Spanish Civil War
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Following the only partially successful coup,[nb 5] Spain was left militarily and politically divided. From that moment onwards, general Francisco Franco began a protracted war with the established government, as loyalist supporters of the left-wing Republican Government fought the rebel forces for control of the country. The generals (nacionales) received the support of Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy, as well as neighbouring Portugal, while the Soviet Union and Mexico intervened in support of the Republican government.
Bloody purges occurred in pieces of territory conquered from the republic in order to consolidate Franco's future regime,[7] while fundamentally different killings took place in areas controlled by the Republicans, where killings were largely a result of a breakdown in law and order.[8] The Civil War became notable for the passion and political division it inspired. Tens of thousands of civilians on both sides were killed for their political or religious views, and after the War's conclusion in 1939, those associated with the losing Republicans were persecuted by the victorious Nationalists.
The war ended with the victory of the conservative Nationalists, the overthrow of the democratically elected government, and the exile of thousands of left-leaning Spaniards, many of whom fled to refugee camps in Southern France. With the establishment of a dictatorship led by General Francisco Franco in the aftermath of the Civil War, all right-wing parties were fused into the structure of the Franco regime.[5]
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[edit] Background
Main article: Background of the Spanish Civil War
Niceto Alcalá-Zamora became the first prime minister.[23] The Republic had broad support from all segments of society;[24] elections in June 1931 returned a large majority of Republicans and Socialists.[25] With the onset of the Great Depression, the government attempted to assist rural Spain by instituting an eight-hour day and giving tenure to farm workers.[26][27] Fascism remained a reactive threat, helped by controversial reforms to the military.[28] In December a new reformist, liberal, and democratic constitution was declared. It started a theme of laic, reforming actions by the government, and committed Catholics opposed its leftist governments.[29] In October 1931 Manuel Azaña became Prime Minister of a minority government whose actions were described as barbaric, unjust, and corrupt by opponents.[30][31] The Right won the elections of 1933 following an unsuccessful uprising by General José Sanjurjo in August 1932, who would later lead the coup that started the civil war.[32][33]
Events in the period following November 1933, called the "black two years", seemed to make a civil war more likely.[34] Alejandro Lerroux of the Radical Republican Party (RRP) formed a government and rolled back changes made under the previous administration.[35] Some monarchists moved to the Fascist Falange Española to help achieve their aims.[36] Open violence occurred in the streets of Spanish cities and militancy continued to increase right up until the start of the civil war,[37] reflecting a movement towards radical upheaval rather than peaceful democratic means as a solution to Spain's problems.[38] In the last months of 1934, two government collapses brought members of the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA) into the government, making it more right-wing.[39][40] Farm workers' wages were halved, and the military was purged of republican members and reformed.[40] A Popular Front alliance was organised,[40] which narrowly won the 1936 elections.[41] Azaña led a weak minority government, but soon replaced Zamora as president in April.[42] Prime Minister Casares failed to heed warnings of a military conspiracy involving several generals, who decided that the government had to be replaced if the dissolution of Spain was to be prevented.[43]
[edit] Military coup
Main article: Spanish coup of July 1936
[edit] Preparations
The republican government had been attempting to remove suspect generals from their posts, and so Franco was sacked as chief of staff and transferred to command of the Canary Islands.[44] Goded was sacked as Inspector General and made general of the Balearic islands; Emilio Mola was moved from head of the Army of Africa to be military commander of Pamplona in Navarre.[44] However, this allowed Mola to direct the mainland uprising. General José Sanjurjo became the figurehead of the operation, and helped to come to an agreement with the Carlists.[44] Mola was chief planner and second in command.[45] José Antonio Primo de Rivera was put in prison in mid-March in order to restrict the Falange.[44] However, government actions were not as thorough as they might have been: warnings by the Director of Security and other figures were not acted upon.[46]On 12 June, Prime Minister Casares Quiroga met General Juan Yagüe, but Yagüe managed to convince Casares of his loyalty to the Republic.[47] Mola began serious planning in the spring.[45] Franco was a key player because of his prestige as a former director of the military academy and as the man who suppressed the Socialist uprising of 1934.[45] He was well respected in the Army of Africa, Spain's toughest military force.[48] He wrote a cryptic letter to Casares on 23 June, suggesting that the military was disloyal, but could be restrained if he were put in charge; Casares did nothing, failing to arrest or buy off Franco.[48] On July 5, an aircraft was chartered to take Franco from the Canary Islands to Morocco.[49] It arrived on July 14.[49]
On 12 July 1936, in Madrid, members of the Falange murdered Lieutenant José Castillo of the Assault Guards police force.[49] Castillo was a member of the Socialist party. The next day, members of the Assault Guards arrested José Calvo Sotelo, a leading Spanish monarchist and a prominent parliamentary conservative.[50] Calvo Sotelo was shot by the Guards without trial.[50] The killing of Sotelo, a prominent member of Parliament, with involvement of the police, aroused suspicions and strong reactions among the government's opponents on the right.[51][nb 6] Massive reprisals followed.[50] Although the conservative Nationalist generals were already in advanced stages of a planned uprising, the event provided a catalyst and convenient public justification for their coup.[50] The Socialists and Communists (led by Prieto) demanded that arms be distributed to the people, before the military took over. The Prime Minister was hesitant.[50] Franco's plane landed in Gran Canaria on July 14.
