‘In origins and outcome, the Spanish Civil War was a Spanish and not a European affair.’ Discuss.

        The scared and provoked anti-republican right considered a coup headed by General Francisco Franco. The right and the economic leadership decided to batter the working class, because the parliamentary democracy did not seem to work and they could keep their wealth. Raymond Carr mentioned in his book ‘The Republic and the Civil War in Spain’ the fear of the right as follows:

‘What the right […] sensed was the threat of revolutionary change, which they detected […] in the actions of the C.N.T. and in the growth of the communist party’.

Even though many of them were opposed the fascism at first they prefered Franco rather than the revolution. After the seizing of Morocco and the start of Franco’s coup, the government still tried to cope with the anti-republican opposition. The Cabinet resigned and Borrio, a republican of the right, was appointed prime minister. The dissenting CNT, joined by the UGT and POUM, called for general strikes in the country and armed workers defeated the right uprisings. Enterprises and land were taken over by the lower class. In this situation, the anarchist movement gained more and more in importance and influence. 

        With regards to the foreign, especially German and Italian, influence on the outbreak of the revolt historiography dissent. One party claims that the fascist were not the decisive factor of the outbreak at all, the other (communist) part even mentions a conspiracy by Hitler, Mussolini and their agent Franco. Fact is, that Spain played a role in Hitler’s plan of expansion and that Berlin was not only well-informed about the coup, but also offered military support in the run-up. Nowadays the theory of Hitler’s incitement is nearly disproved. The whole history of origins points out that the civil war was the consequence of the deep polarisation in the population. On the one hand there were the small capitalistic, well-situated part of the population that found the fascists to be the saviours of their wealth and position in the society. On the other hand, the working class was best represented by the communist and anarchistic movement, which stood for nationalisation and public ownership and a better wealth distribution. Franco was particularly supported by the church, which feared for its existence in case of an anarchistic rule and the army, which mostly drew the officers from the upper classes.

The process of the Spanish Civil War was influenced strongly by foreign states’ interventions. The international community was divided into three groups. The fascist-ruled Germany and Italy, the communist-bolshevist Russia, and the two great European powers France and Great Britain – ‘all pursued different and mutually conflicting policies’. The Spanish population was faced with the anarchistic revolution, a communist counter-revolution and the fascist coup.         

        At first I want to portray the further process of the civil war. The coup started with Franco’s seizing of Morocco and the uprisings ‘spread out to other garrisons of metropolitan Spain’ and the nationalists were able to control numerous major cities. At the end of September 1936 Franco was appointed head of the nationalist government and commander of the armed forces. The Republicans formed several coalition cabinets and ‘created a Popular Army and militarized the militia’. However, on the republican side, there was a division in anarchists and communists. The latter claimed that it was not about time for a revolution and pointed the victory of the war out as the primary objective. They wanted to create a strong, united government and integrate the scared middle class. The Anarchists saw the revolution and the war as inseparable. Due to the massive foreign support and the initial half-hearted resistance of the population, the Nationalists were able to seize more and more power. After the elimination of Guernica by the German ‘Legion Condor’ and several appropriations in the north, the republican zone was divided in two parts. After the fall of Madrid and Barcelona, Negrin, the leader of the republican cabinet, and president Anzana resigned. On 1 April 1939, Franco announced the end of the civil war and the Nationalist’s victory. However, the outcome of the war was massively promoted by interventions of foreign states, in the first place by the military support of Germany and Italy, secondly by the appeasement-policy of France and Great Britain and thirdly by the anti-anarchistic attitude of Russia.

