Summary 7: Spanish Civil War

Description

Retells the Spanish Civil War as a proving ground for World War II, from the 1936 coup and foreign intervention to Franco’s hard-fought victory.

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Summary

This summary episode explores the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the devastating conflict that served as a bloody rehearsal for World War II where competing political ideologies clashed with deadly consequences. Born from the collapse of Spain’s military dictatorship and the struggle of the Second Spanish Republic against economic depression and social upheaval, the war erupted when General Francisco Franco launched a military coup from Spanish Morocco in July 1936. What followed was a brutal three-year conflict that split Spain between Franco’s Nationalists—backed by fascist Italy and Nazi Germany—and the Republican Popular Front, a fractured coalition of republicans, communists, and anarchists supported by the Soviet Union and international volunteers in the famous International Brigades. The episode traces key battles from the siege of Madrid to the terror bombing of Guernica, while examining how internal divisions among the Republicans, particularly the violent May 1937 clashes between communists and anarchists in Barcelona, fatally weakened their cause. Ultimately, Franco’s victory came at the cost of 350,000 lives and left Spain devastated, leading to decades of dictatorship while providing the major European powers with military experience and technology testing that would shape the coming world war—though each nation would learn selective lessons that suited their existing beliefs rather than the full reality of modern warfare.

Script

Hello everyone and welcome to History of the Second World War Summary Episode 7 - The Spanish Civil War. There are many political threads that collided during the Second World War. The rampant anti-Communism in western Europe, the rise of fascism in Italy and then Germany, the military and totalitarian coups in Eastern Europe, and many others. But before the war would spiral out to consume so much of the globe the major political ideologies would come into direct conflict in Spain. The Civil War in Spain which would last from 1936 to 1939 would have many causes. Spain was neutral during the First World War but the impact of the war was still strongly felt, with the economic issues and then the Spanish flu causing issues for a society that was already feeling strain. After the war political stability would be found in the form of the military dictatorship under Primo de Rivera, who would take power in September 1923. Rivera did attempt to fix some of the issues he thought was weighing down Spain but he would be unable to do so before he would resign in January 1931. While Rivera had been far from perfect he had at least provided stability, which would be lacking during the rest of the year. Two prime ministers would attempt to carry on Rivera’s government before the elections in April 1931 which resulted in a strong victory for the socialists and republicans. Once they were victorious the Second Spanish Republic would be declared on April 14, 1931. The new Republican government would have all of the problems of the Rivera government, including the the impact of the Great Depression with all of its typical economic upheavals. There were also many other unresolved issues that continued to be a problem, Basque and Catalan nationalism was difficult to resolve, the position of the Catholic Church within Spanish society and its support for groups that disagreed with the new Republic. All of these issues would come to a head in 1933 and 1934 when the unity of the left, which had helped to create the new Republic would begin to dissolve at precisely the wrong time because the Nationalists were beginning to put aside their difference and coalesce around the goal of throwing down the new government.

The issue that would lead into this challenges for the Republican government, which would then lead directly into the Civil War, were pretty much the classic problem for governments that came to power on a wave of public dissatisfaction, there was a growing feeling that the government was not reforming society fast enough. This would result in a nationwide strike in October 1934, with workers all over Spain supporting the action. But it was not fully supported, with some groups like the CNT, the anarchist party in Catalonia, abstaining from the action due to ideological differences with the socialists that had first called for it. But also, the entire strike was just not well organized and it allowed specific groups to be suppressed by the government and the military with the striking workers in the region of Asturias being particularly brutally oppressed by a general named Francisco Franco, he would later be important. The general strike had two important consequences, it greatly widened the rifts that had already developed on the Spanish left, building more distrust among certain groups, but more importantly it also further united the Spanish right due to the greatest of all fears for those groups, a Leftist revolution. The final form of the Republic government would be the Popular Front which would come into power in January 1936, it was a coalition of leftist parties that would be able to carry the Republicans to victory in the selections of February. This victory was only possible due to the support of the Anarchist groups which typically abstained from elections entirely. But in some ways this victory was a poisoned chalice. Due to the victory worker agitation actually increased, under the belief that now that the Popular Front was in power it was time to make the changes they believed were necessary to address Spain’s challenges.

