The Spanish Civil War: Causes, Dimensions, and Consequences

Posted on May 14, 2024 in History

Revolt and Civil War

Domestic and International Dimensions of the Conflict

The Causes of Civil War

Historians distinguish three types of causes:

1. Structural causes or “long life” causes include: the problem of southern agricultural landlordism and misery of the peasant laborers, the tension between the weak civil power and military, the confrontation between clericalism and anticlericalism, the conflict between centralism and nationalisms, and the harshness of labor relations.
2. Short-term or “average” causes include: the impact of the 1929 crisis and the difficulties of the Treasury to address the economic crisis, the fragmentation and polarization of the political system, the weakness or hostility towards the administration of the security forces in the hands of the republican government, the ideological and political divide of the armed forces working with the division between revolutionaries and reformists, and the collapse of the middle classes divided according to their religious beliefs (Catholic or anticlerical) or national identity (Spanish, Catalan, or Basque).
3. Immediate causes or triggers of the “short time” include: the Catalan socialist revolution of October 1934, the fragile Popular Front electoral victory in February 1936, the dismissal of President Alcala Zamora in April 1936 and its replacement by Azana, the weakness of the government headed by Casares Quiroga after the elections of February 1936, the May 3 strikes, the assassination of right-wing leader Calvo Sotelo on July 13, 1936, just days before the military uprising.

Historian Julia Santos writes about the meaning of war: “It’s a class war by force of arms, a war of religion, nationalism faced, war between military dictatorship and republican democracy, between counter-revolution, war between fascism and the first months of communism. In the trenches, farmers with rifles on their shoulders and sandals face military forces commanded by mercenaries. Once internationalized, the war becomes the prologue to the future war, with tanks and aircraft, bombed cities, with a coalition of democracies and communism faced with the fascist powers, announced by the division of Europe three years later.”

Civil War: The Division of Forces in Late July 1936

On July 18, 1936, only a part of the Army rose up. The military, led by General Mola, Sanjurjo, Franco, and Queipo de Llano, revolted for several reasons: because they believed that the Republic did not have political legitimacy, because they believed that the granting of regional autonomy was a threat to the unity of Spain, because they thought the strikes and disorders revealed the lack of authority of democracy, and because they believed that the essence of republican laws attacked Catholic Spain. The rebel soldiers believed that the coup would succeed immediately. They were wrong: they unleashed a devastating civil war.

Days after the start of the military uprising, the rebels only achieved dominance over all colonies (Morocco, Sahara, and Guinea Ifni), a wide area of western and central peninsular (Navarre, Alava, Old Castile, Galicia, Cáceres, and half of Aragon), a small group around Andalusia in Seville, Cordoba, Cadiz, and Granada, and the Canary and Balearic Islands (except Minorca). The uprising had been defeated by a small sector of the army loyal to the government, with the help of armed workers’ militias, into two areas separated from each other: the central-southern and eastern Peninsular (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Badajoz, La Mancha, and all Mediterranean coast to Malaga) and a narrow strip of the north which included Guipuzcoa, Vizcaya, Cantabria, and Asturias, isolated from Republican territory.

The Republican territory was the most densely populated and urbanized, the most industrialized because it included the Basque steel industry, Asturian mining, and Catalan textile and chemical industry, and the least potential agricultural and horticultural products except food from gardens. By contrast, the area of the insurgents had less population and more rural population, scarce food resources industry, and important agricultural and livestock (70% of wheat, mostly potatoes and vegetables, and half the corn). However, that deal was disadvantageous for the Republicans by their geographical separation and lack of connection between the industrial and consumer areas, neither the Asturian coal nor iron could supply the Basque or Catalan industry, nor could Levantine products reach the urban markets in the north loyal to the Republic.

The Internal Dimension of the Republican Civil War

The military uprising provoked the initiation of a collectivist social revolution led by the CNT, the FAI, and the UGT, which abolished private ownership of land, industry, transport, and food supplies. In the first months, persecution was unleashed against the Church, employers, landlords, the upper classes, Catholics, and supporters of the rightist parties. There were about 30,000 murders (about six thousand priests and religious), detentions, looting, and burning of many churches by militants of the left. The Republic initially lacked, for several months, unity in the political and military leadership of the war. From a military standpoint, the result was disastrous because the Revolution broke the Republican army, replaced by militia commanded by party and union officials. Until the spring of 1937, the Republic could not have an operational army.

During the war, three Republican administrations succeeded: Between July and September 1936, the government was headed by Jose Giral of the Republican Left and consisted of left-wing Republicans. The government gave weapons to militias of parties and unions, and disbanded the army battalions of volunteers led by officers loyal to the Republic. During this time, state power collapsed and was replaced by committees or boards, arranged by revolutionaries to impose order, made by party members and workers’ unions.

The rapid progress towards Madrid of the rebel army, which succeeded in uniting the two areas and reaching the gates of Madrid, caused a change of government. Largo Caballero, leader of the UGT and PSOE member, was called to form a government to lead the war. Between September 1936 and May 1937, the government was headed by Largo Caballero, forming a unity government with republicans, socialists, communists, PNV, anarchists, and ERC, with four ministers (Health, Justice, Industry, and Trade). The Republican government moved to Valencia before the Madrid attack of the rebels. The government’s objectives were: to restore State authority, to eliminate the Committees and Boards, and to direct the war effort by creating the Popular Army. Largo Caballero had problems with the anarchists and communists. Anarchists refused to integrate their militias into the Popular Army and to forgo the collectives. In May 1937, a bloody confrontation took place in Barcelona between anarchists on one side and Republicans and Communists who controlled the Government, which ended with the defeat of the former. The government was weakened and the anarchist ministers left the Government.

