Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War
File:Spanish 11 interbrigada in the battle of Belchev. 1937.jpg Republican International Brigadiers at the Battle of Belchite
Date 17 July 1936  – 1 April 1939 Location Continental Spain, Spanish Morocco, Spanish Sahara, Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, Spanish Guinea, Mediterranean, North Sea Result Nationalist victory Dissolution of the Second Spanish Republic Beginning of Franco's dictatorship
Belligerents
Republican Faction Popular Front CNT/FAI UGT ERC Basque Army (1936-1937) Galicianist Party Supported by: International Brigades Soviet Union (1936-1938) Mexico	National Faction Falange Carlists (1936-1937) CEDA (1936-1937) Alfonsists (1936-1937) Regulares Supported by: Italy (CTV) Germany (Condor Legion) Portugal Foreign volunteers
Commanders and leaders
Manuel Azaña Julián Besteiro Francisco Largo Caballero Juan Negrín Indalecio Prieto Vicente Rojo Lluch José Miaja Juan Modesto Juan Hernández Saravia Buenaventura Durruti † Mehmet Shehu Lluís Companys José Antonio Aguirre Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao	Emilio Mola † José Sanjurjo † Francisco Franco Miguel Cabanellas † Manuel Goded Llopis † Gonzalo Queipo de Llano Juan Yagüe José Antonio Primo de Rivera † Manuel Fal Conde José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones Antonio Goicoechea
Strength
450,000 infantry 350 aircraft 200 batteries (1938)	600,000 infantry 600 aircraft 290 batteries (1938)
Casualties and losses
~500,000 killed 450,000 exiled 50,000 executed after war

The Spanish Civil War (The Crusade among Nationalists, Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans) was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. An estimated total of 500,000 people died as a consequence of the War.

The war began after a pronunciamiento by a group of conservative generals under the leadership of Emilio Mola against the elected Government of the Second Spanish Republic, at the time under the leadership of President Manuel Azaña. The rebel coup was supported by the conservative groups including the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas, or CEDA), monarchists known as Carlist groups, and the Fascist Falange (Falange Española de las JONS). Following the only partially successful coup — barracks in important cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao and Málaga did not join in the rebellion as had Morocco, Pamplona, Burgos, Valladolid, Cádiz, Cordoba, and Seville — Spain was left militarily and politically divided. From that moment onwards Mola's successor, General Franco, began a protracted war of attrition against the legally established government, as loyalist supporters of the centre-left Republican Government fought the rebel forces for control of the country. There were bloody purges in every piece of territory conquered from the republic in order to consolidate Franco's future regime, and purges done by the communist republicans during May 1937. Like most civil wars, it became notable for the passion and political division it inspired. The Spanish Civil War often pitted family members, neighbors, 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, those associated with the losing Republicans were persecuted by the victorious Nationalists.

The conservative generals (nacionales) received the support of Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946), as well as neighbouring Portugal. The Soviet Union intervened in support of the socialist Republicans, although it encouraged factional conflict to the benefit of the Soviet foreign policy, and its actions may have been detrimental to the Republican war effort as a whole.

The war ended with the victory of the rebels, who called themselves 'Nationalists', the overthrow of the Republican Government, and the exile of thousands of Spanish Republicans, many of whom ended up in refugee camps in Southern France. With the establishment of a conservative dictatorship led by General Francisco Franco in the aftermath of the Civil War, all right-wing parties were fused into the structure of the Franco regime.

The new tank warfare tactics and the terror bombing of cities from the air were features of the Spanish Civil War which played a significant part in the later general European war. The Spanish Civil War has also been dubbed "the first media war," with several writers and journalists wanting their work "to support the cause." Foreign correspondents and writers covering it included Ernest Hemingway, Georges Bernanos, Martha Gellhorn, César Vallejo, George Orwell and Robert Capa. Like most international observers, they tended to support the Republicans, with some, such as Orwell, participating directly in the fighting.

Background

Main article: Background of the Spanish Civil War

During the constitutional monarchy

The 19th century was a turbulent time 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 monarchy of the old regime and to establish a liberal state. Between 1812 and the civil war, there had been several attempts to realign the political system to match the social reality. Until the 1950s, capitalism in Spain was primary based on agriculture. There was little development of a bourgeois industrial or commercial class.

King Amadeo I of Spain.

Between 1868 and 1874, popular uprising led to the overthrowing of Isabella II. In 1873, her replacement, King Amadeo I, abdicated due to increasing political pressure and the First Spanish Republic was proclaimed. However, the restoration of the Bourbons occurred in December 1874 after the uprisings were crushed by the military. Elections were controlled by caciques, local political bosses. Carlists – supporters of Infante Carlos and his descendants – fought for the cause of Spanish tradition and Catholicism. Anarchism became popular among the working class and was far stronger in Spain than anywhere else in Europe.

In 1897, the growing number of arrests and the use of torture led to the assassination of Prime Minister In the first two decades of the twentieth century, the industrial working class grew in number. There was a growing discontent amongst Basque and Catalonian people, where much of Spain's industry was based, that the government failed to represent their interests. Spain's socialist party, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and its associated trade union, the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), gained support. Alejandro Lerroux became a notable republican advocate of anti-clericalism. The church, he argued, was inseparable from the system of oppression the people were under.

The military was keen to avoid the fracture of the state. Regional nationalism was frowned upon. Resentment of the military and conscription grew with the disastrous Rif War; Events culminated in the Tragic Week in Barcelona in 1909. This led to the establishment of the National Confederation of Labour (CNT), an anarchist-controlled trade union.

Prime Minister Miguel Primo de Rivera.

After the formation of Comintern in 1919, there was a growing fear of communism, and growing repression on the part of the government, through military means. The PSOE split, with more radical members founding the Communist Party in 1921.

In 1923, Miguel Primo de Rivera came to power in a military coup, and ran Spain as a military dictatorship. He instituted new polices, including a sweeping programme of public works. He also attempted to defend the agrarian-industrial monarchist coalition formed in the war. Gradually, his support faded, and he resigned in January 1930. There was little support for a return to the pre-1923 system, and the monarchy had backed the military government, losing democratic credibility. The municipal elections of April 12, 1931 showed little support in the major cities, and large numbers of people gathered in the streets of Madrid. King Alfonso XIII abdicated, lest he be forced and a "fratricidal civil war" ensue. The Second Spanish Republic was formed.

During the Second Republic

Niceto Alcalá-Zamora in 1931.

The Second Republic had the broad support of all. Niceto Alcalá-Zamora was made the Prime Minister of the republic. Elections to a constituent Cortes in June 1931 returned a large majority of Republicans and Socialists. Lerroux became foreign minister. It was controlled by a Republican-Socialist coalition, members of which had differing objectives. The state's financial position was poor, and supporters of the Dictatorship were doing their best to restrict progress. The government attempted to tackle a dire situation in rural parts of Spain, including an eight-hour day, and security of tenure to the farm workers. Landlords campaigned, and the efficiency of the reforms was dependent on the skill of the local governance.

