Coordinates	21°25′5″N157°59′53″N
Name	Popular Front
Native name	Frente Popular
Colorcode	#CE2029
Leader1 title	Leader
Leader1 name	Manuel Azaña
Founded	January 1936
Dissolved	1939
Ideology	Left-wing, Anti-fascism
Position	Left-wing
Colors
Seats1
Flag
Country	Spain
State

The Popular Front () in Spain's Second Republic was an electoral coalition and pact signed in January 1936 by various left-wing political organisations, instigated by Manuel Azaña for the purpose of contesting that year's election.

The Popular Front included the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), Communist Party of Spain (PCE), the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM, independent communist) and the republicans: Republican Left (IR), (led by Azaña) and Republican Union Party (UR), led by Diego Martínez Barrio. This pact was supported by Galician (PG) and Catalan nationalists (such as the Esquerra Party), socialist union Workers' General Union (UGT), and the anarchist trade union, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). Many anarchists who would later fight alongside Popular Front forces during the Spanish Civil War did not support them in the election, urging abstention instead.

The Joseph Stalin-controlled Comintern had decided in 1935 that, in response to the growth of Fascism, popular fronts allying Communist parties with other anti-Fascist parties including Socialist and even bourgeois parties were advisable. In Spain, it was a coalition between leftist republicans and workers' organizations to defend social reforms of the first government (1931-1933) of the Second Spanish Republic, and liberate the prisoners, political prisoners according with the front propaganda, held since the Asturian October Revolution (1934).

The Popular Front defeated the National Front (a collection of right-wing parties) and won the 1936 election, forming the new Spanish Government. Manuel Azaña was elected President of the Republic on May 1936, but the PSOE didn't join the government because of the opposition of Francisco Largo Caballero.

In July 1936, Francisco Franco and other conservative/monarchist generals instigated a coup d'état which started the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The Government dissolved the army in the loyal territory and brought weapons to armed groups organized by the unions (UGT and CNT) and workers' parties (PSOE, PCE, POUM) that had initial success in defeating the Francoist forces in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia. Ultimately though Franco would defeat the Popular Front forces and rule Spain as a dictatorship until he died in 1975.

See also

Spanish Civil War chronology 1936

Popular Front (France)

Category:Political parties established in 1936 Category:Second Spanish Republic Category:Political parties in Spain Category:Communist Party of Spain Category:Popular fronts Category:Political parties disestablished in 1939

Coordinates	21°25′5″N157°59′53″N
Conflict	Spanish Civil War
Date	17 July 1936  – 1 April 1939
Place	Continental Spain, Spanish Morocco, Spanish Sahara, Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, Spanish Guinea, Mediterranean, North Sea
Caption	Republican International Brigadiers at the Battle of Belchite
Result	Nationalist victory
Combatant1	Republican faction
Combatant2	National faction
Commander1	Manuel Azaña Julián Besteiro Francisco Largo Caballero Juan Negrín Indalecio Prieto Vicente Rojo Lluch José Miaja Juan Modesto Juan Hernández Saravia Buenaventura Durruti Mehmet Shehu Lluís Companys José Antonio Aguirre Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao
Commander2	Emilio Mola José Sanjurjo Francisco Franco Miguel Cabanellas Manuel Goded Llopis Gonzalo Queipo de Llano Juan Yagüe José Antonio Primo de Rivera Manuel Fal Conde José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones Antonio Goicoechea
Strength1	450,000 infantry350 aircraft200 batteries(1938)
Strength2	600,000 infantry600 aircraft290 batteries(1938)
Casualties3	~500,000 killed

The Spanish Civil War (The Crusade among Nationalists, Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans) was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. An estimated total of 500,000 people died as a consequence of the War.

The war began after a pronunciamiento by a group of conservative generals under the leadership of Emilio Mola against the elected Government of the Second Spanish Republic, at the time under the leadership of President Manuel Azaña. The rebel coup was supported by the conservative groups including the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right, monarchists such as the Carlists, and the Fascist Falange. Following the only partially successful coup, Spain was left militarily and politically divided. From that moment onwards Mola's successor, General Franco, began a protracted war of attrition with the established government, as loyalist supporters of the centre-left Republican Government fought the rebel forces for control of the country. The conservative generals (nacionales) received the support of Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946), as well as neighbouring Portugal. The Soviet Union intervened in support of the socialist Republicans, although it encouraged factional conflict to the benefit of the Soviet foreign policy, and its actions may have been detrimental to the Republican war effort as a whole.

There were bloody purges in pieces of territory conquered from the republic in order to consolidate Franco's future regime, and purges done by the Communist Republicans, most notably during May 1937. Like most civil wars, it became notable for the passion and political division it inspired. Many civilians on both sides were killed for their political or religious views, and after the War ended in 1939, those associated with the losing Republicans were persecuted by the victorious Nationalists.

