Spanish Civil War: Military Uprising, Development, and Aftermath
Military Uprising and Internationalization
The Military Plot
The coup plot against the Republic was born on the day of the February elections. The organizer and director until July was General Mola. The plan consisted of a simultaneous delivery of military garrisons, with Madrid and Barcelona as keys to success. In reserve was the African army, under General Franco. The supreme leader who should lead the uprising was General José Sanjurjo, in exile in Portugal, and respected by all managers. The military conspiracy had civilian support from right-wing parties: the CEDA, Alfonsinos, Carlist militias, and Phalanges. They collaborated by facilitating links between the plotters and providing a considerable amount of money to finance the coup. In case of victory, the plans ranged from a military dictatorship to eliminate the danger of the Republican Revolutionary Popular Front, proposed by Mola, and various civil fabric choices: a return to the Alfonsine monarchy, the establishment of a fascist regime, or the restoration of the Carlist traditional monarchy. On July 13, Calvo Sotelo, the political leader of the monarchist right, was assassinated. This retaliation for the death of Lieutenant Castillo—a guard instructor of the Assault and Socialist militias—was the catalyst that accelerated the preparations for the military insurrection.
The Uprising
Calvo Sotelo’s murder and plans were brought forward. On July 17, 1936, the Melilla garrison revolted. The rebellion spread to the rest of Spanish Morocco and the Peninsula the next day. What at first was a statement became a long-term civil war. The causes of this transformation are as follows:
- The failure of the rebels at key points such as Madrid, Barcelona, and the Basque Country, which were controlled by the government and had almost all of Spanish industry.
- The participation of the armed masses to defend the Republic.
- The indecision of the authorities.
- The division of the army.
- The rapid internationalization of the conflict.
The uprising, a coup that became a civil war, divided Spain into two: the Republican and the rebellious. During July 17 and 18, 1936, the following remained loyal to the Republic: the Cantabrian fringe (Asturias, Santander, Vizcaya, Guipúzcoa), Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha (New Castile), much of Andalusia, eastern Aragon, Catalonia, and the Mediterranean coast to Cadiz. This amounted to a total of 270,000 km2, with 14 million inhabitants. These were industrial and mining regions, major cities, the most advanced agricultural areas (Mediterranean coast), and areas of high property and day laborers. The army broke at 8,500 officers, 160,000 soldiers loyal to the Republic, especially the majority of aviation and almost all of the marine. However, the military organization was dismantled. Instead, there were the militias, created by trade unions and political parties.
In Spain, the uprising was successful in Galicia, Castilla la Vieja, León, Western Cáceres, Navarra, La Rioja, western Aragon, the Balearic Islands (except Minorca), Cadiz, the Andalusian capitals of Granada, Seville, Cordoba, and northern Africa. This added an area of 230,000 km2 and a population of 10 million inhabitants. It included important agricultural regions (70% of agricultural production), small industry (only 20% of industrial production), and smallholder agricultural areas, the most backward and conservative. The military rebellion was supported by 14,000 officers and 150,000 soldiers of the Army, and most of the security forces, Civil Guard, and Assault. The coup failed in aviation and the navy.
Internationalization and Extension of the Conflict
A) The Non-Intervention Committee Failed
All opinions agree that without the massive foreign aid, the war in Spain would not have lasted more than half a year due to a shortage of military equipment and spare parts on both sides. France and Britain, democratic states, created a Non-Intervention Committee comprising 30 countries that were committed, in theory, not to help either side. The British, French, German, and Italian navies would control a maritime zone each to prevent war material from entering Spain. France and Portugal would close their land borders. Everything was mere theory and worthless. The committee was a farce, as international aid reached the parties to the conflict. Actually, it was a diplomatic strategy to isolate the Spanish war and prevent it from becoming a global conflict.
B) Foreign Aid to Republican Spain
The Republic received immediate military material assistance from the USSR and, to a lesser extent, France and Mexico. Due to this Soviet support, Republican Spain was linked to communism in international public opinion, and it began to be called the “red and Marxist Republic.” Soviet aid had to be paid with gold from the Bank of Spain, the “Moscow gold” (510 tons with a value of $530 million). Human assistance came through the International Brigades, some 60,000 men from 30 countries, with little military experience but disciplined, who came under the slogan: “Spain will be the tomb of fascism.” Channeled by the European communist parties, these young people were of communist ideology (80%), socialist or liberal, workers, journalists, intellectuals, civil servants, unemployed, or adventurers. They came to Spain to fight the spread of totalitarianism in Europe and to save republican democracy in Spain. They saw the Spanish war as a serious issue of international politics. Their training base was Albacete. They were divided into six brigades that were composed of battalions which used to group the soldiers of each country (Telemann for the Germans, Lincoln for the Americans, Garibaldi for the Italians, etc.). Their intervention helped to stop the rebel army at the gates of Madrid in the fall of 1936. They were removed from Spain in late 1938, and about 18,000 of them were buried here.
