Spanish Civil War
The Falange Espanola: Spanish Fascism

Fascism reared its ugly head
Similar to Nazi party and Italian Fascist
party
 Anti-parliamentary and sought one-party
rule
 Not racist but attached importance to
Roman Catholic Church
 Elections held in 1934 brought in a
Conservative government

Popular Fronts: alliances of the left
In Feb 1936, elections in Spain returned an
alliance of Republicans, Socialists and
Communists
 This was the spark that lit the fires of
civil war in Spain

The War
Ministers of government were all
moderates-no communists were elected
 However the right reacted violently and
resorted to terrorism which provoked the
communists

Judges or journalists who condemned the
fascists were assassinated
The groups that took advantage of this
civil unrest were the army officers, the
traditionalists and the monarchists
 Revolt took place in Morocco and
throughout Spain led by General Sanjurjo,
he was killed in a plane crash and replaced
by General Francisco Franco

Franco
Franco had the support of the fascistsFalange but they were unable to seize power
for 3 reasons
 Mass of Spanish people resisted the revolt
and fought it for three years
 Foreign powers saw it as a struggle between
Fascism and democracy or socialism

Republicans v Nationalists
On paper the Nationalists had the advantagesuperior military strength and experience
 However navy divided, each side had one
battleship- navy officers were
nationalists/sailors were republicans
 The Republican side consisted of a few army
officers, workers and peasants, Basques and
Catalans, they held important industrial areas

Republicans v Nationalists
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By the end of 1936 the Nationalists held more
than half of Spain, mostly in the South, west
and North
Franco proclaimed himself the ‘chief of the
Spanish state’
The Republicans led by Largo Caballero held all
eastern and south-east Spain
If there had been no foreign intervention it
seems likely that the republicans would have
won as they had the bulk of the population
The fighting
Both sides Fought furiously and atrocities
were common e.g. priests were shot, families
were divided
 In Republican areas different factions were
in control, workers took over factories,
churches were burned down, middle class
people stayed out of sight or went unshaven
to avoid identification

Progress of the Spanish Civil war
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Winter 1936-37: Nationalists attack
Madrid
Spring 1937: a wedge is driven between the
Basques and Catalans
Summer 1937: attack on the Basques,
Guernica bombed by the German Condor
legion
Early 1938:Teruel captured, nationalists
driveto separate Barcelona (Catalonia)
from Madrid
Summer 1938-1938: Barcelona fell
Feb 1939: Madrid fell late March
Fascist Intervention
Germany provided Junker transport planes
which kept Franco’s forces in the war in
the early stages
 In 1936 Germany and Italy officially
recognised Franco’s regime and expected a
rapid victory

The Republicans organised the
defence of Madrid
Reinforcements sent were the first
of the International Brigades
 Recruited from left wing opponents of
Fascism
 Some had fought in the war others
had no military training

British Intervention
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Men came from all over including Germany, Italy
and Scotland (500) they gave up their jobs if they
had one and made their own way to Paris
Towards the end of 1938 the Brigades withdrew
because of a league of Nations peace initiative,
many men had died including about 540 from
Britain
British Intervention
 Throughout
the non-Fascist world,
collections were organised to send
humanitarian aid to Republican Spain
 including the Labour party, TUC and
Communists in Britain and Russia sent
fighter planes to the Republicans to
balance the assistance from Germany
and Italy
France and Britain: Policy of NonIntervention
Britain made it clear to France
however that it would not help
against Germany as promised in the
Locarno Pact if Blum was to help
Spain
 France suggested a policy of nonintervention, Britain seized this with
enthusiasm later referring to it as
France’s idea

British attitudes to the war
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Britain took the initiative in setting up a ‘Non
Intervention Committee’ including France, Italy,
Germany and Russia
The Republicans at this point thought they could win
Baldwin’s largely Conservative government thought
that Franco was going to win and did not want to
make an enemy of him
They viewed the Republicans as Communist rather
than democratic, feared impact on trade of ‘Red
Spain’
Why Non-Intervention?

The British government did not want to
antagonise Mussolini further in the hope he
would help against Hitler

‘the bomber will always get through’

Britain and France were losing their chance to
stop the ‘advance of Fascism’
Spanish Civil
War
Attitudes to the War
League of Nations
Republicans claimed non-intervention
was illegal since it denied help to a
government recognised by the league,
while failing to stop Italian and German
aggression
 League however was now a spent force,
none of the major powers even
pretended to operate through it

The Nyon Conference

The ‘Non-intervention Committee’ set up
naval blockade to stop weapons getting
into Spain
Soviet Attitudes to the war
Stalin provided the Republicans with just
enough aid to keep them going
 He knew that he could not win the war as a
communist government would not be accepted
 However, whilst Germany and Italy were busy
in Spain they could not attack Russia
 Therefore he wanted the war to last as long
as possible

Nazi Germany’s attitude
Used Spanish war as testing ground for his
air force
 Hitler was happy to see Italy tied up so he
was free to act in Austria

Fascist Italy’s motives

Hoped to establish the Mediterranean as an
Italian sphere of influence

Shared the same ideology as Franco
Cost of Civil war
Cost- Spain one million dead
 Destruction of cities
 Franco established himself in power where
he long survived his sponsors, Mussolini and
Hitler until his death in 1975Franco’s
victory was another triumph for Hitler,
ignored non-intervention which was the
policy of the league
 Democracy had again been discredited and
authoritarian Fascism appeared triumphant

Consequences of victory

Hitler was pleased to have another ally on
France’s southern border
Although Spain was exhausted by the civil war
and remained neutral in WW2
Rome-Berlin Axis was a reality, Germany and
Italy able to work together
Weakness of appeasement again shown

Testing ground for new weapons and tactics
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Hitler now ready to take his next step
Czechoslovakia
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