SPANISH CIVIL WAR

FOREWARD

When Emilio asked us to choose a historical event I decided to search for the Spanish Civil War. Why?

 There are several reasons that made me incline for this and not for another one. First, because it was an event that occurred  in our own country and  surely most of us have a grandfather or ancestor relative who could tell us about the horrors of what they could have lived in those years.

On the other hand, Spanish war was, from my point of view, the prelude of the World War II or in other words it was the battlefield of foreign political interests which taking advantage of the weak polirized structural situation didn´t hesitate to add more fuel to the fire in order to get  their goals.

In history nothing happens by chance; any historical moment is the consequence of one or many other moments  that happened before and in the same way, that  will be the cause, will be the seed for other future events that will come after. Thus, to understand the Spanish civil war (if a war had any sense) and to have a further perspective, I will go backward in time until the  end of XIX century.

PREVIOUS FACTS

The monarchical regime came to its end  with Isabel II and one of the most agitated period of the Spanish history began. The first  republic was established  and  since then a lot of events took place in a short period of time. On one hand, Spain  got involved in the Spanish-American war which resulted in the loss of its colonies in America, Cuba, Philippines. On the other hand, our country was constantly changing of government and the way that every one understood its policy. (We mustn´t forget that from the second half of the XIX century before the reign of  Isabell II  Spain started to split in two. From then, there were many confrontations between the supporters of an absolutist monarchy (carlistas) and those who wanted a more liberal monarchy. The seeds of hatred had been spread).Now, with the republic, new confrontations between those who were in favour of the republic and the ones who still supported the monarchy were rising. The state of social unrest was increasing until a military coup ended with the first republic and monarchy was newly established. It was the reign of Alfonso XII and later of his son Alfonso XIII.

After the premature death of Alfonso XII, Alfonso XIII assumed  power and soon he became very autocratic and was in constant conflicts with the Spanish politicians. During his reign there was a new military coup led by Primo de Rivera who had promised to reduce unemployment, to eliminate corruption and other improvements  that he never did. Finally he was forced to resign. Then, Alfonso XIII agreed to democratic elections and even to go into exile when Spanish people gave their overwhelming vote to republic.

The second republic was set up and with it a new period of power alternation began. The first election was won by the socialist party and other left-wing parties, which tried to introduce agrarian reforms and other changes in their policies which led them to have confrontations with the church.

Two years later, new elections gave the power to the right wing parties. Over the next two years, the new government demolished all the reforms that had been introduced by the preceding government. This situation led to a general  strike and armed rising in  Asturias. The primer minister of the first government  was accused of having encouraged the disturbances.

For the next elections in 1936,  a coalition of parties on the political left was established with the name of  Popular Front in order to advocate for the restoration of Catalan autonomy, amnesty for political prisoners, agrarian reform, among others. On the other hand, right wing parties formed the National Front. After the elections, a new government was formed with the victorious  members of the Popular Front. They immediately released all the left wing political  prisioners  and took several measures which not only upset the conservatives but they led the country to an economic crisis and consequently to a series of strikes.

THE WAR AND FOREIGN INTERVENTION

A group of Spanish army officers began plotting to overthrow the Popular Front as if they were the only way to re-establish the social order. This resulted in the outbreak of the civil war. During the war, withing the left wing parties some divergences began to appear as well. This conflicts between anarquists and communists led the city of Barcelona to what is known as de May Riots.

The country was polarized  and totally confused but  maybe  the war hadn´t been so cruel and violent if the foreign countries wouldn´t have taken part in it. Nevertheless, the fascist leaders Hitler and Mussolini saw it as an extraordinay occasion to broaden their power. The location of Spain was a strategic place to Hitler in order to control his French enemies at the same time as he had free way to pass to Portugal and Gibraltar. In the Spanish conflict the strategic interests of powers  intertwined with the ideologic commitment of the political currents at that moment.

 The intervention of the Italian forces and  the German Condor Legion sent by Hitler, supplied  the General Franco with  arms, military equipment, tanks, and squeadrons of bombers and floatplanes. This help was a crucial key to move the National troops from Africa to the peninsule and to take positions against the Popular Front army which was smaller in both soldiers and  military equipment.

