Spanish Civil War
On the 12th of April 1931, the Republicans won the elections and the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed two days later. King Alfonso XIII went into exile. Spain was neutral in World War I. Following the war, wide swathes of Spanish society, including the armed forces, united in hopes of removing the corrupt central government of the country in Madrid, but these circles were ultimately unsuccessful. Popular perception of communism as a major threat significantly increased during this period.
The revolutionary committee headed by Niceto Alcalá-Zamora became the provisional government, with Alcalá-Zamora himself as president and head of state. The republic had broad support from all segments of society. According to José Ángel Sánchez Asiaín, the first plans of a counter-revolution against the Republic were discussed on the day when it was proclaimed, when representatives of monarchist circles, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the future leader of the Falange, and José Calvo Sotelo, one of the future leaders of the monarchist party Spanish Renovation, met to lay down the financial foundations for subverting the Republic.
In May 1931, an incident in which a taxi driver was attacked outside a monarchist club sparked anti-clerical violence throughout Madrid and south-west portion of the country. The slow response on the part of the government disillusioned the right. In June and July, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) called several strikes, which led to a violent incident between CNT members and the Civil Guard, and a brutal crackdown by the Civil Guard and the Spanish Army against the CNT in Seville. This led many workers to believe the Second Spanish Republic was just as oppressive as the monarchy, and the CNT announced its intention of overthrowing it by starting a revolution.
On the 12th of July 1936, Falangists in Madrid killed police officer Lieutenant José Castillo of the Guardia de Asalto (Assault Guard). Castillo was a Socialist party member who was giving military training to the UGT youth. Castillo had led the Assault Guards that violently suppressed the riots after the funeral of Guardia Civil lieutenant Anastasio de los Reyes. Assault Guard Captain Fernando Condés was a friend of Castillo. The next day, after getting the approval of the minister of interior to illegally arrest members of parliament, he led his squad to arrest José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones, founder of CEDA, as a reprisal for Castillo's murder, but he was not at home, so they went to the house of José Calvo Sotelo, a Spanish fascist-leaning monarchist and prominent parliamentary conservative.
Luis Cuenca, a member of the arresting group and a Socialist who was known as the bodyguard of PSOE leader Indalecio Prieto, summarily executed Sotelo. Reprisals followed. The killing of Calvo Sotelo with police involvement aroused suspicions and reactions among the government's opponents on the right. Although the nationalist generals were planning an uprising, the event was a catalyst and a public justification for a coup. The kidnapping and murder of Sotelo transformed the limping conspiracy into a revolt that could trigger a civil war.
The rising was intended to be a swift coup d'état, but the government retained control of most of the country. Control over Spanish Morocco was all but certain. The plan was discovered in Morocco on the 17th of July, which prompted the conspirators to enact it immediately. Little resistance was encountered. The rebels shot 189 people. Goded and Franco immediately took control of the islands to which they were assigned. On the 18th of July, Casares Quiroga refused an offer of help from the CNT and Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), leading the groups to proclaim a general strike, in effect, mobilising.
Arming the workers' movements and formation of militias, especially in Aragon and Catalonia which were anarchist strongholds, led to a vast social revolution in which the workers and peasants implemented socialist organizational principles, such as collective farming and collective democratic management of the industry and seized economic affairs and political power at local levels. The revolutionary management principles continued to evolve as much as the Republican zone existed, until the end of the civil war with the victory of the Nationalists.
While the revolution did not overthrow the Republican parliamentary state, initially the revolutionaries regarded it as a means of maintaining foreign relations and propaganda rather than an actual authority, and it was paralyzed, while the power was held by local committees and councils parallel to the Republican government. This socioeconomic and political transformation is referred to as the Spanish Revolution or the July Revolution. The revolution was pluralist in its nature, and the political factions participating in it were competitive or even hostile to each other.
Collectivization of resources was pursued mainly by the CNT and the UGT. It took place rather in agriculture than in industry. The collectives could be organized wholly by one of the two trade unions, or by both of them as joint organizations, with other parties also participating. Along with collectivization, the revolution produced a variety of other changes, including socialization of industry, which meant workers' control over enterprises or, more broadly, over an entire branch of production; in order to achieve the latter, small production and trade plants were disestablished, and their personnel was concentrated in bigger plants, or grouped together and coordinated into cartels.
Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union signed on officially, but ignored the embargo. The attempted suppression of imported material was largely ineffective, and France was especially accused of allowing large shipments to Republican troops. The clandestine actions of the various European powers were, at the time, considered to be risking another world war, alarming antiwar elements across the world. The League of Nations' reaction to the war was influenced by a fear of communism, and was insufficient to contain the massive importation of arms and other war resources by the fighting factions.
Italy supplied machine guns, artillery, aircraft, tankettes, the Aviazione Legionaria, and the Corpo Truppe Volontarie (CTV) to the Nationalist cause, and assisted with the Mediterranean blockade. The Italian CTV would supply the Nationalists with 50,000 men. Italian warships took part in breaking the Republican navy's blockade of Nationalist-held Spanish Morocco and took part in naval bombardment of Republican-held Málaga, Valencia, and Barcelona. Italian air raids targeted mainly cities and civilians.