Effective opposition was led by three groups. Firstly, by Catholic movements such as the Asociación Católica de Propagandistas. In addition, there were members of organisations that had supported the monarchy, such as the Renovación Española and Carlists, who were catastrophists and wished to see the new republic overthrown in a violent uprising. The third group were outright Fascist organisations, among them supporters of the dictator's son, José Antonio Primo de Rivera. Press often denounced a foreign Jewish-Masonic-Bolshevik plot. Those parts of the CNT willing to cooperate with the republic were forced out, and it continued to mount opposition to the government. The opposition gained the support of the church. The military were alienated by increasing regional autonomy granted by the central government, and reforms to the military to make it more efficient were seen as a direct attack The General Military Academy in Zaragoza, whose director was Francisco Franco, was closed by Manuel Azaña.

On December 9, 1931, a new constitution, the Spanish Constitution of 1931, was declared. It was reformist, liberal and democratic in nature, and welcomed by the Republican-Socialist coalition. It appalled landowners, industrialists, the organised church, and army officers. The new constitution removed any special Catholic rights, as the new government believed it was necessary to break the control the church had over Spanish affairs. On 18 October 1931, Gil Robles the leading spokesman of the parliamentary right, called for a crusade against the republic. In October 1931, both Alcalá Zamora and his interior minister, Miguel Maura, resigned, and Manuel Azaña became Prime Minister. Lerroux became alienated and his Radical Party switched to the opposition, leaving Azaña dependent only on the socialists. Several agricultural strikes were put down by the authorities harshly. By the end of 1931, King Alfonso, in exile, stopped attempting to prevent an armed insurrection of monarchists in Spain. Azaña declared that Spain had 'ceased to be Catholic'; although justifiable, this was politically unwise. Spanish Catholics, if they were to oppose educational and religious reforms, were forced into opposition with the government.

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

In August 1932, there was an unsuccessful uprising by General José Sanjurjo. The aims of the insurrection were vague, and it quickly turned into a fiasco. Whilst Socialists stood by Azaña, the left as a whole fractured, whilst the right united; the Socialist Party headed to the political left. Gil Robles set up a new party, the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (Spanish: Confederatión Espanola de Derechas Autónomas, CEDA) to contest the 1933 election, and tacitly embraced Fascism. It resulted in an overwhelming victory for the right, with the CEDA and the Radicals together 219 seats, they having spent far more on their election campaign than the Socialists, who campaigned alone.

Between 1934 and 1936, Spain entered a period called the "black two years". Tensions rose in the period before the start of the war. Radicals became more aggressive, and conservatives turned to paramilitary and vigilante actions. The Socialist oppoistion began to propagate a revolutionary ideal. President Niceto Alcalá-Zamora declined to invite the leader of the CEDA, Gil Robles, to form a government and instead invited the Radical Republican Party's Alejandro Lerroux to do so. The government set about removing price controls, selling state favours and monopolies, and removing the land reforms. This create growing malnourishment in the south of Spain. The agrarian reforms, still in force, went tacitly unenforced.

The first anarchist protest came on 8 December 1933, and was crushed by force easily in most of Spain. Both Carlists and Alfonsist monarchists continued to prepare. Some, however, turned their attention to the Fascist Falange Española, under the leadership of José Antonio Primo de Rivera. Open violence occurred in the streets of Spanish cities. Lerroux resigned in April 1934. Parts of the Socialist Party attempted to prevent the move towards Bolshevism the rest of the party was taking, leading to ruptures within the party's structure. In September, the CEDA announced it would no longer support the RRP's minority government; it was replaced by a RRP cabinet that included three members of the CEDA. A UGT general strike was unsuccessful in most of Spain. Months of retaliation and repression followed, torture was used on political prisoners. Robles once again prompted a cabinet collapse, and five members of Lerroux's new government were conceded to CEDA. Farm workers' wages were halved, and the military purged of republicanism members and reformed; those loyal to Robles were promoted – Franco was made Chief of Staff.

In 1935, Azaña and Indalecio Prieto started to unify the left, and combat its extreme elements, including the staging of large, popular rallies, in what would become the Popular Front. Lerroux's Radical government collapsed after two large scandals, including the Straperlo affair. However, Zamora did not allow the CEDA to form a government, and called elections. The elections of 1936 were narrowly won by the Popular Front, with vastly smaller resources the political right, who followed Nazi propaganda techniques. The right began to conspire as to how to best overthrow the republic, rather than taking control of it. The republicans were to govern alone; Azaña led a minority government. Pacification and reconciliation would have been a huge task. Acts of violence and reprisals spiralled. In April, parliament replaced Zamora with Azaña; the removal of Zamora was made on specious grounds using a constitutional technicality. However, Azaña was increasingly isolated from everyday politics; his replacement, Casares Quiroga, was weak.

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. The Falange expanded massively. Prieto did his best to avoid revolution, but Communists quickly took over the ranks of socialist organisations. This scared the middle classes. Several generals decided that the government had to be replaced if the dissolution of Spain was to be prevented. They held a contempt for professional politicians. This would lead to the military coup that started the Spanish Civil War.

Military coup

File:Emilio Mola 002.jpg

General Emilio Mola, Director of the coup and Head of the Armies of the North.

Main article: Spanish coup of July 1936

The republican government had been attempting to remove suspect generals from their posts, and so Franco was sacked as chief of staff and transferred to command of the Canary islands. Manuel Goded was sacked as Inspector General and made general of the Balearic islands; Emilio Mola was moved from head of the Army of Africa to be military commander of Pamplona in Navarre. However, this allowed Mola to direct the mainland uprising, although the relationship between him and Carlist leaders was problematic. General José Sanjurjo became the figurehead of the operation, and helped to come to an agreement with the Carlists. Mola was chief planner and second in command. José Antonio Primo de Rivera was put in prison in mid-March in order to restrict the Falange, which he controlled. However, government actions were not as thorough as they might have been: warnings by the Director of Security and other figures were not acted upon.

Mola began serious planning in the spring, but General Francisco Franco hesitated until early July. Franco was a key player because of his prestige as a former director of the military academy and as the man who suppressed the Socialist uprising of 1934. He wrote a cryptic letter to Casares on 23 June, suggesting that the military was disloyal, but Casares failed to arrest or buy off Franco.

Murder of Calvo Sotelo

On 12 July 1936, in Madrid, members of the Falange murdered Lieutenant José Castillo of the Assault Guards police force. Castillo was a member of the Socialist party. The next day, members of the Assault Guards arrested José Calvo Sotelo, a leading Spanish monarchist and a prominent parliamentary conservative. Sotelo had protested against agricultural reforms, expropriations, and restrictions on the authority of the Catholic Church, which he considered Bolshevist and anarchist. Calvo Sotelo was shot by the Guards without trial. The killing of Calvo Sotelo, a prominent member of parliament, with involvement of the police, aroused suspicions and strong reactions among the government's opponents on the right. Massive reprisals followed. Although the conservative Nationalist generals were already in advanced stages of a planned uprising, the event provided a catalyst and convenient public justification for their coup, and in particular that Spain would have to be saved from anarchy by military rather than democratic means.

