Spanish Civil War: A Deep Dive into the 1936-1939 Conflict
Item 16 – Civil War (1936-1939)
Introduction
The Civil War was the result of political radicalization during the Second Republic and the ideological confrontation that arose in Europe by the rise of fascism. This war began as a coup by a section of the army against the Republic that failed but was not crushed. This fact and the international influence helped turn it into a long three-year Civil War. Franco, in turn, raised it as a war of attrition and annihilation of the political enemy and, in the end, refused any kind of negotiation or reconciliation. The immediate consequence of the war was the dictatorship of the victors. The war ended in 1939, but peace did not come soon.
The Military Revolt
The military uprising of July 18, 1936, was preceded by several months of violence and complex conspiracies from the Popular Front victory in February 1936. On the one hand, anarchists occupied lands and threatened a social revolution, while a section of the army was preparing this uprising against the Republic, and political murders were happening daily. Also, the international situation: the clash between Fascism and Communism helped to radicalize the Spanish situation.
The military revolt was carefully prepared by General Mola from Navarra and had significant support among the Moroccan military and Franco from the Canaries. They also had the support of monarchist parties (National Bloc of Calvo Sotelo), Carlist Falangists, and financial support from Juan March.
The excuse for this revolt was the assassination of Calvo Sotelo by a group of assault guards in retaliation for the murder of Lieutenant Castillo of the Falange (July 12 and 13, 1936).
The uprising started in Morocco on July 17 and the next day on the Peninsula. The rebels succeeded in Spanish Morocco, the Canary Islands, part of Western Andalusia, Cáceres, Galicia, Castilla y León, Álava, Navarra, La Rioja, Aragon, and West Mallorca. However, they failed in major industrial centers (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Asturias). We can thus say that the coup failed. However, the Republic was unable to control the rapidly rising.
Not all the army and police joined the rebels; their forces were rather distributed more or less than 50% between the two sides.
The Development of the War
The failure of the uprising led to a three-year-long war. This war was intensified because certain foreign powers supported and provided weapons to both sides before the silence of others.
The rebel army held the initiative and military offensive throughout the war; this was due to a unified command and increased professionalism of the officers. However, after the failure at Madrid, Franco raised the conflict as a long war of attrition that would ensure their own personal power and enable it to eliminate all his political enemies.
The Army of the Republic was undermined by disunity among different political groups and failed in its offensive attempts. However, it showed a stubborn resistance that also contributed to prolonging the war. The Republic’s strategy was to last until the outbreak of the inevitable European war. That would allow him to have the support of France and England.
From the Uprising to the Battle of Madrid (July 1936-March 1937)
After the uprising failed on July 18, the main trick of the rebels was the Army of Africa, the only truly professional force of great magnitude. Thanks to German and Italian aid, Franco managed to cross the Strait of Gibraltar (much of the navy had fallen into the hands of the Republicans), linked with Queipo de Llano, controlled from Seville and Western Andalusia, and after the conquest of Badajoz, got together with Northern rebels led by Mola. Franco’s plan was to go straight to Madrid. However, before it was diverted to release the Alcázar de Toledo (September 1936) (National side’s propaganda element). The frontal assault on Madrid failed before the resistance of the locals and the International Brigades. Given this failure, the Nationals tried to encircle Madrid to the south (Battle of Jarama, February 1937) and Northeast (Battle of Guadalajara, March 1937). All these attempts failed to take Madrid, which helped prolong the war.
Northern Campaign to the Battle of the Ebro (April 1937-November 1938)
After the failure to take Madrid, the conflict became a war of attrition. In the spring-summer of 1937, Franco’s troops captured the north, from the Basque Country to Asturias. To the side of Franco, it was very important to control the northern industries to manufacture arms and ammunition. In the winter of 1937-38 was the Battle of Teruel. After Franco’s troops took the lead in Aragon, they finally reached the Mediterranean about Vinaroz. Catalonia was thus isolated from the rest of the Republican. The Republic responded, and in the summer of 1938 attempted to reunite the two areas. The Battle of the Ebro thus became the bloodiest of the war and ended the resilience of the Republic.
