History · The 20th century

The Spanish Civil War

17 July 1936 – 1 April 1939

Civil war — Nationalists against Republicans, and a rehearsal for a wider conflict

The war that began with a military rising against Spain's elected Popular Front government in July 1936 and ended with the victory of the Nationalists under General Francisco Franco. The rebels, backed by monarchists, Carlists and the Falange, were supplied with aircraft, tanks and troops by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy; the Republic, holding Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, received help chiefly from the Soviet Union and from the International Brigades of some 35,000 foreign volunteers, while Britain and France maintained a policy of non-intervention. The Republican side was split between communists, socialists and anarchists, and fought its own internal conflict in Barcelona in 1937. Perhaps half a million people died. Madrid fell at the end of March 1939 and Franco ruled until his death in 1975.

How to spot them

▸A military rising in July 1936 against an elected Popular Front government
▸German and Italian aircraft on one side, Soviet advisers and foreign volunteers on the other
▸A market town in the Basque country bombed on a Monday in April 1937
▸Non-intervention by Britain and France while other powers intervened freely
▸A victory that installed a dictatorship lasting until 1975

What happened

The bombing of a Basque market town by the Condor Legion, and the mural it produced (1937)

Guernica, 26 April 1937; Picasso's painting was shown at the Paris International Exposition that summer

The rallying cry No pasarán, from the orator known as La Pasionaria (1936)

Dolores Ibárruri, broadcasting in defence of Madrid

Some 35,000 foreign volunteers who fought for the Republic in units organised by the Comintern (1936–38)

The International Brigades; the British battalion fought at Jarama in February 1937

Orwell's account of fighting in Catalonia and being shot through the throat (1938)

Homage to Catalonia, which also described the suppression of the POUM in Barcelona

The 1938 offensive across a river that was the Republic's last great effort (1938)

The Battle of the Ebro, from July to November 1938; its failure doomed Catalonia

Hemingway's novel of an American demolition expert and a bridge (1940)

For Whom the Bell Tolls, drawn from his time as a correspondent

Quick-fire facts

•The rising began in Spanish Morocco on 17 July 1936 and on the mainland the next day; Franco flew from the Canaries to lead the Army of Africa
•Franco became Generalísimo and head of state in the Nationalist zone in October 1936
•Germany sent the Condor Legion; Italy sent the Corpo Truppe Volontarie; the Soviet Union supplied aircraft, tanks and advisers, paid for with Spain's gold reserves
•The poet Federico García Lorca was murdered by Nationalist supporters near Granada in August 1936
•Robert Capa's photograph The Falling Soldier became the war's defining image, and a long-running authenticity dispute
•The May Days of 1937 in Barcelona set communists against anarchists and the POUM within the Republican side
•The Republic's last prime minister in Spain was Juan Negrín; President Manuel Azaña resigned in exile
•Madrid surrendered on 28 March 1939 and Franco declared the war over on 1 April 1939
•There was no peace treaty: the war ended in unconditional surrender, followed by mass reprisals
•Franco ruled as Caudillo until his death in November 1975, after which Spain returned to constitutional monarchy under Juan Carlos I

Drill it — 10 cards

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Sources

Antony Beevor — The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939
Hugh Thomas — The Spanish Civil War