Analyse the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) as an ideological proxy for the wider European conflict between fascism, communism and liberal democracy, including foreign intervention by Germany, Italy and the USSR, and the policy of non-intervention

What this dot point is asking

VCAA wants you to analyse the Spanish Civil War as an ideological proxy for the wider European conflict between fascism, communism and liberal democracy, and as a dress-rehearsal for WWII alignments and military tactics.

Origins

Second Spanish Republic (1931). King Alfonso XIII fled after municipal elections went against the monarchy. A liberal constitution, separation of church and state, agrarian reform programme. Polarisation between left (Socialists, anarchists, Catalan and Basque nationalists, Communists) and right (Catholic Church, military, monarchists, landowners, and from 1933 the Falange, Spain's small fascist party).

Popular Front election (February 1936). Coalition of left-wing parties won, alarming the right. Political assassinations on both sides through spring 1936.

The military uprising (17-18 July 1936)

Coordinated rebellion of right-wing officers led by Generals Mola, Sanjurjo and Franco. Failed in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao (Republicans held). Succeeded in Galicia, Old Castile, Navarre, Andalusia, Morocco.

Within days the rising became a sustained civil war along the territorial division it had produced.

The two sides

Nationalists (rebels). Coalition of military, monarchists, Carlists, Falange, and Catholic Church. Franco emerged as Caudillo (October 1936) after Sanjurjo died in plane crash and Mola died in 1937. Tightly disciplined, professionally led, with major foreign aid.

Republicans (loyalists). Socialists, Communists, anarchists, Catalan and Basque nationalists, liberal parties. Less disciplined and internally divided. The "May Days" in Barcelona (May 1937) saw fighting between Communists and anarchist/POUM groups; Orwell's Homage to Catalonia (1938) documents this from a participant view.

Foreign intervention

Germany. Hitler sent the Condor Legion (peaked at $19\,000$ German military personnel), aircraft, tanks, and used Spain to test new tactics (combined-arms warfare, terror-bombing of civilians).

Italy. Mussolini sent the Corpo Truppe Volontarie (CTV, up to $50\,000$ men).

Soviet Union. Sent military advisers, T-26 tanks, I-15 and I-16 fighters, ammunition. Soviet involvement was indirect; the USSR was paid in Spanish gold reserves.

International Brigades. About $35\,000$ foreign volunteers fought for the Republic, organised by the Comintern. Notable participants included writers (Orwell, Hemingway, André Malraux). Australian volunteers about $66$ men.

Britain and France: non-intervention. The Non-Intervention Committee (1936) supposedly banned arms sales but was widely flouted. The policy favoured the Nationalists because Germany and Italy ignored it while Britain and France enforced it on themselves and forbade Spanish Republican arms purchases.

Key events

Battle of Madrid (November 1936). Republican defence held; the city did not fall until 1939.

Bombing of Guernica (26 April 1937). Basque town bombed by the Condor Legion on market day. Killed approximately $200$-$1\,650$ (estimates vary). Pablo Picasso's painting (1937) made Guernica a global symbol of fascist atrocity.

Battle of the Ebro (July-November 1938). Largest battle of the war. Republican offensive that initially succeeded but was eventually pushed back, exhausting Republican forces.

Fall of Catalonia (January 1939). Barcelona fell. Half a million refugees fled to France.

Madrid surrender (28 March 1939). Franco declared the war over on 1 April 1939.

Aftermath

Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975). Approximately $200\,000$ Republicans executed or died in prison after 1939. Spain remained officially neutral in WWII but supported the Axis (Blue Division on the Eastern Front, $47\,000$ volunteers).

Historiography

Hugh Thomas (The Spanish Civil War, 1961). Standard English-language narrative.

Antony Beevor (The Battle for Spain, 2006). Modern military history; emphasises Spain as WWII rehearsal.

Paul Preston (The Spanish Holocaust, 2012). Documented post-war repression.

Helen Graham (The Spanish Republic at War 1936-1939, 2002). Republican perspective.

In one sentence

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) began with the July 1936 military uprising against the Second Republic, became an ideological proxy for the wider European conflict through German and Italian intervention on the Nationalist side (Condor Legion, CTV), Soviet support and International Brigades on the Republican side, and Anglo-French non-intervention; Franco's victory in April 1939 installed a fascist-allied dictatorship that survived until 1975.