[edit] Beginning of the coup
Initial Nationalist zone – July 1936
Nationalist advance until September 1936
Nationalist advance until October 1937
Nationalist advance until November 1938
Nationalist advance until February 1939
Last area under Republican control
 Main Nationalist centres Main Republican centres |
 Land battles Naval battles Bombed cities Concentration camps Massacres Refugee camps |
Control in Spanish Morocco was all but certain.[55] The plan was discovered in Morocco during 17 July, which prompted it to be enacted immediately. Little resistance was encountered; in total, 189 people were shot by the rebels.[56] Goded and Franco immediately took control of the islands to which they were assigned.[45] On 18 July, Casares Quiroga refused an offer of help from the CNT and UGT, leading the groups to proclaim a general strike, in effect mobilising. They opened weapons caches, some buried since the 1934 risings.[55] The paramilitary forces often waited to see the outcome of militia action before either joining or suppressing the rebellion. Quick action by either the rebels or anarchist militias was often enough to decide the fate of a town.[57] General Queipo de Llano managed to secure Seville for the rebels, arresting a number of other officers.[58]
[edit] Outcome
The rebels failed to take any major cities with the critical exception of Seville which provided a landing point for Franco’s African troops. The primarily conservative and Catholic areas of Old Castile and León fell quickly.[54] The government retained control of Málaga, Jaén and Almería. Cadiz was taken for the rebels with the help of the first troops from the Army of Africa.[59]In Madrid they were hemmed into the Montaña barracks, which fell with much bloodshed. Republican leader Santiago Casares Quiroga was replaced by José Giral who ordered the distribution of weapons among the civilian population.[60] This facilitated the defeat of the army insurrection in the main industrial centres, including Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, but it allowed the anarchists to take control of Barcelona and large swathes of Aragon and Catalonia.[61] General Goded surrendered in Barcelona and was later condemned to death.[62]
The Republican Government ended up controlling almost all of the east coast and central area around Madrid, as well as Asturias, Cantabria and part of the Basque Country in the north. Mola was keen to create a sense of fear within Nationalist-controlled areas.[63] The rebels termed themselves "Nacionales", normally translated as "Nationalists", although the former implies "true Spaniards" rather than a pure nationalistic cause.[64]
The result of the coup was a nationalist area of control containing 11 million of Spain's population of 25 million.[65] The Nationalists had secured the support of around half of Spain's territorial army, some 60,000 men, joined by the Army of Africa, made up of 35,000 men,[66] and a little under half of Spain's militaristic police forces, the Assault Guards, the Civil Guards, and the Carabineers.[67] Republicans controlled under half of rifles, and about a third of both machine guns and artillery pieces.[66][68]
The Spanish Army had just 18 tanks of a sufficiently modern design, and the Republicans retained 10.[69] Naval capacity was fairly even, with the Republicans retaining a numerical advantage but with the Navy's top ships in Nationalist hands. The Republican navy suffered from the same problems as the army: many officers had defected or had been killed after trying to do so.[69] Two-thirds of air capability was retained by the government – however, the whole of the air service was very outdated.[70]
[edit] Combatants
The war was cast by Republican sympathizers as a struggle between "tyranny and democracy", and by Nationalist supporters as between communist and anarchist "red hordes" and "Christian civilization".[71] Nationalists also claimed to be protecting the establishment and bringing security and direction to an ungoverned and lawless society.[71]Spanish politics, especially on the left, was quite fragmented, as socialists and communists supported the Republic. During the Republic, anarchists had had mixed opinions, but major groups opposed the Nationalists during the Civil War. The Conservatives, by contrast, were united by their fervent opposition to the Republican government, and presented a more unified front.[72]
[edit] Republicans
Main article: Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)
This faction was called variously loyales ("loyalists") by supporters; "Republicans", "the Popular Front" or "the Government" by all parties, while their opponents frequently called them los rojos ("the reds").[74] Republicans were supported by most urban workers, a large share of peasants, and much of the educated middle class.
The conservative, strongly Catholic Basque country, along with Galicia and the more left-leaning Catalonia, sought autonomy or even independence from the central government of Madrid. The Republican government allowed for the possibility of self-government for the two regions,[75] whose forces were gathered under the People's Republican Army (Ejército Popular Republicano, or EPR).