Beginning of the coup

General map of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).

  Initial Nationalist zone — July 1936

  Nationalist advance until September 1936

  Nationalist advance until October 1937

  Nationalist advance until November 1938

  Nationalist advance until February 1939

  Last area under Republican control

Main Nationalist centres
Main Republican centres
Land battles
Naval battles
Bombed cities
Concentration camps
Massacres
Refugee camps

The uprising's timing was fixed at 17 July, at 5PM. The plotters signalled the beginning of the coup by broadcasting the code phrase, "Over all of Spain, the sky is clear."Warned that a coup was imminent, leftists barricaded the roads on 17 July, but Franco avoided capture by taking a tugboat to the airport. The rising was intended to be a swift coup d'état, but the government retained control of most of the country.

Outcome

The rebels failed to take any major cities with the critical exception of Seville which provided a landing point for Franco’s African troops. The primarily conservative and Catholic areas of Old Castille and León fell quickly,as did Pamplona. In Madrid they were hemmed into the Montaña barracks. The barracks fell the next day, with much bloodshed. Republican leader Santiago Casares Quiroga was replaced by José Giral who ordered the distribution of weapons among the civilian population. This facilitated the defeat of the army insurrection in the main industrial centers, including Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and other main cities in the Mediterranean area, but it allowed the anarchists to take control of Barcelona and large swathes of Aragon and Catalonia, so that the control of the Republican Government in those areas became tenuous at best.

Meanwhile the Army of Africa crossed the Gibraltar Strait. Their quick movement allowed them to meet General Mola's Northern Army and secure most of northern and northwestern Spain, as well as central and western Andalusia. The Republican Government ended up with controlling almost all of the Eastern Spanish coast and central area around Madrid, as well as Asturias, Cantabria and part of the Basque Country in the north. Mola was keen to create a sense of fear within Nationalist-controlled areas. There was a massive purge of freemasons, and a wide part of the left, including some moderate socialists.

The result of the coup was a Nationalist area of control containing forty percent of Spain's population. The Nationalists had secured the support of around half of Spain's territorial army, some 60,000 men, and 30,000 members of Spain's militaristic police forces. 50,000 members of the latter stayed loyal to the government. The government also controlled two-thirds of its pre-war air capability (although outdated); the vast majority of the Spanish Navy and two-thirds of its merchant navy.

Combatants

The war was cast by Republican sympathizers as a struggle between "tyranny and democracy", and by Nationalist supporters as between Communist and anarchist "red hordes" and "Christian civilization". Nationalists also claimed to be protecting the establishment and bringing security and direction to an ungoverned and lawless society.

The active participants in the war covered the entire gamut of the political positions of the time. The Nationalist (nacionales) side included the Carlists and Legitimist monarchists, Spanish nationalists, the fascist Falange, and most conservatives and monarchist liberals. Virtually all Nationalist groups had very strong Catholic convictions and supported the native Spanish clergy. On the Republican side were Marxists, socialists, liberals, and anarchists.

Spanish politics, especially on the left, were quite fragmented. At the beginning, socialists and radicals supported democracy, while the communists and anarchists opposed the institution of the republic as much as the monarchists. There were internal divisions even among the socialists: a group that adhered to classical Marxism, and a more progressive Marxist group. The former was the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), one of whose delegates to the Soviet Union challenged Stalin regarding his use of the CHEKA to rein in dissidents, and upon his return to Spain convinced the PSOE to reject affiliation with the 5th to 7th Comintern. From the Comintern's point of view the increasingly powerful, if fragmented, left and the weak right were an optimum situation. Their goal was to use a veil of legitimate democratic institutions to outlaw the right, converting the state into the Soviet vision of a "people's republic" with total leftist domination, a goal repeatedly voiced in Comintern instructions and in the public statements of the Communist Party of Spain. The left and Basque or Catalan nationalist conservatives had many conflicting ideas. The Cortes (Spanish Parliament) consisted of 16 parties in 1931. An attempt by the communists to seize control resisted by anarchists resulted in the massacre of hundreds of rebels and civil war between communists and anarchists in Catalonia.

The actions of the Republican government slowly coagulated the different people on the right.

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.

Robyn

Main articles: Republican Left (Spain), Spanish Revolution, CNT-FAI, POUM, and Unión General de Trabajadores

Republicans (also known as Spanish loyalists) received weapons and volunteers from the Soviet Union, Mexico, the international Marxists movement and the International Brigades. The Republicans ranged from centrists who supported a moderately capitalist liberal democracy to revolutionary anarchists; 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. 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. Regarding the term "loyalist", Historian Stanley Payne notes: "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."

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. All these forces were gathered under the People's Republican Army (Ejército Popular Republicano, or EPR).

Nationalists

Flags of the Falange (left) and Carlist Traditionalist Requetés (right)

Main articles: Spanish Army of Africa, Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right, Francoists, Falangists, and Carlists

The Nationalists (also called "insurgents", "rebels" or by opponents "Francoists" or overinclusively as "Fascists") fearing national fragmentation, opposed the separatist movements, and were chiefly defined by their anti-communism, which galvanized diverse or opposed movements like falangists or monarchists. Their leaders had a generally wealthier, more conservative, monarchist, landowning background, and (with the exception of the Carlists) favoured the centralization of state power.

One of the Nationalists' principal stated motives was to confront the anti-clericalism of the Republican regime and to defend the 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, in the Asturias uprising of 1934 religious buildings were burnt and at least 100 clergy, religious, and police were killed, but the president and the radicals prevented the implementation of any serious sanctions against the revolutionaries. According to Payne:

General Francisco Franco, leader of the Nationalists.

More than 1,000 were killed, the majority revolutionaries, and there were atrocities on both sides. The revolutionaries shot nearly 100 people in cold blood, most of them policemen and priests, and an almost equal number of rebels–possibly even more--were executed out of hand by the troops that suppressed the revolt.

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, drove many Catholics, left then with little alternative, to the Nationalists. Franco's first proclamation from Tenerife however, as historian Hilari Raguer has observed, "failed to invoke a religious motive behind the Uprising. It denounces the disorder, the revolutionary atmosphere, the violation of the constitution and the new emergency regulations. Leaving aside the volunteers from Navarra, the first rebel on record as having publicly declared a religious motivation was His Imperial Highness Muley Hassan ben El Mehdi, the Jalifa of the Spanish zone of the Moroccan protectorate. When blessing the first Moors to leave for the peninsula, he declared a Holy War against those evil Spaniards who did not display the sign of God on their banners."

