THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

1936-1939

Background Began as a revolt of army commanders in Spanish Morocco

prompted by the resentment they felt at the growing social reforms administered by the Azana government which was elected democratically.

In 1931 King Alfonso XIII abdicated after municipal elections saw republicans gain overwhelming successes

The new government was a coalition of liberal to left wing parties that created many land reforms and attempted to reduce the influence of the Catholic Church

The Spanish generals particularly disliked Azaña because he had cut the army's budget and closed the military academy while war minister (1931).

A reaction to these reforms created a group organized into a rightwing movement along the fascist model called the Falange

All parties from the centre to the far left joined together in a Popular Front government which triumphed in the 1936 elections

In the summer of 1936 General Francisco Franco invaded Spain from Spanish Morocco

Taking sides Franco had support from the army, conservatives in

the Catholic Church, and the middle and upper classes

The Republicans had support from agrarian elements, industrial workers, and those disenfranchised by poverty

Spain became a centre stage for an ideological conflict

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".

The Republicans received support from the USSR and the Fascists from Hitler and Mussolini

The Republicans On the Republican side were socialists,

liberals, communists and anarchists. 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 was great division amongst the left and in fighting occurred between Communists and anarchists

Foreign Support- Republicans

Republicans (also known as Spanish loyalists) received weapons and volunteers from the Soviet Union, Mexico, the international Socialist movement and the International Brigades

In total the USSR provided Spain with 806 planes, 362 tanks, and 1,555 artillery pieces

Forces fighting on behalf of the Republicans received limited aid, but support was seriously hampered by the arms embargo declared by France and the UK.

The League of Nations supported “non-intervention) while fascist Italy and Germany pounded Spain

The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion

The Mac Paps were the Canadian international Brigade By summer 1937 some 1,200 Canadians were involved

in the conflict and a separate battalion was formed for them in early May

They travelled illegally to Spain and were largely persecuted upon their return

the Canadian contingent was almost wholly working class who were driven to the left by the depression

721 of the 1,546 Canadians known to have fought in Spain lost their lives. The Canadians who died in the Spanish Civil War are not included in the Books of Remembrance the Peace Tower and their sacrifice is not commemorated on federal war memorials or in Remembrance Day services. Those who survived the war are not entitled to veterans' benefits

These veterans are often referred to as premature anti-fascists and have recently received recognition here in Victoria

Republican propaganda

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Low-correct-attitudes-in-spain.jpg

The Nationalists The Nationalists (also called "insurgents", "rebels"

or by opponents "Francoists" or over inclusively as "Fascists") fearing national fragmentation, opposed the separatist movements, and were chiefly defined by their anti-communism

Their leaders had a generally wealthier, more conservative, monarchist, landowning background, and they favoured the centralization of state power.

The revolution in the republican zone at the outset of the war, killing 7,000 clergy and thousands of lay people, drove Catholics, left then with little alternative, to the Nationalists

Foreign Support- Nationalists

Francisco Franco asked Hitler from Nazi Germany and Mussolini from Fascist Italy to aid the Nationalists. Portugal would also offer support for Franco

Both would send significant arms and soldiers- Germans would practice and master bombing tactics on Madrid and Guernica

Although the US was officially neutral during the conflict, major American corporations such as Texaco, General Motors, Ford Motors and The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company greatly assisted the Nationalist rebels with their constant supply of trucks, tires, machine tools and fuel.

The German force numbered about 12,000 men, and as many as 19,000 Germans fought in Spain, more than 75,000 Italians were to fight for the Nationalists in Spain

Atrocities At least 50,000 people were executed during the war.

In his updated history of the Spanish Civil War, Antony Beever 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.[55] In 2008 a Spanish judge, Socialist Baltasar Garcon, opened an investigation into the executions and disappearances of 114,266 people between 17 July 1936 and December 1951.

Results The fascist forces would win on the eve of WW2 Franco allowed Spanish soldiers to volunteer to

fight in the German Army against the USSR (the Blue Division), but forbade Spaniards to fight in the West against the democracies

Franco declined involvement in the war because his country needed to be rebuilt

Spain was a safe haven for all Jewish refugees and anti-Semitism was not official policy under the Franco regime.

His resistance to directly supporting his fascist allies in the war would result in his staying in power until 1975