[edit] Nationalists
Main article: National faction (Spanish Civil War)
The Nationalist side included the Carlists and Alfonsist monarchists, Spanish nationalists, the fascist Falange, and most conservatives and monarchist liberals. Virtually all Nationalist groups had strong Catholic convictions and supported the native Spanish clergy.[76] The Nationals included the majority of the Catholic clergy and practitioners (outside of the Basque region), important elements of the army, most large landowners, and many businessmen.[71]
Articles 24 and 26 of the Constitution of Spain's Republic had banned the Jesuits, which deeply offended many within the conservative fold. The revolution in the Republican zone at the outset of the war, killing 7,000 clergy and thousands of lay people, drove many Catholics to the Nationalist faction.[79][80]
[edit] Other factions
Catalan and Basque nationalists were not univocal. Left-wing Catalan nationalists sided with the Republicans, while Conservative Catalan nationalists were far less vocal supporting the government due to anti-clericalism and confiscations occurring in areas within its control. Basque nationalists, heralded by the conservative Basque Nationalist Party, were mildly supportive of the Republican government, even though some in Navarre sided with the uprising for the same reasons influencing conservative Catalans. Notwithstanding religious matters, Basque nationalists, who were for the most part Catholic, generally sided with the Republicans.[81][edit] Foreign involvement
Main article: Foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War involved large numbers of non-Spanish citizens
who participated in combat and advisory positions. Germany and Italy
contributed large amounts of financial assistance and military aid
to forces led by Franco. Forces fighting on behalf of the Republican
faction also received support, but the Republic's allies were seriously
hampered by the non-intervention
proclaimed by France and the United Kingdom. The attempted suppression
of imported materials was largely ineffective, however, and France
especially was accused of allowing large shipments to Republican troops.[82] The clandestine actions of the various European powers were at the time considered to be risking another 'Great War'.[83]The League of Nations' reaction to the war was mostly neutral and insufficient to contain the massive importation by fighting factions of arms and other war resources. Although a Non-Intervention Committee was formed, its policies accomplished little, and its directives were dismantled due to the policies of appeasement practised by European states; the official Spanish government of Juan Negrín was gradually abandoned within the organization during this period.[84]
[edit] Support for the Nationalists
[edit] Germany
Main article: German involvement in the Spanish Civil War
German involvement was further manifested through undertakings such as Operation Ursula, a U-boat undertaking, and contributions from the Kriegsmarine. The Legion spearheaded many Nationalist victories, particularly in aerial combat,[87] while Spain further provided a proving ground for German tank tactics. The training German units provided to Nationalist force would prove valuable; by the War's end, perhaps fifty-six thousand Nationalist soldiers encompassing infantry, artillery, aerial and naval forces had been trained by German detachments.[85]
Probably a total of 16,000 German citizens fought in the War, including approximately 300 killed,[88] though no more than ten thousand participated at any one time. German aid to the Nationalists amounted to approximately £43,000,000 ($215,000,000) in 1939 prices,[88][nb 7] 15.5% of which was used for salaries and expenses and 21.9% for direct delivery of supplies to Spain, while 62.6% was expended on the Condor Legion.[88] In total Germany provided the Nationalists with 600 planes and 200 tanks.[89]
[edit] Italy
After Francisco Franco’s request and encouragement by Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini joined the war. While the conquest of Abyssinia had made Italy delirious with power, a Spanish ally would help secure Italian control of the Mediterranean.[90] The Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina Italiana) played a substantial role in the Mediterranean blockade and ultimately Italy supplied machine guns, artillery, aircraft, tankettes, the Legionary Air Force (Italian: Aviazione Legionaria), and the Corps of Volunteer Troops (Italian: Corpo Truppe Volontarie, or CTV) to the Nationalist cause.[91] The Italian CTV would at its peak supply the Nationalists with 50,000 men.[91] 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 Malaga, Valencia, and Barcelona.[92] In total Italy provided the Nationalists with 660 planes, 150 tanks, 800 artillery pieces, 10,000 machine-guns and 240,000 rifles.[93][edit] Portugal
António de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo played an important role in supplying Franco’s forces with ammunition and logistical help.[94] Despite its discreet direct military involvement – restrained to a somewhat "semi-official" endorsement, by its authoritarian regime, of a volunteer force of up to 20,000,[95][96] so-called "Viriatos" – for the whole duration of the conflict, Portugal was instrumental in providing the Nationalists with organizational skills and reassurance from the Iberian neighbor to Franco and his allies that no interference would hinder the supply traffic directed to the Nationalist cause.[97][edit] Others
Despite the Irish government's prohibition against participating in the war, around six hundred Irishmen, followers of Eoin O'Duffy known as the "Irish Brigade", went to Spain to fight alongside Franco.[95] Romanian volunteers were led by Ion I Moţa, deputy-leader of the Legion of the Archangel Michael (or Iron Guard), whose group of seven Legionaries visited Spain in December 1936 to ally their movement with the Nationalists.[98][edit] Support for the Republicans