        In order to create a better understanding of the international involvement in the civil war, I would like to portray the political situation of this era. At the time of the Spanish crisis, the world faced two expanding ideologies - fascism and communism. After the First World War Germany had to get along with reparations, the treaty of Versailles and several economic problems, which mainly enabled Hitler and the fascists to come to power. With regards to Spain, Hitler was not interested in territorial expansion, but in economic, military and strategic, and alliance matters, although he put the ideological factor to the forefront. He emphasised in his ‘Vier-Jahresplan’ the importance to avoid the spread of communism, but mentioned at the same time, that he does not care about the future political system in Spain, but the only important thing is that it is not close to Paris, London or Moscow. Hitler decided to support the Nationalists and meet Franco’s inquiry for transport planes on 25 July 1936, along the advice of Hermann Goering, the German minister for war and the officer of the ‘Vier-Jahresplan’. The war offered Germany the possibility to test the emerging airforce, with regards to a possible Second World War. In Spain, Goering saw a playground for the German army. In economic matters, the German fascists were particularly interested in the spanish commodities especially copper and iron. The institutions ROWAK (German) and HISMA (Spanish) were founded to control and organise the German-Spanish economy-relations as a kind of compensation system. In return for military support the Germans got food and raw materials, things that were urgently needed for their war production. At the end of 1937 Germany was the supreme power regarding the Spanish relations with foreign economies. In terms of strategic advantages, Hitler was interested in a German friendly Spain in case of conflicts with France. At the beginning he provided transport planes to the Nationalists, in order to transfer troops and material from Morocco to Spain. This enables Franco to circumvent the republican sea-blockade and to start his revolt in Spain. The most famous German support is represented in the Legion Condor, that was responsible for the elimination of Guernica and that was involved in all major Spanish conflicts. Altogether, Germany supported Franco with 17,000 soldiers, 600 airplanes, 200 tanks and 1,000 artilleries.

        Italy represents the second foreign power, which supported the Nationalists. Ever since 1922 Italy had been ruled by the fascist government headed by Benito Mussolini, who created a totalitarian state. Independent from Germany, Italy decided to intervene in the Spanish affair on 28 July 1936. Apart from economic interests, it was scared of a spread in communism, like its German precursor. The intervention later enabled him a better relation to the German ‘Fuehrer’ and established the axis Berlin-Rome. However, furthermore, Mussolini was driven by the idea of a ‘mare nostro’, which meant the extension of the Italian control and influence of the Mediterranean and hoped to get at least military bases on the Balearic Islands. This is the main reason why Italy supported Franco even more with weapons, soldiers and planes than any other state.

        In March 1936 a decisive event ttok place, which best shows the policy of Great Britain and France. Hitler offended the Treaty of Versailles and Locarno in occupying the demilitarised Rhineland. At this moment the Britain and French government started their fatal appeasement policy concerning the fascists, due to several reasons. Both states were unprepared for war, because the rearmament was pursued very slowly from 1934 onwards. That is why it was the main objective for the Britains to ‘diminish the numbers of Britain’s enemies’ and why they ‘wanted to avoid another Great War at almost any cost’. They took also ‘financial and economic constraints’ into their consideration. They were engaged enormously in the Spainish economy and the industrialists did not welcome the prospect of a communist Spain which would almost certanly entail nationalisation and collectivisation. Britain’s ‘investments were almost equally distributed between the two rival territories in Spain’. Besides, both were in a three-way power struggle with the fascist and communist ideology. On the one hand, they were not willing to support the communist spread and to increase its influence on their own country, because there were already Popular Front governments in power in Spain and France. On the other hand, France would be surrounded by fascists if the coup were successful. However, they were restricted in their liberty of action regarding foreign politics especially because of the divided internal politics. In France there were satable political conditions, with steady changing governments and coalitions. At the time of the Spanish Civil War Leon Blum and the Popular Front were in power for the most time and the coalition partners were not able to come to terms. Blum, if he did not want to crash the coalition, could not intervene. He also did not want to loose the alliance with Britain, which was strongly against any intervention. So, in particular Britain decided to cope at first with its own problems and not to intervene for the benefit of the Republicans. The primary object was to contain the war within Spain. Therefore France proposed the Non-Intervention Pact in 1936. In the following weeks and months France, Britain, Russia, Germany and Italy signed that contract, meaning that no state was allowed to support one party in Spain in terms of materials.