Some time later, the Popular Front received the help of the International Brigades despite the agreement of non-intervention that most of the European countries had signed. That pact simply answered to particular political interests. The British conservatives weren´t willing to support a republican government  unless the base of Gibraltar fell in German hands; and France obeyed British orders. Even USA agreed with the neutrality law while oil companies sold fuel  to Franco’s troops. Stalin, becoming concerned that the Nationalists could defeat the Republicans, and thus, the right-wing governments in Europe could pose a serious threat to the security of the Soviet Union, he didn´t doubt in supplying the necessary military aid to stop the fascit regime in Spain.

Battle was bloody. Thousands of people die in both sectors. Some were executed, others were killed in bombing raids, others were the victims of murderers of rival political groups, others died due to malnutrition caused by the economic blockade and others die in concentration camps in the years that followed the war.

Consequencies were terrible.

CONSEQUENCES

1. The war first consequence was a demographic depletion. Apart from the deaths caused by bombings, shelling, assassinatios,  we must add the loss of population caused by starve and epidemic deseases and the decrease of births. In addition, a huge amount of young and active population among which the scientific, artistic and literary elites were, had to go to exile plunging the country even more into a deeper regression.

2. Another consequence was narrowly linked with economy. First, the industrial web was destroyed causing the  regression to an agrarian economy. Second, many buildings, roads, infrastructures were ruined and money was necessary to rebuild them again. Third, the foreign debt increased  and finally the Spanish Bank lost the gold stock in payment for the Soviet help that the republican government received during the war. The war was an economical catastrophe for our country.

3. War brought social changes as well. While landowners, financial and industrial powers recovered the economical dominance, the workers lost their adquired rights.

4. Apart from the previously mentioned consequences, war left a pronounced fracture within Spanish population which took several generations to restore. Franco never sought the Spaniards  reconciliation and the defetead were always persecuted and repressed.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the Spanish Civil War was the culmination of a prolonged period of national political unrest. Unrest in a country that was increasingly polarized and unable to ameliorate the conditions of terrible poverty in which millions of citizens lived. The Catholic Church, identifying more whith wealthy landowners than with the regular people, was in full control of education. Education for women seemed to them unnecessary and universal literacy  was for them a danger rather than a goal. The military, meanwhile, saw itself as the only bulwark against civil disorder and the guarantor of the core values of Spanish society.

Today, after more than seventy years, it is known that wounds are not totally cured. But that is all in the past and in the past m

              

               DON´T LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN

Childhood memories

Last weekend, I was searching the Internet in order to get information about an historical event  when I came across these photos of our civil war.

They immediately caught my attention and I don´t know why,  I couldn´t help remembering my childhood,  fact that on the other hand, I consider strante taking into account that  fortunately, I hadn´t been born  yet when the civil war broke out. Nevertherless, the images made me bring to mind old memories. Although I didn’t exist when the war took place, now,  from the perspective that the distance in time gives, I can recognize that  almost thirty years later of the outbreak _ and then I was ten or eleven years old_  still there was a kind of  black shadow which remainded latent  not only in people’s mind or hearts but also in every corner of the own village.

In some way, the people in the photos were like the people I used to see in my chilhood.

I remember seeing most of the old women, dressed from head to feet in black or, it would be better to say in “deep black” because only  black is not enough to express the profound darkness they were sunk in. Black not only was the colour of their clothes but it was  the colour of their souls as well. The smile had dissapeared from their faces; their eyes, tired of crying the loss of a husband or what is worse, a son,  kept seeing without looking, with their sight lost in the distance, hanging off  their own memories.

Wounds of the past were not close yet.

Poverty could be seen everywhere as if the time hadn´t passed. Unpaved roads,  humble houses shared by persons and animals, large families subsinting on very basic food, mucky children with snots playing on the mud, are some of the flashes of this period of my life.We had no toys, nor television nor computer games, but our games were endless and our imagination did not have limits. My slide was the slope of a small bank; my mat was the straw of threshing; my balls pool was a barn full of wheat; my bowling alley was a hole on the ground; a rope was  the line to make friends and a bike...a bike was  the dream of any child.

Because my village was, and still is, a poor village; one of those which belongs to what we call rural Spain: hardened skin and noble of hearts.

To Paulina

Tonight I feel very sad. A friend of mine has just died. It is true that she has been ill for long time and  was worse and worse as the time was going by but  when the cruel death ends with a friend’s life your soul dresses in black and the tears blind your eyes. At this  moment not only is the night dark and cold  but also my heart. Hope has dyed in sadness and solitude.

Rest in peace.

