‘A cause of poets and of writers, a cause of freedom.’ ibid. British writer
General Franco called the uprising against the Republican government a Crusade, a fight for Christian civilisation; others called it fascism. It was for nearly three years the world’s moral arena. The Spanish Civil War IV: Franco and the Nationalists
By the age of thirty-three he [Franco] was a general. He had commanded the Spanish foreign legion for four years. ibid.
The social upheavals of the Republic had led to a progressive breakdown of law and order. ibid.
Francisco Franco emerged as the undisputed leader and called himself head of state. ibid.
Many different groups had supported their rising: first the conservatives … the monarchists … the Carlists … Falange – the fascist party outlawed by the Republic. ibid.
Franco had never claimed to be a politician but he was of the intuitive right, an instinctive defender of capitalism … His programme: no working-class trade unions, help for peasants but land for landowners, concord with the church, above all no democracy. ibid.
These aims of the Spanish right could only be secured by oppression. ibid.
Rome’s approval was a great reinforcement to the devout. ibid.
The people of Barcelona celebrated. Within days of the army rising, revolution had burst out spontaneously in most of Republican Spain. The Spanish Civil War V: Inside the Revolution
In these first weeks of the civil war the militias were the only real defence of the Republic. ibid.
Catalonia was the anarchists’ stronghold. ibid.
For them, the campaign was not just against the army rebels but against capitalism itself. ibid
Everyone now worked only for the community. ibid.
As the anarchists weakened, the communists became stronger. ibid.
Two years which had transformed Republican hopes into memories of failure. The Spanish Civil War VI: Victory and Defeat
The popular army had attempted to match the enemy in regular combat and failed. ibid.
There was a huge increase in German military aid to the Nationalists. ibid.
Catalonia had fallen: for these people the war was over. ibid.
In a longer historical perspective the Spanish Civil War amounts to the opening battle of World War II, perhaps the only time in living memory when the world confronted – in fascism and Nazism – something like unqualified evil. The men and women who understood this early on and who chose of their own free will to stand against fascism have thus earned a special status in history. Viewed internally, on the other hand, the Spanish Civil War was the culmination of a prolonged period of national political unrest – unrest in a country that was increasingly polarized and repeatedly unable to ameliorate the conditions of terrible poverty in which millions of its citizens lived. Spain was a country in which landless peasants cobbled together a bare subsistence living by following the harvests on vast, wealthy agricultural estates. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church, identifying more with wealthy landowners than with the Spanish people, was in full control of secondary education; education for women seemed to them unnecessary and universal literacy a danger rather than a goal. Divorce was illegal. The military, meanwhile, had come to see itself, rather melodramatically, as the only bulwark against civil disorder and as the ultimate guarantor of the core values of Spanish society.
When a progressive Popular Front government was elected in February 1936, with the promise of realistic land reform one of its key planks, conservative forces immediately gathered to plan resistance. The Spanish Left, meanwhile, celebrated the elections in a way that made conservative capitalists, military officers, and churchmen worried that much broader reform might begin. Rumors of plotting for a military coup led leaders of the Republic to transfer several high-ranking military officers to remote postings, the aim being to make communication and coordination between them more difficult. But it was not enough. The planning for a military rising continued.
The military rebellion took place on July 18, with the officers who organized it expecting a quick victory and a rapid takeover of the entire country. What the military did not anticipate was the determination of the Spanish people, who broke into barracks, took up arms, and crushed the rebellion in key areas like the cities of Madrid and Barcelona. It was at that point that the character of the struggle changed, for the military realized they were not going to win by fiat. Instead they faced a prolonged struggle against their own people and an uncertain outcome. They appealed to fascist dictatorships in Italy, Germany, and Portugal for assistance, and they soon began receiving both men and supplies from Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Antonio Salazar …
For many, however, the suffering was not over. It was not to be a civil war ending in reconciliation, for Franco began a reign of terror aimed at the physical liquidation of all his potential enemies. Concentration camps were set up. Tens of thousands were shot. Mass executions would continue until 1944. Meanwhile, World War II was under way, and many of the volunteers took up arms against fascism again. Cary Nelson, The Spanish Civil War: An Overview
Or the Spanish War can be remembered for its epiphanies. What happened in and around Barcelona in the first years of the war did not last, did not happen in most of Spain, ended in tragedy and a viciously disputed memory and made little difference to the war’s outcome. Adam Hochschild, in Spain in Our Hearts, suggests that the foreign journalists covering the war were so obsessed with the military struggle and the Republican leadership in Madrid that they hardly noticed the revolution going on outside their hotels. And yet Barcelona in those years, rather than what was done on the battlefields, was a brief revelation of something latent but dazzling in humanity: the hope to fly like angels. Neal Ascherson, Into the Net, London Review of Books
Francisco Franco, absolute ruler over Spain, was one of the most enigmatic dictators in European history. Even today the country still bears the scars of his reign. He seized power in a bloody civil war and ruled the country with an iron hand for forty years. A despot not even his trusted followers could really see through. The Truth About Franco: Spain’s Forgotten Dictator I: The Rise to Power, PBS 2019
His dominant wife – she would survive the despot. ibid.
A shy boy, Francisco was just an average pupil. ibid.
In Catalonia and the Basque country in particular calls for independence grew louder. ibid.
1932: The army launched an attempted coup but it failed. ibid.
‘He started making preparations for a future civil war.’ ibid. Paul Preston, historian and biographer
The rebels made Franco their generalissimo. ibid.
Throughout the country Franco’s nationalist rebels were openly supported by the old upper class. ibid.
The rebels destroyed everything in their path. ibid.
Guernica: The bridge remained intact; 80% of the buildings had been destroyed. ibid.
It was not until July 1938 that the decisive battle took place … A river in south-west Catalonia … One of the most brutal of the entire war. ibid.
His reign of terror was only just beginning. ibid.
‘He says the most mindbogglingly stupid things you can imagine; and yet at the same time he’s quite cunning.’ The Truth About Franco: Spain’s Forgotten Dictator II: The New Regime, Paul Preston
April 1939: Three years of bloody civil war have claimed half a million lives and turned Spain into a different country. ibid.
Spain split into winners and losers … ‘We’re talking about total famine.’ ibid. historian
In return for that assistance, Franco was now supplying Germany with raw materials and food. ibid.
According to a secret protocol Franco only offered a vague prospect of Spain entering the War. ibid.
The Spanish troops left for Russia. The Blue Division took part on the attack on Leningrad. ibid.
In Spain the foundations of a new state Franco style were becoming clear: no constitution, just laws. ibid.
It reinforced the rights of entrepreneurs. Wages were dictated by the state. And striking was seen as a serious offence. ibid.
Many people exchanged their last possession for food just to survive. Traders became rich. ibid.
Retroactively, Franco had everyone punished who had as he put it had disturbed the social peace. ibid.
Spain suffered from Franco’s dark legacy and still does today. The Truth About Franco: Spain’s Forgotten Dictator III: Zero Hour
More and more German Nazis had fled to Spain. And Franco had received them with open arms. ibid.