Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War, Interwar Period
"Death of a Loyalist Soldier", (Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, September 5, 1936.), famous photograph of Federico Borrell García taken by Robert Capa)
Date 17 July 1936–1 April 1939 Location Continental Spain, Spanish Morocco, Spanish Sahara, Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, Spanish Guinea, Mediterranean Result Nationalist victory; dissolution of the Second Spanish Republic and formation of the Spanish State.
Belligerents
Spanish Republic Soviet Union International Brigades Mexico	Nationalist Spain Italy Nazi Germany Portugal
Commanders
Manuel Azaña Julián Besteiro Francisco Largo Caballero Juan Negrín Indalecio Prieto	Francisco Franco Gonzalo Queipo de Llano Emilio Mola José Sanjurjo Juan Yagüe
Strength
450,000 350 aircraft 200 batteries (1938)[1]	600,000 600 aircraft 290 batteries (1938)[2]
Casualties and losses
~500,000[3]

The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted coup d'état committed by parts of the army against the government of the Second Spanish Republic. The Civil War devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939, ending with the victory of the rebels and the founding of a dictatorship led by the Fascist General Francisco Franco and the defeat of the supporters of the Republic. Republicans (republicanos), gained the support of the Soviet Union and Mexico, while the followers of the rebellion, nacionales (Nationalists), received the support of Italy, Germany, as well as neighbouring Portugal.

The war increased tensions in the lead-up to World War II and was largely seen as a possible war by proxy between the Communist Soviet Union and the Fascist Axis of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. In particular, tanks and bombing of cities from the air were features of the later war in Europe. The advent of the mass media allowed an unprecedented level of attention (Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, George Orwell and Robert Capa all covered it) and so the war became notable for the passion and political division it inspired, and for atrocities committed on both sides of the conflict. Like other civil wars, the Spanish Civil War often pitted family members and trusted neighbours and friends against each other. Apart from the combatants, many civilians were killed for their political or religious views by both sides, and after the war ended in 1939, Republicans were at times persecuted by the victorious Nationalists.

Prelude to the war

Historical context

There were several reasons for the war, many of them long-term tensions that had escalated over the years.

The 19th century was a turbulent one for Spain. The country had undergone several civil wars and revolts, carried out by both reformists and the conservatives, who tried to displace each other from power. A liberal tradition that first ascended to power with the Spanish Constitution of 1812 sought to abolish the absolutist monarchy of the old regime and to establish a liberal state. The most traditionalist sectors of the political sphere systematically tried to avert these reforms and to sustain the monarchy. The Carlists — supporters of Infante Carlos and his descendants — rallied to the cry of "God, Country and King" and fought for the cause of Spanish tradition (absolutism and Catholicism) against the liberalism and later the republicanism of the Spanish governments of the day. The Carlists, at times (including the Carlist Wars), allied with nationalists (not to be confused with the nationalists of the Civil War) attempting to restore the historic liberties (and broad regional autonomy) granted by the fueros of the Basque Country and Catalonia. Further, from the mid-19th century onwards, the liberals were outflanked on their left by socialists of various types and especially by anarchists, who were far stronger and more numerous in Spain than anywhere else in Europe aside from (possibly) Russia.

Spain experienced a number of different systems of rule in the period between the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th century and the outbreak of the Civil War. During most of the 19th century, Spain was a constitutional monarchy, but under attack from these various directions. The First Spanish Republic, founded in 1873, was shortlived. A monarchy under Alfonso XIII lasted from 1887 to 1931, but from 1923 was held in place by the military dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera. Following Primo de Rivera's overthrow in 1930, the monarchy was unable to maintain power and the Second Spanish Republic was declared in 1931. This Republic soon came to be led by a coalition of the left and center. A number of controversial reforms were passed, such as the Agrarian Law of 1932, distributing land among poor peasants. Millions of Spaniards had been living in more or less absolute poverty under the firm control of the aristocratic landowners in a quasi-feudal system. These reforms, along with anticlericalist acts, as well as military cut-backs and reforms, created strong opposition.

Constitution of 1931

Main article: Spanish Constitution of 1931

A new constitution was adopted on 9 December 1931. The document generally accorded thorough civil liberties and representation, a notable exception being the rights of some Catholic organisations, although no restrictions were placed on individual citizens religious beliefs. Nonetheless some historians have seen this as a major flaw which prevented the forming of an expansive democratic majority.^[4][5] The document provided for universal suffrage and proclaimed a purported complete separation of Church and State, but in actuality it provided for significant governmental interference in church matters, including the prohibition of teaching by religious even in private schools, confiscation of and prohibitions on ownership of church property, and the banning of the Society of Jesus.^[6][7] The revolution of 1931 essentially established an anticlerical government.^[8]

Not only advocates of establishment of religion but also advocates of church/state separation saw the constitution as hostile; one such advocate of separation, Jose Ortega y Gasset, stated "the article in which the Constitution legislates the actions of the Church seems highly improper to me."^[9] On June 3, 1933, Pope Pius XI condemned the Spanish Government's deprivation of the civil liberties on which the Republic was supposedly based in the encyclical Dilectissima Nobis (On Oppression Of The Church Of Spain ), noting in particular the expropriation of Church property and schools and the persecution of religious communities and orders.^[10]

