What were the chief causes of the Spanish Civil War?

However, the new republic immediately faced a number of major problems. The first was the issue of the highly influential Roman Catholic Church that hated the republic; though, the republic needed its support, as the clergy was still a major source of power in Spain. The army had to be reformed as well, and the economic reforms had to be tackled. Iron production fell by 33% and the steel by 50% and hence unemployment rose and the workers were disillusioned. The government tried to carry out some reforms which were partially successful, but there was trouble within the government. The wishes of the left alarmed those on the right and vice versa.  Political infighting was in danger of pushing Spain into social revolution. In The Spanish Civil War, Hugh Purcell comments that 'the main reasons for the outbreak of Civil War…were the irreconcilable quarrels among the Spanish people over three issues: the Church, the land, and regional self-rule.'

In addition, the government tried to attack those it considered as having too many privileges in society. But by doing this it angered all those sectors in society that had the potential to fight back - the military, large landowners or latifundistas, industrialists and the Roman Catholic Church. These four potentially powerful groups were unwilling to support the republican government in Madrid. They were also aware that there were countries in Europe that would be willing to give support to their predicament as many nations in Europe were scared of communism and Stalin's Russia. Fascist Italy under Mussolini would be an obvious ally, as would Germany once Hitler had got power in January 1933. These were all vital, long-term political contributions to the collapse of Spain.

Historian Shlomo Ben-Ami dismisses the simplistic view of some historians that due to this divide the break down of Spanish democracy was inevitable. He argues that ‘The Republic’s failure was not irreversibly conditioned…It was caused by policies, some obviously bad and highly inadequate, and the reaction to them.’ This would suggest that despite the long-term conflict and polarisation within Spain, the ultimate blame lies with those involved in Spanish politics between 1931-1936.

In January 1932, a number of army officers tried to overthrow the government lead by Manuel Azana, the prime minister. The attempt was unsuccessful as the army for now, was loyal to the government and gained in popularity in the next few years until 1933, when a new political party was formed called CEDA, Confederacion Espanola de Derechas Autonomas (Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Parties). This was a right-wing party dedicated to protecting the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and landlords and exposed the failings of the republic, lead by Gil Robles, who was certainly no supporter of democracy, declaring in 1933 that ‘We are going to parliament to defend our ideals; but if tomorrow parliament is against our ideals, we shall go against parliament.’. Eddie May believes that it was Robles, a strong admirer of Hitler’s Nazi party, who created the necessary conditions for the unity of the Spanish elite. Paul Preston shares this view: ‘Gil Robles played an active and indeed crucial role, in Parliament and Press, in creating the atmosphere which made a military rising appear to the middle classes as the only alternative to catastrophe.’

The government of Azana, having lost support from the right, also lost support from the left. Two powerful left wing political parties, the anarchists and syndicalists (powerful trade union groups), felt that Azana’s government was too conventional. Both wanted a more communistic state and the defeat of capitalism. Above all, Azana was despised for forming a political union with the middle ground in Spain’s political life. He was thought to have betrayed the working class by having their expectations raised to unrealistic levels. The extreme left organised strikes and riots in an effort to destabilise the government of Azana.

Matters became worse when in January 1933, 25 people were killed by government troops who were attempting to capture some anarchists near Cadiz. This lost the government even more support from the working class and the socialists withdrew their support from the government. Azana resigned as prime minister and elections were called for November 1933.

The new right wing government immediately over-turned all of the changes brought in by the Azana government. This angered many but especially the Catalans who had their privileges withdrawn. This was a serious error of judgement as the Catalans and Basques had supported the government in the elections. The way forward for Robles became clear to many - an attack on the left wing parties of Spain.

It forced the many parties of the left to come together to form the Popular Front. They organised strikes, riots and took part in acts of violence such as derailing main line trains.  In 1934 there was a general strike, coal miners in the Asturias went on strike but were ruthlessly put down by the army lead by General Franco, Spain appeared to be heading for all out anarchy. In a last minute attempt to avoid a serious crisis, a general election was called for February 1936. In this election, the Popular Front won and Azana, once again became prime minister. This was yet another major short-term cause for the civil war.

However, the government of the Popular Front was a mockery after the socialists withdrew their support from it, more and more public disturbances occurred and the government had clearly lost control of Spain once again.

In conclusion, one could say that there were too many factors involved to say what the chief causes of the Spanish Civil War were. However, in my opinion, I believe that there were only a few key events that can be divided into short-term and long-term causes. The war was an outcome of a polarisation of Spanish life and politics that had developed over previous decades, and due to the long period of decline of the Spanish Empire and belated economic development, this is a long-term cause. The short-term causes were the events of the Second Republic between 1931 and 1936. Many peoples' expectations were raised too highly, knowing that, in practice, there was an impossibility in reconciling such widely conflicting interests with the extreme wealth versus extreme poverty. Politically, their differences often found severe and intense expression in parties such as the Fascist-oriented Falange and the militant left-wing anarchists. Between these extremes were other groups covering the political spectrum from monarchism and conservatism through liberalism to Socialism, including a small Communist movement divided among followers of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his archrival Leon Trotsky. Therefore, I do not think I can solidly identify the chief causes, but merely select some of the main events which contributed to the cause of the Spanish Civil War.