C) Foreign Aid to Rebel Spain
The rebellious side was helped by Italy and Germany in bulk and paid for raw materials, especially minerals. They were awarded 73 strategic sites that the German war industry needed (iron, copper, lead, mercury, skins, wool, etc.). Germany sent its Condor Legion, about 6,000 military advisers, tankers, and aviators. Italy sent 40,000 soldiers from the Corpo di Truppe Volontarie (CTV). Portugal, with a dictatorial regime, supported the rebels by providing a few thousand fighters (the Viriato) and allowing, in principle, the two areas dominated by rebels to contact across the country, as did Ireland with the so-called Legion of St. Patrick. The United States declared itself neutral; however, as in Britain, many personalities, companies, and bankers lent support to the rebels.
The material received by each side varied widely according to authors. For supporters of Franco, aid was balanced. But without a doubt, Soviet aid was less in quantity and quality, as pilots, tank crews, and Soviet advisers had worse technical training and material resources than the Germans. In addition, the Soviets were not willing for the war in Spain to cause World War II to break out, a fact that seemed likely.
Development of the War
Beginning of the Spring of 1937 (July 18, 1936 to March 1937)
A) The War of Columns (July 18, 1936 – November 7, 1936)
In the war’s military development, three major cycles can be divided, each with its specific character. The first runs from the beginning of military operations in the open until eight months later, March 1937, the end of the Battle of Guadalajara, the last attempt by the revolted army to control Madrid and decide this war. However, this cycle is more complex at all levels, forcing us to distinguish stages. We could speak of a first phase of columns war-colonial style, with groups of trained troops, small units of various weapons, low volume, and much mobility. This is the basis of the war until November 1936. The Republic declared the army dissolved in early August and tried to create another based on battalions of volunteers. It is the time of the militia, recruited between organizations whose political and labor. Various provisions in late September and October, rushing the militarization of the militias and take the first steps to create a People’s Army Regular on the basis of the mixed brigades. Among the rebels, the militias will be militarized by decree of December 20, 1936.
In the first months, the war was clearly unfavorable to the Republic. Navarra and Seville were the two large rebel column diffusers, centers that were, respectively, the scope of control of Mola and Franco. There was no unified command since the death of Sanjurjo in a plane accident deprived the rebellion of its recognized boss. The main objective for the two generals was Madrid, but they also sent forces against complementary objectives. From Pamplona, columns composed of soldiers, law enforcement, requetés, and a few Falangists left for Somosierra (García Escámez), Guipúzcoa (Beorlegui), and Zaragoza (Utrilla). In Valladolid, the Serrador column was organized, in addition to troops from Navarre, who came to Alto del Leon, in the Sierra de Guadarrama. However, the expansion of Mola from Madrid was stopped by Republican militias created in the capital, where regular troops were also integrated into the Sierra. In the south, the success of an army trained like Africa with the Foreign Legion and Moroccan units was much more explosive, and here there were no effective militias. With its center in Seville, the rebels expanded and consolidated their domination of the Guadalquivir, Andalusia, and connected with the rebels of Granada. But absolutely critical to the progress of the war was the Army of Africa’s crossing over the Peninsula through the Strait of Gibraltar, thanks to the first foreign aid to one of the combatants, in this case, that of Germany and Italy.
As of August 5, sea transport of these troops was consolidated. Columns commanded by Asensio and Castejón, who were joined after by Tella and Yagüe, moved north through Extremadura. On August 11, they took Merida, on the 14th, Badajoz, and then penetrated the province of Toledo. On September 3, they occupied Talavera, a strategic junction of great value, but then Franco was inclined to the rescue of the besieged in the Alcazar of Toledo. On September 9, through the Sierra de Gredos, the bond between insurgent forces in the North and South was effected, and the rebel army and territory were unified in a single block.