Since the far left considered moderation of the anticlericalist aspects of the constitution as totally unacceptable, commentators have argued that "the Republic as a democratic constitutional regime was doomed from the outset".^[11] Commentators have posited that such a "hostile" approach to the issues of church and state were a substantial cause of the breakdown of democracy and the onset of civil war.^[12]

1933 election and aftermath

Leading up to the Civil War, the state of the political establishment had been brutal and violent for some time. In the 1933 elections to the Cortes Generales, the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas or CEDA) won a plurality of seats. It was however not enough to form a majority. Despite the results, then President Niceto Alcalá-Zamora declined to invite the leader of the CEDA to form a government and instead invited the Radical Republican Party and its leader Alejandro Lerroux to do so. CEDA supported the Lerroux government; it later demanded and, on 1 October 1934, received three ministerial positions. Hostility between both the left and the right increased after the formation of the Government. Spain experienced general strikes and street conflicts. Noted among the strikes was the miners' revolt in northern Spain and riots in Madrid. Nearly all rebellions were crushed by the Government and political arrests followed.

Lerroux's alliance with the right, his harsh suppression of the revolt in 1934, and the Stra-Perlo scandal combined to leave him and his party with little support going into the 1936 election. (Lerroux himself lost his seat in parliament.)

1936 Popular Front victory and aftermath

In the 1936 Elections a new coalition of Socialists (Socialist Workers Party of Spain, PSOE), liberals (Republican Left and the Republican Union Party), Communists, and various regional nationalist groups won the extremely tight election. The results gave 34 percent of the popular vote to the Popular Front and 33 percent to the incumbent government of the CEDA. This result, when coupled with the Socialists' refusal to participate in the new government, led to a general fear of revolution. This was made only more apparent when Largo Caballero, hailed as "the Spanish Lenin" by Pravda, announced that the country was on the cusp of revolution. However these statements were meant only to remove any moderates from his coalition. Moderate Socialist Indalecio Prieto condemned the rhetoric and marches as provocative.

Aims of the Popular Front

From the Comintern's point of view the increasingly powerful, if fragmented, left and the weak right were an optimum situation.^[13] Their goal was to use a veil of legitimate democratic institutions to outlaw the right and to convert the state into the Soviet vision of a "people's republic" with total leftist domination, a goal which was repeatedly voiced not only in Comintern instructions but also in the public statements of the PCE (Communist Party of Spain).^[14]

Azaña becomes president

Without the Socialists, Prime Minister Manuel Azaña, a liberal who favored gradual reform while respecting the democratic process, led a minority government. In April, parliament replaced President Niceto Alcalá-Zamora, a moderate who had alienated virtually all the parties, with Azaña. The removal of Zamora was made on specious grounds and in violation of the constitution.^[15] Although the right also voted for Zamora's removal, this was a watershed event which inspired many conservatives to give up on parliamentary politics. Azaña was the object of intense hatred by Spanish rightists, who remembered how he had pushed a reform agenda through a recalcitrant parliament in 1931–33. Joaquín Arrarás, a friend of Francisco Franco, called him "a repulsive caterpillar of red Spain."^[16] The Spanish generals particularly disliked Azaña because he had cut the army's budget and closed the military academy while war minister (1931). CEDA turned its campaign chest over to army plotter Emilio Mola. Monarchist José Calvo Sotelo replaced CEDA's Gil Robles as the right's leading spokesman in parliament.^[16]

Rising tensions and political violence

This was a period of rising tensions. Radicals became more aggressive, while conservatives turned to paramilitary and vigilante actions. 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 (typically by arson) of 160 religious buildings.^[17]

Deaths of Castillo and Calvo Sotelo

On 12 July 1936, in Madrid, a far right group murdered Lieutenant José Castillo of the Assault Guards, a special police corps created to deal with urban violence, and a Socialist. The next day, leftist gunman Luis Cuenca killed José Calvo Sotelo, a leader of the conservative opposition in the Cortes (Spanish parliament), in revenge. Cuenca was operating in a commando unit of the Assault Guard led by Captain Fernando Condés Romero. Condés was close to the Socialist leader Indalecio Prieto, but there is no indication that Prieto was complicit in Cuenca's assassination of Calvo Sotelo. However, the murder of such a prominent member of parliament, with involvement of the police, aroused suspicions and strong reactions amongst the Center and the Right.^[18] Calvo Sotelo was the leading Spanish monarchist. He protested against what he viewed as escalating anti-religious terror, expropriations, and hasty agricultural reforms, which he considered Bolshevist and anarchist. He instead advocated the creation of a corporative state and declared that if such a state was fascist, he was also a fascist.^[19]

He also declared that Spanish soldiers would be mad to not rise for Spain against Anarchy. In turn, the leader of the communists, Dolores Ibarruri, known as La Pasionaria, allegedly vowed that Calvo Sotelo's speech would be his last speech in the Cortes.^[20][21] Although the Nationalist generals were already at advanced stages of planning an uprising, the event provided a convenient catalyst and public justification for their planned coup.