The war ended with the victory of the rebels, who called themselves 'Nationalists', the overthrow of the Republican Government, and the exile of thousands of Spanish Republicans, many of whom ended up in refugee camps in Southern France. With the establishment of a conservative 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. The Spanish Civil War has also been dubbed "the first media war," with several writers and journalists wanting their work "to support the cause". Foreign correspondents and writers covering it included Ernest Hemingway, Georges Bernanos, Martha Gellhorn, César Vallejo, George Orwell and Robert Capa. Like most international observers, they tended to support the Republicans, with some, such as Orwell, participating directly in the fighting. Between 1812 and the civil war, there had been several attempts to realign the political system to match the social reality. Until the 1950s, capitalism in Spain was primary based on agriculture. There was little development of a bourgeois industrial or commercial class.

Between 1868 and 1874, popular uprising led to the overthrowing of Isabella II. In 1873, her replacement, King Amadeo I, abdicated due to increasing political pressure and the First Spanish Republic was proclaimed. However, the restoration of the Bourbons occurred in December 1874 after the uprisings were crushed by the military. Elections were controlled by caciques, local political bosses. Carlists – supporters of Infante Carlos and his descendants – fought for the cause of Spanish tradition and Catholicism. Spain's socialist party, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and its associated trade union, the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), gained support. Alejandro Lerroux became a notable republican advocate of anti-clericalism. The church, he argued, was inseparable from the system of oppression the people were under.

The military was keen to avoid the fracture of the state. Regional nationalism was frowned upon. Resentment of the military and conscription grew with the disastrous Rif War; Events culminated in the Tragic Week in Barcelona in 1909. This led to the establishment of the National Confederation of Labour (CNT), an anarchist-controlled trade union. After the formation of Comintern in 1919, there was a growing fear of communism, and growing repression on the part of the government, through military means. The PSOE split, with more radical members founding the Communist Party in 1921.

In 1923, Miguel Primo de Rivera came to power in a military coup, and ran Spain as a military dictatorship. He instituted new polices, including a sweeping programme of public works. He also attempted to defend the agrarian-industrial monarchist coalition formed in the war. There was little support for a return to the pre-1923 system, and the monarchy had backed the military government, losing democratic credibility. ensue. The Second Spanish Republic was formed.

During the Second Republic

in 1931.]] The Second Republic had the broad support of all. Niceto Alcalá-Zamora was made the Prime Minister of the republic. Elections to a constituent Cortes in June 1931 returned a large majority of Republicans and Socialists. Lerroux became foreign minister. It was controlled by a Republican-Socialist coalition, members of which had differing objectives. The state's financial position was poor, and supporters of the Dictatorship were doing their best to restrict progress. The government attempted to tackle a dire situation in rural parts of Spain, including an eight-hour day, and security of tenure to the farm workers. Landlords campaigned, and the efficiency of the reforms was dependent on the skill of the local governance. In addition, there were members of organisations that had supported the monarchy, such as the Renovación Española and Carlists, who were catastrophists and wished to see the new republic overthrown in a violent uprising. Press often denounced a foreign Jewish-Masonic-Bolshevik plot. Those parts of the CNT willing to cooperate with the republic were forced out, and it continued to mount opposition to the government. The opposition gained the support of the church. The military were alienated by increasing regional autonomy granted by the central government, and reforms to the military to make it more efficient were seen as a direct attack The General Military Academy in Zaragoza, whose director was Francisco Franco, was closed by Manuel Azaña.

On December 9, 1931, a new constitution, the Spanish Constitution of 1931, was declared. It was reformist, liberal and democratic in nature, and welcomed by the Republican-Socialist coalition. It appalled landowners, industrialists, the organised church, and army officers. In October 1931, both Alcalá Zamora and his interior minister, Miguel Maura, resigned, and Manuel Azaña became Prime Minister. Lerroux became alienated and his Radical Party switched to the opposition, leaving Azaña dependent only on the socialists. Several agricultural strikes were put down by the authorities harshly. By the end of 1931, King Alfonso, in exile, stopped attempting to prevent an armed insurrection of monarchists in Spain. Azaña declared that Spain had 'ceased to be Catholic'; although justifiable, this was politically unwise. Spanish Catholics, if they were to oppose educational and religious reforms, were forced into opposition with the government. The aims of the insurrection were vague, Whilst Socialists stood by Azaña, the left as a whole fractured, whilst the right united; the Socialist Party headed to the political left. Gil Robles set up a new party, the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (, CEDA) to contest the 1933 election, and tacitly embraced Fascism. It resulted in an overwhelming victory for the right, with the CEDA and the Radicals together 219 seats, they having spent far more on their election campaign than the Socialists, who campaigned alone.

Between 1934 and 1936, Spain entered a period called the "black two years". Tensions rose in the period before the start of the war. Radicals became more aggressive, and conservatives turned to paramilitary and vigilante actions. The Socialist oppoistion began to propagate a revolutionary ideal. President Niceto Alcalá-Zamora declined to invite the leader of the CEDA, Gil Robles, to form a government and instead invited the Radical Republican Party's Alejandro Lerroux to do so. The agrarian reforms, still in force, went tacitly unenforced.