In memory of Paulina

Mandela's gift

First of all, I will say that I have titled this work with the same name as it has in the book because I think that, not only has it been a gift for Richard Stengel who wrote it, but  also for all the people who read it. After this explanation, I will delineate what I have taken from Mandela the man as he is presented by Stengel.

After reading the book “Mandela’s way” I realized that I share with him many of his most important ideas. To some extent, reading the book has been like a reminder of what I consider more important and essential  in any human being’s life. The book is a magnificent compendium of moral lessons and values. Thus, I could detail  a lot of considerations which have been very significant in my own concepction of life or society but I will only mention those ones with which I am more concerned.

In the first place I would like to point out the importance he gives to the fact of having some principles on which the rest of  our existence would rest. In Mandela’s life as in any people’s, those principles are the pillars to hold up the structure of a just society  without prejudices. I refer to  the sense of justice; the respect for the others and for oneselves; the honesty to accept our own mistakes and be consistents with our actions and beliefs; the empathy and capability to put in the others’ shoes; the will of sacrificing our  individual interests in the benefit of our family or community, etc. As we see, are all of them old values which have been left out from time to time throughout the history and which, unfortunately, are being forgotten by some part of the society nowadays.

Secondly, another aspect  that I would  stand out from the rest is when he admits to have learnt something  from everybody who was close to him, even from his enemies. This quality emphasizes his open-minded and fair-minded personality. Moreover, it emphasizes  his humility to accept the others’ opinions and suggestions as well. I totally agree with him because believing the opposite, it would mean that you have the absolute truth. As he said to Stengel, nothing is black or white. There is a large range of grey in the middle.

In third place, I am going to point out  the reference he does to work and effort. He thinks and so do I, that only with work and discipline you can get your goals. Life is a long distance run. Through all this time you can do good things and no for this you are an angel, or bad things and no for that your are evil. At the end, we are the sum of all we have done and what ultimately counts is that the good outweighs the bad.

Finally, the last matter I am going to mention is the one he talks about in the second lesson of the book. Surprisingly, was control a goal he got  throughout his first part of his life. Prison taught him to be patient and keep control in critical situations. He learnt to listen, to think,  to analyze, to ponder and then to act. Unlike the three points  previously mentioned, this is one lesson  I feel further.  So, it could be a goal for me not to be so passionated and impulsive. Nevertheless, I have to admit having control a little more that when I was younger.

I don´t want t finish this reference to this book without saying that I have enjoyed it a lot. It has been a pleasure to read it for both two reasons, the moral lessons we learnt from Mandela’s  life  and the agile and  pleasant way the author related the story of this history significant great leader.

Summary of Noam Chomsky's lecture

In his lectura,  Noam Chomsky draws the dramatic and in my opinión true, contours of global order.

He starts making reference to the current democracy  uprisings that have taken place in many different parts of the world. Some of them to fight for authentic democracy like the ones in the Arab world, and others to defend the rights people had been won in long struggles. These last ones belong to the group of countries which  have dominated  the world all through the recent history.

Since the world war II, US have been delineating  what they have called a “Grand Area” where US was going to exert the hegemony  that had been exerted by the British empire until then. The main target of this grand area has been and still is  the Middle East where the most important energy  resources are located. Control of the energy reserves would give anyone the control of the world and so the US. The program of domination  implyed  the use of military forces, sanctions against those countries which were not willing to accept US rules and even, support dictatorial regimes if the establisment  of democracy there wouldn´t benefit their interests. Now, the growing Chinese economy and military forces, as well as the nuclear Iranian development program are being threatening new chess pieces in the stabilization  and destabilization world game.

Related to the political issues, Chomsky refers to financial issues, as well. In the last years wealth and power have been narrowly linked and  concentrated in the hands of a few. Corporations  are increasingly having more financial power on which political power depends. While the powerful do whatever they want,  population in general is encouraged to consumerism, remaining apathetic and  blind eye to how they have to get by with lower salaries and increasing work hours; and  to how xenophobia is increasing in society due to state-corporate policies.  

 

Finally, he finishes his lecture mentioning an issue which has nothing to do with economy or market systems:environment. Nevertherles, it is small wonder that  the same financial power supports propaganda campaigns to convince the population that the global warming and all the environmental problems that are menacing  the planet, are a hoax. They just want to maximize profit, if necessary, by cutting funding for measures that mitigate an environmental catastrophe.