The challenges for the Popular Front would be met with a united Spanish right that was built around strong anti-socialist, communist, and anarchist views among several influential groups. The first would be the Catholic church, which had a lot of influence in Spain even though less than a 1/4 of Spaniards routinely attended mass. The second would be the Falange Espanola, or the Spanish Phalanx which was a group that was formed in October 1933. The best comparison for the Falange were the fascist groups that had been formed in Italy before Mussolini came to power, and in fact the Falange had strong support from Italy which was primarily financial in nature. The Falange were strong supporters of the Church and saw it as a critical part of Spanish identity, with the collapse in support for the Church being one of the primary causes of the continued issues in Spanish society. The final group which would show strong support for the Nationalist cause was the military, many of its commanders were strong supporters, including General Francisco Franco which would eventually lead the Nationalist forces during the Civil War. The military was not unified though, and there were soldiers and officers on both sides of the political disagreements and in fact it would be soldiers on both sides, and the murder of some of their leaders, which would be the excuse used by Franco and his supporters to kick off the Civil War.

The key to the military coup that would take place on July 17th, 1936 was that it would begin not in Spain but in Africa. General Franco was at this time the commander of the Army of Africa, and he commanded an army that was not made up of just conscripts, but instead long service regular troops that had been with him for years. The loyalty was there, and this gave them a tremendous advantage. There were also many Moroccan troops that had a lot of experience which would be so critical due to the overall lack of experience in many of the Civil War armies. Early in the morning on July 17th Franco and his Army went into open revolt against Spanish leadership in Madrid, then the next day in Spain many military units would do the same, with some of these units not even really knowing the plan but joining up anyway. The government in Madrid would try to downplay the issue, but already the news was out and chaos would spread throughout Spain like wildfire. In this chaos the military units that had joined the coup had the advantage, as they were quickly sent to execute orders prepared by the Spanish generals that had joined with Franco, men like General Mola who had played a major role in the planning for the coup. At the same time that all of this was happening the main anarchist and socialist unions would declare that due to the military coup the workers were going on strike. This strike was not the typical kind of strike, the stoppage of work was only a secondary concern, because the unions knew that the best way to get the workers of Spain organized, in the streets, and ready to resist the military was to call a general strike which activated pre-existing plans to begin erecting barricades in the cities and to pull from arms caches. In some cases the workers were also joined by peasants from the surrounding countryside, like the city of Seville. The union leaders then made an appeal to the government, give them weapons so that they could better resist the military coup that was obviously spreading, but the government was concerned about giving even more weapons to the workers, which was just a complete lack of understanding of where the threat was coming from. Within the Republican government itself there was chaos, with leadership struggles and just a lack of ability to quickly unite around a singular purpose and objective. This was unfortunate for the future of the Republic because this was probably the only moment they had a real chance to win the Civil War, and it was about to be over.

There were two major challenges the Nationalists faced that they would have to work through, the first was the fact that they were able to capture almost none of Spain’s larger cities during the initial confusion. This was somewhat expected though because the cities were the epicenters of the workers unions, which had already proven to be one of the few groups within Spain that could act as quickly and decisively as the military. The second problem was that the Spanish navy had not joined the coup. This meant that the most important military force of the Coup, Franco’s troops in Africa, were, well stuck in Africa. This would be solved by the use of German and Italian aircraft but those would not arrive until August, and until they were in Spain it was up to the military forces in Spain itself to hold the line. Once the airborne ferry operation was underway real order could be brought to the Nationalist efforts, although it would take several months. On the Nationalist side there were also disagreements about who should be leading the effort, but eventually Franco would be able to minimize the influence of the other military leaders and take the title of Caudillo on the 1st of October. He would then have control of the Spanish military for the rest of his life.

More than matching these leadership squabbles on the Nationalist side were the many issues of coordination that would plague the Republican cause throughout the entire war. On the Republican side were three groups with very different views on how to fight the war and what the future of Spain should be. These groups were the Republicans, who were fighting for a future democratic Spanish Republic much like what was already in place before the Civil War. The next group was the Communists, who believed that the best path forward was changing Spain into a new Communist state on the model of the Soviet Union. The final group was the collection of anarchist groups which were most prevalent in the region of Cataluna. During the early months of the Civil War, when the situation seemed most dire, these groups generally worked towards the same goal. But as the Civil War progressed, and as the overall situation within the war began to deteriorate their disagreements would begin to mount.