Other factions

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 Nationalist 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. Notwithstanding the religious matters, the Basque nationalists, who nearly all sided with the Republic, were, for the most part, practicing Catholics.

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 Franco. Forces fighting on behalf of the Republicans also received limited aid, but support was seriously hampered by the arms embargo declared by France and the UK. These embargoes were never very effective however, and France especially was accused of allowing large shipments through to the Republicans (but 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'.

The League of Nations' reaction to the war was mostly neutral and insufficient to contain the massive importation of arms and other war resources by the 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 the late 1930s: the official Spanish government of Juan Negrín was gradually abandoned within the organization during this period.

Support for Nationalists

Despite the Irish government's prohibition against participating in the war, around 700 Irishmen, followers of Eoin O'Duffy known as the "Irish Brigade", went to Spain to fight on Franco's side. The Nationalists received weapons and logistical support from Portugal. In addition approximately 8,000 Portuguese volunteers, known as Viriatos after an aborted national legion that failed to get off the ground in the early months of the war, fought in Franco's forces. Romanian volunteers were led by Ion I Moţa, deputy-leader of the Legion of the Archangel Michael (or Iron Guard), whose group of seven Legionaries visited Spain in December 1936 to ally their movement to the Nationalists. Moţa was killed in action at Majadahonda on January 13, 1937.

Germany

Main article: German involvement in the Spanish Civil War

Despite the German signing of a non-intervention agreement in September 1936, various forms of aid and military support were given to both sides by Nazi Germany, almost all in support of the Nationalists. It included the formation of the Condor Legion as a land and air force, with German efforts to move the Army of Africa to mainland Spain proving successful in the early stages of the war. Operations gradually expanded to include strike targets, and there was a German contribution to many of the battles of the Spanish Civil War. The bombing of Guernica on 26 April 1937 would be the most controversial event of German involvement, with perhaps 200 to 300 civilians dead. German involvement was also made through various other means, including Operation Ursula, a U-boat undertaking, and contributions from the the Kriegsmarine. The Condor Legion spearheaded many Nationalist victories, particularly in the air dominance from 1937 onwards; 300 victories were claimed, dwarfed by some 900 claimed by Italian forces. Spain provided a proving ground for German tank tactics, as well as aircraft tactics, the latter only being moderately successful. The training they provided to Nationalist force would prove valuable, with perhaps 56,000 Nationalist soldiers trained by German detachments. These covered infantry, tanks and anti-tank units, air and anti-aircraft forces, and those trained in naval warfare.

Probably a total of 16,000 German citizens fought; about 10,000 Germans was the maximum at any one time. Perhaps 300 were killed. German aid to the Nationalists amounted to approximately £43,000,000 ($215,000,000) in 1939 prices. This was broken down in expenditure to: 15.5% used for salaries and expenses, 21.9% used for direct delivery of supplies to Spain, and 62.6% expended on the Condor Legion.

Italy

After Franco’s request and in response to Adolf Hitler's encouragement, Benito Mussolini joined the war. The conquest of Abyssinia had increased Italy's delusions of power. A Spanish ally would help secure Italian control of the Mediterranean. However, the Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina Italiana) played a major role in the Mediterranean blockade and ultimately Italy supplied machine guns, artillery, aircraft, tankettes, the Legionary Air Force (Italian: Aviazione Legionaria), and the Corps of Volunteer Troops (Italian: Corpo Truppe Volontarie, or CTV). The Italian CTV reached a high of about 50,000 men and, by rotation, more than 75,000 Italians were to fight for the Nationalists in Spain. In total fascist Italy provided Nationalists with 750 planes and 2,000 artillery pieces.

Portugal

Salazar's Estado Novo played a most important role in supplying Franco’s forces with ammunition and many other logistical resources. Despite its discreet direct military involvement — restrained to a somewhat "semi-official" endorsement, by its authoritarian regime, of an 8,000–12,000-strong volunteer force, the so-called "Viriatos" — for the whole duration of the conflict, Portugal was instrumental in providing the Nationalists with a vital logistical organization and by reassuring Franco and his allies that no interference whatsoever would hinder the supply traffic directed to the Nationalists, crossing the borders of the two Iberian countries — the Nationalists used to refer to Lisbon as "the port of Castile".

Support for Republicans

International Brigades

Flag of the Hungarian International Brigades.

Many non-Spanish people, often affiliated with radical, communist or socialist parties or groups, joined the International Brigades, believing that the Spanish Republic was the front line of the war against fascism. The troops of the International Brigades represented the largest foreign contingent of those fighting for the Republicans. Roughly 40,000 foreign nationals fought with the Brigades, although at any given time there were no more than 18,000; they came from a claimed 53 nations. Most of them were communists or trade unionists, and while organised by communists guided or controlled by Moscow, they were almost all individual volunteers.

Significant numbers came from France (10,000), Germany and Austria (5,000) and Italy (3,350). More than 1,000 came from the USSR, USA, UK, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Canada. The Thälmann Battalion was a group of German volunteers who distinguished themselves during the Siege of Madrid. The American volunteers fought in units such as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and Canadians in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion.

Over five hundred Romanians fought on the Republican side, including Romanian Communist Party members Petre Borilă and Valter Roman. About 80 volunteers from Ireland formed the Connolly Column. Some Chinese joined the International Brigades. At the end of the war, the majority returned to China, while some went to prison, others went to refugee camps in southern France, and a handful remained in Spain.

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union primarily provided material assistance to the Republican forces. In total the USSR provided Spain with 806 planes, 362 tanks, and 1,555 artillery pieces. The Soviet Union ignored the League of Nations embargo and sold arms to the Republic when few other nations would do so; thus it was the Republic's only important source of major weapons. Stalin had signed the Non-Intervention Agreement but decided to break the pact. However, unlike Hitler and Mussolini who openly violated the pact, Stalin tried to do so secretly. He created a section X of the Soviet Union military to head the operation, coined Operation X. However, while a new branch of the military was created especially for Spain, most of the weapons and artillery sent to Spain were antiques. Stalin did not want the arms to be traceable to the Soviet Union, so most were taken from museums from around the country. He also used weapons captured from past conflicts. However, modern weapons such as BT-5 tanks and I-16 fighter aircraft were also supplied to Spain.

Many of the Soviet’s deliveries were lost or smaller than Stalin had ordered. He only gave short notice, which meant many weapons were lost in the delivery process. Lastly, when the ships did leave with supplies for the Republicans, the journey was extremely slow. Stalin ordered the builders to include false decks in the original design of the boat. Then, once the ship left shore it was required to change its flag and change the color of parts of the ship to minimize capture by the Nationalists. However in 1938, Stalin withdrew his troops and tanks as government ranks floundered.

The Republic had to pay for Soviet arms with the official gold reserves of the Bank of Spain, in an affair that would become a frequent subject of Francoist propaganda afterward (see Moscow Gold). The cost to the Republic of Soviet arms was more than US $500 million, two-thirds of the gold reserves that Spain had at the beginning of the war.

