Spanish Civil War
Long Term Political Origins of the WarOn the Nationalist side, there were four main factions; the Carlists, the Catholic Church, the Falange, and the Monarchists. The Carlists supported the claim of the descendants of Don Carlos to the throne of Spain. They wanted a return to a traditionalist ultra-Catholic monarchy. The movement's support came from the Requetes, the Pelayos and the Margaritas, whose recruits were mainly drawn from the families of Navarrese smallholders. The Catholic Church supported CEDA, a composite right-wing Catholic party founded in 1933 by Gil Robles. It was formed from the Accion Popular and Partido Agrario, and had a youth movement known as the JAP. Although successful in the 1933 elections, the Party virtually collapsed after the Popular Front victory in 1936. The membership of JAP then switched to the Falange. The Falange was a small fascist. It gained some popular support when it merged with the JONS in 1934 to form the Falange Espanola de las JONS. The Monarchist groups, which included Accion Espanola and Renovacion Espanola, supported the claim of the descendants of Queen Isabella II to the throne of Spain. The Monarchist movement, which had the support of conservative army officers, became the
The Socialists were the most powerful left-wing political force in Spain before the Civil War. Its main support came from the industrial workers of Barcelona, who formed the anarcho-syndicalist trades union in 1911. The first woman minister, Federica Montseny of Valencia, was officially named a minister in 1936. This made the cities overpopulated and prone to disease. Otherwise the battlelines were static until July 1938, when Nationalist forces broke through to the Mediterranean Sea south of Barcelona. After that victory, Franco again went for Madrid. After a civil war there between Communists and anti-Communists, Franco entered the starving capital. The first decade of his rule had many hardships. A coup was expected, however, and the urban police and the workers' militia loyal to the government put down revolts by army garrisons in Madrid and Barcelona. There were many reasons for this, including destruction from the Civil War, loss of skilled labor, a series of bad droughts, a shortage of foreign exchange, and the restriction of imports on capital goods imposed by the World War and its aftermath. The German Condor Legion, made infamous by the bombing of Guernica, provided air support for the Nationalists and tested the tactics and the equipment used a few years later by the Luftwaffe (German air force). Italian dictator Benito Mussolini dispatched more than 50,000 Italian "volunteers" (most of them army conscripts) to Spain, along with air and naval units. The people saw their chance for democracy in the collapse of the 13-year-old dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera. Almost overnight, workers seized factories and other workplaces; land was collectivized, and workers' militias were formed throughout the country. PropagandaA major instrument of propaganda was posters.
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