Outbreak of the war

Nationalist military revolt

The genial monarchist General José Sanjurjo was the figurehead of the rebellion, while Emilio Mola was chief planner and second in command.^[16] Mola began serious planning in the spring, but General Francisco Franco hesitated until early July, inspiring other plotters to refer to him as "Miss Canary Islands 1936".^[16] Franco was a key player because of his prestige as a former director of the military academy and the man who suppressed the Socialist uprising of 1934.^[16]

Fearing a military coup, Prime Minister Casares Quiroga sent Puerto Rico-born General Manuel Goded Llopis to the Balearic Island and General Francisco Franco to the Canary Islands. On 17 July 1936, the plotters signaled the beginning of the coup by broadcasting the code phrase, "Over all of Spain, the sky is clear." Llopis and Franco immediately took control of the islands to which they were assigned. Warned that a coup was imminent, leftists barricaded the roads on July 17.^[16] Franco avoided capture by taking a tugboat to the airport.^[16]

A British MI6 intelligence agent, Major Hugh Pollard, then flew Franco to Spanish Morocco^[22] in a de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide to see Juan March Ordinas, where the Spanish Army of Africa, led by Nationalist officers, was unopposed. Sanjurjo was killed in a plane crash on July 20, leaving effective command split between Mola in the north and Franco in the South.^[16]

Government reaction

The rising was intended to be a swift coup d'état, but was botched in certain areas allowing the government to retain control of parts of the country. At this first stage, the rebels failed to take any major cities — in Madrid they were hemmed into the Montaña barracks. The barracks fell the next day with much bloodshed. In Barcelona, anarchists armed themselves and defeated the rebels. General Goded, who arrived from the Balearic islands, was captured and later executed. However, the turmoil facilitated anarchist control over Barcelona and much of the surrounding Aragonese and Catalan countryside, effectively breaking away from the Republican government. The Republicans held on to Valencia and controlled almost all of the Eastern Spanish coast and central area around Madrid. Except for Asturias, Cantabria and part of the Basque Country, the Nationals took most of northern and northwestern Spain and also a southern area in central and western Andalusia including Seville.

The combatants

The Republicans

Polish volunteers of the International Brigades.

Republicans (also known as Spanish loyalists) received weapons and volunteers from the Soviet Union, Mexico, the international Socialist movement and the International Brigades. The Republicans ranged from centrists who supported a moderately capitalist liberal democracy to revolutionary anarchists and communists; their power base was primarily secular and urban, but also included landless peasants, and it was particularly strong in industrial regions like Asturias and Catalonia.^[23] This faction was called variously the "loyalists" by its supporters, the "Republicans", "the Popular Front" or "the Government" by all parties, and "the reds" by its enemies.

The conservative, strongly Catholic Basque country, along with Galicia and the more left-leaning Catalonia, sought autonomy or even independence from the central government of Madrid. This option was left open by the Republican government.^[24] All these forces were gathered under the "Ejército Popular Republicano" (EPR) or Republican Popular Army.

Scholar Stanley G. Payne claimed that by the time of the outbreak of war Republicans had abandoned constitutional republicanism for leftist revolution:

The leftist zone has been variously designated "Republican", "loyalist", and "Popular Front." Of those terms, the adjective "loyalist" is somewhat misleading, for there was no attempt to remain loyal to the constitutional Republican regime. If that had been the scrupulous policy of the left, there would have been no revolt and civil war in the first place. Thus after July 1936 what remained of the constitutional Republic gave way to the "revolutionary Republican confederation" of 1936–1937.^[25][26]

The Nationalists

The Nationalists on the contrary opposed the separatist movements, but were chiefly defined by their anti-communism and their fear of Spain breaking up, which served as the galvanizing agent of diverse or even opposed movements like falangists or monarchists. This side was called the "Nationalists", the "rebels", or the "insurgents". Their opponents referred to them as the Fascists or Francoists.

Their leaders had a generally wealthier, more conservative, monarchist, landowning background, and they favoured the centralization of state power. In turn, their support for the Catholic Church, provided them with popular support. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, as well as most Roman Catholic clergy, supported the Nationalists, while Portugal's Estado Novo provided logistical support. Their forces were gathered into the "Ejército Nacional" or National Army.

Other factions in the war

The active participants in the war covered the entire gamut of the political positions and ideologies of the time. The Nationalist (nacionales) side included the Carlists and Legitimist monarchists, Spanish nationalists, the Falange, Catholics, and most conservatives and monarchist liberals. On the Republican side were socialists, communists, liberals and anarchists. Catalan and Basque nationalists were not univocal. Left-wing Catalan nationalists were on the Republican side. Conservative Catalan nationalists were far less vocal supporting the Republican government due to the anti-clericalism and confiscations occurring in some areas controlled by the latter (some conservative Catalan nationalists like Francesc Cambó actually funded the rebel side). Basque nationalists, heralded by the conservative Basque nationalist party, were mildly supportive of the Republican government, even though Basque nationalists in Álava and Navarre sided with the uprising for the same reasons influencing Catalan conservative nationalists.

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

One of the Nationalist's principal claimed motives was to confront the anti-clericalism of the Republican regime and to defend the Roman Catholic Church, which had been the target of attacks, and which many on the Republican side blamed for the ills of the country. Even before the war religious buildings were burnt and clergy killed without action on the part of the Republican authorities to prevent it. As part of the social revolution taking place, others were turned into Houses of the People.^[27] Similarly, many of the massacres perpetrated by the Republican side targeted the Catholic clergy. Franco's Moroccan Muslim troops found this repulsive as well, and for the most part fought loyally and often ferociously for the Nationalists. Articles 24 and 26 of the Constitution of the Republic had banned the Jesuits, which deeply offended many within the conservatives. The revolution in the republican zone at the outset of the war, killing 7,000 clergy and thousands of lay people, constituted what Stanley Payne called the "most extensive and violent persecution of Catholicism in Western History, in some way even more intense than that of the French Revolution", driving Catholics, left then with little alternative, to the Nationalists even more than would have been expected.^[28] After the beginning of the Nationalist coup, anger flared anew at the Church and its role in Spanish politics. Notwithstanding these religious matters, the Basque nationalists, who nearly all sided with the Republic, were, for the most part, practicing Catholics.