[edit] International Brigades
Significant numbers of volunteers originated in France (10,000), Germany and Austria (5,000) and Italy (3,350). More than 1,000 came from the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Canada.[99] The Thälmann Battalion, a group of Germans, and the Garibaldi Battalion, a group of Italians, distinguished their unit during the Siege of Madrid. Americans fought in units such as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, while Canadians joined the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion.[100]
Over five hundred Romanians fought on the Republican side, including Romanian Communist Party members Petre Borilă and Valter Roman.[101] About 80 volunteers from Ireland formed the Connolly Column, the latter of which was immortalized by Irish folk singer Christy Moore in the song 'Viva La Quinta Brigada.' Some Chinese joined the Brigades; the majority of them eventually returned to China, while some went to prison or French refugee camps, and a handful remained in Spain.[102]
[edit] Soviet Union
The Soviet Union primarily provided material assistance to the Republican forces. In total the USSR provided the Republicans with between 648[103] and 806 planes, 362 tanks, and 1,555 artillery pieces.[104] The Soviet Union ignored the League of Nations embargo and sold arms to the Republic when few other nations would do so; it was therefore the Republic's only source of major weapons. Stalin had signed the Non-Intervention Agreement but decided to break the pact, though he tried doing so secretly, unlike Hitler and Mussolini.[105]The Soviet premier created a section X of the Soviet Union military to head the weapons shipment operation, coined Operation X. Despite Stalin's interest in aiding the Republicans, however, most of the weapons and artillery sent to Spain were relics, some captured from past conflicts.[106] Occasionally, modern weapons such as BT-5 tanks were sent.[107]
Many of the Soviet deliveries were lost, due to short notice on orders, or arrived only partially matching what Stalin had authorised.[108] When the ships left with supplies for the Republican cause, their journeys were extremely slow. Stalin ordered the builders to include false decks in the original designs of boats. Furthermore, once the sea vessels left shore, the Soviets were required to change flags and boat colors to minimize capture by the Nationalists.[109] Such manoeuvres become unnecessary in 1938, however, when Stalin withdrew his troops and tanks as government ranks floundered. The Republican-Soviet alliance was an uneasy affair, and had the Spanish leftists had the opportunity to buy transport and weapons from alternative sources, they may have cut ties with Moscow.[110]
The Republic was obligated to pay for Soviet arms with official Bank of Spain gold reserves, in an affair that would become a frequent subject of Francoist propaganda, under the term "Moscow Gold". The cost to the Republic of Soviet arms was more than US $500 million (in 1936 prices); the entire of Spain's gold reserve, the fourth-largest in the world.[111] 176 tonnes was transferred through France.[111]
The USSR further sent a number of military advisers to Spain (2,000[112]–3,000[113]),[114] and while Soviet troops amounted to no more than 500 men at a time, Soviet volunteers often operated Soviet-made Republican tanks and aircraft, particularly at the beginning of the war.[99] In addition, the Soviet Union directed Communist parties around the world to organize and recruit the International Brigades. Another significant Soviet involvement were the pervasive activities of the NKVD spanning the Republican rearguard. Communist figures like Vittorio Vidali ("Comandante Contreras"), Iosif Grigulevich and, most prominently, Alexander Orlov led "secret" operations that included murders like those of Andreu Nin[115] and José Robles.[116]
[edit] Mexico
Unlike the United States and major Latin American governments such as the ABC Powers and Peru, the Mexican government supported the Republicans.[117][118] Mexico refused to follow the French-British non-intervention proposals,[117] furnishing $2,000,000 in aid and material assistance, which included 20,000 rifles and 20 million cartridges.[117]Mexico's most important contributions to the Spanish Republic were its diplomatic help, as well as the sanctuary the nation arranged for Republican refugees, including Spanish intellectuals and orphaned children from Republican families. Some 50,000 took refuge, primarily in Mexico City, accompanied by $300 million in various treasures still owned by the Left.[119]
[edit] France
Though the government of France did not send direct support to the Republican faction, the left-wing government of French Prime Minister Léon Blum was sympathetic to the Republic,[120] fearing that the success of Nationalist forces in Spain would result in the creation of an ally state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (largely surrounding France).[120] Right-wing politicians opposed the French government's actions and began a vicious campaign against the Blum government.[121] On 27 July 1936, British officials held discussions with Prime Minister Blum, and it is believed that they convinced Blum not to send arms to the Republicans.[122] On 27 July, the French government declared that it would not send military aid, technology, forces to assist the Republican forces.[123] However, Blum made clear that France reserved the right to provide aid should it wish to the Republic:- We could have delivered arms to the Spanish Government [Republicans], a legitimate government...We have not done so, in order not to give an excuse to those who would be tempted to send arms to the rebels [Nationalists]. Blum, 1936.[124]
However the Blum government provided aircraft to the Republicans through covert means with Potez 54 bomber aircraft, Dewoitine aircraft, and Loire 46 fighter aircraft being sent from 7 August 1936 to December of that year to Republican forces.[126] Also, until 8 September 1936, aircraft could freely pass from France into Spain if they were bought in other countries.[127]
