Essay: The origins of the Spanish Civil War- Account for the collapse of the Second Republic.

Essay: The origins of the Spanish Civil War

Account for the collapse of the Second Republic

The Second Republic was created in 1931, and lead first by Zamora, and then by Azaña, both left wing. Zamora only ruled from 1931-1933 therefore he had not as much influence as Azaña, who ruled until the end of the Second Republic in 1939. The reasons for its collapse can be separated into many specific factors, but in a general view it is all linked to Azaña’s poor rule and the Republicans internal problems. Though it can be seen that it was more the strong factors in the Nationalists that lead to the end of the Second Republic, instead of the weaknesses in the Republicans and outside factors uncontrollable by the lefts.

The left wing, Republicans, which were currently ruling in Spain, had a vast extension of weaknesses. From the beginning of the formation, they had been given the country with problems. On his arrival Azaña introduced very extreme reforms, included some such as abolishing the nobility, trying to level out the space between the poor farmers and the rich landlords and extensive measures against the Church. These reforms were a not a good move, he immediately created discontent within the higher classes and not fulfilling his purpose to benefit those of lower class. By 1933, the next elections, the Nationalists already had more votes, showing the level of instability.

A time passed Azaña began to drift more and more towards communism, with which many Republicans were not willing go cope with. Now it was easier to see the disagreements between the different groups, which were formed at the beginning when many parties joint together to form one alone. They separated mainly into communists, socialist, liberals, republicans and anarchists. On a whole these groups had very different ideas on how Spain was supposed to be ruled, Azaña did not worry in pleasing all, but inclined more on pleasing the lower class, since he was a communist.

Opposition grew throughout other ...

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Opposition grew throughout other groups such as the army and the Catholic Church. In the case of the army, it did not mean they were all going to revolt and go against Azaña. This is because almost everyone of the senior officers were still loyal to the Republic since they had been put there in the first place do to their political beliefs, but the same did not occur with the middle-ranking officers. They opposed Azaña’s reforms, especially the one the stated the size of the officer corps was to be reduced through early retirement, and even took part in the revolt of 1936. Furthermore, they had a very negative idea of him and even considered he was out to destroy the army so that Spain could become fully communist. The Church was separated in two, some lower clergy supported the Republicans, but the majority supported the Nationalists since Franco was more inclined to religion thus they hoped he could restore Spain to be Europe’s most Catholic country again.

In addition, the Republicans army depended on elected officers and militias, therefore the discussion of strategy took a long time, which slowed down everything, reduced efficiency and encouraged soldiers to organize themselves, thus leading to the use of various tactics. The last straw for Franco was the murder of a leader of the Falange and the CEDA, thus initiating his advancement throughout Spain, eventually ending in a right-wing dictatorship, due to pure weaknesses in Azaña’s poor decision making and rule in general.

However, it must be taken in consideration that the Nationalists had many benefits that may as well have influenced the collapse of the Second Republic, such as the vast International help they received from Italy and Germany, their centralized control, the unity between right-wing groups and their great leader.

The Nationalists, unlike the Republicans, received a lot of foreign help. Italy and Germany supplied them with all types of armaments, even planes. This gave them an advantage above the Republicans since they merely received a bit of help from the USSR and not on a regular basis.

They were also found all together, in one single area of Spain, and not dispersed around in different places. This gave them more security since they would not be attacked in small groups. Maybe as a factor of this, they were had unity between the Nationalist groups. This was quite the contrary to the Republicans, since the different groups were even known to fight, while the Nationalists main disagreement was the long-term effects, but their leader knew how to keep things under control.

Francisco Franco was the leader of the Nationalists, the same one who lead them to victory. He is said to be skilled and strong-minded, and very loyal to his main beliefs. He was extremely organized and every strategy was carefully planned until the end, thus were practically always successful. He knew how to control the different Nationalist groups and maintain order; he was able to balance them, in some representing each and every one of them. In the words of the historian Puzzo “His head was a cemetery of dead ideas”.

In final analysis, the collapse of the Second Republic was highly influenced by the strengths of the Nationalists, but the main factor was the weak leadership of Azaña and the problems between Republican groups. While the main problems of the Republicans were generated due to the fact that it consisted of many left-wing groups, the Nationalists also consisted in many right-wing groups, but problems were not generated due to this. The reason for this is because of the differences between the leaders, whereas Franco was a good leader, and knew how to control internal disputes, Azaña was not able to due so and could not manage to minimize the problem so it would not go out of hand.