The first anarchist protest came on 8 December 1933, and was crushed by force easily in most of Spain. Both Carlists and Alfonsist monarchists continued to prepare. Open violence occurred in the streets of Spanish cities. Lerroux resigned in April 1934. Parts of the Socialist Party attempted to prevent the move towards Bolshevism the rest of the party was taking, leading to ruptures within the party's structure. In September, the CEDA announced it would no longer support the RRP's minority government; it was replaced by a RRP cabinet that included three members of the CEDA. A UGT general strike was unsuccessful in most of Spain. Months of retaliation and repression followed, torture was used on political prisoners. Robles once again prompted a cabinet collapse, and five members of Lerroux's new government were conceded to CEDA. Farm workers' wages were halved, and the military purged of republicanism members and reformed; those loyal to Robles were promoted – Franco was made Chief of Staff.

In 1935, Azaña and Indalecio Prieto started to unify the left, and combat its extreme elements, including the staging of large, popular rallies, in what would become the Popular Front. The right began to conspire as to how to best overthrow the republic, rather than taking control of it. The republicans were to govern alone; Azaña led a minority government. Pacification and reconciliation would have been a huge task. In April, parliament replaced Zamora with Azaña; the removal of Zamora was made on specious grounds using a constitutional technicality. However, Azaña was increasingly isolated from everyday politics; his replacement, Casares Quiroga, was weak.

CEDA turned its campaign chest over to army plotter Emilio Mola. Monarchist José Calvo Sotelo replaced CEDA's Gil Robles as the right's leading spokesman in parliament. The Falange expanded massively. Prieto did his best to avoid revolution, but Communists quickly took over the ranks of socialist organisations. Several generals decided that the government had to be replaced if the dissolution of Spain was to be prevented. They held a contempt for professional politicians. This would lead to the military coup that started the Spanish Civil War.

Military coup

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. Manuel 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. José Antonio Primo de Rivera was put in prison in mid-March in order to restrict the Falange, which he controlled.

Mola began serious planning in the spring, but General Francisco Franco hesitated until early July.

Murder of Calvo Sotelo

On 12 July 1936, in Madrid, members of the Falange murdered Lieutenant José Castillo of the Assault Guards police force. 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. Calvo Sotelo was shot by the Guards without trial. The killing of Calvo Sotelo, a prominent member of parliament, with involvement of the police, aroused suspicions and strong reactions among the government's opponents on the right. Massive reprisals followed. The plotters signalled the beginning of the coup by broadcasting the code phrase, "Over all of Spain, the sky is clear."Warned that a coup was imminent, leftists barricaded the roads on 17 July, but Franco avoided capture by taking a tugboat to the airport.

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, as did Pamplona.

Meanwhile the Army of Africa crossed the Gibraltar Strait. Their quick movement allowed them to meet General Mola's Northern Army and secure most of northern and northwestern Spain, as well as central and western Andalusia. The Republican Government ended up with controlling almost all of the Eastern Spanish 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. There was a massive purge of freemasons, and a wide part of the left, including some moderate socialists.

The result of the coup was a Nationalist area of control containing forty percent of Spain's population. The Nationalists had secured the support of around half of Spain's territorial army, some 60,000 men, and 30,000 members of Spain's militaristic police forces. 50,000 members of the latter stayed loyal to the government.

The active participants in the war covered the entire gamut of the political positions of the time. The Nationalist (nacionales) side included the Carlists and Legitimist monarchists, Spanish nationalists, the fascist Falange, and most conservatives and monarchist liberals. Virtually all Nationalist groups had very strong Catholic convictions and supported the native Spanish clergy. On the Republican side were Marxists, socialists, liberals, and anarchists.

Spanish politics, especially on the left, were quite fragmented. At the beginning, socialists and radicals supported democracy, while the communists and anarchists opposed the institution of the republic as much as the monarchists. There were internal divisions even among the socialists: a group that adhered to classical Marxism, and a more progressive Marxist group. The former was the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), one of whose delegates to the Soviet Union challenged Stalin regarding his use of the CHEKA to rein in dissidents, and upon his return to Spain convinced the PSOE to reject affiliation with the 5th to 7th Comintern. From the Comintern's point of view the increasingly powerful, if fragmented, left and the weak right were an optimum situation. Their goal was to use a veil of legitimate democratic institutions to outlaw the right, converting the state into the Soviet vision of a "people's republic" with total leftist domination, a goal repeatedly voiced in Comintern instructions and in the public statements of the Communist Party of Spain.

The Nationals included the majority of the Catholic clergy and of practicing Catholics (outside of the Basque region), important elements of the army, most of the large landowners, and many businessmen. The Republicans included most urban workers, most peasants, and much of the educated middle class, especially those who were not entrepreneurs.

