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Introduction. In 1961, as a young boy I had the chance to go to Spain with my family, bundled into a big old Austin Sheerline with 6 passengers, driving to Barcelona -- I chose to go to my Aunt’s in Wales instead.
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Introduction • In 1961, as a young boy I had the chance to go to Spain with my family, bundled into a big old Austin Sheerline with 6 passengers, driving to Barcelona -- I chose to go to my Aunt’s in Wales instead. • In 1961 Spain was still firmly in the grasp of Generalissimo Francisco Franco and his Fascist government. • Government and the Catholic Church were the dominant institutions. • Public morality was ultra-conservative. • Spanish women did not walk unescorted outside their homes. • Fashions were dowdy. • The military and Guarda Civil were omnipresent. • Historian Hugh Thomas, writing about the time said that politics were not discussed: “It was as if a heavy curtain had been drawn over the events since the exile of the king in 1931.”
Introduction • In 1977 I finally went to Spain, 2 years after the death of Franco and when King Juan Carlos was preparing his country for its first elections since 1936. • The country was still very conservative and the church still dominant. • Fashions seemed old-fashioned and so were attitudes. • Taking out a Spanish girl involved having a chaperone. • Politics were loosening, put people were worried. Would the military or the Right tolerate a loss? In Grenada, the army staged a nice little parade to show they were around. • In Barcelona I avoided eye contact with an armed guard whose finger was nervously placed on the trigger of his machine gun. • Fearing a coup, I left before the election, which, thankfully, proved anti-climatic. • Center and Socialist parties dominated; the Communists faced disappointment.
Introduction • In 1980, watching tv at my brother’s in Wales, I watched a Spanish coup unfold as a Guardia Civil officer seized control of the Cortez, calling on the military to rise up and restore fascist values.
Introduction • The king called on the army to support democracy and the coup fizzled. • This was a wholly different country to 1977: • Fascist and Communist papers were sold at the same news-stands. • Women walked, unescorted, on Barcelona’s Rambla. • Fashions were as current as those in Paris. • Nightclubs advertised very suggestive shows – publicly. • Spain had rejoined modern Europe.
Decline of Imperial Spain • Spain had been in decline for centuries – a victim of its own wealth, which allowed it to buy, rather than produce. • In the early 20th century it was one of Europe’s most backward nations – a rural and largely pre-industrial society with only small pockets of urban industry.
Decline of Imperial Spain • The Spanish American war deprived Spain of the remainder of its American empire and the Philippines in 1898. • The low point came in 1921, when a Spanish army sent to put down a revolt in Spanish Morocco was massacred by rebellious Moors.
Decline of Imperial Spain • When General Primo de Rivera seized power in 1923, King Alfonso XIII praised him as “my Mussolini.” • However, Rivera was no fascist. • He tried to modernize the country and end the war in Morocco. • However, the depression of the 1930s brought failure. • Financial ruin and rising unemployment caused the army to withdraw its support and Primo resigned.
The Republic • In 1931 municipal elections brought republican victories in all of the major cities. • Fearing bloodshed, King Alfonso resigned and a republic was proclaimed. • The new republic faced significant difficulties, however.
The Republic • The Left offered solutions that the Right found unacceptable – but the Centre-Left coalition pressed on regardless. • Catalonia was granted autonomy. • Church and State were formally separated. Church salaries were no longer paid by the state. • Religious education ceased and state schools were set up. • Some large estates were nationalized. • Industrial wages were raised.
The Republic • Catalonia and the Basque areas wanted independence. • The Roman Catholic church opposed the republic and republicans intensely disliked the church, wishing to reduce its power and privileges. • Republican leaders feared a military coup. • Prices for far products declined, as did the volume of farm exports, resulting in economic decline. • Unemployment rose steadily. • The government feared losing worker support as the crisis
The Republic • The Church, Army leadership and the political Right came to together to oppose change. • A coup attempt failed in 1932. • In 1933, a new political party of the Right – CEDA – was formed to defend the Church and the interests of the landlords.