Even after covert support by France to the Republicans ended in December 1936, the possibility of French intervention against the Nationals remained a serious possibility throughout the war. German intelligence reported to Franco and the Nationals that the French military was engaging in open discussions about intervention in the war through French military intervention in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.[128] In 1938 Franco feared an immediate French intervention against a potential Nationalist victory in Spain through French occupation of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and Spanish Morocco.[129]
[edit] Course of the war
[edit] 1936
Area under Nationalist control
Area under Republican control
Main article: Spanish Civil War chronology 1936
A large air and sea-lift of Nationalist troops in Spanish Morocco was organised to the south-west of Spain.[130] Coup leader Sanjurjo was killed in a plane crash on 20 July,[131][132] leaving an effective command split between Mola in the North and Franco in the South.[45] This period also saw the worst actions of the so-called "Red" and "White" "Terrors" in Spain.[133][134] On 21 July, the fifth day of the rebellion, the Nationalists captured the central Spanish naval base, located in Ferrol in north-western Spain.[135]A rebel force under Colonel Beorlegui Canet, sent by General Mola, undertook the Campaign of Gipuzkoa from July to September. The capture of Gipuzkoa isolated the Republican provinces in the north. On 5 September, after heavy fighting the force took Irún, closing the French border to the Republicans.[136] On 15 September, San Sebastián, home to a divided Republican force of anarchists and Basque nationalists, was taken by Nationalist soldiers.[137] The Nationalists then advanced toward their capital, Bilbao, but were halted by Republican militias on the border of Biscay at the end of September.
The Republican government under Giral resigned on 4 September, unable to cope with the situation in which it found itself, and was replaced by a mostly Socialist organization under Largo Caballero.[138] The new leadership began to unify central command in the republican zone.[139] On the Nationalist side, Franco was chosen as chief military commander at a meeting of ranking generals at Salamanca on 21 September, now called by the title Generalísimo.[45][140]
Franco won another victory on 27 September when his troops relieved the Alcázar in Toledo[140] that had been held by a Nationalist garrison under Colonel Moscardo since the beginning of the rebellion, resisting thousands of Republican troops who totally surrounded the isolated building. Two days after relieving the siege, Franco proclaimed himself Caudillo ("chieftain"), while forcibly unifying the various and diverse Falangist, Royalist and other elements within the Nationalist cause.[138] The diversion to Toledo gave Madrid time to prepare a defense, but was hailed as a major propaganda victory and personal success for Franco.[141]
In October, the Francoist troops launched a major offensive toward Madrid,[142] reaching it in early November and launching a major assault on the city on 8 November.[143] The Republican government was forced to shift from Madrid to Valencia, outside the combat zone, on 6 November.[144] However, the Nationalists' attack on the capital was repulsed in fierce fighting between 8 November and 23 November. A contributory factor in the successful Republican defense was the arrival of the International Brigades, though only an approximate three thousand foreign volunteers participated in the battle.[145] Having failed to take the capital, Franco bombarded it from the air and, in the following two years, mounted several offensives to try to encircle Madrid. The battle of the Corunna Road, a Nationalist offensive to the north-west, pushed Republican forces back, but failed to isolate Madrid. The city lasted into January.[146]
[edit] 1937
Main article: Spanish Civil War chronology 1937
Area under Nationalist control
Area under Republican control
A similar Nationalist offensive, the Battle of Guadalajara, was a more significant defeat for Franco and his armies; it proved the only publicised Republican victory of the war. Italian troops and blitzkrieg tactics were used by Franco, and while many strategists blamed the latter for the rightists' defeat, the Germans believed it was the former at fault for the Nationalists' 5,000 casualties and loss of valuable equipment.[150] The German strategists successfully argued that the Nationalists needed to concentrate on vulnerable areas first.[151]
April and May saw infighting among Republican groups in Catalonia. The dispute was between an ultimately victorious government – Communist force and the anarchist CNT. The disturbance pleased Nationalist command, but little was done to exploit Republican divisions.[157] After the fall of Guernica, the Republican government began to fight back with increasing effectiveness. In July, it made a move to recapture Segovia, forcing Franco to delay his advance on the Bilbao front, but for only two weeks. A similar Republican attack on Huesca failed similarly.[158]
Mola, Franco's second-in-command, was killed on 3 June.[159] In early July, despite the earlier fall in June of Bilbao, the government launched a strong counter-offensive to the west of Madrid, focusing on Brunete. The Battle of Brunete, however, was a significant defeat for the Republic, which lost many of its most accomplished troops. The offensive had led to an advance of 50 square kilometres (19 sq mi), and left 25,000 Republican casualties.[160]
