The Spanish Civil War
Rooted in deep-seated political, social, and economic tensions, the first ignition point of the Spanish Civil War took shape in 1931, when Spanish King Alfonso XIII authorized democratic elections to decide the future governance of the country. In a nation rocked by years of division, the Spanish people elected the left-leaning Republican government, who implemented reforms in an effort to modernize Spain, including secularization and socialist-style land redistribution, which quite naturally drew strong opposition from conservative elements within Spain, such as the military, the Catholic Church and wealthy landowners.
October Revolution
After crushing the so-called October Revolution of 1933, when conservative forces briefly regained control of select regions of Spain, General Francisco Franco was appointed army chief of staff, before his obscure assignment to the Canary Islands, off the west coast of Africa. Fearing that the liberal Republican government was ripe for a Marxist revolution, in July of 1936, Franco and his Nationalist forces staged a coup against the reigning liberal Republican government, and while workers and peasants fought back against the uprising, many Republican-held cities denied their own supporters the necessary weapons and assistance required for victory.
Precursor to WW2
Viewed by many historians as a precursor to World War Two, the Spanish Civil War was marked by intense battles, bombings and execution-style atrocities on both sides, leading to the 1937 Nationalist bombing of the city of Guernica, which soon became a symbol of civilian suffering during Spain’s three-plus years of civil war. While the Nationalist received heavy support from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, the Republicans were backed by the Soviet Union and sympathetic volunteers from abroad, known as the International Brigade.
Million Lives Lost
Taking more than a million lives over the course of the war, after Franco unified Nationalist forced under the command of the Falange, Spain’s fascist party, the Republicans at last surrendered in Madrid on March 28th, 1939, ushering in the Franco years of political repression, censorship, and economic hardship that ended with his death in 1975, making the Spanish Civil War, a lasting scar on the long history of Spain.