One of the most important early battles of the war would occur around the Spanish capital of Madrid. At least initially Madrid seemed safe from the most important military unit on the Nationalist side, the Army of Africa, but they would make a very fast march north after they captured Seville. Taking the city was important for the Nationalists due to its prestige value and the fact that it was the capital, but their initial assaults were rebuffed. The defenders of Madrid were a mix of every type of group that fought against the Nationalists during the civil war, and it was a great example of the power of a civil resistance with the civilian population of the city pouring into the streets to take part in the defense. They built barricades, they created fortifications, and then they took part in the fighting. In the initial stages the anarchist and communist militias, who from an ideological perspective could not be more different, fought side by side in the frantic days of defense. And they were all successful, and the battle of Madrid, which the Nationalists hoped to capture quickly turned into the siege of Madrid which would drag on for years to come.

With the move on Madrid not having the quick results that the Nationalist leaders had hoped for, a new strategy was required, and it would be one that would take time. Spain would be split between the two warring sides, with the Nationalists controlling territory in the south and west of Spain while the Republican groups would be strongest in the east, north, and far north west corner in the Basque regions of northern Spain. The Basques had a long history of autonomy within Spain, and when confronted with the Nationalist threat they quickly formed their own military units and began work on defenses to protect thee region from Nationalist advances. They were quickly cut off from communication with the other Republican areas of Spain by Nationalist advances north through the center of Spain to the French border, and then the Nationalists would begin the process of breaking down the Basque resistance. As the Nationalist forces slowly took over more and more territory, on April 25th 1937 the infamous bombing of Guernica would occur. The bombing would become worldwide news because it would involve German Ju-52 bombers that would bomb the city for hours. Hundreds of civilians would be killed, many times more would be wounded, and large areas of the town would be destroyed. It was one of the earliest examples of a major bombing raid on a purely civilian target, pure terror bombing. Such raids would become almost common place during the Second World War, but in 1937 this was a major event and would become one of the latest international legacies of the war.

Speaking of international legacies of the war, there were many foreign countries and thousands of foreign individuals that would be involved with the fighting in Spain. The Nationalist cause, as previously mentioned would be supported by both Germany and Italy, who both hoped that a victory by the Nationalists would give them a strong supporter in the western Mediterranean which would cause problems for both the French and the British. They would support the war effort directly by sending both military equipment as well as men to fight with that equipment in Spain. Italy would be more involved with the fighting on the ground, while the main German manpower would be in the form of the Condor Legion which would operate German Luftwaffe squadrons over Spain. Italian forces would be involved in several major Spanish offensives, which would include not just Italian infantry and artillery but also armored units, to somewhat mixed results. The equipment that was provided to the Nationalists was by far the most important contribution from Germany and Italy, helping to equip the Spanish units during the fighting. The Republican side would receive support from the Soviet Union, which at this time was hoping to use events in Spain to further the cause of International Communism as well as a way to check the spread of fascism. The Republican army would receive equipment and manpower from the Soviet Union during the Civil War, including some aircraft and tanks that would be initially superior to anything that could be provided to the Nationalists, although this qualitative advantage would decay over time. One of the problems with support from the Soviet Union was that it involved political complications, as they threw most of their weight behind the Spanish Communist leaders, as you might expect. These complications would lead to real problems as the war progressed. Another international contribution to the war came in the form of the International Brigades. These were military units made up of volunteers from around the world, although primarily from Europe, which would fight in the Republican armies during the war. While there would never be more than about 18,000 volunteers in Spain at any given time, and generally that number war far lower, the dedication shown by the international volunteers, and the propaganda value of having them in Spain, was seen as an important part of the Republican survival in the war. The exact military value of the brigades varied wildly, as many of the volunteers had no military training and were not in great military shape, but they were often used as shock troops, given dangerous tasks with high casualty rates, which meant that if they had courage, determination, and a rifle, they could still be useful. One of the reason that the international brigades were seen as important was that the other nations of Europe would have a strict non-intervention policy, with the British and French even committing naval strength to non-intervention patrols off the Spanish coasts, which were mostly useless. This official non-intervention policy was primarily put in place to avoid the events in Spain spilling out into a wider European and then worldwide war at a time when the major powers of Europe, particularly Britain and France, were focused on a policy of appeasement with Hitler and Germany.

