The Spanish Civil War was a civil war in Spain fought from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939 when a right-wing faction of Spanish politics called the "Nationalists" - consisting of Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists - rebelled against the loyalists of the Frente Popular-dominated Second Spanish Republic, collectively known as the "Republicans" (along with their anarcho-communist and anarcho-syndicalist allies). The Spanish Civil War received international attention as a class struggle between the Republican working class and the Nationalist upper class, a war of religion between the traditionalist Catholic Nationalists and the secular and atheist Republicans, a struggle between fascist dictatorship and republican democracy, between revolution and counter-revolution, and between fascism and communism. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy provided military support to the Nationalist cause, while the Soviet Union supported the Republicans; international volunteers supported both sides, but more notably the Republicans, whose "International Brigades" became legendary for their heroism and martial bravery.
The political situation in Spain had become volatile following the downfall of Miguel Primo de Rivera's corporatist dictatorship in 1930 and the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931, with the leftist-dominated Republic excluding the conservative CEDA party from power despite its parliamentary majority and instead pursuing radical, anti-clerical, and anti-militarist reforms. The Republican regime also granted greater autonomy to the Basque Country and Catalonia, enraging Spanish nationalists. These reforms angered traditionalist Roman Catholics and the Spanish Army alike, and the fascist Falange movement grew in popularity among high-ranking army officers alienated by the Republic's reformist zeal. The Republican government cracked down on the Falangist cabal by demoting or transferring several Falangist army officers, nearly defusing the Falangist threat. However, the Madrid police force's extrajudicial and politically-motivated assassination of monarchist politician Jose Calvo Sotelo on 13 July 1936 energized right-wing opposition to the Republican government. Socialist PSOE leader Indalecio Prieto recommended that the government distribute arms to the populace to fight back against any right-wing retribution, but the moderate government was hesitant to do so.
On 18 July 1936, the Spanish Nationalist movement initiated a large-scale uprising against the Republican government. General Francisco Franco's Army of Africa seized control of Spanish-ruled Morocco, General Gonzalo Queipo de Llano seized control of Seville, and the conservative Catholic areas of Castile and Leon (including the cities of Pamplona, Burgos, Zaragoza, Valladolid, Cordoba, and Seville) rose in rebellion against the Republican government. While the counter-revolution failed to seize the rest of the country from the Republicans, the capture of Seville enabled the Army of Africa to be airlifted to the Spanish mainland, where it helped to capture Cadiz. However, the military uprisings in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, and Malaga were suppressed, and the Republicans continued to dominate the capital region and in the autonomous regions. The two sides carried out atrocities in their respective zones, with the Republicans fearing a Nationalist "fifth column" aiding the main Nationalist armies in attacking Madrid and proceeding to exclude suspected Nationalists (including many Catholic priests). The Nationalists, led by General Franco, also carried out mass executions of suspected Republicans to suppress any political discontent in their occupied zones. The fighting around Madrid stagnated for years, but the German and Italian-backed Nationalists launched offensives from their strongholds in the south and west and captured most of Spain's northern coastline in 1937. The Royal Italian Army expeditionary forces suffered heavy losses in intense engagements with the Republicans (especially their highly-motivated International Brigades), including at the Battle of Guadalajara, but the German Luftwaffe's Condor Legion played a decisive role in acquiring air superiority for the Nationalist cause, committing atrocities such as the Bombing of Guernica. Continuing political instability within the Republican government, caused by Soviet-stoked frictions between the anarchist and communist revolutionaries and the pro-government forces, sabotaged the Republican war effort. From 1938 to 1939, much of Catalonia fell to the Nationalists, and Barcelona fell in January 1939. In February 1939, with a Nationalist victory all but assured, the United Kingdom and France recognized the Nationalists as the legitimate government of Spain. On 5 March 1939, Colonel Segismundo Casado led a military coup against the Republican government, causing armed infighting in the capital. Madrid's fall to the Nationalists on 1 April 1939 marked the end of the Civil War. 500,000 people (including 175,000 Republican and 110,000 Nationalist soldiers and 130,000 Republican and 50,000 Nationalist civilians) were killed during the war, while 450,000 people fled to other countries as refugees, most of them fleeing to southern France or to Mexico. The Republicans who remained in Spain were viciously persecuted by the new Francoist regime, while all of the parties of the Nationalist right were incorporated into the Falange party. Franco and his Falangists would continue to rule Spain until Franco's death in 1975, upon which the monarchy - deposed in 1931 - was restored, and democracy restored shortly after.
Background[]
In the 1920s and 30s Spain was prey to chronic political instability and social unrest. The Spanish also fought a brutal colonial war in Morocco. In 1920 Berbers in the Rif region of Spanish Morocco rebelled against colonail rule. Led by Abd el-Krim, they inflicted a severe defeat on the Spanish at Annual in 1921. Partly in response to setbacks in Morocco, in 1923 General Miguel Primo de Rivera formed a government under King Alfonso XIII. Over the following two years, Spanish and French forces crushed the Rif revolt. The Spanish Army of Africa, comprising Spanish Foreign Legion and Moroccan troops, emerged as a battle-hardened force under officers such as General Francisco Franco.