The Soviet Union also sent a number of military advisers to Spain (2,000-3,000). While Soviet troops amounted to no more than 700 men, Soviet volunteers often operated Soviet-made Republican tanks and aircraft. In addition, the Soviet Union directed Communist parties around the world to organize and recruit the International Brigades.

Another significant Soviet involvement was the pervasive activities of the NKVD all along the Republican rearguard. Communist figures like Vittorio Vidali ("Comandante Contreras"), Iosif Grigulevich and, above all, Alexander Orlov led those not-so-secret operations, that included murders like those of Andreu Nin and José Robles.

Mexico

Unlike the United States and major Latin American governments such as the ABC Powers and Peru, the Mexican government supported the Republicans. Mexico refused to follow the French-British non-intervention proposals. Mexico furnished $2,000,000 in aid and provided some material assistance, which included 20,000 rifles and 20 million cartridges, 8 artillery pieces and small number of American-made aircraft such as the Bellanca CH-300 and Spartan Zeus that served in the Mexican Air Force.

However, Mexico's most important contributions to the Spanish Republic were diplomatic and to provide sanctuary for Republican refugees including many Spanish intellectuals and orphaned children from Republican families. Some 50,000 took refuge in Mexico, primarily in Mexico City. They were accompanied by $300 million in various treasures still held by the Republicans.

Course of the war

1936

Map showing Spain in September 1936:

  Area under Nationalist control

  Area under Republican control

Main article: Spanish Civil War chronology 1936

A large air and sea-lift of Nationalist troops in Spanish Morocco was organised to the south-west of Spain. Coup leader Sanjurjo was killed in a plane crash on 20 July, leaving an effective command split between Mola in the North and Franco in the South. This period also saw the worst actions of both the "Red" and "White Terror" in Spain. On 21 July, the fifth day of the rebellion, the Nationalists captured the main Spanish naval base at Ferrol in north-western Spain.

A rebel force under Colonel Beorlegui Canet, sent by General Emilio Mola, undertook the Campaign of Guipúzcoa from July to September. The capture of Guipúzcoa isolated the Republican provinces in the north. On 5 September, after heavy fighting the force took Irún, closing the French border to the Republicans. On 15 September, San Sebastián was taken by the Nationalists, with divisions inside between the anarchists and the Basque nationalists. The Nationalists then advanced toward their capital, Bilbao. The Republican militias on the border of Vizcaya halted these forces at the end of September.

The Republican government under Giral resigned on 4 September, grossly unable to cope with the situation it found itself in, replaced by a mostly Socialist one under Largo Caballero. It started to unify central command in the republican zone. Franco was chosen overall Nationalist commander at a meeting of ranking generals at Salamanca on 21 September, accompanied with the title Generalísimo. 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 thousands of Republican troops who completely surrounded the isolated building. Two days after relieving the siege, Franco proclaimed himself Caudillo ("chieftain"), while forcibly unifying the various and diverse Falangist, Royalist and other elements within the Nationalist cause. The diversion to Toledo gave Madrid time to prepare a defence, but was hailed as a major propaganda victory, and a personal success for Franco.

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 8 November and 23 November. A contributory factor in the successful Republican defense was the arrival of the International Brigades, though only around 3,000 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. The battle of the Corunna Road, a Nationalist offensive to the north-west, pushed Republican forces back, but failed to cut off Madrid. It lasted into January.

1937

Main article: Spanish Civil War chronology 1937

Map showing Spain in October 1937:

  Area under Nationalist control

  Area under Republican control

With his ranks swelled by Italian troops and Spanish colonial soldiers from Morocco, Franco made another attempt to capture Madrid in January and February 1937, but again failed.

Ruins of Guernica

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, the German Condor Legion equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes arrived in Spain; on 26 April the Legion bombed the town of Guernica, killing hundreds. Two days later, Franco's army overran the town.

Pablo Picasso was commissioned by the Spanish Republican Government to paint Guernica (painting) for the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) in Paris.

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 3 June, and in early July, despite the fall of Bilbao in June, the government launched a strong counter-offensive in the Madrid area, which the Nationalists repulsed with difficulty. The clash was called "Battle of Brunete" after a town in the province of Madrid.

Franco invaded Aragón in August and then took 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) Franco had effectively won in the north. At the end of November, with Franco's troops closing in on Valencia, the government had to move again, this time to Barcelona.

1938

Map showing Spain in July 1938:

  Area under Nationalist control

  Area under Republican control

Main article: Spanish Civil War chronology 1938–1939

The Battle of Teruel was an important confrontation. The city belonged to the Nationalists at the beginning of the battle, but the Republicans conquered it in January. The Francoist troops launched an offensive and recovered the city by 22 February, but in order to do so Franco relied heavily on German and Italian air support and repaid them with extensive mining rights.

On 7 March, the Nationalists launched the Aragon Offensive. By 14 April, they had pushed through to the Mediterranean, cutting the Republican-held portion of Spain in two. The Republican government tried to sue for peace in May, but Franco demanded unconditional surrender; the war raged on. In July, the Nationalist army pressed southward from Teruel and south along the coast toward the capital of the Republic at Valencia but was halted in heavy fighting along the XYZ Line, a system of fortifications defending Valencia.

The Republican government then launched an all-out campaign to reconnect their territory in the Battle of the Ebro, from 24 July until 26 November. The campaign was unsuccessful, and was undermined by the Franco-British appeasement of Hitler in Munich with the concession of Czechoslovakia. This effectively destroyed Republican morale by ending 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 threw massive forces into an invasion of Catalonia.

1939

Main article: Spanish Civil War chronology 1938–1939

Map showing Spain in February 1939:

  Area under Nationalist control

  Area under Republican control

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 United Kingdom and France recognized the Franco regime.

Franco declares the end of the war. However, small pockets of Republicans fight on.

Only Madrid and a few other strongholds remained for the Republican forces. Then, on 28 March, with the help of pro-Franco forces inside the city, 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; thousands of Republicans were imprisoned and at least 30,000 executed. Other calculations of these deaths range from 50,000 to 200,000. Many others were put to forced labour, building railways, drying out swamps, digging canals, etc.

Hundreds of thousands of Republicans fled abroad, some 500,000 to France. 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. Of the 17,000 refugees housed in Gurs, 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 Marshal Philippe 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.

After the official end of the war, guerrilla war was waged on an irregular basis by the Spanish Maquis well into the 1950s, being gradually reduced by military defeats and scant support from the exhausted population. 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 were defeated after ten days.

Evacuation of children

Main article: Evacuation of children in the Spanish Civil War

Residents of the War Resisters' International (WRI) children's refuge in the French Pyrenees, some time between 1937 and 1939, warden José Brocca standing third from left.