Catalonia Offensive and the End of the War (December 1938-March 1939)
The direct consequence of the Battle of the Ebro was the conquest of Catalonia by Franco. Thousands of refugees crossed the border with France. Finally, in March 1939, within the Republican camp, Colonel Casado made a coup d’etat against the Negrin government in hopes of reaching a peace pact with Franco. El Golpe de Casado precipitated the end of the war in March 1939 (surrender of Madrid), but Franco demanded unconditional surrender.
The International Dimension of the Conflict
The attitude of the powers of the time to the Spanish Civil War helped to intensify and lengthen it because instead of taking steps to halt the conflict, it was understood as a prelude to the impending world war.
The fascist powers, Germany and Italy, openly supported the rebels despite participating in the Non-Intervention Committee. This was financial and military in particular. Although Italy provided many troops to aid Franco, German aid was quantitatively less but qualitatively far superior, especially in regard to aviation. The famous Condor Legion bombed Guernica. Portugal also supported the rebels. Nor should we forget the moral support that the Vatican gave Franco since July 1937, which influenced Spanish Catholics.
The Republic received extensive military aid from the USSR, but in return, it demanded the gold reserves of the state, and the Communist Party had an important role in government. Mexico also supported the Republic. The International Brigades were of great importance in the war, especially in the Battle of Madrid. Over 60,000 high-level fighters fighting fascists came from a large number of countries to fight for the Republic.
France, England, and the USA showed an ambiguous attitude. In principle, France, ruled by the Popular Front of Leon Blum, supported the Republic. However, under English pressure, France was obliged not to intervene. England showed more sympathy to the side of Franco but refused any intervention to prevent the Spanish conflict from becoming the beginning of a world war. These two countries promoted the formation of the Committee on Non-Intervention, in which later Germany and Italy took part. The Committee behaved as a closed cynical eye to the action of the fascist powers.
The Political Evolution of the Two Areas
On July 18, 1936, neither of the two sides hoped that the conflict would be so long, and also on each side, there were different political views among themselves and without clear leadership. Much of the success in the war was the ability to organize a unified and strong force. In this sense, the rebellious side was more successful than the Republican.
The Republic
The Dismantling of the Bourgeois Republic (July-September 1936)
An immediate consequence of the military uprising of July 18 was the outbreak of revolutionary movements in the territory of workers loyal to the Republic. The passivity and impotence of the government of Casares Quiroga (he had lost control over much of the army and police forces and refused to arm the workers’ militia) led the workers’ committees themselves to be armed. This government was replaced by the Giral Government, who agreed to arm the workers but, in fact, was devoid of any power in much of the territory. Even the Generalitat of Catalonia (ERC led by Companys) had to share power with the anarchists of the Antifascist Militia. In the Basque Country, the PNV was the first Basque government led by Jose Antonio Aguirre after obtaining the Statute of Autonomy.
The Government of Largo Caballero (September 1936-May 1937)
The failure of governments exclusively bourgeois led to a predominance of working-class parties and political groups (socialists, communists, and even anarchists). The government of Largo Caballero, who moved to Valencia, attempted to unify political power to adequately address the war but found great difficulty in Catalonia. On the one hand, Socialists, Communists (Stalinists), and the Generalitat Government sought to impose Antifascist Militias, anarchists, and Trotskyists of POUM. The situation escalated into an armed conflict between labor groups and led to the resignation of the government of Largo Caballero.
Negrin’s Government and the Communists (May 1937-March 1939)
Negrin led a socialist government with strong support from the Communists (Stalinists). This unity government struggled to achieve political and military resistance as long as possible (until the outbreak of World War I). The support of the Communists was essential because it was a centralized and disciplined party prepared to resist and had the full support of the USSR (the only power that openly supported the Republic with lots of military equipment).