Regarding the war, the rebels failed to take Madrid due to the general mobilization of men and women, the International Brigades, and the anarchist column that arrived from Barcelona at the helm of Durruti. The Republicans’ slogans to defend Madrid were: “No Pasaran!” and “Madrid, tomb of fascism.” After the attempt to take Madrid, the rebels tried to isolate Madrid from Valencia. The Battle of the Jarama River (February 1937) was a failure, and Italian fascist troops allied with Franco suffered a defeat at the hands of the Republican army in Guadalajara in March 1937. They then attempted to attack Madrid from the north.

From May 1937 until the end of the war, the socialist Juan Negrin led a government formed by socialists, communists, republicans, and PNV, pursuing his policy to make a military effort while seeking agreement with the rebels to save the Republic and the democratic system. In 1938, he proposed the Thirteen Points for peace. Franco did not agree and said they would only accept a surrender without conditions. The year 1938 was hard: food shortages, military defeats, and weariness of the population. Negrin’s hope was that the war would drag on until the start of the European war between democratic and fascist powers. However, the Republic’s days were numbered. At the end of 1937, the rebels occupied the Basque Country, Cantabria, and Asturias. Between May and June 1938, they took Valencia, and in the summer of 1938, the Battle of the Ebro began, which sank the Republican army. Franco took Barcelona in January 1939. The Republican government, the Generalitat, and the Parliament fled to France. On April 28, 1939, they occupied Madrid, Albacete, Alicante, and Valencia. On April 1, the war ended.

The Rebel Zone

In the rebel zone, a new state was created. General Sanjurjo, leader of the uprising, died on July 20 in a plane crash while returning to Spain from Lisbon to take charge of the military rebels. The rebels created a Board of National Defense, which was established in Burgos and was chaired by the oldest general, Miguel Cabanellas. The Board banned the activities of all the Popular Front parties, trade unions, and class organizations, abolished the Constitution of 1931, and paralyzed agrarian reform. From the first moment, large-scale repression was triggered. The rebel soldiers shot those affiliated with leftist parties and unions, hundreds of teachers, intellectuals like Garcia Lorca, and even several Basque priests who supported nationalism. Badajoz, where citizens were shot more than 2,000 prisoners in August 1936, is a symbol of Francoist violence. Some 60,000 people were executed in the Francoist zone.

On September 30, 1936, Franco had moved to Spain from Morocco with Army units formed by the best prepared by an air bridge with the help of German and Italian aircraft. He was chosen as supreme leader because of his military successes in command of the Army of Africa after the conquest of Toledo and the recognition of Hitler and Mussolini. On October 1, he was appointed Head of State, Head of Government, and Generalissimo of the Armies. His headquarters was established in Salamanca. The new political power was based on the model of Italian and German fascist states, i.e., a one-party state with a chief with full powers. In April 1937, Franco published the Unification Decree, which created a single party, the Traditionalist Spanish Falange de las JONS, unifying the Falange and the Carlists. Franco assumed the party leadership. The uniform of its members was the blue shirt of the Falange and the red beret of the Carlists, with the fascist-style salute. The influence of the Church was respected, and a collective letter of support to the rebels was published in January 1938, legitimizing the war as a crusade in defense of religion.

In January 1938, Franco established his first government, which concentrated all the powers and passed to the renamed Caudillo. His government promulgated the following laws:

• The Labour Law, inspired by the Italian fascist model: the official trade unions are a statewide organization that brings together entrepreneurs and workers. Strikes and collective requests are forbidden.
• Laws to control the media that serve the State.
• Laws favorable to the Church: Derogation of civil marriage and divorce, and resumption of religious education and the budget of the clergy.
• Political Responsibility Act to form courts with judges, military, and Falangists to judge people linked to political parties and unions of the left.

International Dimension of the Civil War

Once the war began, both sides called for foreign aid because Spain did not have sufficient military equipment. The Republican government of Giral turned to the Popular Front government of France asking for aircraft and munitions. General Franco, in charge of the rebels in Morocco, sent emissaries to Rome and Berlin calling for planes to transport troops to the Peninsula. Hitler and Mussolini responded affirmatively, and Franco could move his troops to Andalusia and begin the march on Madrid. Both dictators wanted to have an ally in Spain to weaken the Franco-British position and prevent a victory by Bolshevism. The French government, favorable in principle to assisting the Republic, rejected it under pressure from Britain and the French right. The efforts of Great Britain and France to impose non-intervention in Spain (according to the agreement signed on August 8, 1936), which prohibited the sale or shipping of arms to both sides and thus locate the conflict that threatened to lead to a new European war, failed. Germany and Italy, although they signed the agreement, recognized Franco and violated the agreement when his entry into Madrid seemed imminent. Germany sent the Condor Legion, consisting of one hundred German aircraft pilots, and about five thousand advisors throughout the war. Italy sent 70,000 soldiers, who saw combat as of January 1937, and abundant material, and participated in the occupation of Malaga, the Battle of Guadalajara, and the taking of Santander.

Stalin, the USSR leader, signed the Non-intervention agreement, but after Franco’s state support for fascists, he put at the service of the Republic some 2,000 consultants (trainers, pilots, gunners) and sent more than 1,000 aircraft and 900 trucks and tanks. Military equipment was paid with gold reserves of the Bank of Spain, which were sent to Moscow. Stalin supported the sending of the International Brigades, composed of volunteer socialists, communists, and leftists from various countries, who came to defend Madrid in September 1936 when it was in danger of being occupied by Franco. Negrin, in September 1938, ordered their removal in the hope that Franco would give up German and Italian support.

Military Operations

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