A Republican offensive against Zaragoza was also a failure. Despite having land and aerial advantages, the Battle of Belchite resulted in an advance of only ten kilometres and the loss of much equipment.[161] Franco invaded Aragón in August and then took the city of Santander.[162] With the surrender of the Republican army in the Basque territory came the Santoña Agreement;[163] Gijón finally fell in late October.[164] Franco had effectively won in the north. At November's end, with Franco's troops closing in on Valencia, the government had to move again, this time to Barcelona.[165]
[edit] 1938
Area under Nationalist control
Area under Republican control
Main article: Spanish Civil War chronology 1938–1939
The Battle of Teruel
was an important confrontation. The city, which had formerly belonged
to the Nationalists, was conquered by Republicans in January. The
Francoist troops launched an offensive and recovered the city by 22
February, but Franco was forced to rely heavily on German and Italian
air support.[166]On 7 March, Nationalists launched the Aragon Offensive, and by 14 April, they had pushed through to the Mediterranean, cutting the Republican-held portion of Spain in two. The Republican government attempted suing for peace in May,[167] but Franco demanded unconditional surrender; the war raged on. In July, the Nationalist army pressed southward from Teruel and south along the coast toward the capital of the Republic at Valencia, but was halted in heavy fighting along the XYZ Line, a system of fortifications defending Valencia.[168]
The Republican government then launched an all-out campaign to reconnect their territory in the Battle of the Ebro, from 24 July until 26 November.[169] The campaign was unsuccessful, and was undermined by the Franco-British appeasement of Hitler in Munich. The agreement with Britain effectively destroyed Republican morale by ending hope of an anti-fascist alliance with Western powers.[170] The retreat from the Ebro all but determined the final outcome of the war.[169] Eight days before the new year, Franco threw massive forces into an invasion of Catalonia.[171]
[edit] 1939
Main article: Spanish Civil War chronology 1938–1939
Area under Nationalist control
Area under Republican control
After the end of the War, there were harsh reprisals against Franco's former enemies;[177] thousands of Republicans were imprisoned and at least 30,000 executed.[178] Other calculations of these deaths range from 50,000[179] to 200,000 depending on which killings are included.Many others were put to forced labour, building railways, drying out swamps, and digging canals.[179]
Hundreds of thousands of Republicans fled abroad, some 500,000 to France.[180] Refugees were confined in internment camps of the French Third Republic, such as Camp Gurs or Camp Vernet, where twelve thousand Republicans were housed in squalid conditions. In his quality as consul in Paris Pablo Neruda organized the immigration to Chile of 2,200 Republican exiles in France using the ship SS Winnipeg.[181]
Of the 17,000 refugees housed in Gurs, farmers and others who could not find relations in France were encouraged by the Third Republic, in agreement with the Francoist government, to return to Spain. The great majority did so and were turned over to the Francoist authorities in Irún.[182] From there they were transferred to the Miranda de Ebro camp for "purification" according to the Law of Political Responsibilities. After the proclamation by Marshal Philippe Pétain of the Vichy regime, the refugees became political prisoners, and the French police attempted to round up those who had been liberated from the camp. Along with other "undesirables", the Spaniards were sent to the Drancy internment camp before being deported to Nazi Germany. About 5,000 Spaniards thus died in the Mauthausen concentration camp.[182]
After the official end of the war, guerrilla war was waged on an irregular basis by the Spanish Maquis well into the 1950s, being gradually reduced by military defeats and scant support from the exhausted population. In 1944, a group of republican veterans, who also fought in the French resistance against the Nazis, invaded the Val d'Aran in northwest Catalonia, but were defeated after ten days.[183]
[edit] Evacuation of children
Main article: Evacuation of children in the Spanish Civil War
[edit] Atrocities
Death totals remain debated. Antony Beevor writes in his history of the Civil War that Franco's ensuing 'white terror' resulted in the deaths of 200,000 people and that the 'red terror' killed 38,000.[188] Julius Ruiz contends that "although the figures remain disputed, a minimum of 37,843 executions were carried out in the Republican zone with a maximum of 150,000 executions (including 50,000 after the war) in Nationalist Spain".[189]In 2008 a Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzón, opened an investigation into the executions and disappearances of 114,266 people between 17 July 1936 and December 1951 (Garzón has since been indicted for violating a 1977 amnesty law through his actions). Among the executions investigated was that of the poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca;[3] mention of his death was forbidden during Franco's regime.[190]
The majority of historians (including Helen Graham,[191] Paul Preston,[192] Antony Beevor,[193] Gabriel Jackson[194] and Hugh Thomas, below) note that the mass executions behind the Nationalists lines were organized and approved by the Nationalists rebel authorities while the executions behind the Republican lines were the result of the breakdown of the republican state and the anarchy:[195]
Though there was much wanton killing in rebel Spain, the idea of the limpieza, the "cleaning up" of the country from the evils which had overtaken it, was a disciplined policy of the new authorities and a part of their programme of regeneration. In republican Spain, most of the killing was the consequence of anarchy, the outcome of a national breakdown, and not the work of the state; even though some political parties in some cities abetted the enormities, and even though some of those responsible ultimately rose to positions of authority.