The Coup of Colonel Casado (March 1939)
The succession of defeats for the Republic (loss of Catalonia) and the Munich Conference, which kept the possibility of World War, led many of the Republicans (especially moderate socialists as Indalecio Prieto and Julian Besteiro) to seek a negotiated peace with Franco. That led to the Colonel’s coup that overthrew the government Married Negrin and negotiated peace with Franco. He demanded unconditional surrender.
Economically, the Republic suffered from the beginning of the war in a strong agricultural deficit, which earned him enormous difficulties in supplying their cities, with the consequent rationing. Land reform was speeded up through expropriation and massive land occupation by the workers’ councils. Regarding industry, it controlled the largest industrial centers of Spain. However, they were collectivized by labor groups and unions (except in the Basque Country). This disunity was part of the revolutionary logic, but it was not right for a war economy.
The Spain of the Rebels
The Board of National Defense (July-September 1936)
The rebels were composed of heterogeneous groups (Carlist Falange, monarchists), without a clear political objective, and without defined leadership (Mola dominated the north, Llano Queipo Andalucía, and Franco in Morocco). The first action by the Board of National Defense of Burgos (Cabanellas commanding) was type repression (prohibition of trade unions and political parties, censure, removal, and detention of Republican political positions, other arrests, executions, etc.). Franco was the one who took command in the meetings of the Defence Council of Salamanca in September 1936 and was appointed Head of State and Generalissimo. This appointment was due to the successes of the Army of Africa to move towards Madrid and Franco’s contacts that allowed him to rely on prompt assistance from Italy and Germany.
The Decree of Unification and Support of the Episcopate
In April 1937, Franco held the Unification Ordinance, i.e., the union of political forces that supported him in one game: Traditionalist Spanish Falange and Offensive National Syndicalist Juntas. Thus, Franco avoided political competition in his own camp and endowed them with a garment that pleased fascist Italy and Germany. Keep in mind that Falange and Carlismo were the organizations that provided popular support to the rebels, in addition to Franco, it was easy to crush the Falange itself after the death of its founder (Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera in Alicante). Another key factor in the success of Franco was the support of the church in July 1937 that turned the war into a crusade.
The First Government of Burgos and the New State (1938)
From 1938, it started developing the Franco regime with the formation of the Government of Burgos. Although superficially it looked fascist (Falange as one party, Labour Law drafting of multiple symbols similar to the fascists), it was actually a personalistic regime in which Franco monopolized all political power (head of state, head of the Party, and Prime Minister) and military (Generalissimo of the Armies), which allowed him to arbitrate between the different forces that supported him (Falangists, Carlist monarchists, military, church).
Economically the rebels dominated a large part of agricultural production, but they needed to conquer the industrial zones (conquest of Biscay and Asturias in Summer 1937). The economy is oriented in a planned manner to the war effort. To this, the rebels had the cooperation of employers and landlords who recovered their land to set aside the Law of Agrarian Reform.
The Consequences of the War
The war had a huge direct material cost, as the destruction and the need to return some of the foreign aid meant that the Spanish economy did not recover until the 50s.
The human costs were even worse. It is estimated that there were 300,000 people dead on the battlefield and killed in retaliation. Many times, these reprisals were arbitrary or responded to personal hatred and settling of scores. They are famous for shooting from Badajoz perpetrated by the National and Paracuellos de Jarama conducted by the Republic. Also, the end of the war forced into exile about 500,000 people, many of whom never returned, and repression by the victors after the war continued for several decades. In these circumstances, we cannot say that peace came in 1939, and we even have to say that reconciliation between the Spanish has not yet been fully achieved.
Virtually the entire territory of Castilla y Leon fell soon (July 1936) into the hands of the rebels of General Mola. Despite some attempts at a working rebellion in the Bierzo and Béjar, Salamanca or between farmers benefited by the agrarian reform, most of the people bowed to the dominance of the insurgents (keep in mind the low uptake of left-wing labor organizations in our area). Castilla y Leon played an important role in the insurgent side, as it was the headquarters of the National Defense Council and, after the Government of Burgos, was also the main granary of the Francoist side.