Advancement of Insurgent Forces Between July and November 1936
Having triumphed in Toledo—also unlocking Moscardó Varela on the 28th—conditions were imposed for the designation of a single command in the rebel forces. Franco was chosen in a process in which there are different versions. On October 1, Franco became head of the State Government. In early October, the fighting reached the province of Madrid. Occupied by the rebels on the 21st and 29th, the Republican counterattack was announced in a manifesto of the head of Government—de Illescas—which showed the first Soviet arms and advisers. At the height of November 6, columns regrouped under Varela’s command were in the suburbs of Madrid. Meanwhile, on the other fronts, except that of Aragon, the progress of the rebels was also incontestable. In Andalusia, the loyal general Miaja stopped at Cordoba, but Albacete had been recovered. In the Balearic Islands, the Republic retained only Menorca. From Navarre, the attack on Guipúzcoa was made, with Irun falling on September 5 and San Sebastian on the 13th, leaving the front set at Vizcaya, on the River Deva in October. In Asturias, finally, the Republicans could not overcome the resistance of Aranda in Oviedo, and the column sent to their aid from Galicia managed to lift the siege.
B) The Battle of Madrid (November 7, 1936 – March 1937)
The Battle of Madrid was a set of actions over five months of fighting. The Jarama and Guadalajara operations belong to this cycle. The fighting around Madrid brought the first big setback for the war plans of the rebels and decisively conditioned the protracted conflict. Foreign aid and its role—the German Condor Legion, Italian aircraft, weapons and Russian advisers, and International Brigades—and the Republic showed unexpected resilience before. The front of the mountains of Madrid would suffer no substantial changes until the end of the war. The frontage of Franco’s forces would occur between the northwest and southeast of the capital.
The battle for Madrid began on November 7. The city would prove impregnable. Foreign assistance in men and materiel played an important role. The militia fought in Madrid as they had done before. Propaganda worked efficaciously in maintaining morale. The Madrid Defense Junta, created the same day, the 7th, chaired by Miaja, general manager of Defense, channeled the war effort. Abandoned by the Government on the 6th, maybe that’s why it increased their ability to resist. The attackers came to cross the Manzanares and take part in University City, but there they were arrested. Franco then undertook the alternative of enveloping maneuvers to isolate the capital. On the Jarama to cut the road from Valencia, from February 6. This objective failed, and the operation was mounted from the Guadalajara area, from where the offensive began on March 8 with a fulminating spread of the Italian expeditionary force, the CTV. Once it was stopped, the Republicans launched a counteroffensive that thwarted the operation, although the front was not reinstated in its original position. The Italian defeat was a moral victory and showed the body of Italian aid to the rebels. On other fronts, however, success was not smooth. On February 8, Malaga had been lost, which involved the first Italian troops, and the attack on Villarreal de Álava in the Basque Country in December brought no substantial results.
The Center Stage of the War (April-May 1937 to November 1938)
Around April-May 1937 began a second and long central cycle of war, culminating in the final Battle of the Ebro in a practice situation defeat of the Republic, in November 1938. The origin of this second stage there are important political, military and diplomatic organization, both sides. It started from a relative balance of forces. But for twenty months of war the balance was gradually falling apart for the insurgents.
A) The Fall of the Cantabrian Fringe (April-October 1937)
The first major setback is the Republican conquest of the entire Franco Cantabrian coast, Vizcaya, Santander and Asturias, which consumed between April and October 1937. At the end of March begins the attack on an army Vizcaya in the great role played by the Requetes Carlist artillery and aviation German, Italian, Italian troops, which would end up picking another defeat in Bermeo, and the great German guns have requetés . On April 26 the celebrated case made for the destruction of Guernica by the rebel aircraft. June 19 is taken Bilbao. Then, the Basque nationalist battalions capitulate surrender to the Italians in Santoña, as has the cure Onaindia, when they have left their coreligionists. Santander is busy in August and Asturias, after hard fighting in October. To contribute to the decrease in pressure in the north rebel, the Republic undertook offensive on other fronts. This sense is the operation of Brunete in July 1937, and in Aragon, on Aug. latter front, the Catalan militia, composed mostly of anarcho-syndicalists, with leaders such as Durruti and Ascaso, had pushed back the original face to the East in 1936, reaching about besieging Zaragoza and Huesca. Now unleash a strong attack at the height of Belchite, which formalizes a battle without an end result that variations esenciales. Lost the North to the Republic, the war resumed in December 1937.