Republicans

Republicans (also known as Spanish loyalists) received weapons and volunteers from the Soviet Union, Mexico, the international Marxists movement and the International Brigades. The Republicans ranged from centrists who supported a moderately capitalist liberal democracy to revolutionary anarchists; their power base was primarily secular and urban, but also included landless peasants, and it was particularly strong in industrial regions like Asturias and Catalonia. This faction was called variously the "loyalists" by its supporters; the "Republicans", "the Popular Front" or "the Government" by all parties; and "the reds" by its enemies. Regarding the term "loyalist", Historian Stanley Payne notes: "the adjective "loyalist" is somewhat misleading, for there was no attempt to remain loyal to the constitutional Republican regime. If that had been the scrupulous policy of the left, there would have been no revolt and civil war in the first place."

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. This option was left open by the Republican government. All these forces were gathered under the People's Republican Army (Ejército Popular Republicano, or EPR).

Nationalists

The Nationalists (also called "insurgents", "rebels" or by opponents "Francoists" or overinclusively as "Fascists") fearing national fragmentation, opposed the separatist movements, and were chiefly defined by their anti-communism, which galvanized diverse or opposed movements like falangists or monarchists. Their leaders had a generally wealthier, more conservative, monarchist, landowning background, and (with the exception of the Carlists) favoured the centralization of state power.

One of the Nationalists' principal stated motives was to confront the anti-clericalism of the Republican regime and to defend the Church, which had been the target of attacks, and which many on the Republican side blamed for the ills of the country. Even before the war, in the Asturias uprising of 1934 religious buildings were burnt and at least 100 clergy, religious, and police were killed, but the president and the radicals prevented the implementation of any serious sanctions against the revolutionaries. According to Payne:

More than 1,000 were killed, the majority revolutionaries, and there were atrocities on both sides. The revolutionaries shot nearly 100 people in cold blood, most of them policemen and priests, and an almost equal number of rebels–possibly even more--were executed out of hand by the troops that suppressed the revolt. Franco's first proclamation from Tenerife however, as historian Hilari Raguer has observed, "failed to invoke a religious motive behind the Uprising. It denounces the disorder, the revolutionary atmosphere, the violation of the constitution and the new emergency regulations. Leaving aside the volunteers from Navarra, the first rebel on record as having publicly declared a religious motivation was His Imperial Highness Muley Hassan ben El Mehdi, the Jalifa of the Spanish zone of the Moroccan protectorate. When blessing the first Moors to leave for the peninsula, he declared a Holy War against those evil Spaniards who did not display the sign of God on their banners."

Other factions

Catalan and Basque nationalists were not univocal. Left-wing Catalan nationalists were on the Republican side. Conservative Catalan nationalists were far less vocal supporting the Republican government due to the anti-clericalism and confiscations occurring in some areas controlled by the latter (some conservative Catalan nationalists like Francesc Cambó actually funded the Nationalist side). Basque nationalists, heralded by the conservative Basque nationalist party, were mildly supportive of the Republican government, even though Basque nationalists in Álava and Navarre sided with the uprising for the same reasons influencing Catalan conservative nationalists. Notwithstanding the religious matters, the Basque nationalists, who nearly all sided with the Republic, were, for the most part, practicing Catholics.

Foreign involvement

The Spanish Civil War had large numbers of non-Spanish citizens participating in combat and advisory positions. Foreign governments contributed large amounts of financial assistance and military aid to forces led by Franco. Forces fighting on behalf of the Republicans also received limited aid, but support was seriously hampered by the arms embargo declared by France and the UK. These embargoes were never very effective however, and France especially was accused of allowing large shipments through to the Republicans (but the accusations often came from Italy, itself heavily involved for the Nationalists). The clandestine actions of the various European powers were at the time considered to be risking another 'Great War'.

The League of Nations' reaction to the war was mostly neutral and insufficient to contain the massive importation of arms and other war resources by the fighting factions. Although a Non-Intervention Committee was created, its policies were largely ineffective. Its directives were dismantled due to the policies of appeasement of both European democratic and non-democratic powers of the late 1930s: the official Spanish government of Juan Negrín was gradually abandoned within the organization during this period.

Support for Nationalists

Germany

Despite the German signing of a non-intervention agreement in September 1936, various forms of aid and military support were given to both sides by Nazi Germany, almost all in support of the Nationalists. It included the formation of the Condor Legion as a land and air force, with German efforts to move the Army of Africa to mainland Spain proving successful in the early stages of the war. Operations gradually expanded to include strike targets, and there was a German contribution to many of the battles of the Spanish Civil War. The bombing of Guernica on 26 April 1937 would be the most controversial event of German involvement, with perhaps 200 to 300 civilians dead. German involvement was also made through various other means, including Operation Ursula, a U-boat undertaking, and contributions from the Kriegsmarine. The Condor Legion spearheaded many Nationalist victories, particularly in the air dominance from 1937 onwards; 300 victories were claimed, dwarfed by some 900 claimed by Italian forces. Spain provided a proving ground for German tank tactics, as well as aircraft tactics, the latter only being moderately successful. The training they provided to Nationalist force would prove valuable, with perhaps 56,000 Nationalist soldiers trained by German detachments. These covered infantry, tanks and anti-tank units, air and anti-aircraft forces, and those trained in naval warfare.