Republican sympathizers proclaimed it as a struggle between "tyranny and democracy", or "fascism and liberty", and many non-Spanish youth, committed reformers and revolutionaries joined the International Brigades, believing that the Spanish Republic was the front line of the war against fascism. Franco's supporters, however, portrayed it as a battle between the "red hordes" of communism and anarchism on the one hand and "Christian civilization" on the other. They also stated that they were protecting the Establishment and bringing security and direction to what they felt was an ungoverned and lawless society.^[29]

The Republicans were also split among themselves. The left and Basque or Catalan nationalist conservatives had many conflicting ideas. The Cortes (Spanish Parliament) consisted of 16 parties in 1931. When autonomy was granted to Catalonia and the Basque Provinces in 1932, a nationalist coup was attempted but failed. An attempt by the communists to seize control resisted by anarchists resulted in the massacre of hundreds of rebels and intra civil war between anarchists and communists in Catalonia.

Foreign involvement

Main article: Foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War had large numbers of non-Spanish citizens participating in combat and advisory positions. Foreign governments contributed large amounts of financial assistance and military aid to forces led by Generalísimo Francisco Franco. Forces fighting on behalf of the Second Spanish Republic also received limited aid but support was seriously hampered by the arms embargo declared by France and the UK.

These embargoes were never extremely effective however, and France especially was accused of allowing large shipments through to the Republicans - though the accusations often came from Italy, itself heavily involved for the Nationalists. The clandestine actions of the various European powers were at the time considered to be risking another 'Great War'.^[30]

League of Nations

The League of Nations' reaction to what was happening during the war was mostly neutral and insufficient to contain the massive importation of arms and other war resources by the two fighting factions. Although a Non-Intervention Committee was created, its policies were largely ineffective. Its directives were dismantled due to the policies of appeasement of both European democratic and non-democratic powers of late 1930’s: the official Spanish government of Juan Negrin was gradually abandoned within the organization during this period.^[31]

Italy and Germany

Both Fascist Italy, under dictator Benito Mussolini, and Nazi Germany, under dictator Adolf Hitler, sent troops, aircraft, tanks, and other weapons to support Franco. The Italian government provided the "Corps of Volunteer Troops" (CTV, or Corpo Truppe Volontarie) and Germany sent the "Condor Legion" (Legion Condor). The CTV reached a high of about 50,000 men and as many as 75,000 Italians fought in Spain. The German force numbered about 12,000 men at its zenith and as many as 19,000 Germans fought in Spain.

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union primarily provided material assistance to the Republican forces. While Soviet troops amounted to no more than 700 men, Soviet "volunteers" often piloted aircraft or operated tanks purchased by the Spanish Republican forces. The Republic had to purchase Soviet assistance with the official gold reserves of the Bank of Spain (see Moscow Gold), obtaining armament of marginal quality that, in addition, was sold at deliberately inflated prices. The cost for the Republic of the Soviet support raised more than US$500 million, which made up two-thirds of the gold reserves that Spain had at the beginning of the war.

International brigade volunteers

The troops of the International Brigades represented the largest foreign contingent of troops fighting for the Republicans. Roughly 30,000 foreign nationals from possibly up to 53 nations fought in the various brigades. Most of them were communists or trade unionists, and while organised by communists guided or controlled by Moscow, they were almost all individual volunteers.

Mexico

The Mexican Republic supported fully and publicly the claim of the Madrid government. Mexico refused to follow the French-British Non-Intervention proposals, recognizing immediately the great advantage they offered the Insurgents. Contrary to the United States, Mexico did not feel that neutrality between an elected government and a military junta was a proper policy. Mexico's attitude gave immense moral comfort to the Republic, especially since the major Latin American governments - those of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru - sympathized more or less openly with the Insurgents. But Mexican aid could mean relatively little in practical terms if the French border were closed and if the dictators remained free to supply the Insurgents with a quality and quantity of weapons far beyond the power of Mexico.

However, Mexico provided some material assistance, which included a small amount of American made aircraft such as the Bellanca CH-300 and Spartan Zeus that served in the Mexican Air Force.

Irish volunteers

Flag of the Irish Blueshirts, an Irish fascist movement led by Eoin O'Duffy which participated in fighting alongside Franco's nationalists against republican and socialist forces.

Ireland was the only country where pro-Franco volunteers outnumbered the anti-Franco volunteers. Despite the declaration by the Irish government that participation in the war was illegal, around 250 Irishmen went to fight for the Republicans and around 700 of Eoin O'Duffy's followers ("The Blueshirts") went to Spain to fight on Franco's side.

On arrival, however, O'Duffy's Irish contingent refused to fight the Basques for Franco, seeing parallels between their recent struggle and Basque aspirations. They saw their primary role in Spain as fighting communism, rather than defending Spain's territorial integrity. Eoin O'Duffy's men saw little fighting in Spain and were sent home by Franco after being accidentally fired on by Spanish Nationalist troops.