B) The War in the First Half of 1938
During a crucial year, 1938, both sides are striving to get the initiative. The Republican Army Staff is now headed by a great coach, Vicente Rojo. The new stage begins with the fighting around Teruel, a Republican initiative to prevent a new operation on Guadalajara, via Madrid, designed by Franco. The battle of Teruel begins Dec. 15 with early Republican success, taking the city on January 7, 1938. The war was going to post then the Aragonese front-Levant for many months, with secondary operations only in Extremadura. Franco plan and execute a major offensive in lower Aragon, who will lead the call first Alfambra battle. On February 22 recapture Teruel. In March, the battle moves to the south of the Ebro and in a long line of Franco’s military operations achieved completely disrupt the Aragon front, occupying the southern slope of the Ebro, the Mastership and reaching the sea in Vinaroz, 15 April. To the north of the Ebro is equally effective progress towards the east, which reaches Lérida, leaving the front line established on the Noguera-Segre. The Republican territory was the new party, leaving Catalonia alone. Then, Franco guides its offensive in the Levant region to the south, with the intention of getting to Valencia. Online since Maestrazgo to coast, moving north-south. The fighting, increasingly hard, occurring between April and July 1938. The effort front end with Franco’s military defenses Espadán saw, with tremendous wear on both sides, before the offensive unleashed by Republican Army in the Ebro, July 25, change the center stage of the war.
C) The Battle of the Ebro (July 26, 1938 – November 15, 1938)
Indeed, the last major battle of the war begins on that date over the river by a well-trained army in the great bend in described between the Ebro and Cherta Mequinenza. Republican progress inland along the right bank of the river continues until day 30, but then stops with mediocre results. In any case, the gravity of the situation makes Franco collect reinforcements in the area and launched a counter-offensive from 10 August. The toughest battles occur in September and Franco are reducing the stock on the River. The slow recovery of territory continues in October and the final counter-offensive began on the 28th, the same year that the International Brigades in Spain were leaving Barcelona. On 15 November, the latest Republican forces reviewed the Ebro
The Last Stage of the War (November 15, 1938 – March 28, 1939)
It came, therefore, in the last cycle of war, short and small warfare, culminating in the internal political decay of the Republic, concluding with the coup of Colonel Casado in Madrid in early March, rebelling against the Government Negrin. On December 23, Franco launched his final offensive in Catalonia. Busy Lleida and Tarragona, Barcelona was bombed for the first time—no course in mid-January and the 26th fell without a fight. Although there was some fighting still further north, the only possibility of resistance of the Republic was now in the vast Central-East-Southeast, which still controlled, which is what should be understood and communists. February Negrin was a month dramatic, the silent struggle between supporters of continuing the war at all costs—in the hope of having a generalized conflict in Europe was deemed imminent—and those who wanted a peace pact with Franco humanitarian anyway. But he enacted the policy makers, who did not give rise to the hope precisely. In the central region, therefore, no longer fought. Married, March 5, created a Defense Council (against the Government), chaired by Miaja and composed of socialists, anarchists and some Republicans. The confrontation with the Communists was one of the causes. But these men committed the naivete to think that Franco could agree with them. Not the case, and Franco’s troops entered Madrid on 28 March.
Evolution in the Two Areas and Consequences. Incidence in Castilla-La Mancha
A) Evolution of Republican Spain Policy
The uprising had caused the immediate resignation of the government, led by Santiago Casares Quiroga, and the charge of President Manuel Azaña to Diego Martínez Barrio to form a new government. The failure of this in its efforts to halt the insurgency and fears of arming the people also took him to resign the same July 19. In this way, looking for a new political consensus, Azaña entrusted José Giral, Professor of Chemistry at Salamanca and belonging to the Republican Left, the immediate formation of a new government, composed of prominent men of moderate Republicanism, and then began the delivery of arms to the people. Until the end of the war, republican institutions continued to operate on the basis of plurality and the Constitution in force, despite the limitations imposed by the war situation. The dynamics of political parties and republican organizations, with different positions on the progress of the war and subsequent policy measures, led to changes of government and fighting, sometimes bloody, on the Republican side.
The Government of Largo Caballero
On September 5, 1936, President Azaña commissioned to form a government to Francisco Largo Caballero, head of the left of the PSOE, who formed a vast coalition cabinet integrated Basque and Catalan nationalists, the Republican parties, the PSOE, and the Communist Party. A few days later, four anarchist ministers joined the government. A notable adoption was on October 1, the statute of autonomy of the Basque Country. In early November, the government left Madrid, severely threatened by the columns of the south, moving to Valencia. Madrid came under the authority of a Defense Council headed by General Miaja, with the assistance of General Pozas, who won a great moral victory by defeating Franco’s army’s attempts to take the capital. Largo Caballero’s government undertook major political and military reforms in the coming months. Despite some setbacks, offset by the Republican victory in Guadalajara, confidence in the victory was great. However, new factors came to complicate the situation.