Probably a total of 16,000 German citizens fought; about 10,000 Germans was the maximum at any one time. Perhaps 300 were killed. German aid to the Nationalists amounted to approximately £43,000,000 ($215,000,000) in 1939 prices. This was broken down in expenditure to: 15.5% used for salaries and expenses, 21.9% used for direct delivery of supplies to Spain, and 62.6% expended on the Condor Legion. However, the Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina Italiana) played a major role in the Mediterranean blockade and ultimately Italy supplied machine guns, artillery, aircraft, tankettes, the Legionary Air Force (), and the Corps of Volunteer Troops (, or CTV). The Italian CTV reached a high of about 50,000 men and, by rotation, more than 75,000 Italians were to fight for the Nationalists in Spain. In total fascist Italy provided Nationalists with 750 planes and 2,000 artillery pieces. Despite its discreet direct military involvement — restrained to a somewhat "semi-official" endorsement, by its authoritarian regime, of a volunteer force of 8,000–12,000 (up to 20,000), the so-called "Viriatos" — for the whole duration of the conflict, Portugal was instrumental in providing the Nationalists with a vital logistical organization and by reassuring Franco and his allies that no interference whatsoever would hinder the supply traffic directed to the Nationalists, crossing the borders of the two Iberian countries — the Nationalists used to refer to Lisbon as "the port of Castile".

Others

Despite the Irish government's prohibition against participating in the war, around 600 Irishmen, followers of Eoin O'Duffy known as the "Irish Brigade", went to Spain to fight on Franco's side. Moţa was killed in action at Majadahonda on January 13, 1937.

Support for Republicans

International Brigades

Many non-Spanish people, often affiliated with radical, communist or socialist parties or groups, joined the International Brigades, believing that the Spanish Republic was the front line of the war against fascism. The troops of the International Brigades represented the largest foreign contingent of those fighting for the Republicans. Roughly 40,000 foreign nationals fought with the Brigades, although at any given time there were no more than 18,000; they came from a claimed 53 nations. Most of them were communists or trade unionists, and while organised by communists guided or controlled by Moscow, they were almost all individual volunteers.

Significant numbers came from France (10,000), Germany and Austria (5,000) and Italy (3,350). More than 1,000 came from the USSR, USA, UK, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Canada.

Over five hundred Romanians fought on the Republican side, including Romanian Communist Party members Petre Borilă and Valter Roman. About 80 volunteers from Ireland formed the Connolly Column. Some Chinese joined the International Brigades. At the end of the war, the majority returned to China, while some went to prison, others went to refugee camps in southern France, and a handful remained in Spain.

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union primarily provided material assistance to the Republican forces. In total the USSR provided Spain with 806 planes, 362 tanks, and 1,555 artillery pieces. The Soviet Union ignored the League of Nations embargo and sold arms to the Republic when few other nations would do so; thus it was the Republic's only important source of major weapons. Stalin had signed the Non-Intervention Agreement but decided to break the pact. However, unlike Hitler and Mussolini who openly violated the pact, Stalin tried to do so secretly. He created a section X of the Soviet Union military to head the operation, coined Operation X. However, while a new branch of the military was created especially for Spain, most of the weapons and artillery sent to Spain were antiques. Stalin also used weapons captured from past conflicts. However, modern weapons such as BT-5 tanks and I-16 fighter aircraft were also supplied to Spain.

Many of the Soviet’s deliveries were lost or smaller than Stalin had ordered. He only gave short notice, which meant many weapons were lost in the delivery process.

The Republic had to pay for Soviet arms with the official gold reserves of the Bank of Spain, in an affair that would become a frequent subject of Francoist propaganda afterward (see 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. 176 tonnes was transferred through France.

The Soviet Union also sent a number of military advisers to Spain (2,000–3,000). 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. Mexico refused to follow the French-British non-intervention proposals.

Course of the war

1936

[[File:Map of the Spanish Civil War in September 1936.png‎|right|thumb|Map showing Spain in September 1936: ]]

A large air and sea-lift of Nationalist troops in Spanish Morocco was organised to the south-west of Spain. Coup leader Sanjurjo was killed in a plane crash on 20 July, leaving an effective command split between Mola in the North and Franco in the South. On 21 July, the fifth day of the rebellion, the Nationalists captured the main Spanish naval base at Ferrol in north-western Spain.

A rebel force under Colonel Beorlegui Canet, sent by General Emilio Mola, undertook the Campaign of Guipúzcoa from July to September. The capture of Guipúzcoa isolated the Republican provinces in the north. On 5 September, after heavy fighting the force took Irún, closing the French border to the Republicans. On 15 September, San Sebastián was taken by the Nationalists, with divisions inside between the anarchists and the Basque nationalists. The Nationalists then advanced toward their capital, Bilbao. The Republican militias on the border of Vizcaya halted these forces at the end of September.

