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