Evacuation of children

As war proceeded in the Northern front, the Republican authorities arranged the evacuation of children. These Spanish War children were shipped to Britain, Belgium, the Soviet Union, other European countries and Mexico. Those in Western European countries returned to their families after the war, but many of those in the Soviet Union, from Communist families, remained and experienced the Second World War and its effects on the Soviet Union.

Like the Republican side, the Nationalist side of Franco also arranged evacuations of children, women and elderly from war zones. Refugee camps for those civilians evacuated by the Nationalists were set up in Portugal, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Pacifism in Spain

In the 1930s Spain also became a focus for pacifist organizations including the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the War Resisters League and the War Resisters' International (whose president was the British MP and Labour Party leader George Lansbury). Many people including, as they are now called, the 'insumisos' ('defiant ones', i.e., conscientious objectors) argued and worked for non-violent strategies.

Prominent Spanish pacifists such as Amparo Poch y Gascón and José Brocca supported the Republicans. As American author Scott H. Bennett has demonstrated, 'pacifism' in Spain certainly did not equate with 'passivism', and the dangerous work undertaken and sacrifices made by pacifist leaders and activists such as Poch and Brocca show that 'pacifist courage is no less heroic than the military kind' (Bennett, 2003: 67–68). Brocca argued that Spanish pacifists had no alternative but to make a stand against fascism. He put this stand into practice by various means including organising agricultural workers to maintain food supplies and through humanitarian work with war refugees.^[32]

Atrocities during the war

Nationalist aircraft bomb Madrid in late November 1936.

At least 50,000 people were executed during the civil war.^[33][34] In his recent, updated history of the Spanish Civil War, Antony Beevor "reckons Franco's ensuing 'white terror' claimed 200,000 lives. The 'red terror' had already killed 38,000."^[35] Julius Ruiz concludes that "although the figures remain disputed, a minimum of 37,843 executions were carried out in the Republican zone with a maximum of 150,000 executions (including 50,000 after the war) in Nationalist Spain."^[36] A Spanish judge has opened an investigation of 114,266 people executed and disappeared during the Spanish Civil War and the Franco years between 17 July, 1936 and December, 1951. This includes Federico García Lorca's death, among many others. ^[37][38]

The atrocities of the Bando Nacional were common and were frequently ordered by authorities in order to eradicate any trace of leftism in Spain; many such acts were committed by reactionary groups during the first weeks of the war. This included the execution of school teachers^[39] (because the efforts of the Republic to promote laicism and to displace the Church from the education system by closing religious schools were considered by the Bando Nacional side as an attack on the Church); the execution of individuals because of accusations of anti-clericalism; the massive killings of civilians in the cities they captured;^[40] the execution of unwanted individuals (including non-combatants^[41] such as trade-unionists and known Republican sympathisers etc).^[42] An example of this kind of tactics on the Nationalist side was the Massacre of Badajoz in 1936.^[43]

The Nationalist side also conducted aerial bombing of cities in the Republican territory, carried out mainly by the Luftwaffe volunteers of the Condor Legion and the Italian air force volunteers of the Corpo Truppe Volontarie (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Guernica, and other cities). The most notorious example of this tactic of terror bombings was the Bombing of Guernica.

Atrocities by the Republicans have been termed Spain's red terror by those on the Nationalist side. Republican attacks on the Catholic Church, associated strongly with support for the old monarchist and hierarchical establishment, were particularly controversial.

Nearly 7,000 clerics were killed and churches, convents and monasteries were attacked (see Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War). Some 13 bishops, 4184 diocesan priests, 2365 male religious (among them 114 Jesuits) and 283 nuns were killed. There are unverified accounts of Catholics being forced to swallow rosary beads and/or being thrown down mine shafts, as well as priests being forced to dig their own graves before being buried alive.^[44] Pope John Paul II beatified several hundred people murdered for being priests or nuns, and Pope Benedict XVI beatified almost 500 more on October 28, 2007.^[45][46][47]

Other repressive actions in the Republican side were committed by specific factions such as the Stalinist NKVD (the Soviet secret police).^[48] In addition, many Republican politicians, such as Lluís Companys the Catalan nationalist president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the autonomous government of Catalonia –which remained initially loyal to the Republic before proclaiming independence from it– carried out numerous actions to mediate in cases of deliberate executions of the clergy.^[49]

The War

1936

Situation of the fronts in August-September 1936.

Main article: 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 executed. In these paseos ("strolls"), as the executions were called, the victims were taken from their refuges or jails by armed people to be shot outside of town. The corpses were abandoned or interred in graves dug by the victims themselves. Local police just noted the appearance of the corpses. Probably the most famous such victim 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 practice became widespread during the war in conquered areas.

Coup leader Sanjurjo was killed in a plane crash on 20 July, leaving effective command split between Mola in the North and Franco in the South.^[16] On 21 July, the fifth day of the rebellion, 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 Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy the day before. On July 26, the future Axis Powers cast their lot with the Nationalists. A rebel force under Colonel Beorlegui Canet, sent by General Emilio Mola, advanced on Guipúzcoa. On September 5, after heavy fighting it took Irún closing the French border to the Republicans. On September 13 the Basques surrendered San Sebastián to the Nationalists who then advanced toward their capital, Bilbao but were halted by the Republican militias on the border of Viscaya at the end of September. The capture of Guipúzcoa had isolated the Republican provinces in the north.

