tThe Spanish Civil War, fought from 1936-39, was a multi-year conflict involving multiple groups. These included two feuding parts of Spain, the Nationalists and the Republicans. The war would have lasting consequences for Spain and the world.
On the Nationalist side, there was the Traditionalist Spanish Phalanx of the Councils of the National Syndicalist Offensive, which was a Falangist party that supported the return of the Spanish monarchy and Fascism in Spain. The second party was the Spanish Falange of the Councils of the National Syndicalist Offensive, which was basically just like the first party but a lot worse. Another party supporting nationalist Spain, Requeté, was a Carlist militia group. The Carlists were conservative monarchists who believed that the Don Carlos branch of the Bourbon family should rule Spain. The next party, the Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights or CEDA, was a right-wing pro-corporation political party. There was another pro-monarchist group, Spanish Renovation, that was resembled Carlism but with another person at the helm. All of these forces became part of nationalist Spain, with General Francisco Franco as their leader and the kingdom of Italy, Nazi Germany, and Portugal providing support. Supporting but not providing assistance, there was the Holy See, Vatican City.
On the side of Republican Spain, there was the left-wing government and the national army. The Popular Front, the name for the coalition composed of all of the left-leaning groups, united under the army. There was the UGT, a socialist group that still exists today. The CNT-FAI presented itself as an anarchist-syndicalist political party. The next group, POUM, which George Orwell (who had not yet written Animal Farm or 1984) joined, was an anti-Stalinist communist group, supporting the deposed Trotsky. The region of Catalonia, a part of Spain that for much of its history had been trying to get independence from the government that occupied it, fought for the Republican side, as did the Basque Army, which supported the independence of the Basque Country. Then there were volunteers from other nations. The Abraham Lincoln Brigade, for example, had many volunteers from the United States. Republican Spain received material support from the Soviet Union, which used its influence to try to create a Stalinist Spanish state. Mexico also helped the Republicans, as the war reminded Mexicans of their own revolution.
The conflict
The Popular Front won the election, which upset many people on the right. Many right-leaning officers were let go. A coup took place, beginning with the African army mutinies under the leadership of General Emilio Mola. Starting in Morocco and northern Spain, they rose up; still, most of the army was in Morocco, and the Republicans retained control of the navy. Germany and Italy sent ships and planes to allow the Nationalists’ African army to move.
Seeing this, Republican Spain and its civilian supporters defended Spain. The coup failed to secure Madrid, and the conflict evolved into a civil war. At the same time, volunteers arrived to assist the Republic of Spain in the civil war. It was primarily the Comintern (Communist International) that recruited these volunteers. By this time, the Spanish Civil War had effectively become a proxy war between fascism and communism.
There were a lot of political purges and economic hardships. A repressive Nationalist movement, the White Terror, began. We don’t know how many people died during this age. There could have been anywhere from 50,000-200,000 deaths. The Spanish church helped. They told the government that if anyone didn’t go to mass, they would either be imprisoned, investigated, forced to work in a camp, or shot. An unnamed witness said, “Many priests acted very badly. The bishop of Zamora in 1936 was more or less an assassin – I don’t remember his name. He must be held responsible because prisoners appealed to him to save their lives. All he would reply was that the Reds had killed more people than the Falangists were killing.” This quote shows how the church became complicit in the killing. Franco’s men would also shoot any priest who showed sympathies to the Republic. Thousands of people became involved in the White Terror or served as accomplices in the killing. The repression took many forms. In the case of Catalonia, the Catalan-speaking region anchored in Barcelona, there was an attempt at cultural genocide that sought to do away with signs of Catalan nationalism. Even some Nazis found themselves surprised at the extent of the Falangist repression in Spain.
Early on, nationalist forces tried to take Madrid. They thought that they could walk right into the capital, but the international brigades held. For 28 months, Madrid would be besieged. Republican Spain executed Primo de Rivera, one of the key members of the original coup. The Luftwaffe, Nazi Germany’s air force, bombed Guernica, Spain, a city under Republican control. The act was a crime against humanity, which would echo in Europe in World War II and in Pablo Picasso’s immortal painting, Guernica. Bilbao fell into Nationalist Spain’s hands, as did the rest of the Basque Country. Now only Barcelona and Madrid stood in the way of the Nationalists taking over Spain. Republican Spain grew tired of the war and its losses everywhere. The army was not properly equipped for the conflict. In February of 1939, Barcelona fell to Nationalist Spain. And on March 28, 1939, Madrid, the capital and most important location in Spain, fell.
The war raged for almost three years. Refugees fled Spain, mostly for France, and 2 million people died. The casualties primarily consisted of civilians. It was only a prelude to the orchestra of death that would be the Second World War. A dictatorship, built around Franco, emerged in Spain. It would be the last fascist nation in the world, the system only collapsing in 1975, when Franco died. On a financial note, the Soviets took the government’s gold when the Republicans had to flee.
How the war affected Spain
After the conflict ended, and Spain had become a dictatorship under Franco, it maintained two parties, the Carlists and the Falangists. Carlism became a symbol of peace in Francoist Spain. During the decades of Franco’s dictatorship, there were harsh military actions, including atrocities against suspected communists.
Until 1963, anyone who disagreed with Franco came before a military court. While in exile, any Republican who had served in the Republican army and left the country would be sent to camps, at least while the Nazis had sway in Vichy France and Occupied France. In 1977, the government passed a pardon for political crimes that Franco supporters had committed. It took until 1978, three years after Franco’s death, for Spain to get a new constitution. Modern-day Spain has done little to prosecute members of the Falangist party who committed crimes or anyone during Franco’s reign. A few people, including some priests, faced investigation, but that was about it.
The reason why is very disheartening. The pact of forgetting allows anyone who committed crimes against humanity not to be prosecuted; this concept is enshrined in Spain’s 1977 amnesty law. It gave anyone who fought for Republican Spain freedom, but sadly, in the interest of future stability, it did the same for Francoist Spain. Today, Spain still has separatist regions. Fascism is still an underlying political concept, and there are people linked to it serving in political parties. The Spanish Civil War was a dark chapter in the 20th century, and the legacy of the conflict echoes throughout Spain in the 21st.