As war proceeded on 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. These children were referred to as 'Basque refugees,' even though they were a diverse group. Those in Western European countries were able to return to their families after the war, but those in the Soviet Union, from Communist families, were forbidden to return — by Stalin and by Franco. The first opportunity for most of them to do so came in 1956, three years after Stalin's death. They lived in Soviet orphanages and were regularly transferred from one orphanage to another according to the progress of the Second World War.

The Nationalist side 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.

One example of a large refugee camp was located in Great Britain. Over 4,000 children arrived at the Southampton Docks on 23 May 1937. The camps were overcrowded with dozens of children staying in the same tent. The plan was to move the refugees out of the camps and disperse them into villages throughout Britain. After the war was over the displaced children were allowed to return to Spain. Those age 16 and above were allowed to decide whether or not they wanted to leave the country. Some were forced to stay because their parents had been killed or imprisoned, others stayed by choice.

Atrocities

At least 50,000 people were executed during the war. In his updated history of the Spanish Civil War, Antony Beevor writes, "Franco's ensuing 'white terror' claimed 200,000 lives. The 'red terror' had already killed 38,000." 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." César Vidal puts the number of Republican victims at 110,965. In 2008 a Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzón, opened an investigation into the executions and disappearances of 114,266 people between 17 July 1936 and December 1951 (he has since been indicted for violating a 1977 amnesty by these actions). Among the executions investigated was that of the poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca.

In the early days of the war, executions of people who were caught on the "wrong" side of the lines became widespread in conquered areas. The outbreak of the war provided an excuse for settling accounts and resolving longstanding feuds. In these paseos ("strolls"), as the executions were called, the victims were taken from their refuges or jails 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.

Nationalists

Nationalist aircraft bomb Madrid in late November 1936.

File:Barcelona bombing.jpg

Bombing in Barcelona, 1938.

The atrocities of the Nationalists, frequently ordered by authorities in order to eradicate any trace of leftism in Spain, were common. According to historian Paul Preston, the minimum number of those executed by the rebels is 130,000, and is likely to be far higher. The violence carried out in the rebel zone was carried out by the military, the "Civil Guard", the Falange in the name of the regime and legitimized by the Catholic Church.

Many such acts were committed by reactionary groups during the first weeks of the war. This included the execution of school teachers (because the efforts of the Second Spanish Republic to promote laicism and to displace the Church from the education system by closing religious schools were considered by the Nationalists as an attack on the Roman Catholic Church); the massive killings of civilians in the cities they captured; the execution of unwanted individuals (including non-combatants such as trade-unionists and known Republican sympathisers).

Nationalist forces committed massacres in Seville, where some 8,000 people were shot; 10,000 were killed in Córdoba. 6–12,000 were killed in Badajoz. In Granada, at least 2000 people were murdered. In February 1937, over 7000 were killed after the capture of Málaga. When Bilbao was conquered thousands of people were sent to prison; there were fewer executions than usual, however, because of the effect Guernica was having on the Naitonalist's reputation internationally. The numbers of people killed as the successful columns of the Army of Africa devastated and pillaged their way between Seville and Madrid are particularly difficult to calculate.

Nationalists murdered Catholic clerics. In one particular incident, following the capture of Bilbao, hundreds of people, including 16 priests who had served as chaplains for the Republican forces, were taken to the countryside or to graveyards to be murdered.

Franco's forces also persecuted Protestants, including the murder of twenty Protestant ministers. Franco's forces were determined to remove from Spain the "Protestant heresy". Pastor Miguel Blanco of Seville was shot as was Pastor Jose Garcia Fernandez of Granada. In Zaragoza, on August 18, the church was attacked by Franco's forces. They destroyed furniture, burned Bibles and books and stole valuables. Many Protestants were imprisoned and tortured. The Nationalists also persecuted the Basque people. They were determined to eradicate Basque culture. According to Basque sources, some 22,000 Basques were murdered by Nationalists immediately after the Civil War.

The Nationalist side also conducted aerial bombing of cities in 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.

Republicans

See also: Red Terror (Spain)

"Execution" of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Communist militiamen. The photograph in the London Daily Mail had the caption the "Spanish Reds' war on religion."

The Puente Nuevo bridge. Both Nationalists and Republicans are claimed to have thrown prisoners from the bridge to their deaths in the canyon.

According to the Nationalists, an estimated 55,000 civilians died in Republican-held territories. This is considered excessive by Antony Beevor; however, it was much less than the half a million claimed during the war. It would form the prevailing opinion of the Republic up until the bombing of Guernica. The Republican government was anticlerical and supporters attacked and murdered Roman Catholic clergy in reaction to news of the military revolt. In Republican held territories, Roman Catholic churches, convents, monasteries, and cemeteries were desecrated. Through the war, nearly all segments of the Republicans, Basques being a notable exception, took part in semi-organized anti-Roman Catholic, anticlerical killing of 6,832 members of the Catholic clergy and religious orders (including 13 bishops, 4,184 priests, 2,365 monks and friars, and 283 nuns). The "Execution" of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Communist militiamen at Cerro de los Ángeles near Madrid, on 7 August 1936, was the most infamous of the widespread desecration of religious property. It was justified by reference to the Church's political role, which was considerable. By the end of the war 20 percent of the nation's clergy had been killed, but this could have been much lower.

As well as clergy, civilians were executed in Republican areas. Some civilians were executed as suspected fifth columnists. Others died in revenge due to news of the massacres carried out in the Nationalist zone. Air raids committed against Republican cities were another factor. Historian Paul Preston emphasizes that Republican authorities did not order such measures to be taken. Shopkeepers and industrialists, if collaborators, were shot; if they were well regarded for their attitude to the poor, they were usually spared. Fake justice was sought though commission, known by their name in Russia, checas. As pressure mounted with increasing success of the Nationalists, many civilians were executed by councils and tribunals controlled by competing Communist and Anarchist groups. Some anarchists were executed by Soviet-advised communist functionaries in Catalonia, as described by George Orwell's description of the purges in Barcelona in 1937 in Homage to Catalonia, which followed a period of increasing tension between Competing elements of the Catalan political scene. Some people fled to friendly embassies, which would house up to 8,500 people during the war.

Republicans initially reacted to the attempted coup by arresting and executing actual and perceived Nationalists. In the Andalusian town of Ronda, 512 alleged Nationalists were executed in the first month of the war. Communist Santiago Carrillo Solares has been accused of the killing of Nationalists in the Paracuellos massacre near Paracuellos del Jarama and Torrejón de Ardoz. However, the extent to which (in particular) Carrillo was responsible remains a source of debate. The Pro-Soviet Communists committed numerous atrocities against fellow Republicans, including other Marxists: André Marty, known as the Butcher of Albacete, was responsible for the deaths of some 500 members of the International Brigades. Andreu Nin, leader of the POUM (Workers' Party of Marxist Unification), and many prominent POUM members were murdered by the Communists.