Franco was chosen overall Nationalist commander at a meeting of ranking generals at Salamanca on September 21.^[16] He outranked Mola and by this point his Army of Africa had demonstrated its military superiority.^[16] Franco won another victory on 27 September when they relieved the Alcázar at Toledo. A Nationalist garrison under Colonel Moscardo had held the Alcázar in the center of the city since the beginning of the rebellion, resisting for months against thousands of Republican troops who completely surrounded the isolated building. The inability to take the Alcázar was a serious blow to the prestige of the Republic, as it was considered inexplicable in view of their overwhelming numerical superiority in the area. Two days after relieving the siege, Franco proclaimed himself Generalísimo and Caudillo ("chieftain") while forcibly unifying the various and diverse Falangist, Royalist and other elements within the Nationalist cause.

In October, the Francoist troops launched a major offensive toward Madrid, reaching it in early November and launching a major assault on the city on 8 November. The Republican government was forced to shift from Madrid to Valencia, out of the combat zone, on 6 November. However, the Nationalists' attack on the capital was repulsed in fierce fighting between November 8 and 23. A contributory factor in the successful Republican defense was the arrival of the International Brigades, though only around 3000 of them participated in the battle. Having failed to take the capital, Franco bombarded it from the air and, in the following two years, mounted several offensives to try to encircle Madrid. (See also Siege of Madrid (1936-39))

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

1937

Picasso's Guernica was painted as a representation of the bombing of Guernica.

Main article: 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 1937, but failed again.

On 21 February the League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee ban on foreign national "volunteers" went into effect. The large city of Málaga was taken on 8 February. On 7 March German Condor Legion equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes arrived in Spain; on 26 April the Legion was responsible for the infamous massacre of hundreds, including numerous women and children, at Guernica in the Basque Country; the event was committed to notoriety by Picasso. Two days later, Franco's army overran the town.

After the fall of Guernica, the Republican government began to fight back with increasing effectiveness. In July, they 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. The clash was called "Battle of Brunete" (Brunete is a town in the province of Madrid).

After that, Franco regained the initiative, invading Aragón in August and then taking the city of Santander. With the surrender of the Republican army in the Basque territory and after two months of bitter fighting in Asturias (Gijón finally fell in late October) the war was effectively ended in the north front with a Francoist victory.

Meanwhile, on August 28, the Vatican recognized Franco, and at the end of November, with Franco's troops closing in on Valencia, the government had to move again, this time to Barcelona.

1938

Situation of the fronts in November 1938.

Main article: Spanish Civil War chronology 1938–1939

The Battle of Teruel was an important confrontation between Nationalist and Republican troops. The city belonged to the Nationalists at the beginning of the battle, but remarkably, the Republicans conquered it in January. The Francoist troops launched an offensive and recovered the city by 22 February. However, in order to do so, Franco had to rely heavily on German and Italian air support and subsequently repaid them with extensive mining rights. On March 7, the Nationalists launched the Aragon Offensive. By April 14, they had pushed through to the Mediterranean, cutting the Republican government-held portion of Spain in two. The Republican government tried to sue for peace in May^[50] but Franco demanded unconditional surrender, and the war raged on. The Nationalist army pressed southward from Teruel and along the coast toward the capital of the Republic at Valencia but was halted in heavy fighting along the fortified XYZ Line.

The Republican government then 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 unsuccessful, and was undermined by the Franco-British appeasement of Hitler in Munich with the concession of Czechoslovakia. This effectively destroyed the last vestiges of Republican morale by ending all hope of an anti-fascist alliance with the Western powers. 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.

1939

Main article: Spanish Civil War chronology 1938–1939

Franco declares the end of the war. However, small pockets of insurgents still fought.

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

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

Only Madrid and a few other strongholds remained for the Republican government forces. Then, on 28 March, with the help of pro-Franco forces inside the city (not as effective as described by General Mola in his propagandistic broadcasts of 1936 referring to the so-called "fifth column"), Madrid fell to the Nationalists. The next day, Valencia, which had held out under their guns for close to two years, also surrendered. Franco proclaimed victory in a radio speech aired on 1 April, when the last of the Republican forces surrendered.

After the end of the War, there were harsh reprisals against Franco's former enemies,^[51] when thousands of Republicans were imprisoned and at least 30,000 executed.^[52] Others have calculated these deaths at from 50,000 to 200,000. Many others were put to forced labour, building railways, drying out swamps, digging canals (La Corchuela, the Canal of the Bajo Guadalquivir), construction of the Valle de los Caídos monument, etc. Hundreds of thousands of other Republicans fled abroad, especially to France and Mexico. Some 500,000 of them fled to France.^[53]

On the other side of the Pyrenees, refugees were confined in internment camps of the French Third Republic, such as Camp Gurs or Camp Vernet, where 12,000 Republicans were housed in squalid conditions (mostly soldiers from the Durruti Division^[54]). The 17,000 refugees housed in Gurs were divided into four categories (Brigadists, pilots, Gudaris and ordinary Spaniards). The Gudaris (Basques) and the pilots easily found local backers and jobs, and were allowed to quit the camp, but the farmers and ordinary people, who could not find relations in France, were encouraged by the Third Republic, in agreement with the Francoist government, to return to Spain. The great majority did so and were turned over to the Francoist authorities in Irún. From there they were transferred to the Miranda de Ebro camp for "purification" according to the Law of Political Responsibilities.