The Republican government under Giral resigned on 4 September, grossly unable to cope with the situation it found itself in, replaced by a mostly Socialist one under Largo Caballero. It started to unify central command in the republican zone. Franco was chosen overall Nationalist commander at a meeting of ranking generals at Salamanca on 21 September, accompanied with the title Generalísimo. Franco won another victory on 27 September when they relieved the Alcázar at Toledo.

In October, the Francoist troops launched a major offensive toward Madrid, reaching it in early November and launching a major assault on the city on 8 November. The Republican government was forced to shift from Madrid to Valencia, out of the combat zone, on 6 November. 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 around 3,000 of them participated in the battle. 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 cut off Madrid. It lasted into January.

1937

[[File:Map of the Spanish Civil War in October 1937.png‎|right|thumb|Map showing Spain in October 1937: ]]

With his ranks swelled by Italian troops and Spanish colonial soldiers from Morocco, Franco made another attempt to capture Madrid in January and February 1937, but again failed. The Battle of Málaga started in mid-January; the Nationalist offensive in Spain's south-east would turn into a disaster for the Republicans, who were poorly organised and armed. The city was taken on 8 February. The organisation of various militias into the Republican Army had started in December 1936. The main Nationalist advance, to cross the Jarama river and cut the supply of Madrid by the Valencia road, termed the Battle of Jarama, lead to heavy casaulties (6–20,000) on both sides. The main objective had not been met, although a modest gain of territory had been made. A similar Nationalist offensive, the Battle of Guadalajara, was a more significant defeat. It proved the only publicised Republican victory of the war; Italian troops and blitzkrieg tactics were used – whilst many strategists blamed the latter, the Germans and some other believed it was the former at fault for 5,000 casualties and the loss of valuable equipment. German strategist successfully argued that the Nationalists should concentrate on vulnerable areas first.

]] On 21 February the League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee ban on foreign national "volunteers" went into effect. The "War in the North" began in mid-March, with Vizcaya as a first target. The Basques suffered most from the lack of a suitable air force. On 26 April, the Condor Legion bombed the town of Guernica, killing two to three hundred. The Basques claimed many more. It had a very significant effect on international opinion. Pablo Picasso was commissioned by the Republican Government to paint Guernica for the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) in Paris. The Basque retreat continued.

April and May saw infighting among republican groups in Catalonia. There was fighting between a government&nash;Communist force and the anarchist CNT. It has been described as a "civil war within the Civil War". The Communists gained from it and CNT and the anti-communist POUM were defeated. The disturbance pleased Nationalist command, but little was gained from the Republic militarily. After the fall of Guernica, the Republican government began to fight back with increasing effectiveness. In July, they made a move to recapture Segovia. It forced Franco to delay his advance on the Bilbao front, but by only two weeks. There were 3,000 casualties. A similar attack against Huesca also failed. Mola, Franco's second-in-command, was killed on 3 June. In early July, despite the fall of Bilbao in June, the government launched a strong counter-offensive to the west of Madrid. It was to focus on a village called Brunete. The Battle of Brunete was a significant defeat for the Republic, who lost many of their best troops. It had lead to an advance of , and left 25,000 Republican casualties.

A Republican offensive against Zaragoza was unsuccessful. Despite land and air superiority, the Battle of Belchite resulted in an advance of only ten kilometres and much significant equipment had been lost. Franco invaded Aragón in August and then took the city of Santander in August. With the surrender of the Republican army in the Basque territory came with the Santoña Agreement; Gijón finally fell in late October. Franco had effectively won in the north. At the end of November, with Franco's troops closing in on Valencia, the government had to move again, this time to Barcelona.

1938

[[File:Map of the Spanish Civil War in July 1938.png‎|thumb|right|Map showing Spain in July 1938: ]] The Battle of Teruel was an important confrontation. The city belonged to the Nationalists at the beginning of the battle, but the Republicans conquered it in January. The Francoist troops launched an offensive and recovered the city by 22 February, but in order to do so Franco relied heavily on German and Italian air support and repaid them with extensive mining rights.

On 7 March, the Nationalists launched the Aragon Offensive. By 14 April, they had pushed through to the Mediterranean, cutting the Republican-held portion of Spain in two. The Republican government tried to sue for peace in May, 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.

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. The campaign was unsuccessful, and was undermined by the Franco-British appeasement of Hitler in Munich with the concession of Czechoslovakia. This effectively destroyed Republican morale by ending hope of an anti-fascist alliance with the Western powers. The retreat from the Ebro all but determined the final outcome of the war. Eight days before the new year, Franco threw massive forces into an invasion of Catalonia.

1939

[[File:Map of the Spanish Civil War in February 1939.png|thumb|right|Map showing Spain in February 1939: ]] Franco's troops conquered Catalonia in a whirlwind campaign during the first two months of 1939. Tarragona fell on 14 January, followed by Barcelona on 26 January and Girona on 5 February. Five days after the fall of Girona, the last resistance in Catalonia was broken.