38,000 people were killed in the Republican zone during the war, 17,000 of whom were killed in Madrid or Catalonia within a month of the coup. Whilst the Communists were forthright in their support of extra-judicial killings, much of the Republican side was appalled. Azaña came close to resigning. He, alongside other members of parliament and a great number of other local officials, attempted to prevent Nationalist supporters being lynched. Some intervened personally.

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 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 into 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 thousands of anarchist and communist republican soldiers fought for control of strategic points in Barcelona.

The pre-war Falange was a small party of some 30–40,000 members. It also called for a social revolution that would have seen Spanish society transformed by National Syndicalism. Following the execution of its leader, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, by the Republicans, the party swelled in size to over 400,000. The leadership of the Falange suffered 60% casualties in the early days of the civil war and the party was transformed by new members and rising new leaders, called camisas nuevas ("new shirts"), who were less interested in the revolutionary aspects of National Syndicalism. Subsequently, Franco united all rightist parties into the ironically named Falange Española Tradicionalista de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista (FET y de las JONS), or the Traditionalist Spanish Falange of the Unions of the National-Syndicalist Offensive.

The 1930s also saw Spain become a focus for pacifist organizations including the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the War Resisters League and the War Resisters' International. Many people including, as they are now called, the 'insumisos' ('defiant ones', conscientious objectors) argued and worked for non-violent strategies. Prominent Spanish pacifists such as Amparo Poch y Gascón and José Brocca supported the Republicans. 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 organizing agricultural workers to maintain food supplies and through humanitarian work with war refugees.

Political parties and organizations

Political parties and organizations in the Spanish Civil War

The Popular Front (Republican)	Supporters of the Popular Front (Republican)	Nationalists (Francoist)
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 Republican Action party merged with Santiago Casares Quiroga's Galician independence party and the Radical Socialist Republican Party (PRRS). 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): Created from the merging of the separatist Estat Català (Catalan State) and the Catalan Republican Party in 1931. It controlled the autonomous government of Catalonia during the republican period. Throughout the war it was led by Lluís Companys, also president of the Generalitat of Catalonia. 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 Youth): 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 grew in importance during the war. POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista - Worker's Party of Marxist Unification): An anti-Stalinist revolutionary communist party of former Trotskyists formed in 1935 by Andreu Nin. JCI (Juventud Comunista Ibérica - Iberian Communist Youth): the POUM's youth movement. PS (Partido Sindicalista - Syndicalist Party): a moderate splinter group of CNT.	Unión Militar Republicana Antifascista (Republican Anti-fascist Military Union): Formed by military officers in opposition to the Unión Militar Española. Anarchist groups. The anarchists 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. Milicias confederales (Confederal militias) - The militia movement of the CNT, composed of a number of columns. 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) Catalan nationalists. Estat Català (Catalan State): Catalan separatist party created back in 1922. Founding part of ERC in 1931, it sided with the Republican faction during the war. Basque nationalists. PNV (Partido Nacionalista Vasco - Basque Nationalist Party): A Catholic Christian Democrat 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. Put its religious disagreement with the Popular Front aside for a promised Basque autonomy. ANV (Acción Nacionalista Vasca - Basque Nationalist Action): A leftist Socialist party, which at the same time campaigned for independence of the Basque region. STV (Solidaridad de Trabajadores Vascos - Basque Workers' Solidarity): A trade union in the Basque region, with a Catholic clerical tradition combined with moderate socialist tendencies. SRI (Socorro Rojo Internacional - International Red Aid): Communist organization allied with the Comintern that provided considerable aid to Republican civilians and soldiers. International Brigades: pro-Republican military units made up of anti-fascist Socialist, Communist and anarchist volunteers from different countries.	Virtually all Nationalist groups had very strong Roman Catholic convictions and supported the native Spanish clergy. Unión Militar Española (Spanish Military Union) - a conservative political organisation of officers in the armed forces, including outspoken critics of the Republic like Francisco Franco. Formed in 1934, the UME secretly courted fascist Italy from its inception. Already conspiring against the Republic in January 1936, after the electoral victory of the Popular Front in February it plotted a coup with monarchist and fascist groups in Spain. In the run-up to the Civil War, it was led by Emilio Mola and José Sanjurjo, and latterly Franco. Alfonsist Monarchist - supported the restoration of Alfonso XIII. Many army officers, aristocrats, and landowners were Alfonsine, but there was little popular support. Renovación Española (Spanish Restoration) - the main Alfonsine political party. Acción Española (Spanish Action) - an integral nationalist party led by José Calvo Sotelo, formed in 1933 around a journal of the same name edited by political theorist and journalist Ramiro de Maeztu. Bloque Nacional (National Block) - the militia movement founded by Calvo Sotelo. Carlist Monarchist - supported Alfonso Carlos I de Borbón y Austria-Este's claim to the Spanish throne and saw the Alfonsine line as having been weakened by Liberalism. After Alfonso Carlos died without issue, the Carlists split - some supporting Carlos' appointed regent, Francisco-Xavier de Borbón-Parma, others supporting Alfonso XIII or the Falange. The Carlists were clerical hard-liners led by the aristocracy, with a populist base amongst the farmers and rural workers of Navarre providing the militia. Comunión Tradicionalista (Traditionalist Communion) - the Carlist political party Requetés (Volunteers) - militia movement. Pelayos - militant youth movement, named after Pelayo of Asturias. Margaritas - women's movement, named after Margarita de Borbón-Parma, wife of Carlist pretender Charles VII (1868-1909). Falange (Phalanx): FE (Falange Española de las JONS) - created by a merger in 1934 of two fascist organisations, Primo de Rivera's Falange (Phalanx), founded in 1933, and Ramiro Ledesma's Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista (Assemblies of National-Syndicalist Offensive), founded in 1931. It became a mass movement when it was joined by members of Acción Popular and by Acción Católica, led by Ramón Serrano Súñer. OJE (Organización Juvenil Española) - militant youth movement. Sección Femenina (Feminine Section) - women's movement in labour of Social Aid. Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS - created by a merger in 1937 of the FE and the Carlist party, bringing the remaining political and militia components of the Nationalist side under Franco's ultimate authority. CEDA - coalition party founded by José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones whose ideology ranged from Christian democracy to conservative. Although they supported Franco's rebellion, the party was dissolved in 1937, after most members and militants joined FE and Gil-Robles went to exile. Juventudes de Acción Popular, also known as the JAP. The fascistised youth wing of the CEDA. In 1936 they suffered a drain of militants, who joined the Falange.