After the proclamation by Marshall Pétain of the Vichy regime, the refugees became political prisoners, and the French police attempted to round-up those who had been liberated from the camp. Along with other "undesirables", they were sent to the Drancy internment camp before being deported to Nazi Germany. About 5,000 Spaniards thus died in Mauthausen concentration camp.^[55] The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who had been named by the Chilean President Pedro Aguirre Cerda special consul for immigration in Paris, was given responsibility for what he called "the noblest mission I have ever undertaken": shipping more than 2,000 Spanish refugees, who had been housed by the French in squalid camps, to Chile on an old cargo ship, the Winnipeg.^[56]

After the official end of the war, guerrilla war was waged on an irregular basis, well into the 1950s, being gradually reduced by the scant support from an exhausted population and military defeats. In 1944, a group of republican veterans, who also fought in the French resistance against the Nazis, invaded the Val d'Aran in northwest Catalonia, but they were defeated after 10 days.

Social revolution

Main article: Spanish Revolution

In the anarchist-controlled areas, Aragón and Catalonia, in addition to the temporary military success, there was a vast social revolution in which the workers and peasants collectivised land and industry, and set up councils parallel to the paralyzed Republican government. This revolution was opposed by both the Soviet-supported communists, who ultimately took their orders from Stalin's politburo (which feared a loss of control), and the Social Democratic Republicans (who worried about the loss of civil property rights). 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.^[57]

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, through both diplomacy and force. Anarchists and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, or POUM) were integrated with the regular army, albeit with resistance; the POUM was outlawed and falsely denounced as an instrument of the fascists. In the May Days of 1937, many hundreds or thousands of anti-fascist soldiers fought one another for control of strategic points in Barcelona, recounted by George Orwell in Homage to Catalonia.

People

Political parties and organizations

Military architecture of the Spanish civil war. Archaeological studies in Oviedo, Asturias. Republican bunker constructed in 1937 during the siege to the city.

Puente Nuevo, the bridge that links together the two parts of Ronda in Spain. Behind the window near the center of the bridge is a prison cell. There have been allegations that during the Civil War the nationalists threw people who supported the Republicans from the bridge to their deaths many meters down at the bottom of the El Tajo canyon. On the other hand, authorities confirm the atrocities committed by the Republicans against the Nationalists at Ronda. "Thus the description in Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls of how the inhabitants of a small pueblo first beat all male members of the fascist party with heavy flails and then flung them over a cliff is near to the reality of what happened in the superb Andalusian town of Ronda. There 512 were murdered in the first month of the war."^[58]

Notes

Bibliography

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• Bennett, Scott (2003). Radical Pacifism: The War Resisters League and Gandhian Nonviolence in America, 1915–1963. Syracuse NY: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-3028-X. OCLC 248965566. 
• Brenan, Gerald (1990, reissued). The Spanish labyrinth: an account of the social and political background of the Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-39827-4. OCLC 38930004. 
• Cox, Geoffrey (1937). The Defence of Madrid. London: Victor Gollancz. ISBN 1 877372 3 84 (reprinted 2006 review). 
• Doyle, Bob (2006). Brigadista – an Irishman's fight against fascism. Dublin: Currach Press. ISBN 1-85607-939-2. OCLC 71752897. 
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• Graham, Helen (2002). The Spanish republic at war, 1936–1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-45932-X. OCLC 231983673. 
• Greening, Edwin (2006). From Aberdare to Albacete: A Welsh International Brigader's Memoir of His Life. Pontypool, Wales (NP4 7AG): Warren and Pell. 
• Howson, Gerald (1998). Arms for Spain. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-24177-1. OCLC 231874197. 
• Ibarruri, Dolores (1976). They Shall Not Pass: the Autobiography of La Pasionaria (translated from El Unico Camino by Dolores Ibarruri). New York: International Publishers. ISBN 0-7178-0468-2. OCLC 9369478. 
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See also

• Ireland and the Spanish Civil War
• Proxy war
• European Civil War
• Spain in World War II
• Moscow Gold
• Surviving veterans of the Spanish Civil War
• Spanish Bombs (Song by The Clash)
• SS Cantabria

Related films

• España 1936, (1937) pro-Republican documentary by Luis Buñuel.
• The Spanish Earth (Joris Ivens, 1937; pro-Republican documentary, narrated by Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos.
• Defenders of the Faith, 1938; pro-Nationalist documentary by Russell Palmer
• Raza (Jose Luis Saenz de Heredia, 1942)
• For Whom the Bell Tolls (Sam Wood, 1943, from the Ernest Hemingway novel)
• The Fallen Sparrow, (Richard Wallace, 1943, from the Dorothy B. Hughes novel; John Garfield played a Spanish Civil War veteran who has returned to New York City to find out the truth about his friend's death).
• Behold a Pale Horse, (Fred Zinnemann), 1964, loosely based on the life of Catalan anarchist Francisco Sabaté Llopart.
• The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena) (Víctor Erice, 1973)
• The Guernica Tree (L'Arbre de Guernica) (Fernando Arrabal, 1976)
• La Colmena (Mario Camus), (1982)
• Bicycles are for Summer, (Jaime Chavarri), (1984)
• The Heifer (La vaquilla) (Luis García Berlanga, 1985)
• The Spanish Civil War (BBC-Granada, 1987)
• ¡Ay, Carmela! (Carlos Saura, Spain/Italy 1990) Comedy/drama about two actors who find themselves on the wrong side of the front line.
• Belle Époque (Fernando Trueba, 1992)
• Land and Freedom (Ken Loach, 1995) The war seen through the eyes of a British volunteer.
• Libertarias (Vicente Aranda, 1996)
• Vivir la Utopia (Living Utopia) by Juan Gamero, Arte-TVE, Catalunya 1997
• La hora de los valientes (A Time for Defiance) by Antonio Mercero 1998
• La Lengua de las Mariposas (Butterfly), José Luis Cuerda, 1999)
• The Devil's Backbone (El espinazo del diablo) (Guillermo del Toro, 2001)
• Soldados de Salamina (David Trueba, 2002)
• Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)
• Carol's Journey (Viaje de Carol) (Ángel García Roldán, 2002)