About 32,000 fought in the International Brigades. Perhaps another 3,000 fought as members of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) militias. Those fighting with POUM most famously included George Orwell and the small ILP Contingent. Around 2,000 Portuguese leftists fought for the Republicans and were spread throughout different units. Many of the non-Spaniards were affiliated with radical communist or socialist entities and believed that the Spanish Republic was a front line in the war against fascism.
The bombing of Guernica, on the 26th of April 1937, would be the most controversial event of German involvement, with perhaps 200 to 300 civilians killed. German involvement also included Operation Ursula, a U-boat undertaking and contributions from the Kriegsmarine. Strategically, Nazi support for Franco provided a distraction from Hitler's central European strategy and created a friendly Spanish state to threaten France. Germany's Condor Legion spearheaded many Nationalist victories, particularly in the air dominance from 1937 onward.
In late February 1939, their army was 400,000 compared to more than double that number of Nationalists. In the moment of their final victory, Nationalists commanded over 900,000 troops. During the war, Nationalists also recycled former Republican soldiers as an additional source of manpower. As both sides employed conscription, this meant that not all soldiers were willing, committed partisans of either side and could shift their loyalties out of self-interest.
On the 5th of March 1939, in response to allegedly increasing communist dominance of the Republican government and the deteriorating military situation, Colonel Segismundo Casado led a military coup against the Republican government, intending to seek peace with the Nationalists. These peace overtures, however, were rejected by Franco. Following internal conflict between Republican factions in Madrid in the same month, Franco entered the capital and declared victory on the 1st of April 1939.
Organised purges occurred in territory captured by Franco's forces so they could consolidate their future regime. Mass executions also took place in areas controlled by the Republicans, with the participation of local authorities varying from location to location. The revolution in the Republican zone at the outset of the war, in which 7,000 clergy and thousands of lay people were killed, deepened Catholic support for the Nationalists.
Prior to the war, during the Asturian miners' strike of 1934, religious buildings were burnt and at least 100 clergy, religious civilians, and pro-Catholic police were killed by revolutionaries. Franco had brought in Spain's colonial Army of Africa and reduced the miners to submission by heavy artillery attacks and bombing raids. The Spanish Legion committed atrocities and the army carried out summary executions of leftists. The repression in the aftermath was brutal and prisoners were tortured.
The Spanish Legion committed atrocities and the army carried out summary executions of leftists. The repression in the aftermath was brutal and prisoners were tortured. The Moroccan Fuerzas Regulares Indígenas joined the rebellion and played a significant role in the civil war. Hundreds of thousands of those associated with the Republicans fled Spain, mostly to refugee camps in southern France; many of those who stayed were persecuted by the victorious Nationalists.
After much of Catalonia was captured in 1938 and 1939, and Madrid cut off from Barcelona, the Republican military position became hopeless. On the 5th of March 1939, in response to allegedly increasing communist dominance of the Republican government and the deteriorating military situation, Colonel Segismundo Casado led a military coup against the Republican government, intending to seek peace with the Nationalists. These peace overtures, however, were rejected by Franco. Following internal conflict between Republican factions in Madrid in the same month, Franco entered the capital and declared victory on the 1st of April 1939.
Hundreds of thousands of those associated with the Republicans fled Spain, mostly to refugee camps in southern France; many of those who stayed were persecuted by the victorious Nationalists. The war became notable for the passion and political division it inspired worldwide and for the many atrocities that occurred. Organised purges occurred in territory captured by Franco's forces so they could consolidate their future regime.
The Nationalists won the war in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975. The war began after the partial failure of the coup d'état of July 1936 against the Popular Front government by a group of generals of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces. The Nationalist faction consisted of right-wing groups, including Christian traditionalist party CEDA, monarchists, including both the opposing Alfonsists and the religious conservative Carlists, and the Falange Española de las JONS, a fascist political party.
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Common questions
When did the Spanish Civil War begin and end?
The Spanish Civil War began after the partial failure of the coup d'état on the 17th of July 1936. The war ended when Franco declared victory on the 1st of April 1939.
Who were the main leaders of the Nationalist faction in the Spanish Civil War?
The Nationalist faction consisted of right-wing groups including Christian traditionalist party CEDA, monarchists such as Alfonsists and Carlists, and the fascist political party Falange Española de las JONS. General Francisco Franco led the Nationalists to victory.
What caused the Spanish Civil War to start in 1936?
The conflict started following the murder of José Calvo Sotelo by Socialist police officers on the 12th of July 1936. This event served as a catalyst that transformed a limping conspiracy into a revolt triggering the civil war.
Which foreign countries intervened in the Spanish Civil War?
Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union officially signed agreements but ignored embargoes to supply arms to fighting factions. Germany provided the Condor Legion while Italy supplied machine guns, aircraft, and 50,000 men through the Corpo Truppe Volontarie.
How many people died during the Spanish Civil War?
Mass executions occurred in territory captured by Franco's forces and areas controlled by Republicans where thousands were killed. Hundreds of thousands associated with the Republicans fled Spain or were persecuted after the war ended.