The Republic • The government was also attacked from the Left. • Anarchists and Syndicalists (powerful trade unionists) wanted the complete overthrow of the capitalist system. They despised the Socialists for cooperating with the bourgeoisie. • In 1933 government guards torched houses near Cadiz to smoke out some anarchists. 25 died and the Socialists withdrew their support from Prime Minister Manuel Azana’s government.
The Republic • Elections in November 1933 returned a right-wing government, with Gil Robles’ CEDA Party holding the single most seats. It set out to cancel Azana’s reforms: • It interfered with the Catalan government. • It refused to grant Basque autonomy. • Street fighting resulted as Left-Right resentment grew.
The Republic • Strikes and terrorist bombings were symptoms of the instability. • In 1934 a general strike was called. • Rebellions broke out in Asturias and Catalonia as Leftist feared the Robles government would mimic Hitler’s actions in Germany. • The government put down the revolts brutally.
The Republic • In reaction to these horrifying events, the Left joined together with Basque nationalists in creating a Popular Front. • Bombings, strikes and terrorist acts continued.
The Republic • The Popular Front won the February 1936 elections. • Violence did not subiside. • In 1936 a Right Wing leader, Calvo Sotelo, was murdered while in police custody. • This provided the occasion for a Right Wing revolt.
Civil War • The rebellion opened in Spanish Morocco on July 17, 1936. • It then spread to military garrisons in Spain itself. • The rising met with mixed success.
Civil War • In Navarre, Carlist (monarchist) support helped bring the area under Nationalist (rebel) control. • The rebels also took Saragossa, Seville, Cordoba, Valladolid and Cadiz. • The rebels were crushed in most of Andalusia, Catalonia and the Basque areas. • In Madrid and Barcelona, the police, with the support of armed workers, defeated the rebellious officers.
Civil War • The Nationalists tended to control the food producing regions while the Republicans controlled the industrial areas. • Consequently food shortages tended to plague the republic, while the rebels needed industrial goods.
Civil War • The Republic was also plagued by other problems: • The republicans were divided between liberal and ultra-leftists. • In addition to fighting the Nationalists, the republicans also sometimes fought each other.
Civil War • The arrival of Franco’s forces from Morocco greatly strengthened the nationalist cause in Spain. • By November, Madrid was besieged, but the arrival of the International Brigades (volunteers from around the world), bolstered the defences of the city.
Civil War • Even more crucial was the arrival of supplies from the Soviet Union. • Tanks and planes were vital.
Civil War • The war would rage for 3 years. • After the initial stalemate, it was clear that this was a war of attrition. • It would be won by the side that was most unified and best armed.
Nationalist Forces • Franco and his African army was well-trained and disciplined. • German aircraft airlifted them from Morocco.
Nationalist Forces • Germany also contributed the Condor Legion – 100 aircraft and ground support personnel – along with another 4,000 military personnel. • Germany battle tested equipment in Spain and even scientifically analyzed the effect of bombing cities and the effect on civilian populations (Guernica, April 1937).
Nationalist Forces • The Italians also dispatched planes and 50,000 “volunteers” – to fight communism and to ensure an ally strategically between France and French North Africa. • Mussolini anticipated the reward of Naval bases in the Balearic islands after his submarines played a vital role in restricting the arrival of supplies on Soviet ships.
Nationalist Forces • Italy and Germany both provided tanks and artillery – again, field testing them against equipment sold to the Republic by the Soviets. The Soviet designs proved superior.
Republican Forces • Since the officer class of the regular army went mainly to the Nationalists, the Republic tended to rely on militias of various political outlooks. • They were enthusiastic, but largely untrained.
Republican Forces • Stalin’s help was vital in providing tanks and aircraft (with crews for each), but this aid was curtailed in 1938. • Losses because of the Italian submarine blockade were significant. • Stalin was diverted by the Great Purge in the USSR.
Republican Forces • Self-interest also lay at the heart of Stalin’s policy. • Assistance was held back until the arrival of a large shipment of Spanish gold in Odessa. • Communist support also came at a political price in Spain – increasing Communist influence in the Republican government.
Republican Forces • On Stalin’s orders, Communists raided the Anarchist POUM headquarters in Barcelona in May 1937, when their forces moved against the POUM and CNT militias – creating a civil war within a civil war. • Show trials and executions of anarchist leaders followed.