Related literature

• Behind the Spanish Barricades by John Langdon-Davies (1936)
• Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell (1938)
• For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (1940)
• 40 Preguntas Fundamentales sobre la Guerra Civil by Stanley G. Payne (2006)
• The Living and the Dead by Patrick White (1941)
• As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee (1969)
• A Moment of War by Laurie Lee (1991)
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (2001)
• L'espoir by André Malraux
• Diamond square by Mercè Rodoreda (1962)
• Bicycles are for summer by Fernando Fernán Gómez(1976)
• Les Grands cimetieres sous la Lune by Georges Bernanos
• Spain in my hearth (España en el corazón) by Pablo Neruda
• Labyrinth of Struggle by Mauricio Escobar (2006)
• The Wall, a book and a short story by Jean-Paul Sartre
• La Colmena by Camilo Jose Cela
• Winter in Madrid by C. J. Sansom
• Human Cannon by Edward Bond

External links

Primary documents

• Magazines and journals published during the war, an online exhibit maintained by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• A collection of essays by Albert and Vera Weisbord with about a dozen essays written during and about the Spanish Civil War.
• Constitución de la República Española (1931)
• La Cucaracha, The Spanish Civil War Diary, a detailed chronicle of the events of the war
• Ronald Hilton, Spain, 1931–36, From Monarchy to Civil War, An Eyewitness Account
• Mary Low and Juan Breá: Red Spanish Book. A testimony by two surrealists and trotskytes
• Spanish Civil War and Revolution text archive in the libcom.org library
• Pamphlets on the Spanish Civil War published in the UK
• The Nyon Agreement, 14 September 1937 - Agreement between 9 Powers for collective measures to be taken to suppress attacks by submarines against merchant vessels

Images and films

• Spain in Revolt 1, newsreel documentary (Video Stream)
• Spain in Revolt 2, newsreel documentary (Video Stream)
• Revistas y Guerra 1936–1939: La Guerra Civil Espanola y la Cultura Impresa online exhibition
• Imperial War Museum Collection of Spanish Civil War Posters hosted online by Visual Arts Data Service (VADS)
• Posters of the Spanish Civil War from UCSD's Southworth collection
• Civil War Documentaries made by the CNT
• Spanish Civil War and Revolution image gallery – photographs and posters from the conflict
• The Spanish Civil War and Revolution 1936–1939 Web sites, articles, books & pamphlets online, and films (on Tidsskriftcentret.dk)
• Aircraft of the Spanish Civil War
• "spanish+civil+war") 64 "spanish civil war" objects in The European Library Harvest

Academics and governments

• (Spanish) A description, according to the Vatican, of the religious persecution suffered by Catholics during the Spanish Civil War.
• Professor Marek Jan Chodakiewicz on The Spanish Civil War
• A History of the Spanish Civil War, excerpted from a U.S. government country study.
• Columbia Historical Review Dutch Involvement in the Spanish Civil War
• Noam Chomsky's Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship
• "The Spanish Civil War – causes and legacy" on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time featuring Paul Preston, Helen Graham and Dr Mary Vincent
• Audio Interview: Sid Lowe on the Juventud de Accion Popular and the Outbreak of Civil War in Spain [1]

Other

• Obituary of Rosario Sanchez Mora, a seamstress, volunteer soldier, teenage war-bride and mother, underground resistance activist and tobacconist
• Anarchism in the Spanish Revolution
• Patrick Joseph Read: An Irish Anarchist in the Spanish Civil War, by Ciaran Crossey
• Spain and Peace, a pamphlet on the Spanish Civil War by Howard Fast
• The Anarcho-Statists of Spain, a different view of the anarchists in the Spanish Civil War, George Mason University
• A reply to the above by an anarchist
• Spanish Civil War information, from Spartacus Educational
• American Jews in Spanish Civil War, by Martin Sugarman
• Causa General, conclusions of the process started by Franco's government after the war to judge their enemies' actions during the conflict (in Spanish)
• Irish and Jewish Volunteers in the Spanish Anti-Fascist War, by Manus O'Riordan
• The Spanish Revolution, 1936–39 articles & links, from Anarchy Now!
• The Revolutionary Institutions: The Central Committee of Anti-Fascist Militias, by Juan García Oliver
• Warships of the Spanish Civil War
• ¡No Pasarán! Speech Dolores Ibárruri's famous rousing address for the defense of the Second Republic
• ¡No Pasarán! 36, Spanish Civil War website including photos and videos
• Spanish Civil War Forum