During the early months of the war the Republican military was quite different than what you might think of when you think of a modern army. This was because it was first made up of a collection of militia units, but by October 1936 a shift was made to move these disparate units together into a Popular Army. From a military theory perspective this was the correct move, the Nationalist were a more traditional military and they seemed to be doing quite well, and so the answer appeared to be greater organization on the Republican side. However, some of the most fervent supporters of the anti-Nationalist cause also did not support the kind of centralization required by the military changes. The most important of these groups would be the anarchists which had the most support in Catalunia. The Communists and Anarchists would never agree on anything other than not liking the Nationalists, and that was a very weak connective structure between the two groups. Tension between them would begin less than a year after the start of the war in the Spring of 1937. The tensions would quickly escalate when there were accusations made by the largest Anarchist union, the National Confederation of Labor, or CNT. After the siege of Madrid had began the Communists were in control of the defense of the city, and reports began to filter out that the prisons of Madrid were filling up, but not with Nationalists but instead socialists, anarchists, and republicans. This was everything that the anarchists feared, that the Communists were using the war as an excuse for their own brand of persecution. During the first week of May this tension would result in fighting in Barcelona, only it was between the Communists and Anarchists, with both sides taking to the streets with their own worker militias. The central government was powerless to stop this from happening, being itself divided multiple different ways. The workers within the city of Barcelona were not in a good position, with more and more Communist Assault guards being brought into the city, and eventually messages would be sent out from the CNT central committee to begin to take down the barricades. The violence of the May Days in Barcelona caused further crisis among the Republican government, and would result in an erosion of support for the Republic among the Anarchist groups. This was deemed to be acceptable because many in the government had already come to the conclusion that the best path forward was with the Communists. But as one anarchist would say after this time: ‘Whether Negrín won with his communist cohorts, or Franco won with his Italians and Germans, the results would be the same for us.’

The anarchists and Communists would have come into an ideological conflict at some point during the war, but the events at the front accelerated things. Other than the defense of Madrid, the Republic would experience failure after failure in the war against the Nationalists. Not every battle was a total success for the Nationalists, but the course of the war was clear as the Nationalists continuously whittled away at the Republican controlled territory, taking control of places like Aragon, Cantabria, Asturias, the Basque Country, the list went on an on. Republican attacks would continue, culminating in the Ebro offensive which would primarily be launched not for military reasons but instead propaganda reasons. The offensive would be launched in the summer of 1938, and by that point the international support for the Republican cause was lagging with focus having shifted to Germany and Czechoslovakia. The offensive would be the last major failure of the Popular Army, and afterwards the eventual result of the Civil War was not in doubt. After the Nationalists captured Catalonia and Barcelona the only remaining option was to begin negotiations. Or at least the Republican military leaders believed they were entering into negotiations, but Franco and the Nationalists simply demanded an unconditional surrender and kept attacking. On March 29th 1939 the formal surrender to Franco occurred, although it would take several more days for all Republican units to lay down their arms. The Nationalists were now in control of a broken country. Around 350,000 people had died during the war, both due to military actions and economic hardship. The national infrastructure was broken, economies destroyed, and although they did not know it at the time there would be little international assistance in rebuilding due to the Second World War. But Franco was in control, and he would maintain that control for the rest of his life.

The toll that the three years of fighting took on Spain would cause Franco to keep Spain out of the Second World War, or at the very least it would make his price for entry too high for the Germans to pay. The impact of the fighting in Spain on the militaries of Europe is often overstated though. The Germans, Soviets, and Italians all gained some experience during the fighting Spain but each for their own reasons that experience did not always translate into learning the right lessons. On the Soviet side there was a tendency to discount experience in Spain and to accuse the Soviet military commanders in Spain of betrayal. They would be caught up in the Purges just like the rest of the Red Army. For the Italians their ability to learn and react to events in Spain were limited by the ability of the Italian military to change course from an industrial perspective. And finally for the Germans, their ability to learn lessons was limited by their belief that the war would be different when it was not primarily being participated in by Spanish troops. Even with these limitations, they would all gain experience, with the experience of the Luftwaffe being particularly important. But the overall impact that the fighting had on the course of war preparations is often overstated. Particularly among German military theorists, they cherry picked events in Spain to support the things that they already believed and discarded any events that did not agree with them as mistakes by the Spanish. But while they could discard events in Spain, they would live with the Spanish for generations. During the war there would be harsh oppression by the Francoist regime of many former supports of the Republic, and Franco would only officially end the War in 1948 with the goal of improving relations with the Western Democracies after the war. Due to the length of time that Franco would be in control of Spain there were many questions that remained about the war and its aftermath even after his death in 1975, and there are still things that we do not know, and probably never will.