[edit] Nationalists
See also: White Terror (Spain)
Many such acts were committed by reactionary groups during the first weeks of the war.[198] This included the execution of school teachers,[199] because the efforts of the Second Spanish Republic to promote laicism and displace the Church from schools by closing religious educational institutions were considered by the Nationalists as an attack on the Roman Catholic Church. Extensive killings of civilians were carried out in the cities Nationalists captured,[200] along with the execution of unwanted individuals. These included non-combatants such as trade-unionists, Popular Front politicians, suspected Freemasons, Basque, Catalan, Andalusian and Galician Nationalists, Republican intellectuals, relatives of known Republicans and those suspected of voting for the Popular Front.[198][201][202][203][204]
Nationalist forces massacred civilians in Seville, where some 8,000 people were shot; ten thousand were killed in Cordoba. 6–12,000 were killed in Badajoz.[205] In Granada, at least 2000 people were murdered.[199] In February 1937, over seven thousand were killed after the capture of Málaga.[206] When Bilbao was conquered thousands of people were sent to prison; there were fewer executions than usual, however, because of the effect Guernica left on Nationalists' reputations internationally.[207] The numbers killed as the successful columns of the Army of Africa devastated and pillaged their way between Seville and Madrid are particularly difficult to calculate.[208]
Nationalists also murdered Catholic clerics. In one particular incident, following the capture of Bilbao, hundreds of people, including 16 priests who had served as chaplains for the Republican forces, were taken to the countryside or graveyards to be murdered.[209][210]
Franco's forces also persecuted Protestants, including the murder of twenty Protestant ministers.[211] Franco's forces were determined to remove the "Protestant heresy" from Spain.[212] The Nationalists also persecuted Basques, as they strived to eradicate Basque culture.[162] According to Basque sources, some 22,000 Basques were murdered by Nationalists immediately after the Civil War.[213]
The Nationalist side also conducted aerial bombing of cities in Republican territory, carried out mainly by the Luftwaffe volunteers of the Condor Legion and the Italian air force volunteers of the Corpo Truppe Volontarie, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Guernica, Durango and other cities were targeted, the Bombing of Guernica was among the most controversial.[214]
[edit] Republicans
See also: Red Terror (Spain)
The Republican government was anticlerical, and supporters attacked and murdered Roman Catholic clergy in reaction to news of military revolt.[218] In his 1961 book, Spanish archbishop Antonio Montero Moreno, who at the time was director of the journal Ecclesia, claimed that 6,832 were killed during the war, including 4,184 priests, 2,365 monks and friars, and 283 nuns, in addition to 13 bishops, a claim accepted by historians including Beevor.[219][211][220] Some sources claim that by the conflict's end 20 percent of the nation's clergy had been killed,[221] though some argue the totals were lower.[nb 8] The "Execution" of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Communist militiamen at Cerro de los Ángeles near Madrid, on 7 August 1936, was the most infamous of widespread desecration of religious property.[222]
Like clergy, civilians were executed in Republican territories. Some civilians were executed as suspected Falangists.[223] Others died in acts of revenge after Republicans heard of massacres carried out in the Nationalist zone.[224] Air raids committed against Republican cities were another driving factor.[225] Republican authorities did not order such measures to be taken.[226] Shopkeepers and industrialists, if rightist collaborators, were shot; if they were well regarded for their attitude to the poor, they were usually spared.[227] Fake justice was sought though commission, known by its name in Russia as checas.[223]
As pressure mounted with increasing success of the Nationalists, many civilians were executed by councils and tribunals controlled by competing Communist and Anarchist groups.[223] Some members of the latter were executed by Soviet-advised communist functionaries in Catalonia,[216] as described by George Orwell's description of the purges in Barcelona in 1937 in Homage to Catalonia, which followed a period of increasing tension between Competing elements of the Catalan political scene. Some individuals fled to friendly embassies, which would house up to 8,500 people during the war.[224]
In the Andalusian town of Ronda, 512 alleged Nationalists were executed in the first month of the war.[216] Communist Santiago Carrillo Solares has been accused of the killing of Nationalists in the Paracuellos massacre near Paracuellos del Jarama.[228] Pro-Soviet Communists committed numerous atrocities against fellow Republicans, including other Marxists: André Marty, known as the Butcher of Albacete, was responsible for the deaths of some 500 members of the International Brigades.[229] Andreu Nin, leader of the POUM (Workers' Party of Marxist Unification), and many other prominent POUM members, were murdered by the Communists, with the help of the USSR's NKVD.[230]
Thirty eight thousand people were killed in the Republican zone during the war, 17,000 of whom were killed in Madrid or Catalonia within a month of the coup. Whilst the Communists were forthright in their support of extrajudicial killings, much of the Republican side was appalled by the murders.[231] Azaña came close to resigning.[224] He, alongside other members of parliament and a great number of other local officials, attempted to prevent Nationalist supporters being lynched. Some of those in positions of power intervened personally to stop the killings.[231]
