Spanish Civil War

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• Spanish Civil War

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The Falange Espanola Spanish Fascism

• Fascism reared its ugly head
• Jose Antonio de Rivera, son of the old dictator
  founded the movement which incorporated the JONS
• Similar to Nazi party and Italian Fascist party

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The Falange Espanola Spanish Fascism

• Anti-parliamentary and sought one-party rule
• Not racist but attached importance to Roman
  Catholic Church
• Elections held in 1934 brought in a Conservative
  government who ignored the Azana reforms dashing
  the hopes of the poor

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Popular Fronts alliances of the left

• Events outside also played an important role in
  domestic politics
• Aided by Stalin a number of Popular Front
  Alliances were created
• In France under Leon Blum a Popular Front
  government came to power

Joseph Stalin
Leon Blum
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Popular Fronts alliances of the left

• In Feb 1936, elections in Spain returned an
  alliance of Republicans, Socialists and
  Communists
• This was the spark that lit the fires of civil
  war in Spain

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

• Ministers of government were all moderates-no
  communists were elected
• However the right reacted violently and resorted
  to terrorism which provoked the communists

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Judges or journalists who condemned the fascists
were assassinated

• The groups that took advantage of this civil
  unrest were the army officers, the
  traditionalists and the monarchists led by Sotelo
  Minister of France under de Rivera
• After he was murdered an army revolt took place
  in Morocco and throughout Spain led by General
  Sanjurjo, he was killed in a plane crash and
  replaced by General Francisco Franco

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Franco

• Franco had the support of the fascists- Falange
  but they were unable to seize power for 3 reasons
• Mass of Spanish people resisted the revolt and
  fought it for three years
• Foreign powers saw it as a struggle between
  Fascism and democracy or socialism

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Franco

• intervened until the point of exhaustion was
  reached
• The two sides were finely balanced in terms of
  resources

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Republicans v Nationalists

• On paper the Nationalists had the
  advantage-surprise,superior military strength and
  experience
• However navy divided, each side had one
  battleship- navy officers were nationalists/sailor
  s were republicans
• The Republican side consisted of a few army
  officers, Miajo and Rojo, workers and peasants,
  Basques and Catalans, they held important
  industrial areas

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Republicans v Nationalists

• By the end of 1936 the Nationalists held more
  than half of Spain, mostly in the South, west and
  North
• Franco proclaimed himself the chief of the
  Spanish state

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Republicans v Nationalists

• The Republicans led by Largo Caballero held all
  eastern and south-east Spain
• If there had been no foreign intervention it
  seems likely that the republicans would have won
  as they had the bulk of the population

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The fighting

• Both sides Fought furiously and atrocities were
  common e.g. priests were shot, families were
  divided
• In Republican areas different factions were in
  control, workers took over factories, churches
  were burned down, middle class people stayed out
  of sight or went unshaven to avoid identification

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Progress of the Spanish Civil war

• Winter 1936-37 Nationalists attack Madrid
• Spring 1937 a wedge is driven between the
  Basques and Catalans
• Summer 1937 attack on the Basques, Guernica
  bombed by the German Condor legion
• Early 1938Teruel captured, nationalists driveto
  separate Barcelona (Catalonia) from Madrid
• Summer 1938-1938 Barcelona fell
• Feb 1939 Madrid fell late March