General Franco & the Spanish Civil War

General Franco & the Spanish Civil  War

The Ebro is a major river in Spain. It flows from the mountains to the lowlands and empties into the Mediterranean Sea, passing quiet farms and vineyards on the way.

But in 1938, the Ebro was not so peaceful. Spain was in the middle of a civil war. On one side fought the legal and democratic government of Spain, radical and left wing. On the other, were the rebel generals, conservatives of every kind and Catholic reactionaries, all united in their belief that Spain must never be a secular, liberal democracy.

The war had been going on for two years, with the rebel Nationalists winning ground little by little until they cut the government-held territory in two by breaking through to the Mediterranean coast. This was, of course, very dangerous for the government: if they could not retake the coast and reunite the two halves of their territory, their cause would quickly collapse. There could be no doubt. They had to break through at the Ebro River valley or watch their young Republic die.

The battle lasted from July to November of 1938 and, in the end, the government army – often called the Republican forces – could not break the Nationalist defense. On the deadliest days of the battle, the Republican general, Ernesto Modesto, would send in his British battalion from the International Brigade. They had a reputation as first class soldiers. But, in one day on the Ebro, they were destroyed. Ordered to attack a key position again and again, most of the men fell to Nationalist machine guns.

Many of these volunteers were the intellectual cream of their generation, some were poets and artists. But, why were they there? Why were these young men from Britain, France, Russia and fifty other countries so far from home, waiting in trenches on the Ebro for the order to attack and to die? What had happened to Spain?

About three hundred years before the fighting began; Spain had been the richest and most powerful country in Europe, with a huge empire in the Americas. However, it was badly run. The Spanish invented nothing new. Nor did they try to reform because the gold and silver they brought, especially from Bolivia and Mexico, was enough. It paid for the many long wars they fought and for the king to live in style. But, eventually, the gold and silver ran out. Some was stolen by pirates at sea, some by corrupt royal officials, some ended up in the banks of Rotterdam as interest on the large loans the Spanish king kept taking.

Just when the king finally started a reform program, the Spanish Americans decided they had had enough and, copying their neighbors in the North who had fought an eight-year war and finally beaten the British in 1783, declared independence. When the Spanish lost their American empire, they fell into a long decline so that, by 1900, Spain was one of the poorest and least modern countries in Europe. It also had crippling social divisions as well as economic problems.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, then, Spanish society seemed like something from the age of Christopher Columbus, four hundred years before. It hadn't really changed much in that time. The ruling classes were large land owners, usually aristocrats. They were rich and powerful. Not only did they keep their peasants poor, they wouldn't allow new social groups like middle-class businessmen or industrialists to have any say. They were even less interested in the emerging urban working class. Spain also had, and still has, many regional minorities, often demanding independence. Unlike in other European countries, Spain's minorities are richer and more sophisticated than the Spanish who live in the dry, poor hills in the central part of the country.

Spain’s two great pillars of strength tried to balance these tensions: they were the Spanish king and the Catholic Church. They backed each other and were the only counterweight to the land-owning aristocracy.

However, tension grew in Spain in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Socialist, communist and anarchist groups grew in number and influence and with them violent anti-Church movements. There were coups d’état, riots, strikes and even an abdication, until, in 1930, a new republic was declared to wide popular support. And, in elections in 1931, a Socialist/Republican coalition won and formed a left-wing democratic government in Spain.

In the next five years, the leftist government introduced new laws to help peasants and workers. They also started to separate the Catholic Church and the Spanish state. The right wing (conservatives, Catholic reactionaries and fascists) fought against the reforms any way they could. They felt the government was destroying the traditions of Spain and, anyway, were really Communists in league with Stalin and the Soviet Union. Of course, both sides - the government and the right wing - felt they were in a struggle to save Spain.

In July, 1936, a group of very right-wing army officers organized a coup d'etat. It neither succeeded nor failed. Many army units did not want to join the rebellion. They were loyal to the government and fought against the rebels. The coup left, roughly, the upper half of the country in the hands of rebel officers and the right wing, while the lower half remained with the government, backed by other left wing parties. These parties formed militias to support the regular government soldiers. The civil war began. It was now that volunteers began to arrive from other countries to help one side or the other, depending on their political or religious beliefs.

A rebel general called Francisco Franco had emerged as the leader of the Nationalists. Now Germany and Italy - fascist countries at the time - sent thousands of soldiers and pilots to help Franco's forces bring down the government. Russia and Mexico helped the Republican side. And, from all over the world, left wing activists arrived to help the government survive the fascist coup. These foreign volunteer groups were called the International Brigade. It was the British battalion of this brigade that was cut to pieces on the Ebro in 1938.

The war continued for three years but, gradually, Franco's Nationalists took more and more of the government-held territory. We have seen that they split the government area in two and, after the decisive battle of the Ebro, they finished off the two parts. By spring 1939, Franco had won and foreign governments began to recognize him as ruler of Spain

Only months later, the Second World War began and the tragic events in Spain were soon forgotten in the new horror of global conflict. Distracted, the world did not see the ‘white terror’ that Franco began as soon as the civil war ended. In other words, he arrested and very often shot anyone connected to the left wing or the previous government. Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards escaped to France but as many others were killed by Franco's firing squads. Some took to the hills to hide or fight a guerrilla war. Franco did not really pacify Spain until about 1951.

Many, especially on the left, felt that Spanish fascism would collapse when Hitler and the Nazis were defeated but Franco, a very clever politician, was never attacked by Allied countries in the Second World War. He had not sided with Hitler or seriously helped the Nazis. And, after the war, the U.S.A. needed Franco's help in their new fight, the Cold War, against communism and the Soviet Union. Franco allowed U. S. nuclear weapons and air force bases in Spain and the Americans allowed him to stay in power.

In 1975, Franco died and Spain returned to democracy. Five years later, the country joined the European Union and went from being a Third World country in Europe to a modern nation. Even today in Spain, people want justice for those who were murdered by Franco’s gangs. Others say it is time to forget the past. The fight continues in the Spanish courts, even today.

If you want to watch some videos on this topic, you can click on the links to YouTube videos below.

If you want to answer questions on this article to test how much you understand, you can click on the green box: Finished Reading?

Videos :

1. Francisco Franco and the Spanish Civil War (9:53)

2. What is Guerrilla Warfare? (8:40)

3. Feature History – Spanish Civil War (10:03)