[edit] Social revolution
Main article: Spanish Revolution
In the anarchist-controlled areas, Aragón and Catalonia, in addition to the temporary military success, there was a vast social revolution in which the workers and peasants collectivised land and industry, and set up councils parallel to the paralyzed Republican government.[232]
This revolution was opposed by the Soviet-supported communists who,
perhaps surprisingly, campaigned against the loss of civil property
rights.[232] The agrarian collectives had considerable success despite opposition and lack of resources.[233]As the war progressed, the government and the communists were able to leverage their access to Soviet arms to restore government control over the war effort, through both diplomacy and force.[234] Anarchists and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM) were integrated into the regular army, albeit with resistance; the POUM was outlawed and falsely denounced as an instrument of the fascists.[234] In the May Days of 1937, many thousands of anarchist and communist Republican soldiers fought for control of strategic points in Barcelona.[235]
The pre-war Falange was a small party of some 30–40,000 members.[236] It also called for a social revolution that would have seen Spanish society transformed by National Syndicalism.[237] Following the execution of its leader, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, by the Republicans, the party swelled in size to several hundred thousand members.[238] The leadership of the Falange suffered 60% casualties in the early days of the civil war and the party was transformed by new members and rising new leaders, called camisas nuevas ("new shirts"), who were less interested in the revolutionary aspects of National Syndicalism.[239] Subsequently, Franco united all rightist parties into the Traditionalist Spanish Falange and the National Syndicalist Offensive Juntas (Spanish: Falange Española Tradicionalista de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista, FET y de las JONS).[240]
The 1930s also saw Spain become a focus for pacifist organizations including the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the War Resisters League and the War Resisters' International. Many people including, as they are now called, the 'insumisos' ('defiant ones', conscientious objectors) argued and worked for non-violent strategies. Prominent Spanish pacifists such as Amparo Poch y Gascón and José Brocca supported the Republicans. Brocca argued that Spanish pacifists had no alternative but to make a stand against fascism. He put this stand into practice by various means including organizing agricultural workers to maintain food supplies and through humanitarian work with war refugees.[nb 9]
[edit] People
See also: List of people of the Spanish Civil War
Figures identified with the Nationalist side
|
Figures identified with the Republican side
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[edit] Political parties and organizations
[edit] See also
- List of foreign ships wrecked or lost in the Spanish Civil War
- Catholicism in the Second Spanish Republic
- Guernica (painting)
- The Falling Soldier
- Foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War
- List of war films and TV specials#Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)
- List of foreign correspondents in the Spanish Civil War
- List of surviving veterans of the Spanish Civil War
- List of non-participants who died defending their freedom of conscience
- Polish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
- Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
- European Civil War
- Spain in World War II
- SS Cantabria
- Pacifism in Spain
- Spanish Republican Air Force
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ The number of casualties is disputed; estimates generally suggest that between 500,000 and 1 million people were killed. Over the years, historians kept lowering the death figures and modern research concludes that 500,000 deaths is the correct figure. Thomas Barria-Norton, The Spanish Civil War (2001), pp. xviii & 899–901, inclusive.
- ^ Also known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans.
- ^ Known in Spanish as Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (CEDA).
- ^ Known in Spanish as the Falange Española de las JONS.
- ^ Barracks in important cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao and Málaga did not join in the rebellion as had Morocco, Pamplona, Burgos, Valladolid, Cádiz, Cordova, and Seville.
- ^ Thomas (2001). pp. 196–198, 309: Condés was a close personal friend of Castillo. His squad had originally sought to arrest Gil Robles as a reprisal for Castillo's murder, but Robles was not at home, so they went to the house of Calvo Sotelo. Thomas concluded that the intention of Condés was to arrest Calvo Sotelo and that Cuenca acted on his own initiative, although he acknowledges other sources that dispute this finding.
- ^ Westwell (2004) gives a figure of 500 million Reichmarks.
- ^ Since Beevor (2006). p. 82. suggests 7,000 members of some 115,000 clergy were killed, the proportion could well be lower.
- ^ See variously: Bennett, Scott, Radical Pacifism: The War Resisters League and Gandhian Nonviolence in America, 1915–1963, Syracuse NY, Syracuse University Press, 2003; Prasad, Devi, War is A Crime Against Humanity: The Story of War Resisters' International, London, WRI, 2005. Also see Hunter, Allan, White Corpsucles in Europe, Chicago, Willett, Clark & Co., 1939; and Brown, H. Runham, Spain: A Challenge to Pacifism, London, The Finsbury Press, 1937.
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