On 27 February, the United Kingdom and France recognized the Franco regime.

Only Madrid and a few other strongholds remained for the Republican forces. Then, on 28 March, with the help of pro-Franco forces inside the city, Madrid fell to the Nationalists. The next day, Valencia, which had held out under their guns for close to two years, also surrendered. Franco proclaimed victory in a radio speech aired on 1 April, when the last of the Republican forces surrendered.

After the end of the War, there were harsh reprisals against Franco's former enemies; thousands of Republicans were imprisoned and at least 30,000 executed. Other calculations of these deaths range from 50,000 to 200,000. Many others were put to forced labour, building railways, drying out swamps, digging canals, etc.

Hundreds of thousands of Republicans fled abroad, some 500,000 to France. Refugees were confined in internment camps of the French Third Republic, such as Camp Gurs or Camp Vernet, where 12,000 Republicans were housed in squalid conditions. Of the 17,000 refugees housed in Gurs, the farmers and ordinary people 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. 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", they were sent to the Drancy internment camp before being deported to Nazi Germany. About 5,000 Spaniards thus died in Mauthausen concentration camp.

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.

Evacuation of children

(WRI) children's refuge in the French Pyrenees, some time between 1937 and 1939, warden José Brocca standing third from left.]] As war proceeded on the Northern front, the Republican authorities arranged the evacuation of children. These Spanish War children were shipped to Britain, Belgium, the Soviet Union, other European countries and Mexico. These children were referred to as 'Basque refugees,' even though they were a diverse group. Those in Western European countries were able to return to their families after the war, but those in the Soviet Union, from Communist families, were forbidden to return — by Stalin and by Franco. The first opportunity for most of them to do so came in 1956, three years after Stalin's death. They lived in Soviet orphanages and were regularly transferred from one orphanage to another according to the progress of the Second World War.

The Nationalist side also arranged evacuations of children, women and elderly from war zones. Refugee camps for those civilians evacuated by the Nationalists were set up in Portugal, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.

One example of a large refugee camp was located in Great Britain. Over 4,000 children arrived at the Southampton Docks on 23 May 1937. The camps were overcrowded with dozens of children staying in the same tent. The plan was to move the refugees out of the camps and disperse them into villages throughout Britain. After the war was over the displaced children were allowed to return to Spain. Those age 16 and above were allowed to decide whether or not they wanted to leave the country. Some were forced to stay because their parents had been killed or imprisoned, others stayed by choice.

Atrocities

At least 50,000 people were executed during the war. In his updated history of the Spanish Civil War, Antony Beevor writes, "Franco's ensuing 'white terror' claimed 200,000 lives. The 'red terror' had already killed 38,000." Julius Ruiz concludes 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." César Vidal puts the number of Republican victims at 110,965. 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 (he has since been indicted for violating a 1977 amnesty by these actions). Among the executions investigated was that of the poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca; mention of his death was forbidden during Franco's regime.

In the early days of the war, executions of people who were caught on the "wrong" side of the lines became widespread in conquered areas. The outbreak of the war provided an excuse for settling accounts and resolving longstanding feuds. In these paseos ("strolls"), as the executions were called, the victims were taken from their refuges or jails to be shot outside of town. The corpses were abandoned or interred in graves dug by the victims themselves. Local police just noted the appearance of the corpses.

Nationalists

, 1938.]] The atrocities of the Nationalists, frequently ordered by authorities in order to eradicate any trace of leftism in Spain, were common. According to historian Paul Preston, the minimum number of those executed by the rebels is 130,000, and is likely to be far higher. The violence carried out in the rebel zone was carried out by the military, the "Civil Guard", the Falange in the name of the regime and legitimized by the Catholic Church. (because the efforts of the Second Spanish Republic to promote laicism and to displace the Church from the education system by closing religious schools were considered by the Nationalists as an attack on the Roman Catholic Church); the massive killings of civilians in the cities they captured; the execution of unwanted individuals (including non-combatants such as trade-unionists and known Republican sympathisers).

Nationalist forces committed massacres in Seville, where some 8,000 people were shot; 10,000 were killed in Córdoba. 6–12,000 were killed in Badajoz. In Granada, at least 2000 people were murdered. When Bilbao was conquered thousands of people were sent to prison; there were fewer executions than usual, however, because of the effect Guernica was having on the Naitonalist's reputation internationally. The numbers of people killed as the successful columns of the Army of Africa devastated and pillaged their way between Seville and Madrid are particularly difficult to calculate.

Nationalists 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 to graveyards to be murdered.

Franco's forces also persecuted Protestants, including the murder of twenty Protestant ministers. The Nationalists also persecuted the Basque people. They were determined to eradicate Basque culture. According to Basque sources, some 22,000 Basques were murdered by Nationalists immediately after the Civil War.

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, and other cities). The most notorious example of this tactic of terror bombings was the Bombing of Guernica.