The Communist Party of Spain, which had about 10,000 members just starting the war, saw his role for several reasons: internal discipline, control of Russian supplies, which began to be essential in the war effort, since blocking supplies Western countries covered in the Non-Intervention Committee, and, finally, the division among the other Republican forces.
War or Revolution
The PCE primarily advocated unity to confront an enemy that was characterized by unity of action. In fact, Catalonia had succeeded in uniting all socialist and communist parties into a new party, the Socialist Party of Catalonia. Also, the PCE policy sought an alliance with sectors of the middle bourgeoisie, small businessmen, and farmers under the slogan “first win the war,” while other forces—anarchist POUM—understood the necessity of revolutionary action to collectivization to have the popular support that would lead to victory. The fighting came to a head in May 1937, fighting in Barcelona between supporters of both groups. In that fight, the most prestigious leader of the POUM, Andreu Nin, was stopped and killed. Popular mobilization that led to the uprising demanded changes in economic and social organization, which were carried out by the republican government from the earliest moments of the war. Thus, housing rents were reduced, industries of supporters of the uprising were seized and nationalized (August 2, 1936), land reform and expropriation of abandoned farms continued, which were sold to farmers in perpetual usufruct, industries such as CAMPSA and railway companies were nationalized, and state control over banks and financial institutions was established. But the most striking transformations depended on the collectives of enterprises and, above all, on farms, which were carried out by peasant unions. Collectivization affected about three million hectares in large areas of Aragon, Valencia, and Andalusia, and a total of 156,822 families. While campesino organizations in the CNT and UGT fully supported collectivization, the PCE maintained its reservations about these measures, with the idea of getting the support of the small peasant proprietors.
The Negrín Government
From the May 1937 crisis, the Republican government came to be led by Dr. Juan Negrín, of the PSOE, in favor of the largest unit of the Republican forces and supported by the Communists. On the Republican side, the losses further soured relations between the Generalitat of Catalonia and the central government, which wanted to regain skills in order to unify the war effort. To this end, Juan Negrín moved the seat of government from Valencia to Barcelona (October 31, 1937), seeking control of the war industries in Catalonia. Meanwhile, in the rear, the unit said the marginalization, even violent, of anarchists and heterodox communists of the POUM. The support of the French Popular Front and the Soviet Union to the republican side favored the spectacular growth of the Communists, an arbiter of the situation during the last two years of the Republic. An attempt to reach an agreement with nationals and Negrín to agree on a negotiated peace with “Thirteen Points” was the last attempt to stop the war, but they were categorically rejected by Franco. After the fall of the northern front in October 1937, and the defeats of 1938, particularly the suffering at the Battle of the Ebro, Republican hopes were bankrupt. On the other hand, the policy of concessions and appeasement maintained by the British against Hitler culminated in the Munich Pact in October 1938 with the transfer of Czechoslovakia, a gesture that did fear the worst Republican leaders. At that time, the slogan of the Negrín government to resist at all costs until it triggered the impending European conflict was not equally understood by all combatants Republicans. One area in which integrated professional army, like Colonel Casado, but Socialist leaders, as Besteiro, or anarchist fighters as Cipriano Mera, had already decided to surrender to Franco, hoping perhaps to overcome honorable treatment. This led to internal fighting in Madrid, once known the fall of Barcelona, and the collapse of Republican resistance in the center.
B) Policy Developments in Rebel Spain
The Militarization of Society
Sign had very different political developments on the rebel side. The death of General Sanjurjo in a plane crash on July 20, 1936, on his way to Burgos to lead the rebellion, put in the foreground the figure of Franco, who could only make shadow figures like Mola, who also passed away in June 1937. The Technical Board, created by the rebels in Burgos, worked as an embryo of a new government until September of that year a general meeting on a farm in Salamanca agreed to appoint Generalissimo Francisco Franco and a new head of state still undefined. In the months following Franco—appointed interlocutor by Hitler and Mussolini and undisputed leader of Moroccan troops—he achieved political and military leadership of the new state. The uprising in the south had been shouting “Long live the Republic” was acquiring a new direction when Franco adopted in August the red and yellow flag and officially the cry of “Long live Spain,” which earned her membership of monarchists of different signs. The lack of clear direction in the prison in Alicante Falange leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera, to be tried and executed in November allowed, with the help of Ramon Serrano Suner and later the Phalange leader Raimundo Fernández Cuesta, to be also the head of the largest ever contingent. With regard to CEDA, although Gil-Robles enthusiastically joined the revolt and put under Franco, this would not allow their presence in Spain and, like the Carlist leader Fal Conde, Portugal remained withdrawn. Mola, meanwhile, had not allowed Don Juan, son of the dethroned Alfonso XIII, to remain in their ranks.
