Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) pitted the fascist forces of General Francisco Franco against the popularly elected government of Spain. While the battle settled the fate of Spain for decades, it also marked the beginning of conflict between fascists, communists, and the rest of Europe. With the Nazis in Germany supporting Franco and Josef Stalin's USSR, providing assistance to the Spanish government, this domestic conflict came to be seen as having major international implications. It attracted fighters from the United States and became the subject of major works by leading authors, such as George Orwell, Laurie Lee and Ernest Hemingway. For some young men in places like the United States, the fight against Franco was in fact a battle against fascism and so they joined international fighting units, such as the Lincoln Brigade

Sources of Division

Agricultural Problems

Agriculture accounted for about two fifths of Spains national income in the 1930s and almost half of the population lived on the land. The problem of agriculture was due partly to climatic conditions and lack of modern machinery. The situation was worsened by the Latifundia system, which maintained an uneconomic, inefficient, feudal type of land ownership by massive landowners in the countryside. Latifundia were huge farms owned by rich families and absentee landlords who paid their labourers very little for their work. More often than not, large tracts of land were left uncultivated. These conditions bred support for Anarchism, the creation of a world where those who worked the land owned it.

In other provinces, such as Castile or Galicia, Minifundia created a parallel problem. Tiny farms were owned by peasants (Some as small as two acres in size) who found it hard to work a decent living on such conditions, often working on a basis below Subsistence Agriculture. Rural violence was endemic between 1903-06 and 1917-20. Agrarian violence became especially problematic during the Spanish Second Republic and more than likely hastened the onset of the Civil War.

Industrial Conflict

Industrialization had hit Spain in two major centres, The Basque region and Catalonia. In Barcelona, an important cultural and commercial centre, textiles, light industry and ship building were predominant. The Basques concentrated on ship building, in addition to having a large metallurgical industry. Bilbao, the capital of the Basque country, was a thriving port. Industrial development in these regions created workers movement which would accomodate the rural unrest during the Civil War. In Barcelona, workers were represented by the CNT, an Anarchist Trade Union. The Basques and coal miners of Asturias joined the socialist UGT Union. The former frightened the ruling class with its policy of violence and assassination. Syndicalism was an aspiration for these powerful Unions. The UGT and CNT support for the Popular Front in 1936 was an important motive for the armies decision to rebel.

Regionalism

Both the Basque country and Catalonia differed culturally from the rest of Spain. The Catalans spoke a different language, had a popular literary culture and a tradition of independence going back to Medieval times. In 1931 A Catalan Republic was proclaimed and some prominent individuals called on Catalonia to declare 'war on Spain'.

The Basques were an ancient people who had lived around the Western Pyrenees for thousands of years. Around 100,000 Basques were French, the rest being Spanish citizens. They were very religious and maintained an independent language. Although bitterly opposed to the Republicans anti-clericalism during the Civil War, they supported them due to their support for regional autonomy.

The Catholic Church

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Catholic Church was instrumental in uniting Spains various regional and social classes. However, by the late nineteenth century it became a source of division. To the left and the Liberals it personified the reactionary elements of Spanish society. Catholicism was seen as an enemy of democracy and social change. Parliament was regarded by many Catholics with skepticism.

To the industrial workers fast coming under the influence of Marxist and anarchist ideas the Church was a bitter foe. The language and tactics of class conflict demonized organised religion. Respect for property and law and order put the Church on the side of the factory owner rather than the worker, or so it was percepted. A similar situation existed in the countryside where the church was unable to advocate any real solution to the Latifundia system due to its anti-socialist stance.

The Army

The army regarded itself as a protector of Spanish culture and national integrity. Their oath was to 'maintain the independence of the country and defend it from its enemies within and without'. The enemies within Spain were the anarcho-socialist movements and regionalists demands. The former was seen as a challenge to law and order, the latter a threat to Spanish national unity. In addition, both working class and regionalist movements were usually anti-militarist and urged strong civilian checks and balances over the military.

Aware of their position of influence in Spanish society, the army reacted to military reforms with distaste. Many historians feel that the army reforms of Manuel Azana between 1931 and 1933 were another important motive in the armies rebellion in 1936.

Ideological divisions

Spain witnessed a clash of ideologies that characterised Europe in the inter-war period. On the authoritarian right there were three major groups:

1. The Falange, (Spains official Fascist party) was founded by Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. Jose Antonio was heavily influenced by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. His movement stressed Spanish nationalism. Antonio was executed by the Republicans in November 1936 and his movement was incorporated into Franco's traditional Spanish Falange. Franco later took the title of Caudillo (Leader)
2. In the early 1930s the Falange was a minor party. The CEDA, or Catholic Party of Spain was the true fascist menace of the Republic. Their leader was Gil Robles who visited Germany in 1938 and was very impressed by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party. Robles was virulently anti-democratic. After failing to implement a counter revolution in 1934 after joining the government, many of his supporters deserted him for the Falange or Calvo Sotelo's Nationalist Bloc.
3. Calvo Sotelo became leader of the Spanish Nationalist Bloc in 1934. The objective of the bloc was to unite all those who rejected parliament and universal suffrage. He also proposed to limit profits, plan industry and destroy Trade Unionism. His assassination in 1936 helped trigger the Civil War.

The emergence of left wing groups in opposition to the authoritarian right caused greater division. The major leftist forces in the Spanish Republic where:

1. The Anarchists, who aimed to abolish the state, private property and organized religion. This was to be achieved by education of the masses, a massive syndicalist strike overthrowing capitalism; or by individual acts of violence. In 1927 the Federacion Anarquista Iberica (FAI) was founded and became the dominant force in Spanish anarchism. It advocated immediate revolution in strikes and violence.
2. There were several Marxist parties in Spain. Largo Callero was the leader of the socialists and the UGT. In the years before the Civil War he began to move these two moderate organizations into a more revolutionary stance. After 1934, the small communist party of Spain called for a united front against the fascist threat. There was also the POUM, a revolutionary Marxist party with Trotskyist influences. They argued that the workers should immediately seize political power. This polarisation of Spain into two diametrically opposed political groups heightened the tension and ultimately led to the Civil War.