Overview of the Spanish Civil War
Overview of the Spanish Civil War
In 1931, after King Alfonso of Spain abdicated the throne, and Spain held its first-ever democratic election. This election marked the end of 300 years of feudalism in Spain, ruled during this time by the Catholic Church and the aristocracy. As a republic, the new government favored land reform, which involved breaking up the large plantations in order to recognize workers. As a result, many different viewpoints stemmed from this dramatic action. While the socialists and anarchists saw it as a the beginning of a social revolution, many Republicans were afraid of the power of the Church and the military.
After many years, problems arose from the extremely different opinions of the various groups in Spain, and in 1936, Hitler, Mussolini, and the Catholic Church decided to form a revolution of their own against Republican Spain under the military direction of General Franco. The slogan adopted with this counter-revolution was, “NO PASARÀN!” Although strong, Franco’s army was met with great force from the anarchists and also from International Brigades, volunteers from foreign countries. The Republicans held Franco’s forces in Barcelona, Catalonia, Murcia, Bilbao, and other provinces throughout Spain. In these areas, a direct democracy was established in the factories as well as the cities, and civilian defense forces stood ready to defend the Republic from Franco and his army at any cost.
With regards to funding for the Civil War at hand, England and France chose not to supply the Republican side, leaving no other choice but to seek aid from the Soviet Union. As a result, the Communist Party of Spain began to believe they could compromise with Franco, while the anarchists advocated the social revolution that was taking place within Spain’s borders. The Communist Party’s view led to much fighting between the separate groups within the Republican side of the Civil War, and thus weakened their ability to combat Franco’s aggression. Finally on April 1st, 1939, General Franco ended the war after his troops seized all of the Republican strongholds, and took control over the government.
The Spanish Civil War, often forgotten in the history books, was a very significant event in the history of the world. It is believed that if England and France had given Spain supplies during the war, they could have greatly weakened the governments of Hitler...