Spanish Civil War
In summary
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) pitted the Republican side, loyal to the government of the Second Republic, against the Nationalist side, which emerged from the military uprising of 17 and 18 July 1936. By failing in the major cities, the coup split the country in two. The Nationalists, led by General Francisco Franco and backed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, gained ground against a Republic supported mainly by the Soviet Union and the International Brigades but weakened by internal divisions; France and the United Kingdom opted for non-intervention. The war ended on 1 April 1939 with Franco's victory; he then ruled as dictator until his death in 1975. The conflict claimed around half a million lives, in combat and repression combined, and drove hundreds of thousands of Spaniards into exile.
What you need to know
Proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the departure of King Alfonso XIII, the Second Republic undertook sweeping reforms: land reform, separation of Church and state, army reform, autonomy for Catalonia and votes for women. They met with the hostility of part of the Church, the large landowners and the army, while part of the working-class left, socialist and anarchist, considered them inadequate. The country became polarised: the right won the 1933 elections, a workers' uprising was crushed in Asturias in October 1934, and the Popular Front then narrowly won the popular vote in the elections of February 1936. Strikes, land occupations and political violence multiplied in the spring. On 13 July 1936, the monarchist leader José Calvo Sotelo was murdered by a group of assault guards and socialist militants, in reprisal for the killing of an Assault Guard lieutenant by far-right militants the previous day.
Planned by General Emilio Mola, the military uprising began in Spanish Morocco on 17 July 1936 and spread to the mainland the next day. It succeeded in Galicia, Navarre, Old Castile, western Aragon, Seville and the Canary Islands, from where General Franco reached Morocco to take command of the Army of Africa. But it failed in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and most of the east, the south-east and the industrial north, where loyal security forces and workers' militias defeated it. In the Republican zone, the state temporarily lost control of the situation to revolutionary committees. On both sides, mass violence struck behind the lines: in the Republican zone, nearly 7,000 priests, monks and nuns were murdered, along with landowners and political opponents; in the Nationalist zone, the military organised the systematic elimination of left-wing activists, trade unionists and Republican officials, as in the Badajoz massacre of August 1936.
The war took on an international dimension as early as the summer. German and Italian aircraft enabled the Army of Africa to cross the Strait of Gibraltar; Germany then sent the Condor Legion, and Italy an expeditionary force of several tens of thousands of men. France and the United Kingdom promoted a non-intervention agreement, which Germany and Italy openly violated; from October, the USSR supplied the Republic with weapons and advisers, and tens of thousands of volunteers from many countries joined the International Brigades. Invested in Burgos on 1 October 1936 as Generalissimo and head of the government of the state, Franco sent his troops against Madrid. The Republican government withdrew to Valencia on 6 November, but the capital, defended by its inhabitants, the Republican army and the International Brigades, withstood the assault and would hold out until the end of the war.
In 1937, the Nationalists turned against the Republican north: on 26 April, German and Italian aircraft destroyed Guernica, a symbolic town of the Basque Country, a bombing that Picasso denounced in a famous painting; Bilbao fell in June and Asturias in October. In the Nationalist camp, Franco merged all the movements supporting him into a single party in April 1937; in the Republican camp, the fighting of May 1937 in Barcelona, which pitted the anarchists and the POUM against the communists and government forces, led to the formation of Juan Negrín's government. In April 1938, Franco's troops reached the Mediterranean and cut the Republican zone in two; the Ebro counter-offensive, launched in July, became the longest and bloodiest battle of the war and ended in November with the Republicans' retreat.
Barcelona fell on 26 January 1939; nearly half a million Republican civilians and soldiers then fled to France, where many were interned in camps. On 27 February, France and the United Kingdom recognised Franco's government; in Madrid, Colonel Segismundo Casado rose against Juan Negrín on 5 March in the hope of a negotiated peace, which Franco refused. The Nationalists entered the capital on 28 March, and on 1 April 1939 Franco's final war bulletin announced the end of the war. The death toll is generally estimated at some 500,000; according to historians' research, the repression behind the lines claimed around 100,000 victims in the Nationalist zone and around 50,000 in the Republican zone. It continued after the victory with tens of thousands of executions and the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of the defeated. Franco's dictatorship lasted until his death in 1975, and the memory of the war remains a sensitive issue in democratic Spain, as shown by the memory laws of 2007 and 2022.
Sources
- Encyclopædia Britannica, “Spanish Civil War”
- Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1961
- Paul Preston, The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge, Harper Perennial, 2006
- Julián Casanova, República y guerra civil, Crítica, Marcial Pons, 2007
- Santos Juliá (dir.), Víctimas de la guerra civil, Temas de Hoy, 1999
- Bartolomé Bennassar, La guerre d'Espagne et ses lendemains, Perrin, 2004
Key Events
The military uprising against the Republic in July 1936 sparked a civil war lasting nearly three years, won by General Franco. The intervention of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy on the rebel side made it a prelude to the Second World War.
In Burgos, the rebel generals entrust Francisco Franco with the supreme command of their armies and the leadership of the government of the state; from now on he holds all power in the Nationalist zone.
As the Republican government withdraws to Valencia on 6 November, the capital, defended by militias, the Republican army and the first International Brigades, repels the assault of Franco's troops; it will hold out until the end of the war. During the siege, more than 2,000 prisoners taken from the city's jails are executed at Paracuellos, on the Republican side.
Germany's Condor Legion, supported by Italian aircraft, largely destroys the small Basque town of Guernica on a market day. The bombing, whose death toll is still debated, provokes international outrage; Picasso makes it the subject of the painting he exhibits in Paris in July.
In Barcelona, several days of street fighting pit the anarchists of the CNT and the POUM, who champion social revolution, against the communists and government forces. The clashes claim hundreds of casualties and bring down the government of Francisco Largo Caballero, who is replaced by Juan Negrín.
To reconnect the two parts of the Republican zone, cut in two since April, the Republican army makes a surprise crossing of the Ebro. The battle, the longest and bloodiest of the war, lasts nearly four months and ends in mid-November with the withdrawal of the Republicans, whose army is left exhausted.
Franco's troops enter Barcelona. In the following weeks, nearly half a million refugees, civilians and Republican soldiers, cross the Pyrenees in what is known as the “Retirada”. In France, many are interned in camps such as those at Argelès-sur-Mer and Saint-Cyprien.
After his troops enter Madrid on 28 March, Franco announces in his final war bulletin that the war is over. A dictatorship begins that will last until his death in 1975, marked by large-scale repression of the defeated.