         After the October-Revolution in 1918, Russia was led as a communist country under Stalin. It was opposed to the second spreading ideology, fascism, and frightened the rest of Europe. At first Stalin signed the Non-Intervention Pact and stayed neutral, with the intention to get into closer contact with the other European powers and form an alliance against Hitler. Later he changed his Spanish policy and tried to encourage the other states to enter the war, however without success. So he had to covertly provide aid for the Republic. The Russian support was, however, the only material support the Republic received. Besides the support for the Nationalist was more steady and continuous. One reason for this is especially the fact that a significant part of the communist deliveries was confiscated on the French border. Taking the communist influence into consideration is of utmost importance, because it was one significant reason, why the Republic and revolution failed. The republicans` overwhelming dependence on Russian aid enabled the Spanish communists to increase their power. The Russian materials were only provided to people, who wanted to reverse the revolution. They transformed the power from the working class to the state, undermined collectivisation and they even support private property, what was totally opposed to the anarchistic ideology. Herewith the communists, strongly influenced by Stalin’s foreign policy, hoped to meet the French and British economic interest and gain them for an intervention. Next to interests in economic and strategic relations, Stalin saw in the Spanish Civil War an avocation for Hitler’s interests in Eastern Europe. 1938 Russia abruptly ceased the support for the Republicans, but without any obvious reasons.

        The United States of America did not play a significant role in the Spanish conflict. Without signing the Non-Intervention Pact, the American government refrained from aiding one party and practised a policy of isolationism. Only the economy, that owned interests in Spain, supported Franco.

        Finally, I want to mention the international brigades. Anti-fascist movements and strong support emerged in numerous countries. That resulted in the forming of international brigades that fought on the side of the Republic. Brigades like the Thaelmann, Garibaldi, Lincoln and Marseillaise Brigades were recruited of German, Italian, Irish, French, Russian, American and Baltic fighters. ‘In a decade of worldwide depression and spreading fascism, the revolution in Spain signaled a message of renewed hope to the scattered forces of working-class emancipation throughout the globe’. Many people saw in the Republic the last hope to repel the fascists. ‘Approximately 35,000 anti-fascists from fifty-two countries […] joined the student, unemployed, union, and cultural movements that were influenced by the Communist Party’.

In conclusion, I want to emphasise that the origin of the Spanish Civil War was defeinitely an internal affair. The civil war was the consequence of the deep polarisation in the population between the capitalists and the working class. However, the process was massively influenced by previous mentioned European powers. Without the massive fascist support of Germany and Italy, Franco would not have been able to win the war and establish his fascist regime. Hitler enabled him to start his coup properly in providing transport planes to circumvent the sea blockade. At latest with the outbreak of the 2nd World War, the British and French appeasement policy proved as unprecedented failure. ( doesn’t really fit into with previous sentence)  In refusing the intervention of the Spanish Civil War, they lost a chance to limit Hitler’s power and discourage the fascist movement. Contrary to this, the French confiscated Russian material deliveries for the Republic. The communist counter-measures to undermine the anarchistic revolution emerged as a kind of disillusionment and division in the republican area, what weakened the anti-fascist movement. All this together led to following conclusion:

‘The effects of the neutrality of the United States, Britain, and France combined with the fascist support of Germany and Italy proved disastrous to the Spanish Republic’.

Bibliography:

Abendroth, ‘Hitler’

Carr, R., The Republic and the Civil War in Spain, (London: Macmillan, 1971)

Edwards, J., The British Government and the Spanish Civil War, (London: Macmillan, 1979)

Hayes, P.M., Themes in modern European history, 1890-1945, (London: Routledge, 1992)

WEB-Link:

Berneri, C., Non - intervention and international involvement in the Spanish Civil War,        

Bookchin, M., After Fifty Years: The Spanish Civil War,         

Wedemeyer, J., A Desperate Democracy Disregarded,         

Information about the International Brigades:

Franklin Rosemont about the American view of the Spanish Civil War:         

Franklin Rosemont about the Abraham Lincoln Brigade:         

The Spanish Civil War Factbook:

        Information about the International Brigades:

        Information about the ‘Foreign Support’:

Interactive service ‘Si, Spain’ about the Spanish Civil War:         

The Spanish Revolution and the Civil War, 1936-1939:

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