In 1930-31 mounting unrest in Spain led first to the deposition of Primo de Rivera and then the overthrow of the monarchy. However, the democratic republic born of this peaceful revolution degenerated into a fierce political battleground, with fascist, anarchist, socialist, and monarchist movements in contention. A full-scale workers' revolt in the northern province of Asturias was crushed by the army in 1934.
War[]
Elections in Spain in February 1936 brought to power a Popular Front government - a coalition of liberal and left-wing parties. Over the next few months there were many outbreaks of violent disorder promoted by both the right and left wing. On 17 July a group of Spanish generals, including Francisco Franco, attempted to seize power in a military coup. They controlled the Army of Africa in Spanish Morocco, but were less successful in mainland Spain, where the coup failed in the face of resistance by loyal paramilitary forces and workers' militias. The Nationalist revolt was saved from defeat by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-52 transport aircraft were sent to ferry troops from North Africa to southern Spain - the first military airlift in history.
The division of Spain between the Popular front's Loyalist Republicans and Nationalist rebels was complex, both politically and geographically. The Republicans included Basque and Catalan separatists, and every shade of left-wing group from the moderate socialists to communists, anarchists, and Trotskyists, all often bitterly hostile to one another. The Nationalist side ranged from Catholic conservatives to fascists and monarchists, but was held together by the dominant personality of General Franco, who gradually imposed himself as undisputed leader. From the outset, the war was marked by massacres and atrocities on both sides, but the killings carried out by the Nationalists were more systematic and claimed a far heavier toll in lives. Despite Republican forces being made up primarily of irregular militias, there was little guerrilla warfare. The style of combat was conventioal and often static in the manner of World War I, with entrenched infantry confronting one another for long periods on immobile fronts. The "modern" element in the fighting - aircraft and tans - mostly came from foreign forces. Some 50,000 Italians and 12,000 Germans, as well as contingents from Portugal, were sent to fight for the Nationalists. A much smaller number of military personnel sent by the Soviet Union made a vital contribution to the Republican cause, organizing air and armored forces. Some 40,000 foreign volunteers fought for the Republic in the International Brigades, organized by the communists. Britain, France, and the United States followed a policy of non-intervention, imposing an arms embargo that, in practice, favored the Nationalists.
In 1936, a swift end to thw ar looked likely. The Nationalist forces advanced rapidly on Madrid from two directions. Ana rmy pressing toward the capital from its northern headquarters at Burgos was halted by Republicans in the Guadarrama mountains, but Franco's Army of Africa, marching up from the south, looked unstoppable. After relieving a Nationalist garrison that had been besieged by Republican militias in Toledo, it pushed into the suburbs of Madrid.
The Republic fights back[]
The Republican government fled to Valencia, but makeshift militia forces and International Brigade volunteers, backed by Soviet tanks and aircraft, held firm. Madrid was battered by a heavy air and artillery bombardment, but it did not fall. Republican morale was further lifted when, early in 1937, the International Brigades fought the Army of Africa to a standstill in the Jarama Valley east of Madrid. In March a Nationalist offensive was beaten at Guadalajara by Republican forces that included anti-fascist Italians of the Garibaldi Battalion.
In response to the Nationalist failure to win a quick victory, Nazi Germany strengthened its predominantly aerial forces in Spain. Now known as the Condor Legion, it was equipped with the latest Luftwaffe aircraft, including the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter and the Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive-bomber. These high-performance machines outclassed the Soviet aircraft on the Republican side. In the spring of 1937 German and Italian air support enabled the Nationalist armies to take control of northern Spain, including the Basque Country - it was during this campaign that the infamous bombing of Guernica took place.
The Republicans made an offensive at Brunete outside Madrid in July, but it was a costly failure - Republican forces made an initial breakthrough but were unable to exploit it quickly enough and were hammered by a Nationalist counter-offensive. The same thing happened at Teruel in Aragon from December 1937 to February 1938. Ina battle fought in harsh winter weather, Republicans first seized the city, then lost it to a Nationalist counter-offensive, in which the superiority of both manpower and materiel was decisive.
Losing no time, Franco followed up the victory at Teruel with a drive east to the Mediterranean, cutting off Catalonia from the rest of the Republican-held areas. Although severely weakened by infighting, the Republicans launched their final offensive on the Ebro in July 1938. As the fighting dragged on over the following months, their forces, inferior on the ground and in the air, suffered heavy losses. By 1939 there was little fight left in the Republican ranks. The Nationalists occupied Barcelona in February and Madrid in March, bringing the war to an end.
Aftermath[]
The defeat of the Republicans allowed General Franco to install a right-wing dictatorship in Spain that ended only after his death in 1975. For those fighting for the Republic, defeat was a catastrophe. Some 50,000 were executed, many more were held prisoner for years and used as slave labor. A few escaped capture and maintained a low-level guerrilla campaign into the 1950s. About half a million Republicans fled across the border into France when the war ended. Many thousands were still being held in French internment camps when France was defeated in 1940. Handed over to the Nazis, many died in concentration camps.
Despite support from Germany and Italy in the Civil War, Franco kept Spain neutral during World War II. He entered into negotiations with the Nazis, meeting Hitler at Hendaye in October 1940, but the two sides failed to agree terms for Spain's entry into the war. Germany nonetheless reaped invaluable experience from the war in Spain, which allowed its armed forces to practice close air support, the operation of tanks in coordination with aircraft, and tactical bombing.