Republicans

by Communist militiamen. The photograph in the London Daily Mail had the caption the "Spanish Reds' war on religion."]] bridge. Both Nationalists and Republicans are claimed to have thrown prisoners from the bridge to their deaths in the canyon. It would form the prevailing opinion of the Republic up until the bombing of Guernica. 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 the widespread desecration of religious property. It was justified by reference to the Church's political role, which was considerable. but this could have been much lower.

As well as clergy, civilians were executed in Republican areas. Some civilians were executed as suspected fifth columnists. Others died in revenge due to news of the massacres carried out in the Nationalist zone. Air raids committed against Republican cities were another factor. Historian Paul Preston emphasizes that Republican authorities did not order such measures to be taken. Shopkeepers and industrialists, if collaborators, were shot; if they were well regarded for their attitude to the poor, they were usually spared. Fake justice was sought though commission, known by their name in Russia, checas. As pressure mounted with increasing success of the Nationalists, many civilians were executed by councils and tribunals controlled by competing Communist and Anarchist groups. 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 people fled to friendly embassies, which would house up to 8,500 people during the war.

Republicans initially reacted to the attempted coup by arresting and executing actual and perceived Nationalists. In the Andalusian town of Ronda, 512 alleged Nationalists were executed in the first month of the war. The 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. Andreu Nin, leader of the POUM (Workers' Party of Marxist Unification), and many prominent POUM members were murdered by the Communists, with the help of the USSR's NKVD.

38,000 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. Azaña came close to resigning.

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. Anarchists and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, or POUM) were integrated into the regular army, albeit with resistance; the POUM was outlawed and falsely denounced as an instrument of the fascists. In the May Days of 1937, many thousands of anarchist and communist republican soldiers fought for control of strategic points in Barcelona.

The pre-war Falange was a small party of some 30–40,000 members. It also called for a social revolution that would have seen Spanish society transformed by National Syndicalism. Following the execution of its leader, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, by the Republicans, the party swelled in size to over 400,000. 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. Subsequently, Franco united all rightist parties into the ironically named Falange Española Tradicionalista de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista (FET y de las JONS), or the Traditionalist Spanish Falange of the Unions of the National-Syndicalist Offensive.

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.

People

Political parties and organizations

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

List of war films and TV specials#Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)

List of foreign correspondents in the Spanish Civil War

Polish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

Proxy war

European Civil War

Spain in World War II

Moscow Gold

Surviving veterans of the Spanish Civil War

SS Cantabria

Nationalist Foreign Volunteers

Pacifism in Spain

Spanish Republican Air Force

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography and books by noted authors

First published as The Spanish Civil War.

Further reading

External links

Primary documents

Magazines and journals published during the war, an online exhibit maintained by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (English, Spanish)

A collection of essays by Albert and Vera Weisbord with about a dozen essays written during and about the Spanish Civil War.

La Cucaracha, The Spanish Civil War Diary, a detailed chronicle of the events of the war

Ronald Hilton, Spain, 1931–36, From Monarchy to Civil War, An Eyewitness Account

Mary Low and Juan Breá: Red Spanish Book. A testimony by two surrealists and trotskytes

Spanish Civil War and Revolution text archive in the libcom.org library

Southworth Spanish Civil War Collection, books and other literature housed at Mandeville Special Collection Library, University of California, San Diego

Images and films

Spain in Revolt, newsreel documentary (Video Stream) (Part 1, 2)

Imperial War Museum Collection of Spanish Civil War Posters hosted online by Visual Arts Data Service (VADS)

Posters of the Spanish Civil War from UCSD's Southworth collection

Civil War Documentaries made by the CNT

Spanish Civil War and Revolution image gallery – photographs and posters from the conflict

Aircraft of the Spanish Civil War

Battle of Rio Segre Photographs Capa, Robert (1938) International Center of Photography.

Academics and governments

A History of the Spanish Civil War, excerpted from a U.S. government country study.

Dutch Involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Columbia Historical Review.

"The Spanish Civil War – causes and legacy" on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time featuring Paul Preston, Helen Graham and Dr Mary Vincent

Other

Original war reports from The Times

The Anarcho-Statists of Spain, a different view of the anarchists in the Spanish Civil War, George Mason University

Spanish Civil War information from Spartacus Educational

American Jews in Spanish Civil War, by Martin Sugarman

The Spanish Revolution, 1936–39 articles and links, from Anarchy Now!

The Revolutionary Institutions: The Central Committee of Anti-Fascist Militias, by Juan García Oliver

Warships of the Spanish Civil War

Dolores Ibárruri's famous rousing address for the defense of the Second Republic

New Zealand and the Spanish Civil War

Category:Carlism Category:Civil wars involving the states and peoples of Europe Category:Civil wars of the Modern era Category:1930s conflicts Category:1930s in Spain Category:Francoist Spain Category:Succession-based civil wars Category:Wars involving Spain Category:Wars involving the states and peoples of Europe