Spanish Civil War

• Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
  • In retrospect, the Spanish Civil War is a continuation of the European Fascist/ non-Fascist Divide that began with the Abyssinian Crisis and its aftermath.
  • By the end of 1936, the League of Nations is a powerless institution, Italy has left the Stresa Front and Locarno associations and became allied with Germany via the Pact of Steel.
  • France has cemented its alliance with the USSR and Great Britain stands uncomfortably to the side.
  • The Spanish civil war widens these divides is eerily similar to the Cold War era with proxy wars between the Fascist countries, Germany and Italy, and the non-Fascist countries, the US, France, Great Britain, and others.
• Spain in the 20th Century and the Formation of the Popular Front
  • They are primarily agrarian with industrial development with few natural resources. Dominated by a well-entrenched landed aristocracy.
  • Peasantry are poor tenants, dominated by aristocracy and the Church.
  • The the 1920s, there is an anarchist movement, socialist movement, communist movement, and separatism. The three distinct groups are the Catalonians, Madrileños, and Basques, who all merge into a republicanism (anti-monarchical, anti-clerical).
  • In 1931 the effete King of Spain Alfonso the 13th will abdicate in the face of sporadic violence and protests and urges the formation of the Republic.
  • The Leftist coalition will form the Republic of Spain in 1931. The coalition is weak and reforms are met with resistance from aristocracy and church.
  • In 1931-34 the Republic will unsuccessfully try to solve Spain's problems that are heightened by the Great Depression.
  • Azañas government falls with violent strikes in Asturias mining region put down by an increasingly independent and right wing army.
  • The strikes were broken up by an Army General Francisco Franco (strong man totalitarian dictator after the Civil War).
  • In 1934-36, the right government gets repressive and brutal and becomes voted out in 1936 and the Popular Front government formed with Communist participation. A coalition becomes a popular front when the Communist party is joined
• Political Groups
  • Now Spanish Government becomes an idealogical fútbol for Europe.
  • The military under Franco forms a paramilitary resistance group called the Phalangistas, who began to revolt agains the Popular Front.
  • The republicans devolves into a bloody civil war (1936-39) in which 500,000 Spaniards die.
  • Civil war has the effect of diverting attention in Europe away from Hitler who openly supports the Fascist Phalangistas of Franco.
  • Franco primarily supported Mussolini financially and with troops (75,000) Hitler also sends troops but never enough to turn the tide. Include experimental armored units.
  • The new tactics developed by French General Charles Degaulles.
  • The Nazis also send a new monoplane, all metal ai craft, Luf-tanaffe. The Condor Legion, experimental with carpet bombing Guernica bombed by Germans in 1936.
  • This bombing leads to Pablo Picasso's Guernica
• European Involvement
  • The Republicans/Loyalists of the Popular Front are unofficially aided by Great Britain and Farnce with mainly volunteer troops
  • The US also organizes a volunteer brigade out of the Mother Jones Socialist movement in Chicago called the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which was mainly a medical corps, and one its member is Ernest Hemingway, who wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls.
  • Military unit fights which is commanded by an African American.
  • Soviet Union and Stalin provide the bulk of financial aid and material support to the Spanish Republicans