Republican Forces • One of the volunteers in the POUM militia at the time was an Englishman, Eric Blair. • He was wounded in the fighting. • He later became famous under the pen name George Orwell and wrote of his experiences in Homage to Catalonia.
The International Brigades • Many foreigners went to Spain to fight fascism, often serving in militia units alongside their countrymen. • Canadians in the Mackenzie-Papineau Grigade. • Americans in the Lincoln Brigade. • French in the Commune de Paris Brigade. • Anti-Nazi Germans in the Thaelmann Brigade.
Western Attitudes • Governments of the Western democracies opposed their going. • Many volunteers were connected to Communist Parties within their home countries, so were suspect to their home governments in any case. • Americans who served in Spain faced persecution in the future and investigation by the FBI – who labelled them “Premature Anti-Fascists.” • The Internationales fought bravely, but the strong support of the Nationalists by Germany and Italy vastly outweighed their actions.
Western Attitudes • Even Leon Blum’s Popular Front government in France was afraid to give help of any kind to the Republic, fearing that to do so might spark civil war in France itself. • All that could be done was to offer safe refuge for those who fled the conflict and the “white terror” that followed. • France would remain the home of artist Pablo Picasso.
Course of the War • After the 1st Nationalist advance on Madrid, Republican resistance stiffened. • Madrid held and the Nationalists were beaten back in the Battles of Jarama and Guadalajara (where the Italian “volunteers” met defeat). • Franco shifted his attacks elsewhere.
Course of the War • Victories were offset by internal disputes in Catalonia, however. • April, 1937 saw the cynical destruction of Guernica by the German Condor Legion. • Bilbao fell to the Nationalists in June. • In August the Pope recognized Franco as the legitimate leader of Spain.
Course of the War • The failure of Republican counter-attacks revealed its inability to sustain an offensive. • In 1938 the Nationalists had some setbacks, but the tide of war ran in their favour. • In April, Republican territory was split in two.
Course of the War • In May Franco demanded unconditional surrender. • In July the Republican collapse began, following the Battle of Ebro. • In October, the International Brigades left Spain.
Results of the War • Atrocities were committed by both sides: • The “Red Terror” in the Republican zone may have totalled 38,000 executions. • Around 150,000 were executed in the Nationalist zone – including poet Federico Garcia Lorca. • School teachers were a particular target of the Nationalists – as were trade unionists. Basques were also targeted. • Clergy were killed by Republicans.
Course of the War • Barcelona fell in January, 1939. • In February the British and French governments gave official recognition to Franco’s government. • Madrid fell in March. • Unconditional surrender came in April – though pockets of Republican resistance continued to hold out – some groups until the 1950s.
Results of the War • The war had a staggering cost. • In 1977 I witnessed dozens of amputees sitting in local squares – all of the generation that fought the war. • The potent mix of religion and anti-clericalism added to an ideological struggle that made the war particularly brutal.
Results of the War • The killing did not end with the Republican surrender. • Around 200,000 executions followed as Franco’s followers exacted revenge on their defeated opponents. Italian foreign minister Ciano reported the number of executions as “... In Madrid alone, between 200 and 250 a day, in Barcelona 150, in Seville 80"
Results of the War • In 1947 a law was passed making Franco head of state for life. • Franco’s rule brought repression. • Concentration camps continued until 1947. • Unions were banned – though illegal unions successfully launched strikes in the 1960s. • Anyone speaking in a minority language on the telephone could be fined for doing so.
Results of the War • In 1940 Hitler asked Franco to join the Axis in World War II. He declined, citing the need to rebuild Spain after the Civil War. However, Spain remained friendly to the Axis powers. • Franco’s reluctance saved his regime when the war ended.
Results of the War • After World War II, the Cold War followed. • Franco employed his anti-Communist record to ingratiate himself with the Americans. John Foster Dulles appreciated the Spanish Dictator. • In 1953 the US signed a military agreement – giving $226 million aid in return for the use of military bases in Spain.
Results of the War • It was not until 1975 that Franco died. • As Franco demanded, the position of head of state passed from him to the king of Spain – now Juan Carlos. • A transition to democracy was authorized by the monarch. • In 1977 Spain had its first free elections since 1936.
