

• Government reacts with a violent crackdown and banning unions

Election Cooperation

the Spanish left joined forces and didn’t run candidates against each other. This was so that they wouldn’t split the left vote and allow the right to stay in power

• still had political and ideological differences, didn’t go beyond electoral tactics

Popular front

The right wing CEDA, raised the alarm of a communist takeover

Azana was elevated to president

• Divided the prominent voices from the right

Calvo Sotelo murdered

Right wing monarchist politician, prompted the generals military insurrection.

Generals uprising

Insurrection by the right against the popular front. Didn’t go smoothly but the republican government didn’t act fast enough to crush the revolt

• the National Guard was used by the left to fight, sometimes the national guard would join the left

• Ended up being a failure but it did empower and armed a variety of political parties

• Realized that the government was too poorly organized to establish control and defend itself.

Start of the Civil War

At first the left and right had similar numbers of troops but the republicans soon began to gain a numeric superiority.

• Nationalists had a distinct advantage

The Republicans

Lead by Azana and his Prime ministers Caballero and Negrin

elements of the military loyal to the government and militias associated with working class organizations.

• Communists

• supported the left-leaning popular front

Command was chaotic and fragmented

Had Ideological differences

Was supported by the soviets: provided arms and men

May Days

Pitted the Communist left part with the anti-stalinist marxist left party, distracted them from fighting the national party

Largo Caballero’s government didn’t survive replaced by Negrin as PM

The Nationalists

volunteers from right-wing organizations, local militias, and Moroccan troops

supported by the Catholic church

Lead by General Franco

was more uniformed and had better weapons → supplied by Germany and Italy

The blue shirts

Carlists

Lead the 3 Carlist wars (1833-1876) to support the male bourbon ruler of the throne, Isabella II was her heirs were seen as illegitimate

Falange

The Fascist party in Spain, started by Rivera but spread by Franco. During Franco’s rule it was the only legal party.

General Franco

Lead the Nationalist party in the Spanish Civil War

The International Brigades

The USA and Britain adopted non-intervention policies but supported the Nationalists

Represented countries from all over the world: USA, Britain, France, and Canada but mainly organized by the communists and Comintern

seen as a battle against the spread of communism

German Support

Hilter supported the Nationalists to stop the spread of communism

• most notably an air force

Italian Support

Mussolini supported the Nationalists with the deal that the spanish would help the Italians during war

Soviet Support

The soviets helped the Republicans, providing tanks and planes

Neutrality acts

The US and western Europe didn’t support eaither side due to the creation of the non-intervention treaty: the US, britain, and france.

Bilbao and the north

The nationalists captured the basque region in the north of spain and it’s major industrial centre. The Basque region was weake bc it’s geographically isolated.

Badajoz

Key battle near Portuguese border, republican stronghold near Nationalist zone of control. Nationalists take control.

Guernica

The German Condor Legion launched an air attack on this Basque city, arranged by Franco and a German commander

• start of terror bombing

• the nationalist press created an elaborate story blaming it on the Basques.

Madrid

Franco was unable to remove the republicans from here, but they couldn’t take it from the republican party and the International Brigades.

Jarama

The Nationalists tried to take this river to cut off communication to Madrid, it resulted in a stalemate neither side got what they want.

Guadalajara

This battle had a similar pattern to Jarama, to cut off madrid. The Republicans outnumbered and used air cover to win this battle.

The Ebro offensive

the Last and the longest military operation of the war. The republicans got an early lead and decimated the popular army. This severely reduced the popular army. Ended in a stalemate

End of Civil War

Franco controlled most of spain except Madrid and Valencia, however france and britain recognized the franco regime as the legitimate government of spain.

Significance of the war

• “dress rehersal for WWII” → carpet bombings, air power, armour and infantry

• weakened the western democracies in the region

• Germany got mining rights in spain and the spanish troops joined the axis powers

• France was surrounded by Fascism