Political Unification
In fact, all political activities were suspended in September 1936. In early 1937, all Spain was available for revolt led by the most prestigious general, and this was Franco. In February 1937 the national anthem set the Royal March, and at the end of the month, after some skirmishes between Phalangists in Salamanca and the death sentence of the national leader of Falange, Manuel Hedilla, the generalissimo was established in the national party leader only, with the name of Traditionalist Spanish Falange de las JONS, came to group all Spain politically disobedient to the Republic.
New Totalitarian State
Even a few months continue to operate the technical board created in Burgos, but in January 1938 was the first government of the new state. Franco concentrated in his person all the political and military powers of the Spain national. From that time, power in all its aspects lay in the headquarters of Generalissimo. Franco’s first government was an aggregate of conservative forces, composed of traditionalist Falangists and especially military. At this end of the process of legitimization of war, the Spanish bishops headed in July 1937 the Catholics of the world a joint letter written by Cardinal Goma, in which he explained the religious nature of the war. I wanted to disallow the request of Franco, a sector of foreign Catholic intellectuals, overwhelmed by the repression exercised by the national Catholic militant groups, was determined to uncover motives less worthy of contention. Despite its option for the National Movement, the ministry did not mean a blank check on the contrary, allowed a glimpse of the misgivings of the Church before the totalitarian structure of the new state on the model of his friends, the fascist powers in Europe.
C. The Consequences of War
Like the Carlist wars in the nineteenth century, the Civil War was the most traumatic episode who lived in Spanish society during the twentieth century. For three years, fellow citizens, and even members of one family, fought each other, the hatred between the Spanish grew, resulting in the inevitable annihilation of the opposite desire. Those who beat excluded and persecuted those who had not joined enthusiastically to his side. The most pain and anger of many was the common denominator of Spain in the years after the war. In the last months of the war, thousands of Republican fighters and entire families who had publicly defended the legal government of Spain had to leave hastily, leaving behind all their possessions and property. Thousands of fighters, intellectuals, party and union activists crowded into the port of Alicante, the last city to be taken by Franco, hoping for a place in one of the boats that would take them to a country that wanted to host. Catalonian border with France was a river of people who had to suffer the hardships of exile, many never returned. In summary, nearly half a million deaths, of which a good part corresponds to the murders of the rearguard or winners. Ended the war, more than 250,000 people admitted to prison or labor camps. Tens of thousands of Spanish exiles gathered in internment camps in the south of France, later dispersed by European countries, North Africa and especially in Latin America, Mexico was nation that hosted more people and the capital became the political headquarters of the Republic in exile. The impact on Spanish culture were very important. Every effort was destroyed educational and cultural regeneration of the Silver Age of Spanish culture (1898-1936). Were executed or dismissed by the Franco over 60% of teachers. Almost all the intellectuals of the generation of 27 and the most important scientists and artists died or went into exile, leading figures like Garcia Lorca, Buñuel, Antonio Machado, Alberti, Picasso, Américo Castro is a good example of this cultural desertification. The official culture back to the times of clerical obscurantism, the repression and censorship, typical of the era Inquisition. The economic consequences were disastrous for the country: the loss of reserves, reduction of workforce, destruction of road infrastructure and manufacturing, and housing—all of which caused a decrease in production, and falling incomes. Most of the Spanish population had to suffer through the decades of 1940 and 1950 the effects of rationing and deprivation of property consumption. The political consequences were the end of the most important modernizing and democratizing experience that had been Spain contemporary and the beginning of a very long period of repression, lack of political freedom and the suppression of fundamental rights people. Internationally, Spain began twenty years of political isolation, with the exception of the recognition he got from some states, like the Vatican and Argentina. Was outside the strong momentum of progress that began in Europe after 1945. Spain reached the half century without having solved their problems of living together without getting political and participation of all without exclusion.