See also

• List of foreign ships wrecked or lost in the Spanish Civil War
• Catholicism in the Second Spanish Republic
• Guernica (painting)
• The Falling Soldier
• List of war films and TV specials#Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)
• List of foreign correspondents in the Spanish Civil War
• Polish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
• Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
• Proxy war
• European Civil War
• Spain in World War II
• Moscow Gold
• Surviving veterans of the Spanish Civil War
• SS Cantabria
• Nationalist Foreign Volunteers
• Pacifism in Spain
• Spanish Republican Air Force

References

Bibliography and books by noted authors

• Alpert, Michael (2004). A New International History of the Spanish Civil War. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-4039-1171-1. OCLC 155897766.
• Beevor, Antony (1982, 2006). The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. London: Weidenfield and Nicolson. ISBN 0297848321. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help) First published as The Spanish Civil War.
• Bolloten, Burnett (1979). The Spanish Revolution. The Left and the Struggle for Power during the Civil War. University of North Carolina. ISBN 1842122037.
• Brenan, Gerald (1943). The Spanish Labyrinth: an account of the social and political background of the Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1993). ISBN 9780521398275. OCLC 38930004.
• Cox, Geoffrey (1937). The Defence of Madrid. London: Victor Gollancz. ISBN 1877372384. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
• Howson, Gerald (1998). Arms for Spain. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-24177-1. OCLC 231874197.
• Jackson, Gabriel (1965). The Spanish Republic and the Civil War, 1931–1939. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00757-8. OCLC 185862219.
• Koestler, Arthur (1983). Dialogue with death. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-34776-5. OCLC 16604744.
• Orwell, George (2000, first published in 1938). Homage to Catalonia. London: Penguin Books in association with Martin Secker & Warburg. ISBN 0-14-118305-5. OCLC 42954349. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Payne, Stanley, G. (1970). The Spanish Revolution. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0297001248.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Payne, Stanley, G. (2004). The Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union, and Communism. New Haven; London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10068-X. OCLC 186010979.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Payne, Stanley G. (1973). "A History of Spain and Portugal (Print Edition)". University of Wisconsin Press. Vol. 2, Ch. 25, 26. Library of Iberian resources online. Retrieved 15 May 2007. {{cite journal}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
• Preston, Paul (1978). The Coming of the Spanish Civil War. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-23724-2. OCLC 185713276.
• Preston, Paul (1986, 1996). A Concise history of the Spanish Civil War. London: Fontana. ISBN 978-0006863731. OCLC 231702516. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Preston, Paul (2006). The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge. New York: W. W. Norton and Company. ISBN 0393329879.
• Radosh, Ronald (2001). Spain betrayed: the Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08981-3. OCLC 186413320. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• O'Riordan, Michael (2005). The Connolly Column. Pontypool, Wales: Warren and Pell.
• Rust, William (2003 Reprint of 1939 edition). Britons in Spain: A History of the British Battalion of the XV International Brigade. Pontypool, Wales: Warren and Pell. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Taylor, F. Jay (1956, 1971). The United States and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. New York: Bookman Associates. ISBN 978-0-374-97849-5. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Thomas, Hugh (1961, 2003). The Spanish Civil War. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-101161-0. OCLC 248799351. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Westwell, Ian (2004). Condor Legion: The Wehrmacht's Training Ground. Ian Allan publishing.

Further reading

• Anderson, James M. (2003). The Spanish Civil War: A History and Reference Guide. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-32274-0.
• Brouè, Pierre (1988). The Revolution and the Civil War in Spain. Chicago: Haymarket. OCLC 1931859515.
• Carr, Sir Raymond (1977). The Spanish Tragedy: The Civil War in Perspective. Phoenix Press (2001). ISBN 1-84212-203-7.
• Cowles, Virginia. Looking for Trouble. Faber Finds, 2010. ISBN 978-0-571-27091-0 [Re-issue of 1941 book]
• Doyle, Bob (2006). Brigadista – an Irishman's fight against fascism. Dublin: Currach Press. ISBN 1-85607-939-2. OCLC 71752897.
• Francis, Hywel (2006). Miners against Fascism: Wales and the Spanish Civil War. Pontypool, Wales (NP4 7AG): Warren and Pell.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
• 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: Warren and Pell.
• 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.
• Jellinek, Frank (1938). The Civil War in Spain. London: Victor Gollanz (Left Book Club).
• Kowalsky, Daniel (2004). La Union Sovietica y la Guerra Civil Espanola. Barcelona: Critica. ISBN 84-8432-490-7. OCLC 255243139.
• Low, Mary (1979 reissue of 1937). Red Spanish Notebook. San Francisco: City Lights Books (originally by Martin Secker & Warburg). ISBN 0-87286-132-5. OCLC 4832126. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Monteath, Peter (1994). The Spanish Civil War in literature, film, and art : an international Bibliography of secondary literature. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-29262-0.
• Monteath, Peter (1994). Writing the Good Fight. Political Commitment in the International Literature of the Spanish Civil War. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-28766-X.
• Othen, Christopher (2008). Franco's International Brigades: Foreign Volunteers and Fascist Dictators in the Spanish Civil War. London: Reportage Press.
• Puzzo, Dante Anthony (1962). Spain and the Great Powers, 1936–1941. Freeport, N.Y: Books for Libraries Press (originally Columbia University Press, N.Y.). ISBN 0-8369-6868-9. OCLC 308726.
• Southworth, Herbert Rutledge (1963). El mito de la cruzada de Franco. Paris: Ruedo Ibérico. ISBN 8483465744.
• Wheeler, George (2003). To Make the People Smile Again: a Memoir of the Spanish Civil War. Newcastle upon Tyne: Zymurgy Publishing. ISBN 1-903506-07-7. OCLC 231998540. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Williams, Alun Menai (2004). From the Rhondda to the Ebro: The Story of a Young Life. Pontypool, Wales: Warren & Pell.
• Wilson, Ann (1986). Images of the Civil War. London: Allen & Unwin.

External links

Primary documents

• Magazines and journals published during the war, an online exhibit maintained by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (English, Spanish)
• A collection of essays by Albert and Vera Weisbord with about a dozen essays written during and about the Spanish Civil War.
• 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
• Southworth Spanish Civil War Collection, books and other literature housed at Mandeville Special Collection Library, University of California, San Diego

Images and films

• Spain in Revolt, newsreel documentary (Video Stream) (Part 1, 2)
• 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
• Aircraft of the Spanish Civil War
• "spanish+civil+war") 64 "spanish civil war" objects in The European Library Harvest
• Battle of Rio Segre Photographs Capa, Robert (1938) International Center of Photography.

Academics and governments

• A History of the Spanish Civil War, excerpted from a U.S. government country study.
• Dutch Involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Columbia Historical Review.
• "The Spanish Civil War – causes and legacy" on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time featuring Paul Preston, Helen Graham and Dr Mary Vincent

Other

• Original war reports from The Times
• The Anarcho-Statists of Spain, a different view of the anarchists in the Spanish Civil War, George Mason University
• Spanish Civil War information from Spartacus Educational
• American Jews in Spanish Civil War, by Martin Sugarman
• The Spanish Revolution, 1936–39 articles and 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
• New Zealand and the Spanish Civil War