Spanish Civil War: Final Phase and Global Involvement
End of the Spanish Civil War (Feb-Apr 1939)
The tragic irony in the Civil War was that it ended as it began: with a statement from the Republican army against a government they believed had failed to represent the Nation. Many on the Republican side, such as Colonel Casado and socialist Julián Besteiro, resented the growing Communist power in the army and government and felt it was suicidal to resist the policy of President Negrín after the fall of Catalonia. On 1 February, in a desperate attempt to achieve an honorable peace, Casado, with the support of the CNT and sectors of the PSOE led by Besteiro, formed the National Defense Council in Madrid. It did not recognize the authority of the Republican government and began negotiations to enter into talks with Franco to try to get an honorable peace, which would allow them to avoid repression by the victors of the war. However, Franco delayed responding to Casado until late February. Manuel Azaña resigned as president of a republic that no longer existed upon seeing how France and Britain recognized the Franco government in Spain as legitimate. In this situation, and given the internal division of the remains of the Republic, Franco demanded unconditional surrender from Casado. In late March, Franco ordered his troops to advance; they occupied what remained of the Republic without encountering the slightest resistance. Madrid surrendered on the 28th, the Nationalists took Cartagena, Alicante, and Valencia on the 30th, and on April 1, Franco’s headquarters issued the last war report: “Today, captive and disarmed the Red Army troops have achieved its last military objectives. The Spanish war has ended.” That same day, the United States admitted the facts and diplomatically recognized the Franco regime.
International Dimension of the Conflict
The Civil War quickly acquired international dimensions, ceasing to be merely an internal conflict. Once the military uprising was consolidated, with the Spanish territory left divided, foreign eyes were fixed on Spain, aware that more than a question of power was being settled. On Spanish soil, the great global issue was decided: the prevalence of democratic values over totalitarianism was ultimately a prelude to the great dilemma that would result in the Second World War. It is not difficult to understand, therefore, that each of the warring factions had their own sponsors, to the extent that each of them saw their own ideology and model of state and society reflected in the warring parties.
The Non-Intervention Committee
Without massive foreign aid to both sides, the war in Spain would not have lasted more than six months or a year at most. This would have been due to the shortage of military equipment and spares that would have occurred on both sides, especially for the Nationalist side, given the weak industrial development of the country. Both sides, aware of the need for external support, addressed their requests for assistance to the Powers ideologically closer or that might be more interested in being involved in the Spanish war. The Nationalists, already in July, sought the assistance of Mussolini’s Fascist Italy and Hitler’s Nazi Germany, while the Giral Cabinet requested assistance from France. However, in early August, when it was found that Italy supported the Nationalists, France proposed the creation of a Committee of Non-Intervention, an idea quickly accepted by the other democratic power in Europe, the United Kingdom. In September, a conference met in London in which the Non-Intervention Committee was formed, consisting of 30 countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the USSR, and the United States, which undertook not to assist either side through various actions:
- British, French, German, and Italian naval forces would control designated sea areas to prevent war material from reaching Spain.
- France and Portugal would close their land borders.
However, this non-intervention agreement was systematically violated by the Soviet, Italian, and German interventions, rendering the agreement a dead letter.